We left the aire which had become packed with vans
overnight as the workers arrived and the chipping machine got going at 9am. It
was Saturday morning and the weekend beckoned along the ‘Deutsche Weinstraße’,
or wine route. Crossing the bridge in Bertha we admired cyclists doing
the same. Been there, done that!
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| Deutsche Weinstraße |
The way to the bottom of the Weinstraße was mainly farmland
and piles of harvested pumpkins, squashes, cabbages and potatoes lined the
fields.
Small villages advertised Erbst or Oktoberfests and many homes and
farms had barrows piled high with fresh vegetables for sale alongside the road.
Iron- framed archways into and out of villages wound thickly with vines, lately
picked. At the spa town of Bad Bergzabern we wound up a steep
hillside through the grounds of a klinik and into the vineyards of Weingut
Hitziger.
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| The terrific aire at Weingut Hitziger |
The campervan parking was situated at the foot of the vines and despite a moderate slope, it was tremendous. Once up on chocs and (almost)
level we admired our surroundings of 80 hectares of colourful, autumnal vines.
We were warmly greeted by its owner Nicole and arranged for an early evening
tasting, heading meantime down the steep slopes to explore the town.
Bad Bergzabern's old centre is
pretty and lined with flea markets and second-hand and vintage clothes shops,
whilst the new centre is upmarket spas and designer shops. Having collected
some food supplies we puffed back up the slopes and met Nicole for a terrific
hour of conversation and tasting of wine. We learnt a lot about the family’s
way of life at the vineyard and the different needs and complexities of the
many varietals they grow for their range of wines.
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| Enjoying a glass of wine in the vineyard |
The sun was shining hotly on the weingut’s patio and
Nicole invited us to enjoy a seat and a glass of rose amongst the vines.
After 64 days on the road, it
felt such a treat to be doing this, and at a surprising 23 degrees,
the late afternoon was so different to that of 24 hours before on the bikes.
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| A walk over the hill to Oberfhofen |
The weather cooled overnight and it was cloudy and
drizzly as we set off the next morning to walk to the weinfest in the next
village, at Nicole’s urging, to taste ‘the new wines’.
When we arrived at
bustling Oberfhofen it wasn’t even noon but trestle tables and
benches were filling up with people drinking large glasses of a cloudy
juice-like wine.
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| Landhaus Wilker with the festival oompah band |
We meandered amongst ad hoc stalls and up
and around the village for views of its setting in the hills. At a decent hour
we headed back into one of the wine-makers courtyards, the noisiest, to try the
new wine.
A brass band pumped out oompah and traditional tunes that the tables
full of eating and drinking people sang and clapped cheerily along to.
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| Our first and last ever 'new wine' |
The new wine was served in quarter and half litre glasses
and was a cloudy yellow colour, very grapey in taste and yeasty.
Simon declared
it to be fermenting in his stomach so we didn’t finish our small (!) glasses
and left as the band got particularly noisy and rosy-cheeked drinkers stood up,
swaying and embracing each other.
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| A Bertha baked apple tart |
As rain again set in for the afternoon, Simon baked an apple
tart making use of 2kgs of apples that had been travelling with us since the
Black Forest!
It felt a fitting way to end a super weekend of autumnal
festivity in another very pretty corner of Germany.
