Carnival in Germany is can also be called Karneval, Fasching or Fastnacht, depending in what region you are.

The most famous probably is the carnival in Cologne, Düsseldorf or Mainz. The date for carnival by the way is related to Easter. As the Lenten season is a periode of 40 you will have to count back from Easter to get to Ash Wednesday, the first day of the Lenten season. The Sundays don’t count though, because you wouldn’t like to fast on a Sunday, would you.

Köln©flickr-Rich B-S

The real beginning of the carnival season though already is on November 11th at 11:11 am every year.
The outdoor carnival then really starts with the so called “Weiberfastnacht” on Shrove Thursday (Feb. 11, 2010). On this day you can see women in fancy dresses everywhere in the city, as it is the women’s day. In Düsseldorf the women enter the guildhall to cut off men’s ties.

In Cologne you can see one of Germany’s largest carnival parades on Carnival Monday (Feb. 15, 2010). The whole city will be dancing and celebrating. The well known call on that day is “Kölle Alaff”. It is said that the old battle call in Cologne was “Coellen all aff” which meant “Cologne over all”. But the parades in Düsseldorf and Mainz aren’t any smaller or less interesting. The special call here is Helau.
On Ash Wednesday, the first day of the Lenten season, you usually have a fish dinner in one of the pubs or restaurants.

In Braunschweig (Brunswick) you can see one of the largest parades of the North of Germany. It already takes place on Sunday (Feb. 14th, 2010) as Carnival Monday here is a normal work day.

In Baden-Württemberg carnival is called Fastnacht and here you see many witches, devils and carnival fools in traditional costumes.

In Munich the market-women traditionally dance on the Viktualienmarkt on Carnival Tuesday.
But in other parts of Germany you can celebrate carnival too of course.

North Rhine-Westphalia

Bochum:

Deutsches Bergbau-Museum
With more than 400,000 visitors, the German mining museum is the most important in the world. Here you can learn almost everything about mining. www.bergbaumuseum.de

Eisenbahnmuseum

In Bochum-Dahlhausen the railway museum is located. You can see numerous locomotives and railway carriages. www.eisenbahnmuseum-bochum.de

Engelskirchen:

Baumwollspinnerei mit E-Werk

The factory of Friedrich Engels, the father of the famous socialist, also was one of the first power houses in Germany.  Here you can see how electricity changed our lives. www.eisenbahnmuseum-bochum.de

Essen:

Zeche Zollverein

The most beautiful coal mine in the world, the Zollverein World Heritage site, today is a famous industrial monument. It attracts about 800,000 visitors every year. Exhibitions of all sorts offer a huge variety of attractions for adults as well as children. www.zollverein.de

Paderborn:

Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum

HNF is the world’s biggest computer museum. High-tech exhibits can be tested by the visitors. You can go on a journey not only through German information technology. www.hnf.de

Ratingen:

Textilfabrik Cromford

This was the first textile factory in Europe built in 1783/84 by Johann Gottfried Brügelmann. He got the construction plans for “waterframes”, special spinning frames, in Cromford, England. www.industriemuseum.lvr.de

Solingen:

Gesenkschmiede Hendrichs

Solingen is famous for quality knives and scissors. In the Museum you can still see how they were produced. www.industriemuseum.lvr.de

Wuppertal:

Schwebebahn

Since 1901 the suspension railway is an important urban transport system. You shouldn’t miss it. Unfortunately it is out of service until April 2010! www.schwebebahn.de

Especially for those who are seeking peace and quiet and love the nature the East Frisian Islands are a great travel destination, as in winter there are far less tourists than in summer.

And on the isle of Borkum you can do guided mud flat walking-tours in winter as well as in summer. You can also fly to the isle of Juist one of the car free islands.

Juist©flickr/gerriet

Here you can have an island tour by horse carriage. In winter it is much easier than in summer to get to know the local people and maybe you can even try the local like “Bosseln”, some sort of ball game combined with a walk across the island. And can you imagine anything better than having a nice cup of East Frisian Tea after a long walk on beautifully empty beaches. They for sure have their own special beauty in summer as well as in winter. The East Frisian Islands are located in the North Sea on the German coast.

Borkum©flickr/froutes

A recipe from the Black Forest:

POTATO SOUP WITH “KRACHERLE for 4

1.102 lb potatoes, 2 onions, 2 leeks, 1.76 oz  bacon, white pepper, 1 bunch of marjoram, 1/2 cup dry white wine, 3 1/2 cups  stock, 2 1/4 cups cream, 3.5 oz double cream, 2 bread rolls, 1 bunch of chives, nutmeg, salt

• Peel potatoes and onions and dice them and  slice the leek
• fry the potatoes, the leeks, onions and diced bacon in some butter
• add salt, pepper, nutmeg, and marjoram
• deglaze with the wine and stock
• add cream and double cream and stir well

A recipe from the Ruhr region:

HEAVEN AND EARTH for 4

1.76 lb potatoes, salt, 2.2lb apples, 5.3 oz  bacon, sugar, 1.1 lb  black pudding (bloody sausage ), 1.4 oz butter

• boil peeled potatoes in salted water
• cook peeled, cored,sliced apple in water
• fry bacon pieces in pan
• mash potatoes and mix with the apples, add salt and sugar
• pour the bacon over the potato/apple mix
• cut the black pudding in 1/2 inch slices and fry it crispy in hot butter
• place it on a plate and serve

Traditional beer “Altbier” is great with it!

There are some really beautiful ski resorts in Bavaria, Germany. The most famous probably is the ski-region of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The town held the Olympic winter games in 1930 and here the downhill races on the famous Kandahar course take place. Garmisch-Partenkirchen can easily be reached by car or train from Munich.

Also easy to reach from Munich by car or train is the small Bavarian village of Oberammergau. Here you find cross-country ski runs; you can go hiking or visit famous Linderhof Castle.  Oberammergau also is Germany’s Passion play village.

Oberstdorf as well as Garmisch-Partenkirchen is one of the top ski resorts of the German Alps. And as well as Garmisch-Partenkirchen it is also famous for its ski jumping competitions. Oberstdorf is located between Munich and Lake Constance and can also easily be reached from Stuttgart.

Skiing in Germany doesn’t always mean you will have to do it in the Alps. There are beautiful ski resorts in the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) too.

There is the ski-region Haldenköpfle on the Schauinsland the local mountain near the beautiful town of Freiburg with its famous minster. This is a ski-region especially for families, and also suited for snowboarders.

The ski-region of the Feldberg is probably the most famous of the Black Forest here you find 50 km of downhill pistes, 15 km for beginners, 20 km intermediate and 15 km advanced.  You also find 45 km of cross-country ski runs and for those visitors who don’t fancy skiing there are also toboggan runs. You can of course go hiking as well.

Another beautiful ski-region is in Todtnau. 28 km of downhill pistes, 5 km for beginners, 18 km intermediate, 5 km advanced. The cross-country ski runs have a length of 60 km and there are about 70 km of hiking trails.

After your day out skiing you can enjoy the typical food specialties of the region like Black Forest gateau or Black Forest style smoked ham. And the Black Forest also is the home of the famous cuckoo clocks. And in the carnival season you might be able to see the witches, devils and carnival fools in their traditional costumes.

Under the official name of “Ruhr.2010” for the first time a whole region has become European Capital of Culture.

It is a region in the west of Germany close to the border to the Netherlands. Here you find 53 towns and cities in a region in past times famous for its coal mines and steelworks. This part of Germany, home to more than 5 Million people from many different countries, is now being transferred into an area with lots of recreational and cultural attractions. And of course this year there will be even more events of all sorts. It is a region of Germany worth paying a visit, a region formed by hard work and football, formed by people of different religions and cultures and last but not least formed by the times of the “black gold” from the Industrial Revolution to the 1960s. You do not only find brand stores in the bigger cities but also Germany’s biggest supermarket with the size of a football/soccer field. In Duisburg Zoo you can even find a part of Australia, the only Koalas in Germany. Starlight Express is a musical understood by everybody and has been played in Bochum for almost 22 years.

Why another page about Germany?

Because there are so many meaningless pages about this really complex country.
We will have up-to-date information about the beauty of the landscape like the Black Forest, about culture and events like Ruhr.2010, and about regional German eating & drinking specialties like a wine tasting tour on the rivers Rhine and Mosel.