Heiligerlee - part 3

All the troops were gathering.


And the battle began.
The Dutch even had horses!


The Dutch advance.
There were cannons and muskets. The smoke of those obscured the battlefield.


The Spaniards were returning fire.


As the fighting continued this woman ran past. I think she was a battle nurse.


It was a really cool battle with lots of skirmishes.


The horses were very brave. They didn't seem to mind all the smoke and fighting.


The Spaniards kept on firing cannons.


But the Dutch won ground and after a tense battle they defeated the Spaniards! The roasted pig had been avenged!


After the battle the troops walked through the encampment and we took some more pictures.








We made a final round of the market and talked with this woman who could make book covers out of fish-skin. Very cool!




She had a comfy bed in her tent. I wouldn't mind camping with a bed like that.


Then it was time for something to eat!



French fries. Yum!


What an awesome day.

Heiligerlee - part 2

Next we saw the encampment of the Spaniards.
They were roasting a pig!!!!
I hope the Dutch will win the fight!


There were lots of cannons.


It was fun seeing all the people in costume and all the tents and stuff.


This guy showed us how his gun had to be loaded.


They were testing the guns so they would know if the guns could be used in the fight. They used only powder, no bullets of course.


There were lots of different costumes.


And a lot of Spaniards...
I wondered if the Dutch could beat them and punish them for eating roasted pig.






Yeah, I got my eye on you too, pig eater!


It was very hot.
Luckily there was water to cool down when needed.


There were lots of soldiers with long pikes. I hoped those were not for more pig roasting.






Slowly people were getting ready for the battle.


There were even mounted soldiers.


We found a spot close to the battlefield.
These two Spaniards seemed to want to relax and just watch the battle as well. I don't think their officers would like that though.


Next: The battle!

Heiligerlee

I've been lazy about blogging and am behind in showing you what I've been up to.

In May we've been to an re-enactment of the battle at Heiligerlee. Where the Dutch and the Spanish fought each other.

Before the battle started we had a look around on the market and the encampment.


There was a leather worker.


I was tempted by these cool bags.


There were birds at the market as well, like this owl.
The owls were not staying for the battle though, they thought it would get too noisy.



This lady was cooking some kind of vegetable soup.


A smith!


This man was a money changer.
I changed some Euro coins into a really cool replica of a Thaler, which is an old German coin.


There was a magician as well.
He made nothing disappear. Very impressive.


Where shall we go next?


This man sharpened knives.


Hmmm... Tea!


It was a warm and sunny day.
There wasn't much shade, but I saw this man making use of the little bit of shade of a cannon stand.




Someone left his armor just lying around unsupervised. I was tempted, but it was too big for me.


Another smith.


And I made a friend!


What a cool day this was.
I'll show more pictures soon.