Countries all throughout Europe celebrate Carnival the weekend leading up to Ash Wednesday. Although there are several places to celebrate, the main location for this area is in Cologne. Cologne is the largest city in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia and is approximately 1hr 30min by train from Vallendar or Koblenz. Carnival technically begins on November 11th at 11:11AM but the real celebrations start on the Thursday before Ash Wednesday (aka Shrove Thursday). Carnival is celebrated with parties on the streets, bars, and public squares. People from all over come dressed up in costumes. I wore a traditional Bavarian outfit called a Lederhosen.
The day started early Thursday morning when we boarded a train in Koblenz at 9AM to get to Cologne before the traditional Women’s March at 11:11AM. While on the train, people young and old were jamming to music, drinking, and singing traditional German Carnival songs. The Women’s March is a tradition where women go to work in the morning but then they leave work to head to the main square. On the way, it is told that women will cut off ties of men and give them a kiss as they are marching to Alter Markt.
Walking out of the train station, there stood the Cologne Cathedral. This Cathedral is magnificent and the detail in the architecture will leave you breathless. We made our way by following the stream of people dressed up as monsters, clowns, and anything else one could think of. Once we arrived at the square, we stood around talking and looking at everyone’s costumes. This day was very exhausting as we walked a lot and woke up early for the train. Originally, we had planned our return ticket for 6PM but we were all tired so we left at 4PM.
Although the celebrations last all weekend, most of the Tauschies decided to go Thursday because we were unaware of the main Carnival parade on Monday and have already booked other trips during those days. WHU is even closed on Carnival Monday.
More information about Carnival in Cologne can be found on the official website: http://www.cologne.de/events/cologne-carnival/the-crazy-days.html
Carnival celebrations are very fun to take part in and dancing along to songs with friends makes it even better. I think Carnival is my new favorite holiday!
See you soon, but not too soon
-E