One last Wine Fest

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With the last few weeks winding down I decided to stay around my home state in Germany and not leave the country until my last 2 week vacation. Even though I was staying around the state of North Rheine Westphalia didn’t mean I wasn’t going to explore new thing. My host family told me they wanted to plan a good-bye dinner with some of my friends. So one night in early June we had a fun barbeque with 4 other friends from my program. It was fun for my host family to hear about the other participant’s experiences in Germany and have the kids hear other American speak German. My friends spent the night so we could head out early for a day trip we had planned.

The next morning my friends and I planned to head to the town of Cochem for a wine festival and to explore the town. It was about a 3 hour train ride to the town but most of it was along the Rhine and then Mosel River in the heart of German wine country. We arrived at the town to find it was very small with only regional train’s leavings it station. The weather was amazing and it was really fun looking around the small town. We headed to the main square and enjoyed a very quaint and quite festival. We wandered around the old town and enjoyed the small towns narrow streets filled with very touristy shops. The town also had an amazing castle situated on a mountain overlooking the town. Sadly we did not have time to climb up the mountain to get a closer look and opted to sit by the river and enjoy the sunny day. The realization of our time in Germany coming to an end made the day a little bittersweet, but since the weather has been so grey lately it did not stop us from enjoying the town.

We headed back on the train for the trek to our respective homes. It was sad to know it was the last time I would be spending with that group of people before we had to head home to the USA.

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Photos

Wine Festival
We were the people that lived closest together and spent the most time together

Group Shot
Friends and I with weird German man in the back

Town of Cochem
A typical town in wine country on the mosel

Castle on the Mountain
This castle looked amazing with a beautiful huge painting on the outside wall

Mosel River
The Rheine and Mosel are the heart of wine country in Germany

Heading Home
One of the last long train rides in Germany with the people I spend the so much time with on trains