#ketterer

Siebenhundertzweiundzwanzigstes Bier:

Ketterer Bier Ur-Weisse Dunkel 5,2% vol. Hornberg, Deutschland

After more sleeping in (man, I thought I was good with this time change thing, but it’s still getting to me) I was shown around Hornberg by Philipp.

It is absolutely incredible how much history every single village here has, and you cannot turn a corner without stumbling upon some piece of it. I mean right off the bat, I woke up in a former clothing factory in a building that was constructed 50 years after the US became a country. So Philipp was there to show some of the things.

Like many towns, Hornberg was founded in a way that was easiest and made sense: It started in the center of a valley, sat on a river, and as it grew worked its way into the valleys running in every direction, clearing trees for construction. Also, towns like this had everything they needed - there ain’t no mega-corporation home delivery! So it also meant every town had their own brewery. Many still exist today! Now the US used to be similar, but conglomerates bought out the little guys long ago. And while that still happens here in Germany (no one can ignore the big machine), people are often very proud of their hometown brewery. In this case, that is Kettering. And they make pretty damn good beer. The secret? Well, as the slogan of Olympia Beer, the first brewery I ever visited at the tender age of 10, noted, “It’s the Water.” The water for this beer flows right under the city. And hot damn, it’s good. Philipp told me they bottle just the water, and fancy-ass French hotels sell it for like $10 a bottle. But here? Well, you can just grab yoself a bottle, and fill on up for free:

Just down the way was Duravit, a toilet company, and trust me when I say every single toilet in this region is a Duravit. They also boast the world’s largest toilet. Check it:

We made our way up one of the valleys, and took a short walk to a small amphitheater that has existed for centuries. 

Aside from various performances every year, there is one annual performance that stretches back longer than the rest. The story:

In 1564, the Duke of Württemberg (the region Hornberg is in) was announced as a high-ranking visit to Hornberg. The whole city of Hornberg prepared to impress the Duke, the greatest official who had ever come to visit. Beer was made and brought for the whole village, and everything was made perfect, as they prepared for the Duke’s arrival. Men readied cannons and waited in the courtyard eagerly for the signal that the tower guard was to give for the Duke’s arrival. The signal came, and the cannons fired. Only it wasn't the Duke who came, but a herd of cattle. The signal was given again shortly afterwards, and the cannons fired again, but this time for a traveling merchant. When the Duke finally actually showed up, there was no longer any powder for the cannons. Instead, the Hornbergians shouted a resounding “Piff-Paff,” to simulate the cannon fire. But the Duke didn’t see it that way, and was quite pissed off.

To celebrate this every year they preform the play telling the story. Guess I have to get better at my German to understand it.

It’s also good to keep and eye on your neighbors, so sitting at the top of of the hills/mountains is a castle (well, the remains). We went up top and I got a glorious view:

It was gorgeous. What a beautiful city.

After the view, we went down for lunch with Philip’s Oma (grandmother), who fixed us apfelkugen, which was essentially apple rings covered in pancake batter and fried, and served with a luxurious vanilla cream sauce, topped with cinnamon sugar. It was fantastic.

She was also kind enough to repair my trusty jeans, which I just so happened to buy the in The Netherlands the last time I was in Europe and the airline lost my luggage. Well, they say thick thighs save lives, and mine had apparently given my jeans a run for their money. So she said she’d sew them up good as new.

Side note: I’d also heard that news travels fast in small towns, and this one is no exception. Philipp’s entire extended family knew about every move I made, and 15 minutes after we dropped the pants to be fixed, we saw Philip’s parents, who notified me they had heard all about my jean debacle.

Next up was the Schwarzwälder Freilichtmuseum Vogtsbauernhof, known in English as the Black Forest Open Air Museum. If you are the one person who has read my past blogs, you may be familiar with the St. Fagan’s National Museum of History, which is a museum in Wales that deconstructs old and very old homes in Wales and reconstructs them in an open air museum, so you can understand how people lived in Wales in the past. There are shops, a post office, and even a reconstructed church. Very cool. Well, the same is here. 

As we approached the museum, there was a VW Beetle outside, decorated with giant red poof balls. 

I had seen red balls on the hats of women in advertisements throughout the towns (especially Gutach) in the Black Forest, and it had been explained to me that these are hat women wear during their traditional festivals. Known as a “bollenhut” (literally ‘ball hat’ - it’s great how sensible the nouns are here), this has become a symbol for the region. Read the link for more info, but you see them everywhere. But back to the museum:

The black forest and its hills and valleys lend to a very specific type of home, and while homes have changed significantly over the years, many of these black forest barn homes still remain. Different varieties have been saved and brought to the Vogtsbauernhof to be reconstructed and show people an older way of live. however, there are still many folks who live in these homes, some of which are relatively unchanged since they were built 2, 3, 4 and 500 years ago. Since many of them were built into hillsides, it was interesting to see a 3 or 4 story home on the front, only to see the 3rd story loft iead straight out to the ground on the backside of the house. The farmers were also creative with how they used items such as heat - in some of the homes, the barn animals would be below the house so that they would help keep the house a bit warmer and vice versa, and then the smoke from the fireplace on the main floor would drift upward, both eliminating foul animal odors, keeping insects out of the home, and also smoking meat. Many of these home smelled like a BBQ smoker. I was in heaven. And while there was some rock wall and thatched roofs, everything else was made of very large timber, of course being plentiful in the Black Forest.

I’m not going to lie: I was so mesmerized by this museum that I did not take any pictures. We stayed 15 minutes past closing because I was nerding the hell out.

Then it was back to the house: Philipp told me he had been dreaming of the homemade bánh mìs I had made him when he visited me in Portland. I had been able to find some pork belly that hadn’t been turned to speck, and while I struggled a bit in using a European kitchen (everything is just slightly different enough to make it feel off), we managed to pull it out for some decent food.

Spirit Lead Me (Lyrics) ~ Michael Ketterer & Influence Music

Spirit Lead Me (Lyrics) ~ Michael Ketterer & Influence Music

DOWNLOAD THE ALBUM : https://rma.lnk.to/touchingheaven

• music meets heaven • 🕇 “…apart from You I have no good thing”

follow our Spotify Playlists: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7sAn3lza8QFbMnA9uwFU0F?si=Af7hkwTMQ6GZkw03ti9eFw

Music Meets Heaven: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/8uuh7tq4j6hzvwhsiu40q7jjc?si=xwgVfsJXRv-IgScbva…

Campendonk was the son of a textile merchant, stopped his textile apprenticeship in 1905. From 1905 – 1909, he received artistic education from Johan Thorn Prikker, a very progressive school for arts and crafts at the time. He became friends with Helmuth Macke, August Macke, Wilhelm Wieger, Franz Marc and Paul Klee during this time. He was born in Krefeld. He was a member of the Der Blaue Reiter group, from 1911 to 1912. When the Nazi regime came to power in 1933, he was among the many modernists condemned as degenerate artists, and prohibited from exhibiting. He moved to the Netherlands, where he spent the rest of his life working at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, first teaching Decorative Art, printmaking and stained-glass, then as the Academy Director.He died as a naturalized Dutchman.

http://www.ftn-books.com has some nice Campendonk publications available.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Michael Ketterer Will ‘Not Perform’ at Garth Brooks’ Concert

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Michael Ketterer

Trae Patton/NBC

As for the song that Brooks wrote for Ketterer, a fan asked if the country icon would be recording it himself instead.

“The song is ‘Courage to Love’ and we were talking about this. On TV, they’re always going to edit it down because they only have so much time. So how do…