Karneval has once again arrived in Germany; and once again Padma and I have tried to avoid it. The partying, the drinking, the craziness, the costumes … it’s just not our scene. Maybe we’re just fuddy duddies.

So when our neighbour sent a text and asked if we wanted to join them at a Karneval parade, Padma and I instantly went into ‘think up of a good excuse’ mode. Padma started typing our apologies and then abruptly deleted the message. ‘No,’ she said. ‘This year we’re going to make an effort.’

And so we joined our neighbours for our first Karneval parade, across the Rhine in Bonn Beuel.

Was it fun? Absolutely.

Karneval is all about just having fun … singing, dancing, drinking, being silly. Just enjoying life before things get a bit serious on Ash Wednesday.

We stood on the side of the road for two hours as we were buried in sweets, tissues boxes, ice scrapers, badminton birdies, parking timers and endless other things tossed at us from the moving floats. In the end, we filled up three shopping bags full of goodies and more importantly finally realised why Karneval season is so special here.