Bad Dürkheim Wine Fest 2014

So, lets try this again. I wrote this WHOLE post and then, thinking it was a second draft, I deleted it. LORDY. so.. hopefully the second time is the winner!

On the 13th I went to a third wine fest in a row- Bad Dürkheim. Three other girlfriends and I went with a group from Baumholder on a bus. It was about an hour and a half ride from here, not too far. But TOTALLY worth it. Bad Dürkheim is one of the largest wine fests in Germany. Think huge American festival. Lots of booths with games, food, and alcohol. Big tents that sold wine and had rows and rows of tables to sit at. Oh, and lots of rides. They had a big ferris wheel, one like drop zone, a haunted house, and a few more. It was a great time and I DEFINITELY plan on going again next year. I know Rob will have a blast. I mean a festival with .5L glasses of wine? That's my kinda party.

Now for the pictures.

This is the first main street we walked down. Rows and rows of fun! :D

This was the HUGE ferris wheel they had. I
wanted to ride it but it was 5 euro to ride it. >no bueno<

huge may have been an understatement.

Then came the first glasses of wine! .5L of deliciousness

and i got to keep the glass :D

This was the wine list from the first tent. 

I ordered #3, mildly sweet.

Me and my first glass!

and Jenny with hers! :D

This was the view inside that first tent. So many people enjoying the day on rows and rows of benches.

This is the tent on the opposite side. 

After we got the wine we started walking around. It was time to decide on some food for lunch. We were gonna be there for about 5 hours and it was lunch time :D (I already knew potato pancakes were in my future)

This was one of the first food places we passed. No idea what was on rotisserie back
there but mannnn it looked yummy!

One of the next booths we walked past was full of dental/medical tools. Super weird for a festival booth. I needed a photo for proof. "I'll take a glass of wine, a brat, and a metal mouth mirror please".

 
Here is the drop zone looking ride. Again, sadly 5 euro. Wine or rides? Wine won.

Then, before too much wine-ing occurred, we had to take photos for proof that we were there.

Kelly, Katie, and Jenny

Kelly, Jenny, and I

Then we did our next wine stop.

There were so many rides, a lot more than I thought there would be. None of the fests from the previous two weeks were like this with so many rides. 

Katie and I

And finally we found our potato pancakes!!

Katie's was served with applesauce (yummy)

and mine was served with a garlic sauce.

Here some of us stopped for more wine. I'm pretty sure Kelly didn't know the photo was happening.

A super adorable picture of Katie and Kelly.

This picture, I swear I'm not weird taking a picture of a kid but um WHITE cotton candy?

Next, these are photos of a super odd wall in between one of the festival sides and one of the parking lots.  The wall was a type of water wall. Those dark sections of the wall were almost spongy looking and had water trickling down them. I'm not sure of the wall's exact function but it was very intriguing.

Next, another wine stop.

One thing I love about wine is that it helps to strike up intellectual conversations. One of the ones we had talked about was languages and cultures and how they differ from country to country. That then lead to sign language and how that varies from country to country. At the next booth Kelly and Jenny asked the guy working about certain signs they knew and what they meant.

not sure what was happening here but i love the picture of everyone pointing at him lol

Next up was trying to get a picture of the four of us together. Thanks to a nice stranger for the photo credit. 

A 4 person selfie? #winning.

In between the last few pictures and our dinner time. We played a balloon dart game and had some more great conversations with random people. Everyone was super nice!

Lastly, it was dinner time. I had a brat and some pommes. I do not remember where
our fake roses came from though lol.

This fry guy was at the shop where we got our brats for dinner. He
was the same as the fry guy I posted a picture of from the Cochem wine fest.

After we snagged dinner it was time to head back to the bus. Oh and take some more last minute pictures. 

Kelly and I took two of these wooden crates. They were empty crates that had
wine in em. Not sure what I'm going to do with mine yet.

We had a great time. Would have been more fun if I didn't loose my footing getting onto the bus and sprain my wrist trying to catch myself. Other than that it was fun and I know I'll be coming back! Next time I'll make sure to ride some rides! Wine fest season is definitely a favorite of mine.