Today it was time to travel back in time - by visiting friends who took us to the Medieval Festival at the Ruins of the Castle "Landskron" in Oppenheim.The "real" Middle Ages lasted from the 5th through the 15th century - our visit lasted unfortunately only a day.
Fairs and festivals were some of the most colorful events in the Middle Ages. So was this one in Oppenheim. Jugglers and Jesters, Musicians, Acrobats, Craftsmen and Knights ... were all there to entertain the crowd.
And how they did!
Recite rhyming verse, act it out on stage and juggle at the same time for an hour in front of a huge audience interactively - no problem for these performers!(This impressed me the most!)
Lie down on glass splinters, put a heavy board full of nails on your belly and ask a child to stand on the top - no problem for the "witch".This was almost too scary for Annie though!
Juggle with balls, swords, torches or any other object you can think of - no problem at all!These entertainers were really the highlights of the fair, although you could also shoot arrows, throw axes, create pots or jewelry out of clay, etc.etc.etc.
After the events at the Ruins we took a short D-Tour to the "Beinhaus" (ossuary - one of the biggest in Germany) of the "Katharinenkirche" - never seen something like it before. It is a chapel to keep the bones of the dead who were excavated between 1400 & 1750 after a 10 year period due to lack of place in the graveyards. Some of these skulls shine like gold but they said to be polished clean by many touching hands. We all found the place spooky and were happy to return to the sunlight.While we sat comfortably in our hosts' - Bettina & Ingo's - garden, the kids got rid of their surplus energy. Julia and Daniel fought a fierce hockey match with Alexander, while Annie roamed the street and played games with Katharina.
On the way home we felt pleasantly tired but very thankful for having experienced such a wonderful weekend together again!
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