Medieval days

Everyone loves a fair, especially when knights and castles are involved. Last weekend we went to a medieval faire at the Burg Satzvey, about an hour away from Bonn. It was complete with a real castle, jugglers, princesses, knights to the rescue and boars head armor.

It took me back to when I was a kid at the Renaissance Faire - complete with dedicated souls who are so possessed to recreate the time period down to eating from handmade bowls and wearing burlap shoes.

There was an abundance of visual stimuli and a bustle of constant medieval activity. Jugglers on tightropes called out to passersby, a real live hawker, with a hawk on his should stopped Noah in his tracks. He HAD to take a picture. There were knights wandering in full battle gear, prisoners being hauled away in wooden neck braces and damsels in fancy gowns and flowing head gear.

Of course music filled the air. There were lutes being played and even a Celtic bagpipe duo, somehow verging on hard rock, complete with a few middle age(s) groupies.

Our first stop had to be at the blacksmith and check out the armor and chain mail. This is of course because I have a son who is determined to learn to one day make his own armor - and I will not be surprised when he does.

The boars head helmet was a huge hit. According to the blacksmith who created it, the knight who consigned this mask rarely wears it. Not because it weighs as much as a small child, but because he does not think it is vicious looking enough to be taken seriously. Note the boar is smiling, and who would be afraid of a smiling boar in a battle? We were able to see the "Boar Knight" in battle later, but alas he chose not to wear the kindly looking mask.

Fortunately we went to this fair with some German friends, who spent a lot of time making sure that we understood what was going on, especially during the impressive show. We anticipated the jousting match, which was the main draw to go to this medieval fair in the first place. Little did we know that it would include a reenactment of a story about the Holy grain, complete with evil knights (in black) kidnapping a beautiful princess. There was an evil stepmother, who tried to poison the Kaiser, and engaged the evil knights to capture the Holy Grail. Of course the valiant German knights (dressed in white) rode through fire, rescued the princess, and saved the Holy Grail! This was quite a story, lasting almost 2 hours, but no one complained.

The day was a full one, and after eating a delicious warm waffle with cream, we made our way in home in the pouring rain. The kids went to bed dreaming of castles, knights princesses and chain mail. Maybe one day they will be the crazy ones leading the reenactment, riding horses and juggling fire.