Karneval!

So February is all about Karneval over here.  Karneval here is just like Mardi Gras only on uncensored, hyped up steroids.  :)  They have plenty of non-offensive, fun loving parades for children and families.  They generally take place on weekdays and in the morning or early afternoon.  But the adult directed parades are all kinds of crazy and attract crowds of upwards of a million people in Koln.  The city we attended the "children's" parade in this past Sunday.  It was tons of fun and the kids came home with all kinds of loot!  Here are a few pictures of our time in the city. 

 

Koln Cathedral, really beautiful to see

 

Smurfs anyone?

 

LOVE the costumes!

 

The kids used their umbrellas to collect goodies.  They were quite the phenomenon amongst the paraders.

 

A taste of evening Karneval happenings to come!

Oh yeah, and the most interesting thing about Karneval to me is that all the Karneval hulla-balloo starts on 11.11 seeing as the number 11 is supposed to be a crazy number.  Interesting to me seeing as 11.11 is the little boy Bean's birthday!  Alaaf!