Junot | Where to next?

AI recreation ✨

February 15, 2026

🚶 9.8 km / 6.1 mi

Event & location

Carnival

Carnival is a festive season that occurs at the close of the Christian pre-Lenten period, consisting of Quinquagesima or Shrove Sunday, Shrove Monday, and Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras. Carnival typically involves public celebrations, including events such as parades, public street parties and other entertainments, combining some elements of a circus. Elaborate costumes and masks allow people to set aside their everyday individuality and experience a heightened sense of social unity. Read more ↗

Cologne (Köln)

Cologne is the fourth-most populous city of Germany and the largest city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and over 3.1 million people in the Cologne Bonn urban region. Cologne is also part of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, the second biggest metropolitan region by GDP in the European Union. Centered on the left bank of the Rhine, Cologne is located on the River Rhine, about 35 kilometers southeast of the North Rhine-Westphalia state capital Düsseldorf and 22 kilometres northwest of Bonn, the former capital of West Germany. Read more ↗

Story

Over the past few years, I experienced Carnival in both Cologne and Düsseldorf. This time, I returned to Cologne expecting the usual explosion of energy. Instead: empty streets, biting cold, even snow. I almost questioned whether it was Carnival at all. I captured some decent shots, but nothing worthy of the festival's reputation. Now it all comes down to Rosenmontag!