Frauenstein to Schierstein (the long way)

The red colour means they've been pollinated and the yellow not.

Today is a Feiertag (Bank Holiday) in Germany and is ostensibly for Christi Himmelfahrt (Ascension Day).  It's also Vatertag (Father's Day).  Vatertag is definitely the more celebrated.

Here in Hessen that means getting a group of Men together and planning a day out.  Some hire horse drawn wagons, and some busk it with wheelbarrows or a soapbox car*.  The main thing is to get out in the countryside with pals and a huge amount of beer/wine/whatever and go from place to place, drinking and eating your way round.

There were lots of people doing this as we went for a little hike.  We found groups sitting in fields playing that doof-doof-doof song that they like.  We found one group who had built a barbecue on their homemade wagon and were grilling Würstchen as they weaved their way round the countryside.

After a couple of hours we ended up in Schierstein where they were having the first day of the Schiersteiner Wine Festival.  We had a glass of the local bubbles - very good, dry and might have been better a little colder.  But the place was full of groups who had drunk too much way too quickly and were being "zany" (which is a polite way of saying "not funny but with the volume turned WAY up").

Home to cats who are now out and probably heading down to the Festival for a bit of singing.

*that I, as a kid, called a Bogey - which definitely isn't something that lives in your nose).