Time for Wine ...

Once again our German neighbors have shared a bit of Germany with us, the local way. On Sunday (I know, that was 3 days ago!) they took us to the vineyards in St. Martin. It's harvesting season in the Pfalz wine region and they wanted to take us to "the most beautiful vineyards" in the area ... one more reason why we LOVE this place! After the hour-long car ride we parked in a little parking area off the side of the road and started our hike into the depths of the vineyards ... we didn't even know you were allowed to do this! This particular vineyard had the row-ends marked with the type of grape they were growing ... that way we knew what grapes we were sampling ... I mean that way we could read information about the type of grape that was growing. I never imagined there would be such a difference in the flavor of grapes ... before "getting into" wine a few years ago I knew there were red grapes and green grapes ... and ummm ... they go through a fermentation process and you get wine.

About 1 1/2 miles into the walk we stopped at a small stand and enjoyed some "new wine". While enjoying our "new wine" our neighbors brought over a piece of bread with some sort of white spread, onions and salt. Hmmm ... they told us this is a normal dish to eat with your "new wine". This yummy little slice of bread happened to be layered with pork fat, onions and salt. The layer of pork fat was about as heavy as you'd put peanut butter on a sandwhich ... and it was really good! I turned off the calorie counter in my head and just enjoyed this bit of German cuisine.

After our stop we walked back through the vineyards and into the town ... which was BEAUTIFUL! We ate a quick lunch (that's the only way we can do it with Kelty), stopped off at a winery and then headed home. It was an AWESOME AWESOME day that Al and I both wish we could have shared with friends and family.

A look across the vineyards

Ooh, grapes!

This one looks good ...

Yummy!

Al's turn ...

My turn!