Lanxess Arena

This guide to the Lanxess Arena in Cologne asks why an ice rink built for slap shots and stadium rock turns into carnival's ritual home each winter, the moment the clock strikes eleven-eleven every November. You'll meet the Dreigestirn, the fake royal court of Prince, Peasant and Maiden that presides over the season, its casting carrying a generations-old twist. It traces the crowd's chant of Alaaf back through Rhineland tradition, a greeting believed to hold off misfortune, and the open question of why eleven became the city's sacred number.