Going back in time...

"Look, it's Quasimodo!!"

"Kids, don't swing that axe at each others heads!"

"Come this way to see the sword fight"

Believe it or not, these are true things that came out of my mouth on one very adventurous day in Germany. Did you know that Europe has festivals where the whole town joins in to re-create the past?!

A medieval festival in Germany was calling to us. In the famous and well preserved medieval town of Rottenburg ob der Tauber in the centre of Germany we found ourselves immersed in all things Middle Ages, it was, quite simply, awesome!!

We didn't have any medieval clothes to dress up in so we did the next best thing, lederhosen! Those lederhosen were turning out to be a very useful purchase, haha! We donned our German gear, strapped on our swords and marched into Rottenburg for our first experience of the Middle Ages.

When we first walked into town, we weren't sure where to go. Weirdly everything seemed a bit empty. We wandered aimlessly for a few minutes and passed a bakery. Here was our chance to try some delicious traditional food. After the gross experience during our Dutch adventures of trying raw herring, we were all very happy to try some delicious sugary German baked goods. Our local friends had told us to try out the 'snowballs', and we happily obliged.

Our time in Europe had taught us one important thing - if in doubt, head for the town square. So we continued our walk towards the centre, turned a corner, and lo and behold we found all of the people! They had gathered for a parade. This turned out to be rather important, as the King and his royal household were passing through town! All hail the King!

Trumpets were blaring, music was a-playin', and even the little ones were involved in the royal affair!

My very favourite was definitely Quasimodo! I was so impressed at everything, the attention to detail, the range of ages involved, the purpose of it all...which we had no idea about, haha! It was so funny to see all of this and have absolutely no idea what was going on. There was a parade, with a king, and knights, and falcons, and babies, and Quasimododo!!!...But where were they going?And why?? LOL

We continued on to the town square and here we found a hive of activity! We watched a leatherworker and a blacksmith, we had a random weird guy come up to us and try to sell us a rivet...??? We watched young ladies plaiting hair and villagers cooking, it was amazing!