August 11: Ritter Fest (Knight Festival)

Today we went to a renaissance type fair with a couple from church and their 2 year old daughter (Katrina, Heinz, Hannah). [Note: This is the same couple that invited us over for a 4th of July party – he is German and she is American.] The fest was held in the grounds of an old castle, which added to the ambience. We took the train to Mulheim and met them at the station and took a tram to the castle around 12:45pm or so. Our first stop, once inside, was at one of the food tents. It was a burrito type thing that I hated, so lucky Art got to eat all of it. No worries for me, because a few meters away was a Crepe tent, and everyone knows I CANNOT resist a crepe mit Nutella! Yum. Then another few meters to a wine tent. We tried several different types of strange “medieval” wine, and found one that both Art and I liked. We bought a small, cool-looking bottle of it for 5 Euro. It is possible that I was more excited about the bottle than the wine. Then off for a kids jousting show. It turned out to be fairly boring and too hot to sit in the sun, so we all took off to explore the rest of the grounds. It was very interesting because it appeared that the people working there (odd carnie types of course) also stayed there, in these cool medieval tents that had real beds w/ animal skin blankets on them. Some of the tents were pretty serious on the inside which made me think that perhaps the summer Ritter Fest tour is not a terrible way to make some cash. :) Around the edge of the grounds was a place where, for a mere 1 Euro, you could throw 3 hatchets/axes at a board. We hemmed and hawed around a bit, and finally Heinz and I agreed to do it, with me giving Art one of my throws. Heinz went first, and did pretty well. Then my turn, and my first throw was terrible, but after he instructed me to throw it hard, my second throw was great. Didn’t stick in the board, but quite satisfying. So satisfying that I HAD to do it again. Another Euro gone, and I had agreed to give Art my third throw. Nope, that didn’t happen. I got so into the axe throwing! I was about to fork over a 10 Euro bill and get serious about it all when Art made us leave. Apparently the sight of me getting way psyched about throwing axes was somewhat unnerving. :) We meandered around a bit, then stopped to let Hannah take a pony ride. It was seriously hot outside, so we headed for the drink tents. While getting refreshed, a minstrel-type band started playing, which was very cool. Until one lady, all decked out in Ren-fest gear, decided she could no longer be satisfied with her sideline belly dancing, and had to jump out in front of the band (which she had no association with) and start a little belly-dancing routine. Her moves were not bad really, but the arrogance of it all, plus the multiple rolls of love handles were a little much for me. So odd though. When I saw her dancing on the sidelines, I indeed wondered how long it would be before her desire to perform overrode her other sensibilities. By then it was near time for the jousting tournament. With a quick stop for Zach to play w/ a jester and his puppet, we headed to the pitch. It was fabulous to watch the guys on horses and even their hand-to-hand combat stuff. The whole plot was a little lost on me (beautiful princess wants to marry one knight, but he must beat the other knights to win her hand) b/c I, of course, could not follow the commentary in German. Zach was great all day until this moment. He was so tired, but refused to sleep (my one rage-inducer). I even took him into the shade and let him lie down on the blanket, where he curled up and ALMOST went to sleep. In the end, Art had to miss part of the tournament b/c he was walking around w/ Zach. So is the life w/ a stubborn toddler. We were SHOCKED that he did not fall asleep on the way to Katrina’s house. He even did fine all evening, playing w/ Hannah and eating dinner. He finally lost it, which was a good clue to go home. It was a long day, but very enjoyable! Fun to do a Renaissance Festival German-style. We kept looking for our friend from ATL, Steve Downin, to show up, b/c this is his kind of thing. I did seriously consider buying Zach a sword or shield…but does he really need that, and do I want to somehow get it back to the States?