Wanderen ins Mittelalter (Hiking in the Middle Ages)

So I should have known that we would not just be 'going' to the Middle Ages Festival in Eggenburg. I discovered a hiking club at the UN and they said that todays agenda would be a visit to the afore mentioned 'Fest', as they say in German. I called and signed up to go! I've always wanted to go to a Middle Ages Festival--well actually that is not quite right. What I've always wished was to go to the Middle Ages, but that seems unlikely, so this kind of thing seemed the next best thing. I was up at the crack of dawn and at the train station in North Vienna by 7:00 am. I met the group which was mostly retired people and young people, but they seemed like a fun bunch. I was a little surprised when we off-loaded two train station stops before Eggenburg. Suspicious indeed, as we were a long way yet from Eggenburg. It was 8:30 and off into the country side we ventured:


We visited old churches. Think about this. This one was built built before 1100 AD:


The graveyard was filling up and they were rearranging things:


This was one of these new buildings that are going up all over Europe. Of course I'm interested in old fortresses and this one was very recent from only about 1400 AD so it's full of new-fangled architecture. 

This one was in between so around the 13th century.

After three hours of hiking visiting old churches and strange things like this statue standing in the middle of nowhere near where we paused near a pond to rest. I was afraid to ask how far it was because these were real hikers and to ask, "are we there yet?" seemed like a whimpy question--as if someone would ever wanted to 'get there' when we were hiking through such beautiful country. This was a statue to one of the thieves that hung next to Christ on the Cross: 

But after three hours we rested by a sign that said Eggenburg 2 km. Yea. I knew how far we had! Fool! Off we headed in the opposite direction. I was starting to worry a little actually. Because I remembered that our leader's email had said he had chosen this route because of the thick forests we would walk through for the majority of the trip. It dawned on me that we had not yet walked through any forest. Three hours and we had not yet started? Oh man. So he glee fully pointed and said there is the forest (again in the opposite direction as the sign to Eggenburg). I took a picture. Yes that's it in the distance. See the woods? We could start our hike at last.

The forest was nice. There was shade. At 1:00 we finally walked through this tunnel and entered Eggenburg. 

The festival was a blast. There were mock battles. These guys really put on a good show. They fought with swords, maces, staves, and these pikes. Great fun to watch.

Lot's of people dressed up in period costume.

There were bonnie lasses selling the latest in medieval head gear.

Where you could also by the latest in Medieval weaponry:


And this was very astonishing these guys were driving finishing nails (you know the ones with little tiny heads the same size as the nail) with the chisel end of a rock hammer (thin as a hatchet blade) with single blows that started a good foot and a half away. I cannot imagine how they were hitting the nails with that edge and driving them in with a single blow.

I'm not sure who invited the barbarians, but they certainly were not dressed for the weather as it was nearly 90 F out there:


Roast mutton was the order of the day. I had just finished a medieval pig stew just previous to discovering the mutton and was too full for a slice, but it did look tempting. 


This singing ensemble was absolutely wonderful. There were many singers, bands, and street musicians. I've put a sample on the end of this blog if you have the bandwidth to download video:

This was an especially cool Middle Ages festival because the town itself is surrounded by walls from the Middle ages and the town itself has many period buildings actually from the time. You can see part of the wall behind this crowd if you look carefully. That is a real castle wall built in the Medieval period to protect the city of Eggenburg. You can attend a Middle Ages festival in the U.S., but you can't attend a festival in a town that dates from the Middle Ages. That was the coolest thing of all.

But there were a lot of people:


Now I must report a rather strange thing. Russ was there dressed in full armor taking on all comers. I think he was promoting his web site Warriors with Honor. However, I'm not sure why he did not stop in Vienna to say hi, since he was in Austria and all, but here he is:

On the train back I was exhausted, but happy. It was almost as good as a real trip to the Middle Ages.
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The following is a two minute clip of a sampling of music at the festival. The first was in the authentic Middle Ages Church in Eggenburg. This group was moving from venue to venue through the streets, singing songs of various sorts. The chant heard here is Medieval church music. The second on is one of the many bands playing period pieces (although not on period instruments obviously), and the third was a group of young children playing.