Kaltenberg Jester's Night Provides Many Magical Moments

The Kaltenberg Jester's Night takes place only once a year, there's no knight's tournament held on this day.

Since we had been to the tournament before, this year we opted to see the Kaltenberg Jester's Night.

The Kaltenberg grounds are open to the public from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. Because we went in a group of six, we opted to go by car (in two cars actually) and arrive at the site just in time for the big parade with all participants of the spectacle walking a tour around the area at eight. At least we thought so...

Big mistake!

It seemed like all of Munich wanted to see the Kaltenberg Jester's Night: shortly after leaving the Autobahn, we got stuck in a traffic jam for the next hour and arrived at the big parking lot around 9 p.m.

The organization though to point all of the thousands of cars to a empty slot was perfect and we were lucky enough to find a parking space right in front of the entrance. In contrast our friends, who had arrived a few minutes earlier were winked off to the farthest end and had to walk more than 10 minutes to reach the entrance.

We wandered through Market Street, where traders and handymen are offering products that are as original as possible to the Middle Ages.

Some showcase their almost forgotten handicrafts like making wooden barrels, steins and braided baskets.

And off course, you can buy the necessary weapons, swords, suits of armor, dresses and jewelry to look like a real Knight or Damsel of the Castle. In fact, you'll see many visitors dressed up in medieval clothes.

As we had missed the parade, we headed right for the next food stall :-)

I don't know about you, but for us, eating is very important. You definitely want to try the truly excellent food. My personal favorites are Schupfnudeln (thick noodles made of potatoes, flour and eggs, fried in the pan) or Kässpätzle (traditional swabian egg pasta with cheese and onions, fried in the pan).

Accompany it with a mass of Prinz Luitpold beer or try the famous mead (wine made out of honey). Just be careful, the mead is much stronger than it tastes!

At least eight stages are scattered throughout the area, where you can watch a non-stop program with different artists showing their tricks.

The best comedians, musicians, music bands, fire eaters, story narrators, barbarians, fighting knights, jesters, dancers, contortionists, trapeze artists, rope dancers, acrobats and many more come here to present their art. So I'm sure you'll find enough entertainment to your liking.

One of the highlights of the Kaltenberg Jester's Night is the election of the King or Queen of Jesters. The candidates present themselves with a short version of their artistic program and you can vote for your favorite.

I personally was most impressed by Acrobat Casulino (picture above) and contortionist Witch Rohana (picture to the right), whereas my male friends opted for scarcely dressed Fire Dancer Lydia :-) (picture below).

At the end of her performance, Rohana covers her eyes with her feet while lying on her stomach. Try to do this and I'm sure you will end in a knot or worse...!

Don't miss the show in the arena. The narration of the story is only in German, but even if you don't understand German, you'll still enjoy the artistic performance.

If you come to Munich in July, don't miss the Kaltenberg Knights Tournament and Jester's Night.

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