I Went to Germany for a Year and Turned into an Ice Cube (and Not the Cool Rapping Kind): Going to the Rheingau

Yesterday I was lucky enough to go to skip my second day of German school and take a 2 hour bus ride with 70 teachers to the Rheingau. That's the part of Germany where they make the wine. It is so beautiful. When you picture old historic Germany, you're picturing the Rheingau. There's Fachwerkhaus and a castle, small little streets and bakeries galore.

I love being 18 in Germany because I'm old enough to drink, and go on vineyard tours. We went on a cave tour in town. Way back in the day (hundreds of years ago) people dug caves all over the underneath of the city. No one know what exactly they were for at the time, but they have had a bunch of different purposes since being dug. They we're used to store wine, or hid during air raids in the wars. Now they're are tours that go through them, and sometimes during the year theater performances go on in them. I was super lucky and had an English teacher (Ralf) in my group, so he translated everything for me.

After the caves we went on a two and a half hour tractor ride through the vinyards. We stopped once for sausage and bread, and then again to try red wine. The wine was all really good, even the red. I think I'm starting to be less judgmental of foods and drinks since being here. The tractors were really cool with a long table in them with spots to hold your wine glass and bottle. There were really nice people in our tractor. Some really nice old men who did their best to get me drunk.

Then the tractors took us to a restaurant where we had dinner. I talked more about US politics during dinner yesterday than I have in a year. Dinner was good. I had a brick of 'sheep cheese', it seems that all I get when we go anywhere. Though I stole Babs salad, which was good. It's funny how when ever it rains, no matter how hard the Germans always say it's raining cats and dogs.