Mixed Bag at the Mittle-Mosel Wine Festival

We went on another European adventure! This time, we took all the pressure off ourselves and let the travel agency on Schinnen whisk us away!

Wine festivals abound over here, whether you're in France, Italy, or even Germany. We took a day-trip to the Mittle-Mosel Wine Festival in Germany along the Mosel River in the towns of Bernkastel and Kues. The luxury motorcoach was supposed to pick us up at Schinnen, take us to our destination, let us play around, and return us back to Schinnen at the end of the day. You could say that all happened, but definitely not how we had expected.

The pick up at Schinnen was just about right. we hung around about 10 minutes extra waiting for a couple that never showed up. Ah, well, their loss. The only kids on the bus were ours, and we got some dirty looks (and muttered words) from some of the passengers. Hey! We were told it would be a family friendly event, so we took our family! And they were great!

We found our way to Bernkastel. It's beautiful... aaaaaand, we drove right on by it. What? This is where the headaches began. Apparently, the people organizing the tour didn't actually ask about bus parking. They assumed it was the same as last year. Wrong! Where they parked last year had a carnival in it this year! Now what are we supposed to do? We crossed the river to Kues to see if there was any parking there. NO! We're all getting kind of nervous now. It's already 2pm. The bus must be parked for a full nine hours before it can move again and take us home (we're not sure if this is part of the Belgian labor laws or what). We're already looking at leaving after 11:30pm, and then still driving another hour and a half back to Schinnen. Late night! Finally, the bus driver just pulls into a parking lot and drops us off so we can enjoy our time. We do not have the liberty of leaving things on the bus to be gotten throughout the day. It's either on the bus for good, or packed with us right now. That includes sweatshirts and blankets for the fireworks show later tonight that have to be lugged around the whole day long. Oy! Anyways, we're dropped off. The driver actually has to drive to the next town to park the bus, all the while taking more time before actually stopping it to start the 9 hours.

Anyways, we made it. And it's warm! The weather is just perfect for a festival! We get some refreshments and figure out what we're going to do next. Since it's hot, we decide to take a boat ride along the river. Less walking and exercising while seeing the beautiful, beautiful, valley.

The valley walls are lined with vineyards. All over. Many of the vineyards have huge signs saying who owns the vines and makes the wine. It's a big deal, with lots of prestige involved. Oh, I love it!

The boat ride ended and we got off. Now what? We're on the Kues side of the river, so we check out what they have to offer first. There's a big brass band playing, food and wine and all sorts of other booths all over. It's a great party! Little shops selling all sorts of stuff are open, welcoming the tourists and wine lovers. We roam around the streets, enjoying the breeze when it comes. Since we're at a 'wine' festival, Adam sees what one of the wine vendors have to offer. He orders a taste of wine (I'm actually going to avoid alcohol today; I'm just here for the party =). It comes in a glass that he pays a 'deposit' on. We just figured they wanted their glass back, and that's kind of the point, but not completely. We didn't understand it at the time, but we could have kept that glass and taken it to all of the vendors to fill with their own brews throughout the day. We returned the glass to the same vendor. Other people actually had little leather and wood necklaces around their necks to hold these glasses. They were kinda cool. Other people had necklaces that held a small shot glass for the same purpose. Whatever the case, we weren't going to drink a whole lot of wine anyways. We just wanted to enjoy the festivities (and the fireworks!) and the carnival.

Some of the vineyards. Taken as we were roaming the Kues streets.

They're just so neat!

It's still pretty hot outside, so we decide to take it easy and just lay around by the river. We cross the bridge to the Bernkastle side and go down to the water. There's grass and trees. We find a little spot. It was wonderful. The river is beautiful. Watching the tour boats and shipping barges move through the water is just so calming and captivating! The kids, tired from sitting on the bus, and the boat, and Zach tired of hanging out on Adam's back, have a great time running around in the shade, just being kids. There's a group of teenagers in front of us at the water's edge, playing in the water, jumping and diving in. They're funny to watch. They're even funnier when they get dressed in their weirdo teenage duds. One guy has his hat on funny. He's got his skinny jeans pulled too low to show off his boxers. He puts on his high tops and wraps the laces around behind his ankle before tying them. This guy has a girlfriend with him that he's trying to show off for. I got a kick outta him =)

Anyways, after lazing around a while, letting the heat pass us by, we decided to get up and see what Bernkastle had to offer for the festival. What fun! We walked along the river. There were about a hundred booths with food and wine and candy and hand-crafted goods and stuff to buy. A guy was carving wood with a chainsaw. There was a great park for the kids to play in. We had such a good time enjoying this part of the festival!

Eventually we walked to the end of the booths.... and into the carnival!! Of course they had fair food and rides and lights and all of that good stuff. It was great. Rachael got to ride a couple of the kiddie rides. She had a blast. All  four of us rode the Ferris wheel. The views of the vineyards and the river from up high were spectacular! Amazing!

The castle

Such a cute little village!

The carnival! (See the spinning ride on the lower right? That's the one that goes almost vertical!)

I gotta tell you, though, Adam and I had a few chuckles at this carnival. Now, keep in mind, the house we have has some issues you wouldn't find in America. A kid could fit through the railings along our stairs. The doors don't meet American fire code as we actually need a key to unlock them before we can go out. There are so many things like this in Belgium and other parts of Europe that just make Americans go 'Hmmm.' The carnival was no exception!! Rachael's kiddie rides just go around in circles, but there are no fences around them! Any kid could walk up to the ride, while it's going, and get hit with one of the animals or cars if no one was watching out for him. The bumper cars were the same way! There was a lip to keep the cars in the rink, but nothing to keep people on the outside from getting into it! Another one had folks standing in a big circle that spun around. The centrifugal force was supposed to keep them in. Ok, we have a ride like that. But their ride took the circle almost vertical! Freaky Deaky!!!!

One ride really cracked me up. Imagine a huge bowl with a bench alon the edge for about 30 people to sit on. Behind their heads are bars for the people to hang onto. There are no belts or anything to hold the people down but their own arms. Now, imagine the bowl starts spinning. Ok; that's fun. No big deal. Now, imagine that bowl starts lifting up and down, at an angle, up and down, bouncing people around, people who are getting all jostled around with only their arms to hang on to the rails above them. I saw one guy lose his grip and fall into the center of the bowl. He was tossed into the air a few times before he was able to get back on the bench. That would NEVER happen on an American carnival ride! Maybe the Europeans just have more fun than we do =)

Our European carnival experience was definitely memorable. After enjoying that for a while, we decided to meander back to the festival area with all of the booths. We were getting hungry. Rachael and Zach played in the cool little park. Adam and I took turns going to get food. I ate my very first (of very very many more to come!) Nutella and Banana crepe. Heavenly!! We stake out a spot in the grass to view the upcoming fireworks. They're supposed to come from the water and be really cool. We figure that since we're at a wine festival, we should at least bring back home a bottle of wine. I set out searching for the perfect one while Adam holds our spot and keeps the kids entertained. I find a vendor with people around it. The man is pouring out samples to all sorts of people. Several women keep asking him for his sweetest wine. Hey, that sounds just like what I'm looking for. He gives them samples. I get one, just a swig (because we returned our glass already, I just get a free shot =). Oh, it's SOOO good! And, it's the most expensive wine he has. Oh, my! Get this, I paid 6Euro, Six Euro, for a bottle of the sweetest, most delicious wine I've ever had. It is the 2007 Bernkastel-Kueser Kardinalsberg Riesling - Auslese by Peter Kropf. I pay my mere 6Euro and bring back my treasure to Adam (and my new shot glass, tee hee =).

We wait a bit longer for the fireworks to start. The lawn is filling up with people. It's a good thing we staked out our spot when we did! Eventually, the sun sets and the sky is dark enough for the show to begin. I honestly cannot describe to you how absolutely amazing and freakishly awesome this fireworks show is! Our 4th of July celebrations have nothing on this show. We're in the town of Bernkastel, right? So, there's a castle ruin on the side of the valley opposite us. A boat in the water throws a volley of 'shots' at the castle. Beautiful! I've never seen some of these fireworks! Some of them look like Saturn with a ball of lights and a ring. There were many 'smiley faces' shot up into the sky. My favorite firework was one with about 10-15 sparks that made thick zig-zags through the sky. Then, the castle 'shoots' back with groups of more awesome fireworks. Some of them are so loud, especially when they reverberate through the valley. The ones set off by the ship are louder than the ones set off by the castle because the ship is so low in the valley. These two go at each other, back and forth, several times, for about 40 minutes of the most awesome fireworks I have ever seen. (Do you get it? The fireworks are awesome!) The finale? One of the two 'fighting' sides must die. The boat sets of so so so so so many fireworks, all at once. Adam and I are just blown away. How much money did they blow doing this?! It was so awesome. Both the ship and the castle are just lighting it up. Then, finally, the castle loses. They light up the remains with a red glow. The castle has lost; it's been destroyed. And the red lighting effect is just eerie and creepy and totally appropriate and... awesome!

After the fireworks. Zach's crashed out in the sling on Adam's back. =)

The tour boats lit up at night.

Everyone is wowed and thoroughly entertained by the lavish fireworks show. The whole crowd is exclaiming about it as they get up to go their separate ways. Families with kids pack up and call it a night. After about a half hour, the majority of people left at the festival are partying adults. It's almost 10:30pm. We still have an hour and a half to kill before our bus will be back in the parking lot to pick us up. Rachael's getting tired, so we leave the park and the grass and cross the bridge back to the other side. We find a place to set our stuff down and just wait out our time. Zach gets to run around a little. Rachael, the silly little girl, imagines that the pay phone is her new kitchen and feeds us all sorts of stuff from it. We're getting tired and cranky. I lay down by our stuff while Adam sits on a bench. Some guy tries to take a water bottle from me to turn it in for money. I only know he's there after Adam yells at him! Weird. Finally, finally, the bus shows up and we head home.

The bus ride back to Schinnen is pretty awful for me and Rachael. We've all had colds for a while. She's trying to sleep but keeps coughing. She eventually coughs so much that she throws up. I have to clean her up and her clothes. Her blanket is nasty so I gave her my coat to keep warm (which keeps me kinda cold now). Whatever. We're on our way home. The bus makes it to Schinnen. We hop in our car, drive home, and finally crawl into bed just before 4 am. Oy! There's no way we'll be up and ready for church in 5 hours. Oh, well!

So, like I said, it was a mixed bag at the Mittle-Mosel Wine Festival. The actual festival was just fantastic with all of the booths, food, wine, carnival, fireworks, everything! We would love to go back next year! Next time, though, we'll take our own car and set our own schedule. Until then, Ta ta!