Days continue in Köln

Parades, parades and more parades. We went to three parades in total. Each one was approximately 5 hours long. Sundays' parade was for the children and included all children. Monday's parade was 6 km long and lasted, for us, from 10 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon. We found an empty spot on the side of the old town route near the middle of the parade route itself and scurried into the bare piece of pavement. That was at 10. It turned out that we butted right into a spot between a group of people who,for years,have been setting up in that very same spot and we just move right in. In total, there was about 30 of them. They even had their own beer counter set up with barrels of beer which was being passed out to the club for free. Well anyway, the long and the short of it is that these people sort of adopted us. They made the parade more tolerable for 7 hours. All of which, by the way, we had to stand and couldn't go to the washroom. They fed us food, small bottles of snappes, provided the music and dancing so that we could stay warm.
Each float and group of people in the parade through out tons of candy. This really is like their Halloween only it last for 6 days long and everyone, I mean everyone, dresses up. At the first parade, because I wasn't dressed up. I was treated to a whole mess of tiny confetti which they ensured was pushed down my shirt and coat and all into my hair so that I was stuck to confetti for three days after. For the next parade, I had purchased a grand Karneval hat with which made me look a bit more in style for the festivities. Gerhard was sort of safe because he was planted behind me taking all the treats that I was catching. We had so much candy, that we left a bunch for the cleaning ladies from the hotel. We came out of it with some very good friends and a whole bunch of bruises in the forhead and head area. Heh, there were some huge chocolate bars flying our way.
We were stiff and sore after that time because you don't get to move a whole lot when jammed in between drunk people who keep hugging you. We ended up taking our normal two trains back to our hotel and falling into bed from exhaustion.
The parades are super great - full of politically incorrect messages and colourful floats. It was something that we were glad to have had the chance to do but, as my Aunt Dinie said, it will wear on you after awhile because it is becoming too crazy with too much emphasis on the alcohol and partying straight into the morning for 6 days. Two guys in our hotel, who stayed out until 5 each morning, came in for breakfast each day thinking that it was evening.
Good thing we are older - this only happens when our eyesight becomes weak.