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It was around midnight and Cologne was just warming up

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It was around midnight, and Cologne was just warming up.FACT FILEcologneGetting thereDarius Sanai travelled to Cologne as a guest of Lufthansa and Hyatt Hotels. Lufthansa (tel: 0345 737 747) flies three times a day from London Heathrow to Dusseldorf Return flights start at pounds 79. The airport at Dusseldorf is 25 minutes from Cologne by taxi or train.Where to stayRooms at the Hyatt Regency Cologne (tel: 0845 758166) cost from pounds 110 per night. Dorint Hotel (00 49 2 2116140) has double rooms for about pounds 60.Further informationFor further details about Cologne and the Carnival, call the German National Tourist Office (tel: 0171-317 0908).

The main carnival activities start on 11 February and continue until 16 February, Shrove Tuesday. Women cut off men's ties in the street on Thursday 11 February.. IN THE Place Loto snowdust is sparkling in the glow of dawn. Floating golden points of light revolve in the sun's glare, as Lydia and her two friends saw away at a huge block of snow.

It's eight in the morning and Lydia, an anthropology student from Quebec, has 24 hours in which to summon up art out of a huge block of ice "It depicts a man who is outside society," she explains. "This man is crushed, yet when he is complete people will see that he is happy to be on the outside." Looking round Place Loto, at the happy band of amateur artisans beavering away in sub-zero temperatures, it's difficult not to recognise an irony in Lydia's manifesto Quebec in winter is one of the most sociable of societies. Sculpting threesomes line the square and, in front of them, men chat as they unload fresh, unsalted snow for the dog-sled race due to start at 1pm. When I walk back to the Chateau Frontenac shopkeepers call out to each other as they set out their wares - plastic Carnaval trumpets and decorative festival sashes Quebec is waking up to another day of civic celebration.

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