The cooking workshop was well worth the 70 EUR per person. I was very happy to hear that it would take place even though there were only 5 people instead of the required minimum of 8. The other three were reenactors in costume, which made us feel like muggles because we were dressed in normal clothes. I did bring my apron though, and it came in very handy.

We started with tea/coffee in the medieval tavern and a tasty piece of date pie. Then we had a short but very educational tour through the prehistoric part of the museum. After that we started the workshop itself by making fire with a firesteel and flint. Although I did get sparks, I did not succeed in catching them on the tinder. Alas. But others did, so in short time we had three fires going. One for tea, one for pancakes and one in the oven for bread.

We made pancakes and herbal tea for lunch, picking the herbs ourselves on the museum grounds. We heated the oven for bread and kneaded the dough. We found more herbs for the fish (delivered to us, not self caught) and enough greens for salad, soup and a grain dish.

Matthijs and I gutted and cleaned the fish (yucky work, but educational). We also tended the fires, kneaded loam to pack the fish with, cut the gathered plants and cracked nuts for the salad. During all the work we traded stories and experiences and had a leisurely time in the sun. Our instructor had participated in a two month prehistoric living experiment so she was a great source of information.

At the end of the day we were all satisfyingly full, fed some fish scraps to the museum stray cats (scrawny little things) and did the dishes. At 20:00 we started on our way back home. A day well spent.

Sunday we broke our fast with some of the bread we had made on Saturday, put green goo in my hair and then locked ourselves up in the hobby room. I worked a bit more on the animal hood that I'm making; all parts are finished now, I only have to sew up some gaps (decorative stitching) and attach two pieces to the main piece (how cryptic). Then I started on one shoe. Always try one first! The stitches are very tidy and overall it looks good, but it is very uncomfortable to wear.... mainly because of the very rigid seam that pokes into my foot. I'll take it apart and try a different kind of seam, while also fixing the fit of the heel. Matthijs will help me with that. I'm getting a bit unmotivated.

After the shoe disappointment I started on my rabbit arm warmers. Matthijs was so nice as to give me one of his rabbits, his are larger than mine and one of my skins did not fit around my arm. I put pins in them for the shape but now I have to sew it all together by hand. They will be nice and warm with the soft fur on the inside.

I helped Matthijs with his sheepskin vest on which he had been laboring (and sighing) all day. Together we turned three weird shaped sheep skins into a reasonably shaped vest. We used pins (destroyed about 15 in the process), clothes pins, paperclips, numbing fingers and finally basting thread to get it to stay into shape so Matthijs can sew everything together (by hand). My hands are completely bruised now from all the hand sewing and pin poking.

The Sunday was thus a bit less satisfying than the Saturday, but we made pancakes for dinner, watched some tv and had a relaxed evening.