We knew something was coming as the stores had a huge amount of costumes for children and adults and TJ mentioned that the Germans at work were getting very excited for it. Apparently people go back to their own villages for their hometown Fashing Parades and then take work off through Ash Wednesday and celebrate the whole time. It was an interesting experience from the start of the days adventures. We took the tram into the city because we were warned of the crowd and parking challenges. On our second stop a crowd of people got on and it immediatley stunk of hard liquor and cigarettes. This is not normal...and a group of them were very loud...also not normal. Also in this group were old women with ridiculous and colorful wigs on. It seems as though everyone gets in the spirit! The tram dropped us quite a ways from the parade and downtown and we walked in toward the crowds and techno music. Here is the start of the parade...
The police actually come first...why I don't know as the only thing that is orderly is the parade itself and even that is questionable. But about a half dozen on horseback came trotting in.
Then various groups came through...I liked these giant heads. When the procession stopped they danced around.
There were people everywhere as the parade went on...most of them dressed up like it was Halloween. You can see the water tower and the ferris wheel in the back ground where TJ and I ventured to a little later.
I thought this float was funny. It was a bunch of bankers counting Euro and throwing candy. The sign reads "Our Money on the Ass".
There were also a lot of Deere tractors pulling floats which we loved, of course. Here is a really old one from when Deere bought the German Tractor Company Lanz (I think). We had to respresent!
After I got a little tired of the people and getting pummeled with candy, TJ and I made our way to the ferris wheel. I actually hate them, but my curiosity of what Mannheim looked like from above took over. In this picture I am posing...most of the rest of the time I was holding on for dear life!
And this is what it looked like from above. It is not that representative of what we actually saw...this only looking down the main shopping street and the parade route goes most of the way around the water tower and weaves through out the Quadrat. There were obscene amounts of people in the city celebrating!
We braved the main shopping street to find drinks and continue watching the parade. We found a small side street that was a party in and of itself. There was a mix of techno-ified German and American music playing with people singing, drinking, and dancing very freely around this make shift bar. My favorite was the techno rendition of "Raining Men". In the picture belwo TJ is in front of the bar and has identified a curly and very greasy mullet...although it is not the best photo.
It was fun, but I have to admit I was a little shocked at the out of character behavior displayed throughout the city...and it would have been a little better if it wasn't cold an rainy. Hopefully we have better luck on Fat Tuesday when Heidelberg has their celebration. Stay tuned...Auf Weidersehen!
No comments:
Post a Comment