As Spring brings odd but good weather, and the plants bloom furiously making everyone in the house sneeze a lot, there was a middle ages themed festival at the bergruine Nanstein in Landstuhl.

Craig is philosophically against the idea of castles, so he stayed home while Jessica and I took the train over to check out the festivities.

The walk across the town and hike up to the castle was picturesque. The weather app having lied about the rain again, the sun shone through the forest lighting our way diffusely and even. It was strange but very cool.

We got to the entrance of the fest marked with a large wooden sword and paid our entry fees. The vendors were all correctly themed and we fairly swiftly found the tavern and got some weinschorle (wine with carbonated water in it). A magician did some cute magic for the kids and we clapped for him, as his illusions were good.

There were live demonstrations of life, including swordplay, folks lounging at tables in medieval costume, birds of prey, weapons to take photos with…

After our first round of schorle we got a second, and made our way to the top of the castle for the best vantage point. We listened to various music wafting up and watched as people flowed through the event.

After buying local mead, honey beer, and some beeswax candles, we made our way back to the train and home. Later in the afternoon the weather app took its revenge on our doubtingness and there was a random, strong thunderstorm that rolled through. We were happy we went earlier when the weather was nice!