Faschings parade, Karlsruhe

As Alan had mentioned in the earlier post, the children and I went to the Faschings parade in Karlsruhe while he headed back to the flat to get a little rest. The start of the parade route was at Marktplatz so we parked ourselves on the sidewalk, directly across from Karstadt (a department store in the city center). After a long wait, the parade finally began. I'm not exactly sure why, but this parade was less enjoyable than the one we had attended in Freiburg. There was less personal interaction between the participants in the parade and the bystanders - perhaps because most of the revelers in the parade were either on floats or riding in trucks. There were also a lot more bystanders in Karlsruhe, which was not unexpected since it is a much bigger city. But because of this, the parade in Karlsruhe just seemed to lack the warm yet crazy/frenetic energy that was evident in the one in Freiburg. Even the children had remarked that there wasn't quite as much to see in the Karlsruhe parade. I suspect that their disappointment stemmed partially from the fact that they weren't able to gather as much candy as they would have liked to, since there was more competition...from adults. But I wasn't too bothered by that - they still have more than enough swag left over from the parade in Freiburg. Here are some photos from Karlsruhe's parade.