In my last post I discussed a team building hike that we did back in 2022 in Germany with our fellow expats before some of us left Europe to return home.
At the end of the hike we stopped for lunch in a pub in a small town. We had some beers there and some food.
I ate a traditional meal that I have no idea the name or what was in it. It looked odd but it tasted good. Anyone know what this is?
The restaurant sold these fancy growlers and I was given one by our host when the day ended.
I still have it at home today but have yet to actually use it. It holds 2 liters of beer. One of these days when I have guests over I'll go to a Brewery and have it filled I think.
After lunch our host had a surprise in store for us, which was a horse drawn carriage that we could continue to drink in on our way back to oir hotel.
We had three large growlers of beer for the group.
It was a fun way to travel and we took a lot of group photos along the way.
The table had these holes in it to fit glasses and keep them from toppling over on the ride.
I don't think they were meant for mugs with handles, like the ones that we had, but they did the trick none the less.
At one point we stopped and got another case of beer for the group, a brand called Veltins Pilsner. I recall it being quite good at the time and very fresh tasting.
One issue with this method of travel was that there were no washrooms though, so we actually had to stop in town and the girls used a random residents house 😂. Talk about friendly people!
Our host informed us that on this day a local tradition was taking place called Schützenfest, or Marksmans Fest in English. (The pronunciation sounds a lot like "Shooting Fest" so that's what I'm going to call it in this post).
My understanding of the event as described by our host is that its a tradition in many small towns in certain parts of Germany. Residents take turns shooting at a wooden target in the shape of a bird and whoever makes the bird fall from its perch becomes the "King" or king marksman for the year. Our host explained that being king can get very expensive though, so he actually tried to avoid being the winner when he took part one year.
Firstly the King has to buy the wooden target for the following year which can cost several thousands of dollars (as high as $5000 apparently). The King is also expected to buy at least one round of beers for the pub everytime they go and possibly individuals who call them out for a round. Our host said that it typically costs the King around 10 thousand dollars over the year, give or take. I can understand why he tried not to win.
Something we learned while watching the shooters is that the target doesn't automatically fall when it's hit by a bullet. It chips away and breaks apart slowly until a very specific piece inside it that connects it to the backboard finally gets hit, at which point the target falls to the ground.
We watched the contestants shoot the target for about an hour until it eventually fell.
There is a lot of drinking taking place at the event also and apparently local breweries often fight to become the sole sponsor of the events. Our host mentioned that the Brewery who sponsors the event often also becomes the sole beer provider for the town so it can mean quite a bit of money for them over the year. This year's event was sponsored by that Veltins Pilser company.
Heavy drinking and people firing guns at a target probably sounds a bit dangerous right? Well they actually had a lot of safety measures in place, the main one being that the gun is placed in a device that locks it in and greatly limits it's range to only point upward toward the target.
So anyway that about all I know about Shooting fest but it was a very neat little bonus event that we got to see and be a part of, and ultimately a pretty cool memory from the weekend. What do you think of the event? Ever heard of it or been apart of it?
