Bad Wimpfen

Just to get out on a cold and grey Sunday we made a little train trip from Heidelberg to Bad Wimpfen - an medieval town on a small hill overlooking the river Neckar. The trip was free with the job ticket and thee is a non stop train from Heidelberg every two hours.

The view from the "Blue Tower" a medieval watch tower
 

It was not too cold for some ice cream

Mia discovered a little playground

Oma in Town

Oma was in town with Joachim and Mäxchen. She had brought a present and some old toys

After a great lunch with chicory with ham in a bechamel  sauce it was time for an afternoon walk - especially since Mäxchen really had to get out.

Unfortunately the great bakery Ji and Mia had discovered two days earlier was closed on Saturdays.
Later at home Mia could check out some of the old toys Oma had brought

The old Lego train set is still running after 40 years

Papa's Birthday

Papa's birthday started with cake in the morning but the unpacking of the presents had to wait until the evening.

Then we went to "Schwarzer Peter" a cosy German pub not too far away. Ji had a Schnitzel. Mia Käsespätzle and the birthday boy a pancake with spinach and ham.

The day ended like it started - with cake. This time from a nice bakery Ji and Mia had discovered in the afternoom

Aquadrom Hockenheim

After checking out the indoor water park in Weinheim we really enjoyed the one in Hockenheim, It was half the price, and had a great water slide for Mia and a jump board. We also liked the hot salt water pools and the 25 m one for swimming laps - even though it felt pretty cold when going in after soaking in the hot salt water.

The only thing Mia didn't like was that she didn't get any french fries....

The Grand Opening

Of course we had to check out the Grand Opening of the stores at the Mathematicum - the brand new mathematics building of the university donated by one of the founders of SAP. Mia liked the clown that showed science experiments and the rest of the family the free wine samples from Schriesheim.

Good thing the place is less than 10 minutes by bike from our apartment

Skating Park

When we want to walk along the Neckar we cross a bridge that takes us to a big park - Neckarwiese - on the north side of the river. Under the bridge is a skating where Mia likes to watch. She also wanted to try a with her scooter

Carnival in Heidelberg

After a long drive back from Cologne with rain and fog we arrived in Heidelberg just in time for the parade there. Luckily the rain had just stopped and since the parade route was less that a five minute walk from our place we went to see it as well.
Mia was still excited to see yet another parade.

Luckily she met a classmate from school - so it was even more fun to watch

They had some groups with masks from the Black Forest

It was much smaller than the parades in Cologne but a good conclusion of our long carnival weekend

Carnival in Cologne: Rosenmontagszug

The biggest parade in Cologne is the one on Rose Monday - its covered live on national TV and has more than a million people watching along the streets. The whole parade lasts more that four hours - and luckily the rain that was in the forecast for the day stopped just in time around noon.

The candy and chocolates thrown were really good and again Mia got help - this time from a group of students standing next to her.

At the evening after dinner with Stefan and his family she posed for a group photo with her old
and new stuffed animals - three new ones from that day alone

Carnival in Cologne: Schul and Veedels Zooch

On Sunday we went to see the parade with groups from local schools and neighborhoods in the center of Cologne. We started at Clodwigplatz

and then moved to the Dom since we only caught the end of the parade at our firs stop

When it was over we had to warm up a bit in the ATM lobby of a bank since it was quite cold and windy at the Dom.  Then we met Gabi and Frank who had some friends from northern Germany in town

Later Gabi cooked some lunch at her place and Mia fooled around with Frank

Carnival in Cologne: Wahner Zug

We wanted to show Mia the carnival in Cologne and thought a good way to start would be see the parade in Wahn.
After the drive from Heidelberg we had lunch at Oma's place and Mia got ready by applying some face paint for her clown costume. She did the same a day earlier when there was a big carnival party at her school.

 Before the parade started the carnival prince from Pprz walked around for some photo ops

The actual parade had a lot of local groups and was a lot of fun

Mia was very happy about all the candy she got - some nice older ladies had helped her. Se even got a stuffed animal

At Oma's place we had some traditional jelly fulled donuts (Berliner).