Saturday we went to a Medieval Festival and Knights tournament in Angelbachtal, Germany, which is only a few miles south of Heidelberg. The festival was held in the Schloss Park Eichtersheim. We picked up a couple who just arrived in Germany and started driving. About 10 minutes into the ride Maddox had a complete breakdown and would not stop screaming. I hoped this wasn't a sign of what was in store for us the rest of the day. Unfortunately there were more tantrums to come.
It was a perfect day for an outing. The sky threatened rain, but it held off for the entire day and kept the temperature in the mid 70's. Finding parking was a little tricky, but we found an open sidewalk to park on and walked around the walled off park to find the ticket booths.
Adults were 12euro and kids under 6 were free. We all got stamped on the hand with a little red knight.
After we entered there were lots of little tents with medieval setttings and booths selling things. We found our friends shooting bow and arrows at targets.
Marissa was actually pretty good. I think she needs to join the archery team in high school :)
The boys brought swords and spent some time duel-ing it out.
They had rides that were operated by manpower.
Maddox was supposed to go on this ferris wheel with JR, but he refused to go. But, Brandon was brave enough to give it a try!
While they were riding, Ben wandered off and got food: steak sandwich and beer. Yum.
I tried to take Maddox to watch the puppet show, but he got distracted by this crazy statue in the park.
He did not want to leave this thing. I tried to take him off of it twice and he kicked and screamed, then ran back to it.
He started doing his pee-pee dance, so I gave Ben "the eye" and made him leave his group of friends and come help me. He had a pull-up on, but I still wanted to avoid him using it if we could help it.
We got him off of it with the bribe of ice cream after going to the potty. On our way, we walked past the ferris wheel and Maddox started whining that he wanted on it. To avoid another tantrum, we let him ride.
He had fun getting in, but wasn't so happy once it started moving. He started crying and wanted out. As soon as the men stopped the ride, he changed his mind....typical. What choice did we have but to let him ride a little more. He laughed a little and started to have fun, but they had to keep the ride moving slow. There was an older girl on the ride too and she didn't look too happy. Thankfully the men let her ride again after Maddox was off.
There were several other distractions on the way to the restrooms. These men were making rope by hand. This would not be a fun job as it took forever to make a small section of rope.
Then we found the ice cream booth, so we got some while we were there.
JR got cotton candy and watched the man make it.
Right next to the "eis" shop we found the moat with lots of ducks, a swan, and the giant fish. Maddox was having a great time feeding the fish and I was having a heart attack thinking Ben was going to let him fall in. He kept leaning WAY over the edge to look at the fish and throw them bread. I really didn't feel like jumping in that dirty water to save his life, so I yelled at Ben a few times. Unfortunately, the only good that did was me getting yelled at in return for "being a nag".
There were many people dressed up in costumes. A knight came over and showed everyone his weapons.
After hanging out by the moat for a while I was relieved that everyone decided to move on towards the bathrooms. Ben took Maddox in to do his business (which he did successfully) and we moved on to the jousting show.
We walked around and found a good spot, but once they brought the horses out they made us move and roped off the area. Poor Juan got seperated from the group and was stuck on the other side. He is the guy in the black shirt and shorts, holding the umbrella. Sorry Juan :(
The event started with all of the knights riding out to the middle and getting introduced. Notice the guy in red has no head gear on.
That is because he fell off his horse during the introduction! We don't know if that was set up that way or if it wasn't supposed to happen. Since the guy didn't put his helmet back on, I was thinking that maybe he couldn't see and that's why he fell off.
Later on, he was having trouble getting his horse to run down the aisle during the jousting, so maybe his horse was new to this and needed a little more practice. I did get some good action shots of him since he was going slower than the rest of the horses.
Juan eventually found his way back to the group and the men lost interest in the tournament. They ended up sticking the kids in a medieval torture apparatus. Notice them in the back, trying to figure out how it works.
We left the competition and went to find something non-alcholic to drink. The only thing we could find was Wasser, which is carbonated water...blah. It didn't taste very good, so we quickly drank a little, then moved on to the medieval carousel. Maddox is very luck to have a buddy like JR who will take him on all these rides. Thanks JR!!
Marissa entertained herself by wearing Carson's little hat.
Carson, as usual, was very chill during the outing (too bad he wasn't so chill on the ride home!)
After the carousel ride, we decided it was time to go, as we were all getting tired...and thirsty!
But, before we left Maddox had to say bye-bye to the swan (and I had to freak out again thinking he was going to fall in the moat.)
"Bye Bye, Swan"
"Bye Bye, Pig"
