Weinbergnacht

Last night in Bad Dürkheim there was an event where all the wineries from town set up booths out in the vineyards along with spotlights and lasers and people could walk through the vineyards in the evening, taste wines, and enjoy some light shows. It was a good time. We went with several of our American friends from the area. Tickets cost 15 euros each and that got you a tasting glass and 15 100ml tastes - the equivalent of two bottles of wine! Not to mention a good amount of exercise to walk around to all 24 wine booths. In the dark no less which was sometimes pretty interesting. However this was actually a brilliant way to allow people to taste some wine from every winery in town. It was really helpful to those of us who would like to get to know the wines from all the wineries but don't have time to get to a full tasting at all of them.

Here we are starting out the evening. I already had to remove my scarf as we had just walked up a little hill and I was hot. It was 60 degrees and sunny when we started out but once the sun went down it became quite cold:



Some of the views from the first booths, while it was still light out:









Our little group, at another booth down the trail a bit:



Some more booths. One of these had food. Yes, thankfully, there were food booths too! Offering the usual German fare of bratwurst, saumagen, pretzels, and crepes ... we were glad there were food booths regardless of what they were offering.



The ladies, all from NY:



Pretty sunset.



Some of the lasers and lights. It was hard to get pictures of all the lasers and spotlights with our iphones but there were laser shows taking place on the hills and in the air throughout the night. Also, all of the ruins and castles and monuments were lit up with different colors which was neat.







Having some fun with a light wall:



Things we will remember for next year: #1 bring some flashlights or headlamps and #2 get a necklace to hold our wine glasses for us - some of the locals were just walking around with their glasses hanging from a necklace sort of contraption and it seemed like a good idea as our hands got really cold carrying our glasses all night long.