Medieval Festival Part 2, Evening

 

We were greeted by the Duke without heir and his musicians

Sword fighting

These two guys really liked it

I thought the colours of this tent really cheerful

More musicians

When we walked past them again, these guys switched to some sort of  halberd or whatever the heck it's called and kept going:

A girl band:)

and a beautiful sunset

Their bread smelled so nice, I had to buy one. They baked it right there on the spot:

Tasted great, too!

In the cellars senior citizens were getting drunk tasting wine

We left around 11p.m. but the party was still going on!

It was a great weekend.

Medieval Festival, Daytime Program

 Sorry it took me so long, but I needed to sort out some things first. Here is Part 1 of the pics, because there was an evening program, too:)

It starts with the tournament:

There were going at it pretty hard, too, as one guy got knocked out of the saddle, while another took a direct hit to his shield. It's a kinda dangerous sport. 

Plus specially trained horses (stallions, btw and quite aggressive) and the equipment they need also makes it rather on the expensive side. All the guys were in their mid-forties, at least, if not older.

Some kind of weapon, I guess:)

After the tournament was over, the winners did a victory lap:)

A medieval machine gun, lol! 

The cannons came from a museum in Aachen, I heard

Folks of Limburg are good Catholics...

A view from inside

I thought it very colourful

The guy on the right looks like Gimli:)

To be continued...

Prayer Request

 My best friend has cancer. Please, pray for her! (and for me, too...)

Who Doesn't Like A Good Ghost Story?

 Especially if it's true, so here comes...

We've had a darn good vacation. Too good, in fact, as we've done all the things and visited all the places we couldn't for the last 2 years:)

I'll write more about it and post pics later this week, but now about this medieval festival. One day we went to a donkey market in a village close by and discovered that this village had a castle, and not just a castle, but one with unique architecture (only 5 in the whole Europe), a violent history and its own ghost. And a medieval festival being organised, there, too, so we right away decided to attend it, which we did. 

There was a tournament, sword fighting, music, food and all kinds of entertainment so we enjoyed ourselves very much. But we didn't meet a ghost. I guess they don't run around when it's so busy. The castle was originally the property of a warrior bishop, who was ambushed and killed by his enemies, and you can see the replica of his skull with a hole in it in the cellars. The next owner was a cousin or something, and his own son rebelled against him and put his father in prison where the said father died 6 years later.

Some further in line, there was a duke who couldn't produce a heir.  The ownership then went to the line of sheriffs and somewhere in the 14th or 15th century a sheriff died and left a widow and lots of treasure which tempted his neighbour into attacking the castle. Here the ghost story begins. It has a couple of variations so I'll try to present a compilation of them. 

The widow was a lady from an old aristocratic family mentioned in European genealogy, and she was determined to fight, but first she had to secure the treasure so she divided it into 3 parts (gold, jewels and coins) and buried it in three separate chests and also signed a treaty with the Devil presumably to secure help in her martial endeavours. 

Somewhere on the ruins of the main tower they say you can see distinctly the print of a female left hand and that of the Evil one right next to it (I won't lie I didn't find it). But, as we all know sin doesn't pay, so her soldiers who all came from a nearby village  rebelled and beheaded her. So since that time, presumably, on Wednesday and Friday eve (traditional Catholic fast days) this lady wanders around with her head in her hand, kidnaps men of that village, tears their heads off and cooks them in a witch's cauldron.

It's like 5 km away from us, lol! And her treasure has never been found...

Last Year's Conspiracy Theory

 is this year's news:)

Hungary’s far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has lashed out against the “mixing” of European and non-European races, in a speech that immediately drew outrage from opposition parties and European politicians.

“We [Hungarians] are not a mixed race … and we do not want to become a mixed race,” said Orbán on Saturday. He added that countries where European and non-Europeans mingle were “no longer nations”...

Why do the British s888libs even care, the UK isn't in EU anymore, lol:) Not everyone dreams of becoming a greater Pakistan.

Medieval Weekend

 I've been away from computer for a couple of days as we went back to the camping to celebrate a medieval weekend in a castle nearby. I'll write more later!

How To Tr8nsition A Rooster

 It can be done:)

We Survived Heat Apocalypse!

 Yeah, that's how supposedly right-wing Zero Hedge called it:) Apparently, it was 40*C somewhere in UK, the first time ever!!!

I guess, it was around 40 by Eindhoven here, too but nobody made quite so much drama about it. Where I live, according to one weather app it was close to 38, the other one said 36-37*C so I don't know whom to believe but my gut tells me to err on a cooler side.

On the other hand, it's no denying the weather patterns are getting more extreme. Is it man-made? I don't really know but considering the path the West and especially the UK is currently on, it could be very well God's way to let them (us) get a taste of the heat of Hell in order to reconsider (and I don't mean "climate sins"" whatever the heck it is).

BTW, to all the Americans in comments on the original article calling Brits wimps for complaining and telling us how hot it is in Arizona - you guys have split systems installed everywhere. I, for instance, only have a portable airco which makes a lot of noise and doesn't cool very well, and many people don't have even that.

We had 32-33*C yesterday and I didn't even put it on. I think it was +26*C in our bedroom last night. Today I only switched it on around 5.30 p.m. to cool the living area a bit to eat dinner and turned it off 2 hours later. I always get a headache and running nose from it so I hate it. The temps are back to 27 again and upstairs where I spent most of today and am sitting now it's closer to 30*C . So yes, I do sympathise with the British plight:)

Hello Fellow Menstruaters

 How are you doing? 

No, I'm not going crazy:) I actually came across this word on a health blog while researching a female-related topic. It's been quite some time since I started noticing that American health websites when dealing with topics such as pregnancy or cycles or anything female-related are purposefully avoiding to use the word woman.

 For instance, it's a "pregnant person" or "persons who menstruate" or even "persons capable of pregnancy" but menstruator just takes the cake! What does it make my husband, "a seed producer''? 

I mean WTF??? A British website which I visited next was talking about "women of child-bearing age", btw...