Its like the RAGBRAI of Germany just broke out in front of our house, sorta.

 

By no planning of our own we came to live on the Deutsch Weinstraße (German Wine Route). We didn't even know there was a Deutsch Weinstraße when we found this house, but it turns out this Weinstraße thing is a pretty big deal.  The Weinstraße runs north and south through Germany and is dotted by small and medium sized cities and hamlets alike that are a big tourist attraction for all of the scenery, castles, restraunts, and of course wineries.

When I say  "we live on the Weinstraße", I don't mean it in the sense that we live in a town that the Weinstraße runs through (although we do, the name of our town is Neusadt an der Weinstraße, and that by itself is a privilege). What I mean specifically is that street outside our door is the actual Weinstraße. Our street address is Weinstraße 35, our neighbors are a wineries....We live on the Weinstraße.   Most days out of the year it seems like the Weinstraße is just like any other street, cars, bikes, walkers, etc.  But what we're learning is that the Weinstraße and the towns along it frequently host festivals & events centered around the wine culture. 

I learned about one just last week was visiting our neighbors (Hans and Eva Nickel, Weingut Kaiserstuhl).   They were mentioning all of the parties and festivals throughout the year, especially one coming up the next week.  I was having a hard time keeping up with the conversation in German but I caught one part that stood out. "Did you say kein auto? No cars allowed on the street?".  Yup, 85km of the street closed all day for Erlebnistag Deutsche Weinstraße.  No exit, no entry, except by foot or bike.  Its like a mini RAGBRAI except they have wine and cheese instead of Bud Light and hotdogs.

[caption id="attachment_132" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Weinstraßse at noon today"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_131" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="On an average day. "][/caption]

The picture on the left is our street, I took for our movers last week. This is our street on a "normal" day. The  picture on the right is our street this afternoon. What you can't see in the picture is the live music, smell of flammkuchen and wurst and associated jubilee.