Medieval Market

Last year I wrote about the little medieval market we visited during the 888 years celebrations of my hometown. Shortly afterwards I gave you some impressions from a much bigger renaissance fair near our place. Back then I was thinking how great it would be to dress up as well like so many other people were doing it at the big medieval market. Lets just say my wife and I were gathering some stuff since last year and put it into use last month.

mpsh12 — People are slowly arriving at the festival

Back in May just a week after we arrived from China it was time again for the renaissance fair near my hometown. The whole event was going on for three days but we chose to go only on one day (the middle day) as it is pretty tough going around with a little kid such as Nathan in addition to be rather pricey when thinking about the tickets and food there. We immediately regretted that we didn’t go during the first day because the weather changed for the worse. We had all the time sunshine till the day we wanted to go to the fair. The day started without any sunshine, instead it was all grey in grey but on the bright side it was dry. Guess I was too happy too early about having no rain as the first downpour out of many started right after we arrived at the fair.

mpsh11 — Some creatures getting shelter from the first downpour

Even though the weather wasn’t the best the festival area quickly filled up. All over the place they had tents to give shelter from the rain and huge bonfires to get some warmth in case the Met wasn’t enough. Due to the bad weather Nathan was forced to wear a jacket and thus couldn’t present his Chinese Emperor costume to the world. My wife was wearing a Chinese dress she bought in China plus all the accessories and I had created my own personalized clothing since last year. Okay I didn’t made anything myself as I bought most things and my mother actually tailored me few parts as well. I fashioned my costume, as a Lord of the Rings nerd, after the Rangers of Ithilien. Sure it is not authentic but it looks alright in my opinion. As this renaissance fair’s motto is also “Not Authentic but Phantastic” it fits just well. You could see people with real clothes from back in the day but also many Elves, Orcs, Trolls, Pirates and last but not least also a guy wearing a Unicorn dress…

mpsh7 — A little parade around the festival area

I wanted to take so many pictures there this year again of the whole area plus of ourselves but the weather wasn’t on our side. I didn’t want to damage my cameras in the rain thus I ended up with just too few pictures which I took in the rare rainless minutes. Due to the bad weather we also stayed only for a few hours. Right when we wanted to watch the Bruchenball tournament (some kind of rugby game with a 30kg heavy ball…check out this link for some pictures) I spotted huge dark clouds approaching and we hurried back to the car. Just when we arrived some real big storm started to bring hell on earth as huge hailstones threaten to destroy my car. Anyways we arrived safely back home and were happy that I spotted those clouds as it would have been no fun to be in the renaissance fair with that storm.

mpsh1 — Beginning of the Bruchenball Tournament with the last bit of sunshine for that day

For this year we have planned to go to another renaissance fair in September managed by the same organizer. That time it will be in Hamburg and we hope to go there for two days and stay overnight at my cousin’s house who lives just 5 min away by car. The organizer is doing nearly every weekend such festival in different cities all over Germany but we think that going to two of them is more than enough due to our limited free time and of course due to the high costs involved.

Nathan covering his eyes from the strange sun

No sun, I will defend my eyes with this mighty shield

The main artists announcing the beginning of the tournament

Have you dressed up for some event/ did cosplay?

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This year my hometown is celebrating its 888 year anniversary. Not bad for such a boring little town right? One might think many events are planned but sadly this is not reality due to the tight financial situation here. During the 875 anniversary the city still used up around 150.000 Euros for all kinds of things and for this year onyl about 46.000 Euros, quite a downgrade I would say. Any who they still managed to start something new and this was the Historical Market in April.

Here in Germany we have Medieval Markets in several cities. Those are some bigger events filled with all kinds of wonders. For example there is one big market in a town nearby every early summer and it does really attract a lot of people. This market is located in a park and it is full with medieval food vendors, knights, gleemen, music and and and. So I was rather sceptical when I heard they had this also planned for my hometown in the city center. To be precise it was to be held in the old market square next to the Vicelin Church from 1834. At least the location was not that bad as there are some historical buildings around but I knew it wouldn’t reach the authentic feeling as the Medieval Market in the other town in the middle of a park.

This event had a rather bad timing as the weekend it was running we had on the first day a rainstorm and on the second day very cold wind with some little rain here and there. I think you can imagine that the market was rather empty as it was really not an inviting weather to go outside your home. As my wife was down with a flu those days she stayed home and I went together with my parents, Nathan and MIL. Yes, dear Chinese mother-in-law was coming with because she really needed to get out of the apartment as in the beginning she spent most of the time indoor doing nothing but cooking, spreading her oily handprints around the apartment and playing with Nathan.

So we went out facing the cold wind and some rain in the hope to find some joy at the market. To our surprise it was not completely empty and there were few things going on such as a gleemen juggling torches, “music from the middle ages” on another stage and a lot of food and handmade products all around. Nathan surely had a lot to take in as he was facing rather dumbfounded around with his little mouth open. Though we were not really hungry we still bought some fresh bread from one of the food stalls which was still warm and it helped to fight off the cold for a while.

Even though this market was still worlds away from the ones I have been visiting during the past years in Germany it was still nice to have one here in this little town. Next month there will be once again the big Medieval market in the nearby town and I will definitely visit it with Nathan, my wife and dear mother-in-law to show them how wonderful it can be. There is just so much to discover on such a big market and lets see what kind of useless stuff I might buy for myself or for Nathan (perhaps chainmail for him?). And now many many pictures for you, I just couldn’t decide which ones to upload so I chose them all!