Day 17. Becoming aware of being very sick of winter. The shoots from the bulbs along the garden path have suddenly broken through in the past 3 or 4 days, and that is very exciting. Today was the local Karnaval parade and a lot more fun than the main one in town yesterday. Here lots of people danced and sang along, apart from a load of traditional German karnaval songs, the old rock song hey baby (will you be my girl) seems to be hugely popular for floats and dancing Marias.