Attendants of the queen come in all sizes! IMG_3356 Attendants of the knights come in fewer sizes IMG_3363 Knights on their horses awaiting battle IMG_3369 Here a ring is snatched from the assistant's hands - frightening! IMG_3372 IMG_3386 Eventually we get to the JOUST! IMG_3396 Here, Sir Sting...er some knight...gets really angry and challenges the other knight to a duel to the death...which you'll have to come back later in the afternoon to see. I decided since the knights were already using bags of red dye/ketchup or some such I didn't want to support the spilling of any more fake blood. IMG_3401 Court life is so much more fun - here the guy on the left is playing with a mini-catapult and mini-marshmallows IMG_3408 Daniel and I were just in time for the fashion show at the court IMG_3416 It was actually a very informative talk on the structure and terminology of fashion of the period and we learned that there was more than one queen in this court (or maybe he just likes wearing pink and talking about fashion...) IMG_3419 The real queen stopped by later in the talk and modeled her elegant gown (weighing 40 pounds I believe) IMG_3425 Our fashion guide was very excited the queen had stopped by IMG_3426 IMG_3433 There was also a fantasy theme including green mini-dragon puppets, but again I was rather lost IMG_3436 A vendor working on a piece of glass IMG_3442 Good thing 1574 had at least one working ATM or else those vendors might be upset! Of course nobody's bank existed ages ago so EVERYONE gets charged fees - and considering the time value of money I'm sure it wasn't a small fee! IMG_3446 Late in the afternoon the rush had passed the ticket window IMG_3448 Eventually everybody had to go home - amazing how well those Renaissance people got used to our motor carriages IMG_3450 Of course the field parking lots made the cars look much more like horses IMG_3451 With a few exceptions that didn't even look like cars IMG_3453 Return to Features