Medieval Festival

Apparently the largest medieval festival in all of Europe is here in Spain. It just so happens to be in honor of Miguel de Cervantes, and take place about a five minute walk from where I'm living here in Alcala de Henares. It's been so fun! There have been street markets and vendors, falconry and jousting, traditional food and artisans, camel and donkey rides, and even some period musicians

Quijote and Sancho even made an appearance!

My favorite was the jousting. We were all assigned a knight to cheer for. We were given the knight in white! It was by wherever we were sitting, and since the sun was still up when we got there, almost all of us were in that section. The poor red and blue knights had about 4 people cheering for them each. Our knight came galloping in with the white dress on his horse, his white dog with big spikes on the collar, and he was great! it took me straight back to a Knight's Tale. Our knight did great in all the events, winning one of the first three and taking second in another.

In the actual joust, he knocked his opponent (who was in first place) to the ground and we thought maybe he would take it! Unfortunately, after knocking the other guy off, they started dueling with swords. The other guy offed him despite our protests. The squires bore him off nobly, and we were left to watch in dismay as the knight who had beaten ours take first. Being at a Spanish medieval festival, what added to our disappointment in his opponent being named champion was that he was French, adding insult to injury after he beat out the other two (Spanish) knights as well.