Knights, Horses and Fire

One of the things I found out pretty soon after we moved to Dieburg is, that we do, in fact, have a stunt riding team in town! How cool is that? 

They also arrange a Knight's Spectaculum every year with a tiny but cozy medieval market, a Knight's tournament and a fire show with horses (!). 

Another great advantage is: We can walk to get there and back which could have been a great hint to drink more mead but for some reason we didn't. Will not make the same mistake next year as it was pretty tasty mead they served ;) The marked itself was very small but nice and we bought some handmade soaps and a tiny necklace made of a horseshoe-nail. Not that spectacular and I could have made that last one myself, I know, but they had far more fancy pieces which I simply couldn't afford and I wanted to buy at least something from them!
There were also almost as much food stalls as market stalls with a diversity of great and tasty food.

The highlights, of course, were the tournament and fire show!

The story was funny and full of action but a bit confusing (?) sometimes... but really entertaining! I also recognized a few of the knights from Hayner Burgfest last year which promised a good show in advance :) The fire show, however, was THE highlight when it got dark!

If you want to see beautiful non-blurry pictures please take a look at Paul Photography's awesome pictures right >>here!<<

We will surely go next year too to support this great team!

Of knights and sunny days

The medieval market in Dreieichenhain ist one of the prettiest markets in our region: Magical location, beautiful ambient lots of vendors and stuff to buy, tasty food, knights tourney, shows and music and so much more!

Thanks to the hot and sunny late summer weather the market was well visited and we had to wait a while on the main ticket line. Since it was not far from our meeting point that day we waited patiently (there are two more entrances around the castle, but this is the closest to the parking area ;) )We then met up with some dear friends and started with having breakfast on the castle pond in this lovely almost too hot weather. As always there have been so many booths with food and treasures that I surely missed some of them even after a few rounds through and around the castle but I found enough loot for one day for sure!

The knights tourneys at Dreieichenhain are always entertaining and we even witnessed a real proposal at the end! The team seemed to have kept it a good secret from the future bride as she was confused and shaking already when she was lead in [heart]. And so the "bad" black knight was the winner of hearts at the end and got a lot of cheers from the crowd! Our favourite however was the green knight ;)

There also was a archery competition for everyone, all you needed was a traditional wooden bow. Since my horsebow is sadly not fully made of wood we just watched for a while :)

Historische Stadtrechtsfeier Gelnhausen or: Another medieval market

Every 5 years the beautiful city of Gelnhausen is holding a big medieval 3-day event. 

The historical core of the city is very pretty and during the event flooded with merchants and people showing old handicrafts and stuff. It really is a beautiful setting!

Sadly, this time they had no knights turney, which they had at the past two events 2010 and 2005~ but it was pretty as always. And again I took just a few pictures with my mobile cam since I again forgot my camera -.-

Oh and of couse here is our small treasure haul ;)

Beltane

Traditionally we celebrate Beltane most of the time at Ronneburg castle. Every year they have a big medieval market with fires and fire based acts and incredible fireworks.

A few years ago they had quite a few acts including Fangdorn the dragon but is got less every year. Liudon Incorruptus was playing (as they are on nearly every market at Ronneburg castle for a few years now... I really like them but changing musicians regularly would be appreciated...)

We have been really suprised by the mass of people who celebrated since it was kind of rainy the whole day but the event was really crowded I would say :)

Nonetheless it was a great night (although I wasn't feeling that well~)!!! 

This years fire act were Firedancer whom are a absolutely stunning local group. Sadly I didn't manage to take some proper pictures due to our standing position.

I hope you all had a blessed May night!

Stormy spring market

Spring is here and with it comes the annual Spring Market at Ronneburg castle!

Despite the rainy weather we had a great time there! It was much better visited then I expected due to the weather and I was happy to see so many kids there playing and having fun. The phrase "There's no bad weather, only bad clothing" seems to apply to more people again. 

We had some tasty food, as it always is provided at the markets, and Apple-Mead from our favourite tavern :) We also had a great time with friends and looking at all the pretty treasures and wares that where for sale adn talked a lot to friends. We also bought a few treasures for ourselfes of couse!

[dried fruits, handmade candy, pumpkin-coconut marmelade, a wooden hammer for the wall, handspun wool and a new Naalbinding needle, silver earrings, a pretty amber necklace with silver leaves and a stone necklace... BIG LOOT]

Alestorm and "the tiny village near Darmstad" + Autumn Market Ronneburg

On Saturday my lovely boss, her husband, my hun and me went to see Alestorm and support at the Steinbruch Theater. Only the day before we learned that it might be the last concert at the Steinbruch... wich meant that the Finntroll concert there on Wednesday will be cancelled :(

I have to admit it was the first time for me to visit the Steinbruch even though I got invited from friends so many times~

The tiny club was sold out that evening and crowded to the roof!

Due to work we sadly missed Troldhaugen and Crimson Shadows but Brainstorm and Alestorm were awesome! During Alestorm the venue got so packed and warm that we had to go outside to breathe~ x__x

The next day the four of us visited the annual medieval autumn market "In honor of the holy grail" at Ronneburg. It takes place every year around the end of September and the beginning of October.

I really love the autumn market! It is always blessed with lot's of traders and visitors, great food, lovely wares, battles and music.

The 1 on 1 battles were as spectacular as always and the cutest thing for sure was a tiny vikng (about 2-3 years old) with a wooden axe laughing the whole time! The tiny warrior was allowed to strike a few hits against 2 of the warriors. So cute!

Surely we bought a few treasures!

New leather pouch, handbraided linen-braid for my hun's new tunic, bronze beads and a kläppar häst.

Hayner Burgfest "Wildbann"

I finally went to the Hayner Burgfest again this year and it was lovely as always. We had such a nice weather! The sun was shining but it was not too hot. 

The main theme of this years event was hunting. Horus Falkenrei presented us their lovely birds of prey and Irish Wolfhounds adn also the art of hunting with the birds from horseback :) Lovely! The falconry was accompanied by an animal phorographer and a few of his trained animals. For a small donation people could get pictures with the animals. I'm  bid sad I didn't have enough money to take pictures with more of them but I was so in love with that baby skunk! I was allowed to play with it and cuddle it for while and it was such a cutie! My friend Christina took pictures with two of the birds :)

We also met some friends and I shared bit's of my flamed salmon with Abby, a friends pretty husky :D

It was such a lovely day! I need to take more pictures of such days~ yes I do!

I also bought a bit of treasury ;)

A little journey to the north

Last weekend my grandma, my hun and myself drove all the way to Eckernförde (616km) to visit my mom over the easter holidays~  

We started off early on Friday morning and arrived a bit tired in the afternoon~ after a few tiny traffic jams and 2 short breaks. My mom cooked dinner for us and after long talks and much food my hun and I drove to our holiday flat just a few minutes from  my mom's. It was a really cozy room with a double bed, TV, tiny kitchen counter and a big enough bathroom.

I forced my hun to watch Disney Movies with me that evening XD

On Saturday my hun and I went to Haithabu (Hedeby) for the Spring market :)

Hedeby was a big and importand trading city in the viking era and now there's a lovely museum as well as rebuilt houses and scenery. There are lot's of events during the year and two lovely trading markets. One around easter and one in Summer.  If you ever are in the area around Kiel/Hamburg and you love vikings~ you definetly have to pay the Hedeby a visit! You won't regret it :D

We spent quite some time in the museum itself at first and then went to the houses. We sat on the docs there in the sun, had some lovely chat's with vendors and bought some loot :)

That pretty woolen braid was so cheap I didn't even dare to haggle! And it's soooo pretty!!! I think it will fit perfectly on my new woolen  dress for winter. I might show you a picture of the fabric and the braid together when I post about my new apron dress and the gaments I made for my hun :)

 We also bought this little viking ship cookie cutter at the museums shop :D 

On Sunday mom wanted to show us Eckernförde a bit~ and after a stroll through the harbor my hun and I went to the Ostsee Info-Center whilst grandma, my mom and her husband waited outside~ so we were a bit pressed for time inside. We got to pet fish! I mean real living fish and crabs and starfish :) The sea biologist there told us a ot about the animals and explained to us that the three kinds of flatfish provided in the tank have  different strukture of scale. For example: the Plaice had really soft scales and the Flounder were rough like sandpaper :D There also were Turbot in the tank, they looked and felt like sand but not as rough as the Flounder.

One Flounder definetly thought he/she was a dolphin! It swam huge circles at the surface all the time and came to us and put it's head out of the water and wanted to be pet!

I tried to pick up a crab more than once but they were all like "uuh~ don't touch me muchaho or I'll snap your friggin fingers off!!!" and I was like "umm ok nevermind" |D
We also participated at a little egghunt event in the center and each got a little bag of those precious handmade candy from town :3

On Monday we we're already driving home again... sadly our travel was loaded with traffic jams and we took nearly 10 f***ing hours home Q___Q

Paaah~ rain... who cares! We're vikings!

We went to the autumn market at Ronneburg  again this weekend :) On Saturday it rained all day... but as the true vikings we are we went there anyways to drink warm mead with some fellow celts we met there.

Jumped around in the mud pits with some little kids... their parents were surely really really happy XD

There really weren't that much people since the it was raining really strong. We had our fun anyway and much time to talk to all our friends at the stands!

On Sunday the weather was much better. 

There were much more visitors and we had a lovely time with our friends of the guards and market stands again! Lenas drinking horn seemed to refill itself everytime it was empty ;) 

We got our names etched into our drinking horns (haha yay) and I bought a lovely amulet showing the Midgard Serpent.

Raise your horns!

Autumn has come and it's market time at Ronneburg castle again! What a lovely weather it was! Met so many people I know and also our scald Halfdan whom I haven't seen for years~ lot's of nice talks, tasty food and mead. Could have only been top'd with a camp and a nice time at the bathing house in the evening. Sadly the boys canceled their camp there, so now viking for me this weekend :/

I also didn't manage to sell my buddy... I'll try it again next week XD
 
Oh, and I made some pagan clothing for my boss! :D

I had this beautiful very dark purple linen wich just screamed to be a dress for her! Including a offwhite linen underdress (the belt and stuff on the picture is mine).