Basel Carnival 2011

This year I seized the moment and got myself a LIDL ticket to visit my sister Johanna in Basel. We picked carnival time for it. I left Bremen straight after the Northern German prellball championship and arrived in Basel at half past midnight. At 3 o'clock we were already off to the Morgestraich, which starts at 4. This is the opening of the carnival.

At this point the city centre is completely blacked out: Basel's public utility switches off the street lights. The only light comes from the lanterns of the cliques, on which they present their themes. In front of each clique, a large lantern up to 3.30 m high is carried or wheeled along on a cart. Most participants also wear a head lantern. In some cliques these are identical and show membership of the clique, since carnival participants traditionally don't wear matching costumes at the Morgestraich. This free dress code is called Charivari.

At their drum major's command "Morgestraich, vorwärts, Marsch" ("Morgestraich, forward, march"), the cliques set off. The first march, played by all the cliques, bears the fitting name "Morgestraich".

After about two hours the event was more or less over and we went to Johanna's flat. Her flat is in a building scheduled for demolition (which apparently won't be demolished after all, just renovated) and is totally old-school. The shower is in the next stairwell (to shower you have to cross a schoolyard right outside the door), and the toilet is in the stairwell. She won't be living there much longer anyway. Here are a few pictures of the flat:

The next day Christopher, Johanna's boyfriend, joined us. With him we marched through Basel and enjoyed the wonderful old town and the carnival. In the evening we cooked with Lousia and played Ligretto and Wizard.