Rosenmontag

As I write this on Tuesday morning, all is quiet. Schools are still closed, but the partying has ended. The big parade on Monday was amazing - four hours of bands, floats, marching groups, candy. tissues, toys. Unlike in New Orleans, no beads and no nudity. We watched about an hour of it from the street and the rest from our apartment. From our kitchen and from Gail's room we had a good view though we're a block of the route since building behind us is very low. After the parades there were concerts at Höfchen and at Schillerplatz. We went briefly the the closer one and the crowd was pretty mellow. 

So here are a ton of pictures from the parade! 

This is a reference to a major bridge over the Rhein that dropped several centimeters and has been closed. It's a traffic nightmare in this area.

At the bus stop: no buses in the inner city - closest operating bus stop is at the train station.

 Love the viking in the window.

These guys rowed the entire parade. 

This is fun for the use of the local dialect.

 Cleanup started less than 15 minutes after the parade: first the sweepers, then the front-end loader acting as a giant dustpan for the garbage truck, then the mechanical sweepers.