Carneval 2005 in Mainz

Helau from Mainz!

Rosenmontag

Today and tomorrow I will be reporting from the big parade in Mainz. I have about 100 photos but certainly cannot show them all.

This is me and my colleague Charlotte in the Centre of Mainz at "Rosenmontag" (rose Monday). I thought about dressing as bath attendent on the beach of Mallorca. :-)
The only problem was it was a bit cool (3°C). So I needed a few clothes below the bathing robe.
To show the dimension: Mainz is a mid-size city of 150,000 inhabitants. About 9,000 active people go in the parade in 150 groups and wagons. About half a million guests are on the streets, coming from all places around to Mainz. Well ... lets start ...

Today we have not yet been at the Dom like on Saturday, because there is usually so much going on that you cannot really see.

Impressions come from Emperorstreet and Christ Church in the newer part of the town.

Today everything was colorful. More than 50% of the guests along the parade way were in costumes, had at least a had or something like this.

Many fantastic wagons were on their way through Mainz, all beautiful decorated. Certainly it cannot be with so much flowers than in Rio, because here you do not have them if there are minus degrees in winter.

I came with my friend Matthias and his son Michael on the right. Matthias had a socker-ball costume. Since Mainz 05 made it to the first league, it became very popular here in town. For the children the heros are still very popular: Cowboys, Indians, Pirates, ... but also animals. Friends of Matthias belog to a women regulars' table (i.e. they meet regular in the pub). The whole group, partially with children came as chicken. Some coincidence that in East Asia in two days the year of the chicken will begin. :-)

Some of the wagons from the big Carnvals Clubs are really great. There goes also a lot of private money in it. Carneval is not sponsered by the state and not much by the town.

In fact politicians are usually the victimes of the jokes they make. A very hard one this year. During Iraq war our government under chancelor Helmut Schroeder was against the war and the clear majority of the population as well. Relation to the American government was not the best. But the leader of the opponent party went to Washington trying to be good friend. The population was very angry about the (sorry!) 'ass-kisser' Angela Merkel. And now after the election, there was a 'Wiedereröffnung' (re-opening) Bush form the front and ...

Funny thing: In a few days (23.02.) Bush will come to Germany and Schroeder will meet with him in Mainz. :-) But not all things are as hard as this. A scenery I liked very much was the private food organisation on the street shown above. And certainly there are not only wagons in the track but countless music groups.