A trip to the land of stroopwafels, episode 2

Next morning Eli was hungover. Like really. I took Isolde for a long, long walk, where I found a small St James chapel. Further down the street, I found a park, where Compagnie van Cranenburgh was encamped. It's really funny; I met them already, five or six years ago, during my first reenactment events in Azincourt. And it turned out they knew about Albrechts Bössor. It's really nice to be known for the right reasons, and the guys in Compagnie van Cranenburgh held us in esteem. We chatted for a bit, before I turned back to camp. I invited them to next year's edition of the Battle of Ystad.

And by the way - in that park I actually saw - Black swans. I'm not kidding you. They were actually black. I thought the talk about black swans was only fairy tales, but now I know (if someone didn't just spray paint the poor animals...).

When me and Isolde came back to camp, Eli was still sleeping, but Isolde wanted her mother, and she was steadily growing more and more whiny - she needed a nap. But it's not easy to get a 2,5 year old kid to sleep in a camp in the middle of the day. It was time for lunch as well, so I started cooking. Eli got to hold Isolde down - it was not something any of the appreciated, but before long they both slept like logs in the tent.

In the early afternoon it was time for the dreaded parade. It was a big one this year, and we were put in the back of it. We also met Fritz, another acquaintance from Azincourt. He took a flag from us in battle, but returned it again. However, we have ever since had the opinion that it should be his. We haven't got hold of him, but as soon as we get his address, we shall post him that little flag - if we can find it.

Me and Lunda were the only ones of the Swedes partaking in the parade. It's not much to say about it, other than it was a quite long walk - all the way to the Valkhof. As we got back to camp the actual festival had begun, and the church square where we camped was filled to the brim with curious tourists checking out what we were cooking and what clothes we were wearing.

At five o'clock in the evening, it was all over. We had a last meal, and packed up camp. The organizers were nice as usual, and brought us catered food. We were finished about nine, and set out for home. We reached Sweden maybe ten hours later, and that was the end of it...

I almost forgot: Lunda got caught on Dutch television. He was inteviewed, and can be seen 4 minutes and 15 seconds in the movie clip. Enjoy!