We spotted posters for a Ritterfest (Knight Festival) in Wolkersdorf this weekend, so early this morning we got up to catch the train so we could check out our first Ritterfest of the year! We love any sort of Knight or Middle Ages Festival, so we were interested to see how this one would be. Wolkersdorf is a smaller town outside of Vienna where Chris works. We have seen his warehouse and a little of downtown, but have not explored too much of the town before today.
We followed the signs from the train station and found ourselves at a pretty little castle with a pond and stone towers. We took a stroll around the pond and the surrounding area before the festival started. The kids were so excited to find these beautiful white ducks!
Elora is ever the climber, so she tried to scale the walls of the castle and declared that it would be “super easy for invaders to get in”. Chris asked how she would do if people were throwing rocks and shooting arrows at her, and she decided maybe it would not be so easy. A little castle history:
“The Wolkersdorf Castle was built in the 13th century as a fortress with 4 towers. The present castle pond is a remnant of the former moat. The former moated castle often changed hands and was in the 17th century hunting lodge of Emperor Ferdinand III. In the Napoleonic war Schloss Wolkersdorf was the headquarters of Emperor Franz I. Later Napoleon marched into the castle.”
There is also a small skate park in front of the castle which the kids thoroughly enjoyed running and climbing on. Before we even went to the festival the day was a success, with beautiful scenery, a pond, and rock climbing!
I love festival food in Austria. We had a yummy chicken and spaetzle dish that had a nice curry flavor, gröstl (meat and potato dish), sausages, rye bread, and fried spiral potatoes. YUM! It was all amazing.
I had some delicious apricot juice with mineral water, my favorite drink here in Austria.
I am pretty sure Chris wants to build this barbeque in the backyard when we get home to Utah.
Next we decided to check out the activities. There was a mouse maze that you could bet on. The girls were so happy because they got to hold the mouse. Elora bet on the maze and won. There was a cute selection of treasures in a treasure chest that the kids could choose from – marbles, sea shells, beads, and Marion’s choice – little stuffed mice.
This little girl declared the Mouse Maze her very favorite part of the festival tonight before she went to sleep.
After the mouse maze, we enjoyed some “Baked Mice”. They were fried bread with sugar and apricot jam, and a big hit with the whole family. I love that the kids really enjoy the Austrian festival food almost as much as the grown ups!
There was a booth where the kids could complete various tasks and be “knighted”. It was a little expensive (especially with four kids!), but the people who ran the booth did a great job making it fun for the kids and helping to encourage them so they could pass all the tasks. Marion loved the potato sack race! James had a hard time with it, but the nice boy who was helping run the booth patiently encouraged him the whole way.
The final activity was the joust! The kids loved riding on the horse and they all managed to get the rings on their joust so they could be knighted.
They were given medals and a certificate of knighthood after completing all the tasks.
We got the watch a magic show, juggling, and of course, the knight battle. The knights fought quite aggresively! The show was lightened up by some humerous moments and this was James’s favorite part of the day. He was so engaged the whole time. Oliver said that the magician was his favorite part of the day. We got to see him perform twice and Oliver was so amazed at his tricks!
There was a band that played medieval instruments such as bagpipes, the hurdy-gurdy, and various types of strange guitars and sitars. It was fun to see all the different instruments being played because we have seen them in the Musical Instrument museum in Vienna.
James was the only kid who would dance with me! We enjoyed walking around to all the stalls and picking out treats and/or toys to take home. The girls bought ceramic flutes that Elora has been steadily practicing ever since and even started composing some songs and figuring out how to fool her siblings into thinking there are owls in the bathroom. Oliver opted to wait until we went to the grocery store after the festival so he could get any ice cream he wanted, and James picked out a bucket of apricots at the store for his special treat.
There is a beautiful playground and park surrounding the castle that we did not take any pictures of! It was a lovely afternoon and we enjoyed walking around the grounds with all the trees, and there was of course a zip line and huge slide at the park that were enjoyed by all before heading home on the train.
