A Photo an Hour: 20 February 2016

A small miracle happened this weekend… I actually remembered to take part in photo an hour! (Unlike in January, when I remembered it right up until the night before then ignored my camera entirely in the morning). It was Fasnacht day in my small town, so I actually did something other than sit on the sofa for a change. It still wasn’t the most exciting of days, but you can’t have everything 😉

10 a.m. Awake… ish. Can’t function until I have a cup of tea!

11 a.m. Cross stitching. Can’t show you what I’m working on yet 😉

12 noon. Finishing cuppa number 2 before going for a shower.

1 p.m. (ish). I was actually in the shower at 1, so more like 20 past. Getting dressed for the day.

2 p.m. It was raining and not much was happening, so we decided to eat something before the parade started. I chose meat on a stick (sorry vegetarians).

3 p.m. Parade time! And the rain had actually stopped.

4 p.m. “Who’s going to clean up all the confetti before the trams get going again?”

4.30 p.m. Bonus photo because I didn’t take an even number. My loot from the parade! A group with an anti-vegan float gave me the sausage 😀 Not pictured: the world’s smallest carrot and my flowers (which were already in vases). Jan got even moooore sweets, two oranges and a leek.

5 p.m. We thought we’d pop back out to see what was happening post-parade. It turned out there wasn’t much point in being there if you weren’t part of one of the groups, so we quickly came home. This is my hat after I removed the confetti! Some lingered…

6 p.m. Back home drinking more tea. The yellow flowers in the background are from the Fasnacht parade.

7 p.m. Time to make tea!

8 p.m. Tea time! Bratkartofflen (potato fritters) with sausage plus fish and spinach. An odd combination, but it worked.

9 p.m. Having a beer while watching what turned out to be an awesome episode of Farscape. We’re nearly finished now… what will I do when there are no more episodes?!

10 p.m. Off to read a book in bed. I love my starry PJs!

I should really have taken another photo at 11, which is when I put down my book and turned out the light, but the camera was across the room and I was lazy… hence the bonus photo earlier in the post to keep things even 😉

What did you all get up to on Saturday?

 

The final day of Fasnacht

I didn’t have a chance to post this yesterday, so today you get my final Fasnacht 2016 post instead of Friday letters.

Immediately after the Morgenstreich on Monday, Jan had to go to Germany for work. He got back on Wednesday evening, so I suggested that we meet in town to see what was going on. The official parade was over, but lots of groups were still wandering (or driving) around town, handing out sweets and flowers, getting rid of the last of their confetti and playing music. It took me nearly 20 minutes to cross the Mittlere Brücker (Middle Bridge) to get to where I was meeting Jan!

Above: walking through relatively empty side streets to get across town.
Below: the chaos I encountered on reaching the bridge!

Drops of water!

We met at Claraplatz and then had a slow wander back towards town to see what we could find. There was confetti everywhere! I pity whoever had to clean it all up!

We are Swiss!

My feet literally buried in confetti!

Eventually we decided to find a Cliquenkeller (clique’s cellar) to go into. They’re only open to the public on Fasnacht and occasionally for tours. They sell relatively cheap food, so we each had some Wienerli mit Härdäpfelsalat (that’s Wiener/Frankfurter sausages with potato salad to you and me!).

Inside a Cliquenkeller

It’s the Breo Clique!

Cliquenkeller, decorated for Fasnacht

Another tradition at Fasnacht is the Schnitzelbangg or Schnitzelbank, which is a type of rhyming song with a comedic twist. The singers of such songs, known as Schnitzelbänkler, go into the various Cliquenkeller in the evenings during Fasnacht and perform. Just before we left, such a group came in. They called themselves Schnitzelpunk and carried an electric guitar with a mini amp – not very traditional but great fun! They stayed for one song, so we did too.

Apologies for the crap photo!

I assume everybody else carried on partying well into the night, making the most of the last few hours of Fasnacht. We, however, had to work the next day, so we left the Cliquenkeller and went to catch a tram home.

I have also learned that the small town we live in is actually having its Fasnacht celebrations on Saturday (the three Fasnacht days aren’t public holidays outside of Basel-Stadt), so we will get to see a parade after all, albeit a slightly smaller one!