Birthday Sunday

Nice to have a birthday on a Sunday: One can sleep in and has time for a nice breakfast and to unwrap the presents

Then we did a walk to the river Neckar where more than four dozen people went for a swim at -2 C outside and about 4 C water temperature

The swimmers could warm up in a portable sauna

Then we also stopped at the family game afternoon at the cultural center around the corner. Mia likes the dog of the man who runs the wood workshop and walked her a bit around she could warm up.

Then we had some German cuisine at a place down the street
 

Carnival Parade Heidelberg

The carnival parade in Heidelberg is on Tuesday and started just around the corner from our place. So we went to have a look and to meet with some friends and neighbors
It was a bit different from the ones in Cologne and had regular musical groups that it also part of non carnival events or a local American football team

But it was nice to watch everything in a group

There were also the witches that a are part of carnival  in the very south west of Germany

 They are a bit mischievous and paint noses for example

One group handed out local wine - a nice surprise

Some groups would have also fit in in Cologne

Some not

Later we met with friend at home for pizza and a movie and Mia got some help with sorting out her candy

Carnival Parade in Cologne

The biggest carnival parade is on Rose Monday in the center of Cologne with more than 60 groups and it goes on for more that four hours. Mia had seen parts of it two years ago wand she wanted to see it again.
With about a million people watching we took of course the train

Found a good spot with a view of the Dom

An unusual  police car drove ahead of the parade

In between it started to snow for some time

Later the sun came out again

We made it back to Heidelberg in the late evening and had to carry four bags of candy from the three parades

Carnival Parade Höhenhaus

Even smaller than the parade in Wahn is the one in Höhenhaus which passes not far from Stefan's house. With the help of his oldest daughter Malin and her make up skills Stefan had turned into a man with long blond hair, pink hat and some lipstick on his lips:

The weather was not so great and not so many people had turned out

Carnival Parade in Wahn

Mia likes the carnival parades in Cologne and there is a big difference between the ones in the small ones in the neighborhoods and the big ones on Monday with a million spectators which is in national TV. We started with a smaller one in Wahn

The local celebrity TV host Guido Canz has his own float

Baking Cookies

Mia wanted to bake chocolate chip cookies with mamma for a long time. After she had been sick there was finally some time

The turned out really well - just a bit too thin

Sledding

After a surprise snow fall in the morning we wanted to enjoy the snow which had melted in the city but was only a short ride by city bus away in the Königsstuhl. Instead of going up all the way we stopped this time at the Kohlhof where half of the city goes for sledding.

The snow was not great since we just had a few cm but it was still a good place with a long slope that was not too steep - just right

The only thing is that we forgot to bring snow pants since we planned more of a walk and the idea with the sledding hill was a spur of the moment decision. So Mia just went a few tiimes