We spent the day in Bad Dürkheim (no, it’s not called Bad Drunk’in). This town is in a microclimate of Mediterranean warmth and weather in southwest Germany.
We heard about the salt wall, or Gradierwerk, and wanted to check it out. It’s a gigantic, 333 metre long, wall of blackthorn branches, built on a wood structure with sandstone footings holding it all up. This was the way salt was collected in early times. The salty water runs down through the branches, and by evaporation leaves the salt mineral on the them over time. Now, it’s a place to go, walk along by the wall, breathe in the salt, let it splash on your skin and feel refreshed (someone said it had medicinal benefits). We got right up in it to take a closer look. Hmmm, maybe we found a fountain of youth.
On our way to find some refreshments we came across a lovely garden of roses and ponds next to a vineyard, such a nice place for a shady stroll (it’s warm today). You can see the vineyard in the background of the pink roses. We learned that roses are planted at the end of the vine rows so monitor for disease, because roses will show problems first.
Finally, some time for refreshments, by that we mean wine. We went to the Franz Ritter Winery, which has been a family business since 1785, passing down through generations. They invited us in, showed us around their cellars (boy those barrels are big), and let us taste a few wines. What a treat!
More fun games this evening! Tonight it’s ’Majority Rules’. We have to answer questions, guessing what we think the majority will answer. This is going to be challenging!
Well Behaved Kids Travel 