Horb Medieval fest

The next event on the agenda was yet another race and yet more fire.  Similar to Ye Olde Hydrogene Balloone Pop, this time the knights rode with flaming spears and knocked over some poor guy holding a shield.  The shield was covered in something flammable which burst into flames on impact.

I thought this event seemed a little brutal.  It showed the brave honor of too knights as they each raced to see who could first knock down and ignite an unarmed, unmounted opponent.  Truly a test of bravery.

After this one, we finally got some actual jousting, the knights did a proper fight, riding at each other with lances, which shattered on impact in a very fun and impressive manner.  Liam liked this a lot.

After knocking one another down, the Black Knight and the White Knight continued the fight on foot.

Here is a little film of a joust.

After all these events, of course the good guys won, but there was a final attack by the baddies.  The only way to stop them was to finally use the catapult to great effect.  This was another highlight for Liam.

And that wrapped up the tournament.  It was all in all a very fun time and I think I would take Liam again if he wanted to check it out. 

More of the Medieval Festival

Now that the characters had all been introduced, there was some blah blah story that Liam was completely uninterested in.  Then, at last, the knights started smashing each other.

The First event was pretty great.  The knights each took a flaming spear, and then had to charge down a balloon filled with flammable gas.  The first one to hit his target won the round.  I really felt like I had been transported back in time to the days of latex balloons filled with hydrogen of yore.

It did look really good though.  I also made a little film so you can see the fireball.

Oh, I forgot to mention, the evil Black Knight arrived to make trouble and generally be evil.  Look at his evil….

Next up was another race-type joust, this time, the knights had to charge in with lances and hit the targets.  First one to hit it won this round.   This event was notable because the Black Knight won it by cheating.  He started before the herald blew the horn.  This was met with much booing from the crowd.

Next there was some unmounted combat. Three good guys in white against three baddies in black.  They traded wins until the goodies came through with their last man and managed to get a victory.

That will do for today, One more update of knights should wrap up the games.  Stay tuned.

Horb Medieval Games

This past weekend I took Liam over to Horb am Neckar (about 30 min away) for their annual medieval games and festival.  He has been into knights for a while now and I thought he would have a good time here.

The centerpiece of the festival is the big knights jousting show.   We had a nice spot with a good view of the action, and the show started first with a parade of the heralds carrying all the knight flags.  While this started out OK, it did take a little too long and Liam jept asking me when the knights were coming.

After this procession, some knights wheeled out a catapult.  This was parked in a corner of the area and brought a lot of questions from Liam.  When would they shoot it, who would shoot it, would hey hit bad guys with it, was it safe….  lots of speculation.

There was a whole story to go along with the show, the evil empress wants the treasure of the good knights which was the prize in the tournament blah blah blah.  Anyway, here are the baddies.

After some narrative (which Liam was not interested in,) we finally saw the entrance of the good knights.

Now Liam was finally getting excited.  These knights very much lived up to his expectations.  The white knight was of course the hero and Liam right away knew that this was a guy who was supposed to win.

More tomorrow.

Improved bike film

We went for another bike practice session and this time I brought the good camera.

Here is Liam motoring around in all his glory. I think he is getting much better with each ride, but that is the whole point isn't it.

A little film.

This one is just for The Doris.

Liam is saying what a knight would say to his squire. For some reason The Doris found this particularly funny and had Liam saying it over and over the last time she was visiting.

The Super biker

After quite a few false starts and failed outings, Liam is finally able to ride his bike.

Until now, he had only managed to do it when I was holding on to the special bar attached to the back of the bike for teaching.

Last weekend though we took him first to the park, then over to the school grounds for some practice. As long as it is wide open level ground, he is doing quite well.

I made this tremendously poor quality film of him using my phone.

enjoy.

A Visit from the Joneses

Last week Ryan and Doris stopped by for a nice visit.  Ryan was off on a week long business trip, so it was a good chance for them to stop by.   This was there first face to face meeting of Henrik the new guy.  I guess it was there first meeting at all since infant gurgling over the phone does not really count so well.

Of course, Liam had to jump in and dominate them as much as he could and he knows that a visit from uncle Ryan mainly mean another chance to improve on his wrestling skills.

  But after a vigorous wrestle fest, Ryan got to enjoy the more quite activities of juice and books.  I think that is a Petersson and Findus book there.  Always a treat to read those guys.

The Doris seemed quite impressed with the cuteness of her new nephew.  She spent a lot of time with the little man perched on her lap, shoulder, or wherever else he felt like relaxing.  Henrik still spends the bulk of his day either sleeping or eating, so here is a rare moment of him being alert and active.  He is probably just wondering why no one is feeding him.Amidst all this action, Liam of course likes to assert himself as the big brother and make sure he gets some time to hold his little brother in a nest of cushions.  Liam is very much into the big brother role and if anything we have to be extra careful that he is not giving Henrik too much affection (Liam is still more powerful than he may think.) The visit was rounded up with a BBQ with no photos followed by watching Bayern Munich lose to Inter Milan in the Champions league final.  A nice visit and we look forward to the next one