We partied like rock stars at the Deidesheim Wine Fest

**Note: the Deidesheimer Weinkerwe (wine festival) is continuing next weekend,  15-17 August. More information is available here.**

Some friends and I took a jaunt over to the Deidesheim wine festival. We ended up partying like rock stars, but more like if one thinks about geriatric rock stars ;) It's been a busy time for each of us and after about a glass of wine each, we were all ready for a nap! This is what happens when one gets old. However, I'm not sure if that's entirely true and we didn't have any excuse because I saw a lot of adorable elderly German couples who were partying and didn't seem sleepy.

We took a 40-minute train ride to the picturesque town that is situated on the German wine street. Once there, we disembarked the train and examined booth after booth of wine and food. I settled on drinking a Hugo, which is a mix of sparkling wine, soda water, elderberry syrup, and a mint garnish. It was fantastic! Of course, I do love elderberry syrup (which I only recently learned about, and only knew about elderberries before that because of Monty Python). My friends chose wine and we also grabbed some food.

The band that seemed to play 30 second clips.

We sat near the stage, under the trees, which was quite lovely. Eventually, the band came in, dressed in tracht (i.e. lederhosen). It was the strangest thing, though: they did a few warm-ups, then left. They came back, played about 30 seconds of a song, then left again. Then they came back and played some other songs, too, but it felt as if they didn't play the entire song. It was really strange!

In addition to listening to music clips, we also took a walk around town. Deidesheim is really quite lovely, with many Weinstuben and restaurants tucked along the streets. There is also this lovely Gasthaus zur Kanne, from the 12th century. The whole time we were walking around, I was imagining what my dad's response to this town would be. I could hear him in my head saying, "Oh! This is so gezellig!" The amusing thing about that statement is that gezellig is a Dutch word and my dad isn't remotely Dutch. However, my mom's family is and for some reason, he loves that word. It does fit the town well though: it cozy, cute, and quaint. When my family comes to visit, I have to take him to this village or a similar one.

During our wanderings, we also came across another fountain with Gernot Rumpf's sculptures. He has created other fountains and sculptures throughout the Pfalz and I love his whimsical creatures. They also have some naughty jokes within them. At this fountain, visitors can stick their heads into the statue and look like an old fashioned man and woman. However, the woman is a bit different, though I'm not going to say how. You'll just have to find out for yourself.

The fountain is filled with goats. It turns out that Deidesheim has a traditional festival near Pentecost in which a goat is auctioned off. Actually, the festival seems more invested with drinking and partying, but it's traditional, eh?

Rumpf really has quite the sense of humor. He includes goat "pellets."

Rumpf's signature mouse.