Today we explored the Rheingau, one of Germany's most famous wine areas.  There were three little towns in this region that we wanted to hit (all along the same train line, and just a stop or two away from one another), but decided to do just two of them - Assmanhausen and Oestrich-Wenkel.

Assmanhausen calls itself the capital of German red wines and was hosting the Assmanhausen in Rot ("Red") festival on the day of our visit.  It looked like a really cool event, along the Rhine river, with a band, restaurants, fireworks and several tents and tables from local wine makers.  Unfortunately, we were there at 11am and the festival started at noon.  Given the cool gray weather, we didn't think it would really get started until later in the day.  So, unfortunately, we only got to see what would later be the Assmanhausen in Rot festival.

  

Even if we didn't make it to the festival,  Assmanhausen was a picturesque town.  My husband laughed when I asked if the buildings were designed purely for tourists (I should  mention Assmanhausen is not particularly touristy).  Apparently, Germany really does look like this, and not just for movies.

We then hopped on the train (not so breezily with the "Mac Truck" sized stroller we have) and headed to Oestrich-Wenkel.  After a brief stop at a bench in front of some grape vines at which we fed the babies, we had a wine tasting at Wegeler.

Area in front of which we fed the boys.

Will's first wine tasting - he seemed very interested!

Jack was content to crawl around and stretch his legs after being cooped up in the stroller.

It was a great wine tasting and we ordered a bunch of wine.  My husband says we didn't order too much though...

Next, we went to lunch at a nearby restaurant.  We had an amazing meal.  I particularly loved the appetizer and the dessert.  Here's the restaurant we visited:

On our walk back to the train, we just had to try this sweets cafe called a "Konditerei" - it is a little cafe specializing in sweets.  (Yes, we had already had dessert at the restaurant above, but we had to have more sweets for our own cultural education.)

We then boarded the train and started the journey home.  Looking forward to the next trip when my husband's sister will be with us.