Last week, my sister was here for a few days. The plan had been that she'd bring her two youngest children, but then A, my niece, chose to stay with her eldest sister, S, for the time. S studies in a town not far away from Frankfurt, so my sister dropped off A and arrived with her son last Thursday. The plan was to go to Gießen on Saturday, fetch the two girls and go to a mediaeval festival in Lich, then return here for the night and go home on Sunday.

Fortunately, my husband remembered that the Ironman Germany would pass through Frankfurt on Sunday, which would mean she'd have to leave well before 7am on Sunday morning to get out of here, because all the roads would be closed from about 7am on for most of the day. Well, not too much of a problem, we decided that she and her children would stay at S's place and go home from there, and that my son and I would take the train home.

I understood that Lich, where the festival took place, was part of Gießen, so I looked up trains from there. I found that there were two trains going to Frankfurt each hour, so that was fine. Everything was sorted, I thought, but then my sister suggested I should wear a mediaeval dress. Now I hate fancy dress events, and if you'd invite me to a fancy dress party, I wouldn't come. I wasn't worried, though, because I don't have any clothes which look remotely mediaeval, so I thought I'd get away with it. Not so. My sister had taken a spare fancy dress of A, her youngest daughter, for me to wear. It was loose, but not too much so, so there was no excuse.

I still wasn't too certain about wearing that dress, but my sister assured me everybody else would wear some fancy dress, and I didn't want to be a spoilsport, so I put it on. We went to Gießen, fetched the girls, and went to Lich. To my surprise, this wasn't anywhere in Gießen, but a good ten miles away, in a completely different town. Thanks to the SatNav we got there without problems. The festival took place in the Schlosspark (palace grounds) of Lich, which is owned by Carl-Christian Prinz zu Solms-Lich. The festival has taken place there for the last 14 years, however, this year was the last time because the owner will no longer admit any events to take place in the Schlosspark from 2010 on. They're now searching for a suitable location for the festival in or near Frankfurt.

At €10 entrance fee this is not too cheap, although children under 16 only pay half the price. However, the organizer, Mittelalterlich Phantasie Spectaculum offers a lot of entertainment like show fights, live bands, food and drink stalls, jugglers and whatever else you'd expect to find at a mediaeval festival. The atmosphere was great, but at 30 °C it was fairly warm (not to say hot). Practically everybody was dressed in what they thought suited the occasion although the Roman Legionnaires must have used a Tardis. There were very many visitors (in addition to all the people who tended the stalls, fights etc), but there was enough space for it not to feel crowded at any time. The live bands were fantastic, we even sat in the full afternoon sun to listen and watch. At the various stalls you could buy anything you never knew existed (well, I didn't know), and you probably could haggle, but I don't know, because I wasn't tempted to buy anything. If the prices for food are anything to go by, I don't think I could have made a good bargain anyway, I've never haggled in my life. However, all the stalls were lovingly designed, even if the tea and coffee shop looked a bit out of era, but then what's a festival without a good cup of tea or coffee? The doner kebab shop called itself Fladen Laden (chapatti shop), which I thought was funny and witty.

We went to watch an axe fight, one of the various show fights that took place, and I half expected to see Malabarista, because I think she's doing those, and a juggler started juggling with burning torches to advertise her night show later. As my son and I had to catch a train to Frankfurt, and as he had spent the night before partying with my youngest son who had finished school on Friday, we didn't stay for very long and left at about 6.30pm. My sister brought us to Gießen which took us more than an hour for the ten miles (but that's for another story), and I eventually arrived at home at 10pm. It was a great day out (if a bit hot), and I might take my sons and go to a similar event one day.

I took lots of photos (well, lots by my standards), and they nearly all turned out well although I couldn't see what exactly I was capturing. You can find them in my online photo album.

Mixed Bag Archive

B'Elana

09.07.09 Front Page

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