We weren't planning on it, but we stumbled onto Fasching at the Köln Dom. People from all over the world pilgrimage to the Cologne Cathedral for the start of Carnival at 11:11am on November 11. I recorded some audio on my Edirol/Roland stereo digital recorder. It's a good sound recording, but you'd never know it because it's compressed and uploaded to Youtube. (Whatever happened to high-fidelity?)



The middle of November might seem like an odd time to travel to Germany--more than one person has said so. The weather is cold, but not so cold to snow. The Winter Markets that Americans find so adorable compared to the crap we're served in the local mall aren't open yet. Many of the tourist attractions are closed for the season. So why go in the middle of November? Well, I like travelling when nobody else wants to. The lines are shorter at the airport. The locals have forgiven the trespasses of summer tourists and so are friendlier. These are all good reasons, but of course the real reason we picked November for travel was because it just worked out that way with our schedules.

Now, however, we can tell people we travelled to Germany in the middle of Novemeber so we could participate in Fasching.

...and Cologne and Oberhausen, Luxembourg City, and Amsterdam.

Here's a collection of our photos... seems I'm taking more and more these days (sorry). At least they are organized by city so you can check out what interests you the most.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/janetgalore/collections/72157603279131267/



Highlights of the trip:

Reconnecting with old friends where they live now

Romping through the chilly woods with kindergarteners carrying homemade lanterns behind a little brass band playing St. Martin's Day songs

Getting caught in the middle of the first day of Karnival at the Cologne train station, where people from all over northern Europe come to celebrate with costumes and heavy drinking

Wandering around Luxembourg City in the freezing wind

Zoning out on the train to Dead Texan with Ed

Having a schnapps at the top of the Berliner Fernsehturm

Dancing to vintage 60s pop with Christian and Kim

Drawing and folding paper with my goddaughter

Having dinner from 6:30pm to 3:30am while talking about quantum physics

Hearing a composition by Astor Piazolla live on the bandoneon at the Berlin Philharmonic with constant goosebumps