Back to King Richard’s Faire after our little diversion to Bridgewater.

 In actuality the Faire would not have let me take a little side jaunt like that. Unlike a lot of other attractions there is no readmission. You can’t get your hand stamped, leave and come back. I suspect they do that so you can’t leave to find lunch someplace else. As many times as I have been to King Richard’s I have never found much to eat that I enjoy or that’s actually good for you. Now the fudge, fried dough and ice cream are all great but not exactly what you’d like to have for lunch. I’ve tried the “shepherds pie” and the turkey legs in years past. Neither were to my taste. The sausages on a bun aren’t my cup of tea either. I didn’t try the fish and chips but looking at other’s plates, they didn’t look too appealing. Don’t I sound awful fussy.

I finally settled on a slice of pizza and a bottle of water. It didn’t taste too bad but it was expensive. The way it works is that first you stand in line at a kiosk to buy meal tickets.

They are sold in batches of $5.00. Each ticket is worth  50 cents so you get 10 tickets for your $5.00. Then you stand in line at the food vendor’s window to order your food. I swear it’s a psychological ploy but anyway, my slice of Pizza was 14 tickets. That’s $7.00! The bottle of water was 6 tickets which is another $3.00. But since you aren’t using money it’s easy not to think about how much you’re spending. You have this pocketful of tickets and just hand them over.  That’s really my only complaint. I’d prefer to be able to leave for lunch, go someplace to eat what I want to eat and then return…or better still, let you bring in a picnic lunch. But that would be undermining the food vendors.

Next to the food vendors is an area with picnic tables surrounded by rides for the kids and a stage for entertainment. Along with the “kiddie” rides there are midway kinds of shows and games. Instead of throwing ring over a bottle you throw an ax or a knife. That sort of thing.

 There are hay bales for the kids to jump on and many roaming entertainers. Never a dull moment.

Around the lunch hour a parade comes through and winds its way around the vendors and picnic area.

King Richard and his knights are in it and the “Big Puppets” plus any Faire Visitor with a costume can join in.

Wow I didn’t realize I had rambled on so long about food! I had fully intended to get to the Jousting but here I am all out of space.

I guess it will have to wait for tomorrow when I fill you in on the Jack the Whipper too!

The Faire opens at 11:00 . I arrived just as the gates were opening. On the stage outside I saw one of the new additions…bagpipers!

 No mournful wailing for these pipers, the music was lively and the performers even more so as they jumped up and down as if to emphasis what they were playing.

I took my time wandering around outside. I spotted falconer  talking to a group of faire goers. As if on que the bird on his shoulder spread her wings.

 I gasped out “Beautiful” and his reply was “Thanks. The bird’s not bad either.”  Good comeback ! 🙂

Inside the gates it was very shady and dark.

 Just in the door was a young woman with a cage full of rats. The sign on the rats’ cage read Cirque de Sewer. The Cirque de Sewer show was at the “Mud Pit” and she was there to promote it. A lot of people we giving her a wide berth but I thought it was kind of fascinating. There was all this noise and confusion going on around her and the rats seemed to be completely un fazed. There was a little chair in the cage and one of the rats sat there quite calmly.

Only a few steps further 2 entertainers were circling in  a dueling circle.

 Before they got down to serious business they rounded up the kids in the audience to be their “seconds”.

 The costumes of the faire goers rivaled some of the actors.

This section of the grounds has a lot of shops.

 People were renting costumes and souvenir shopping as the made their way over toward the tournament field.

 The first show of the day would be at 12:00. It’s important to get to each of the shows at the tournament field as they tell a story that continues through the day. If you miss one of the shows you won’t fully understand what’s going on in the next show.

I had been stalling by the duels but they were still just warming up  their audience. I decided I’d seen enough of that and began to move on.