Rudesheim Wine Tasting

This week we attended our first wine tasting in Rudesheim, a village that has been producting wine for some two thousand years after the Romans settled here and began growing grapes. As you enter the village, one side of the road is lined with grape fields and the other side by the Rhein river- very scenic.



If you click on the picture of this cobblestone street, you can see how many little gift shops and restaurants are packed into this small area. We didn't get a chance to go into the shops, but I'm sure we'll be back, as the Christmas markets here are supposedly a must see.



Here is a picture of us in the "cellar" (dating back to 1480) where the wine tasting took place. We tasted 5 different wines (4 white and 1 red), all produced by the Stoerzel family whose name appears in the Rudesheim archives beginning in 1647. This family owns 15 acres of vineyards and picks all of their grapes by hand, which guarantees only the best grapes are used to produce their wines.



If you look closely, you can see pretzels on the table in front of each person, which we ate before trying each new wine.



After the wine tasting, we went to dinner at a local restaurant, where our host from the wine tasting delivered all of the wine bottles that were purchased.

Here is the website for anyone who is interested in reading more about the vineyard or seeing more pictures of the region: http://www.weingut-adolf-stoerzel.de/Design/Engl_Home.htm

House Scenes

At your request, here are some more recent pictures from our house:





We haven't had a fire yet, but candles work well for the summer months!











Storage room


Bedroom




These flowers came from a flower patch down the road from our house...they give you the scissors and you cut and pay for the flowers per stem.

Mainz and Onion Festival

We visited Mainz last weekend, a two-thousand-year-old city where Gutenberg invented the printing press. Below is a 10th-century cathedral that we were able to see from the outside. This will definitely be a city we plan to visit again, as we did not get a chance to go inside the cathedral, the World Museum of Printing, or the many shops lining the streets.

Cathedral




Shops




Church front


After leaving Mainz, we went to "Zwiebelmarkt" or onion festival in Griesheim. At one time, onions were a main cash crop for this town, hence the festival of onions. As it was really crowded, we didn't say long, but we did stay long enough to try an onion waffle- yum!

Heidelberg

This weekend we took a break from unpacking and drove to Heidelberg (about 30 miles South)- by far the most beautiful city we have seen thus far! This University town is comprised of a wide river passing between two mountains, beautiful homes, bridges, and a river-side park filled with old trees.













Meet Stanley, a visitor from the Crossroads Elementary 3rd grade class. He accompanied us on our trip to Heidelberg and wants to get lots of pictures taken while in Germany!







While eating dinner, we had yet another antique gas pump sighting! An Edward Hopper print hanging overhead...

Mannheim

Just before moving into our house two weekends ago, we drove about 35 minutes SW to Mannheim. Here is a building that appeared to be a former court house converted to a coffee shop and other offices.





City Center


Park


Sculpture

Castles

A few weekends ago, we went "castle hopping" to the Burg Frankenstein (it wasn't open for touring the first time we went) and to the Schloss (Castle) Alsbach that is located about 5 miles from our house!

Burg Frankenstein











Schloss Alsbach

Town Tour

So now that we have wheels, we decided to test out the nav and drive to our future home. Our landlord happened to be at the house as we drove by, so he invited us in to see what they are working on before we move in- We will have freshly painted white walls! After our visit, we walked around town and took some pictures of the scenery...

The main street in town


Flower shop


City Hall


Cemetery


Grocery store


Home decor store


On a side street