Medieval Christmas festival

Over the Thanksgiving weekend we attended a medieval Christmas festival in one of the castles we visited last fall, Lichtenburg. Christmas markets or fests are common throughout Germany and are very fun. Like all German fests there is good food and cool stuff to buy. This fest was extra fun being in a 500 year old castle and having a lot of people dress in medieval garb. it was cold that night and so we only stayed a couple of hours but were able to see all the booths and try the different foods.

That is not me with the fox sash and the kilt, that is me with a cup of kinderpunch, or kids drink. There is a lot of hot spiced German wine at these things so we get the kinder (kids) drink. it helped to keep us warm and was very good. At this same part of the fest there was a booth selling potatoes cooked with ham and onions, it was super tasty, you can see the castle tower in the back ground behind my head. If we had checked out the large tent behind the medieval guys before we ate we would have found a warm place with tables and heaters to eat.

American Military Cemetary Luxembourg

For Veterans day we went to Luxembourg to the American Military Cemetery. there are over 5000 American graves from World War II, many from the battle of the bulge. Gen George Patton is also buried there. It is a beautiful place with a somber and reflective feel.

Since it was Veterans day there was a service at 11:00 with a small squad of reinactors dressed from the time period.

Grafenstein Castle

During a cool and damp Halloween weekend we were able to get away as a family and visit another very cool castle ruin. This one is called Grafenstein and in the late summer is the center of a village fest that remembers the burning of the castle several hundred years ago. We missed the fest but had a nice visit on Saturday.

This is one of the better ruins and has a relatively easy hike up to the castle. it was somewhat like the ruins at Hardenburg, not quite as large but with some very nice arches and battlements. It was a German holiday called All Saints day so nothing was open, so there are no good meal stories to tell.