Walking up from where the bus dropped us off, we were greeted by this:
That's right, it's a ye olde village gate with a drunk trumpeter inside to greet us all!
Walking through the gate, we got to see what I think is a recreation of a Mediaeval village, complete with various ye olde industries, staffed with people wearing ye olde clothes, and eat their olde style food.
Village heralds!
The village
Living in the forest, Robin Hood-style.
Jugglers!
Olde Skool Bakery
My ye olde mead. Even though it's a beer made from honey, it was really sweet and strong, more so than I expected!
Jul and Asia enjoy their beakers of mead.
Camels!
The event is held on the grounds of the schloss and we were able to look at it in all it's old glory.
Heading towards the castle gate. We had to cross a bridge to get into it - kinda like crossing a moat...kinda wish it was a drawbridge though.
Yep, that's a schloss!
So happy at all the cheese
There was also a parade of all the people taking part in the festival.
Knights in armour
Foot soldiers not in armour
Guys dragging their captured women around
A happy drunk friar.
After the parade, we made our way through the grounds to the arena to watch some pre-jousting demonstrations of stuff from the middle ages.
The stands.
The arena - as we took our seats, it was actually be smoothed out by a guy driving an ox!
Girl demonstrating falconry with her falcon.
Guy demonstrating falconry with his eagle. The bird was a bit excited by the whole thing.
Some flag throwers from Florence, Italy.
I can't remember what this marching band were doing.
From here on, there are no photos. Why? Well everything was fun and games until just before the tournament show proper was about to start when a clap of lightning and thunder went off and the heavens opened. I was wearing a Gore-Tex jacket but was soon quickly soaked. I (and many others in the arena audience) quickly ignored the umbrella ban to open our devices in a paltry attempt to keep dry.
As an aside, I'd like to say that Prinz Luitpold is HARDCORE. Despite being a sprightly 60 years old and wearing a nicely cut suit, he strode out onto the arena in the driving rain WITHOUT an umbrella to deliver a welcoming speech. I would have clapped except my hands were fixed in a death grip around my umbrella handle.
While huddled in the cold and rain, I pondered as to whether the event would be cancelled due to the mud being unsafe for horse riding, the players eventually came out and the show started. This year's event is based on part two of the Arthurian Cycle. As a result, we got to see Mordred tame a horse and then venture out to gather the fiercest warriors from the Orient (cue Turkish trick riding and Kung Fu fighting!), jousting as he challenges various Knights of the Round Table, and then a hand to hand combat battle between Mordred and Arthur! Muhahahah!
I'll admit, this entire event was pretty cheesy. Afterwards, I was asked how it was, I said that there were a lot of people walking around who looked like they may have been highschool misfits, or as Jul observed, "A lot of people seem to have interpreted *Mediaeval* as *Goth*." Having said that, cheese is tasty and watching the trick horse riding was still a great deal of fun! If they can guarantee that it won't rain cats and dogs again, I might consider going again to find out how the story concludes!
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