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| Lichtenberg |
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| Leather mask, handmade, hand painted |
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| Entry to the castle |
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| "Spinning wheels got to go 'round..." |
I know the question that’s burning in your soul. You there. Yeah, you, the one waving your hand like a battle flag. What does medieval mean???
Medieval is usually spoken of (in polite society, e.g. those that don’t still eat with their hands and throw bones at the yapping dogs) as the time between antiquity and the Renaissance. So put the years between the fall of Rome and when the lights came back on, from about 476 A.D and the fall of Constantinople in 1453. There was no light switch. More like a lingering sunrise that took a couple of hundred years.
But, we usually don’t think of the Middle Ages that way. We picture knights, fair ladies, jousting, feasts, colorful tents. We overlook lords and serfs, a complete lack of physical hygiene, rotting teeth, women’s bodies worn out from having a score of babies, and death by the age of 45. Hollywood does wonderful things to reality.
Camelot! Hey, that’s the ticket. Utopia, mostly, except for evil knights, etc. Ok, let’s go with Utopia, the quest for the Holy Grail and stuff like that. We’re talking gooooood times.
I went to a place like that on Saturday at the 6thannual Medieval Market at the Lichtenberg Market near Kusel. (Burgstraße 12, 66871 Thallichtenberg). Lots of lords, ladies, colorful tents, great food and a host of ancient handicrafts. Friendly crowds. In short, the Middle Ages, as they should have been. Jugglers. Sword fighting. Blacksmithing. Leather crafts. Shoes with turned up toes. Damsels in long dresses, with pretty smiles and braided hair.
This market is gone until next year, but look around and ask at any tourist office and you’ll be steered to another Camelot. Well worth the drive, for the pageantry, a view from a castle, seeing friendly force of arms, and best of all a belly full of handmade sausages and old-fashioned mugs of ale.
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| Pizza - a medieval favorite... |
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| Farewell to the Fair |
