Road Trip!

The first time we talked about this trip was sometime in early November when we were first settling into life in Germany.  The Herth family, originally from "the south" or what is really western central Germany, wanted us to show us a different side of Germany.  Since they were already going down for a family confirmation towards the end of the Easter break, they decided to drive down early, bring us along, and introduce us to some of the most beautiful parts of the country.  Later, a contemporary christian music/gospel music choir workshop at a monastery was added to the beginning of the trip.  It was going to be a very interesting break indeed. Somehow the months passed and classes wrapped up for our long spring break -- a whole nineteen days!

Mike and I had to pack two weeks worth of clothes -- one week for visiting the Rhine Valley and one week for the Waldorf International Teachers Seminar in Kassel.  Somehow we managed to do it in a giant suitcase and two backpacks.

That Friday morning Annette picked us up at 8 am sharp, so there was no sleeping in on the first day of break.  None of the kids were too happy about that one, but it did mean that we'd eventually stop at a McDonald's for some breakfast -- "happy, happy, joy, joy" for them. 

During the five hour drive from Wolfsburg to Biebelsheim (the village where Annette grew up, very close to Bingen) we saw a few different things we weren't used to when we drive in our own cars in the states.  For example, because Jo works for Volkswagon he can get some pretty nice things for his car, and so this particular vehicle has a very fancy GPS system.

What surprised us was that it shows you the speed limit on the right-hand side!  We learned later that some of these GPS systems also will show you when you're coming up to a traffic camera that tickets speeders -- a feature that is legal in only some countries. 

Apparently, Germany is also adopting a sense of humor for the traffic and congestion on the Autobahn.  They've recently introduced a new series of signs for long stretches of construction...  Sadly, I missed the first two in the set, a red one followed by a pink one.  I'll leave it to your imagination as to what the faces look like. 

Hrmmm... not so pleased.

The corners are just barely up.

What a pleasant color to put on a construction sign!

Lookin' good!

Home free!

Anyway, the plan for day one of vacation was to drop off the kids at various relatives' homes, unwind and have some lunch at the river crossing in Bingen - where Annette went to school, and then make our way up to the Jakobsberg monastery for the first evening of our choir workshop.

Bingen is the southern end of the Rhine Gorge, or the Upper Middle Rhine Valley, in Germany.  This area between the towns Bingen and Koblenz is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its geology, history, culture, and industry.  In Bingen, the Nahe River meets the Rhine River, creating a beautiful natural intersection.

The Nahe is the left side of the picture and empties into the Rhine on the right.  If you look closely, you can see two castles in the picture.

Here's a slightly closer view of the castle on the left side.

And the one on the right...

Some Rhine Valley geese enjoying the beautiful spring day.

We also enjoyed the sunshine.

This area of Germany is wine country.  Everyone and their neighbor (literally, Annette's family and everyone around them) has a small winery in their backyard.  All along the hills you see the harvests.  This particular picture is of the village across the Rhine from Bingen, Rüdesheim.  The statue at the top of the valley is the Niederwalddenkmal, a statue of Germania that was built to commemorate victory in the Franco-Prussian War at the end of the 1800's that unified Germany.

With this beautiful scenery around us, Annette, Mike and I walked along the shore until we found a little café for some lunch and coffee.  No good German can not sit outside for coffee on a nice day, so we had our season opener out in the fresh air.   Although it was bright and warm, the day was also a bit breezy.  One of the menus from a neighboring table blew away and down by the water.  To many diners' amusement, Mike hopped the fence to to retrieve it.

Eventually we made our way up some of the valleys to the Jakobsberg Monastery (or the Jakobsberg Priory) where our workshop was to be held. 

High atop the valley, the view from the monastery was beautiful.

While it still functions as a monastery, the grounds has also been converted into a conference center with hotel rooms and a small youth hostel.  We stayed in the building to the right in the middle floor where the building juts out.

The monastery also had its own vineyard and winery.  Their wine isn't half bad.  Mike and Annette posed in their grape display, which has examples of a huge variety of grapes from all over the world.

Annette is a regular attendee of their winter workshop and she was super excited to have Mike and me along for the spring session.  The workshop was lead by Thomas Gabriel, a known pianist, composer, and arranger of spiritual music in Germany.  The days were split up up with a few rehearsals in the morning (with lots of coffee breaks in between, of course), lunch, and more rehearsals in the evening.  Meals were actually pretty decent, and every evening people would gather in the basement for food, wine, and having a good time.

We sang a number of different things over the weekend.  Many were more typical four-part contemporary Christian worship pieces.  One of the most memorable songs was this arrangement of a popular pop song by German rock band Silbermond.  Kreiger des Lichts means "warrior of light".  The translation of the text is here. 

During one of our breaks from rehearsals, Mike and I walked down the valley towards the village of Ockenheim below.  Vineyards were everywhere.

It was a very peaceful place.

Along the way, we saw this house with its creative paint job.

The conclusion to our weekend of singing was performing a mass with a selection of songs that we had worked on in place of the more traditional liturgical music.  To accompany the contemporary music, the priest rapped part of the mass.  I'm not joking -- and it was kinda cool!  It was a nice way to wrap up the experience. 

A funky flower from our funky weekend.

After Sunday mass and one last lunch all together we drove back to Biebelsheim to meet up with Jo, who arrived by train Saturday, and to see the guest house we were sharing with the Herths at the Vogt-Fehlinger Winery and Vineyards.  Now the vacation festivities would really begin!