karneval in bonn, part 3

and now, finally, for the spectacle that is karneval sunday in bonn! the scene began with a variety of city officials and prominent citizens assembled at the old city hall, or rathaus. the sign with the white background reads Dreimal "Bonn Alaaf", which translates as something like three times "long live bonn".after a few remarks from the mayor, a parade began! i don't think i completely understand it, but i think it was supposed to be a procession of fools and clowns and karneval revelers.here's the prince and princess, the leaders of the fools, who came in with the parade. check out the fabulous feathers!at this point, there was a lot of trash talking back and forth between the prince and the mayor; the prince wanted her to hand over control of the city, but she told him to take a hike. and there were also a variety of performances, as sampled previously in the latter two clips in part two.

after the mayor refused to give up the city, the fools left, but only to be soon replaced by the prince's troops! here's a short clip of them marching in.

here are the troops lining up in front of the rathaus.
and then all hell broke loose! the smoke was from these cannons the troops were "firing", and you can kinda see that people in the rathaus were throwing lots of balloons out the windows. such excitement!
here are the troops storming the rathaus (= climbing ladders they propped up).and then bonn fell to the prince!i think at this point, the fools had reign over the city until the following wednesday (= ash wednesday). kind of incredible, huh?

and a final parting shot (read it out loud):