I Heard it Through the Grapevine

Some of the rows we picked.

Today, a group of us went to a winery in Nierstein, a city on the Rhein. I carpooled (since I don't have a car) with Tony, who is also living in this hotel, and we arrived just before 7:30 in the fog, barely finding the winery (thank you GPS). The plan was that we get breakfast, we pick grapes, we get lunch, we pick grapes, we taste wines. Sounds great, right? How hard can it be? I mean, the people in the movies are always beautiful and warm and enjoying themselves. Ummm, yeah.

There were about 25 of us who carpooled from the winery to the vineyard, following the vintner. There were immigrant workers there already, which I gathered from their accents were probably Polish, some other Eastern European country, and possibly Italy. We gathered and wasting no time, got our clippers, a bucket and went to work on about 10 rows of vines so long and covered by the dense fog, you actually didn't know how long they were. We later learned they were 4100 square meters (about an acre). We busied ourselves clipping the grapes, moldy ones and all. It was cold, foggy, and wet. So the first hourish was miserable to a degree. Breakfast was the typical German bread, meat, and cheese....and since we were at a winery....WINE!

A heap of grapes we gathered in just an hour.

My bucket o' grapes.

After breakfast we returned for more free labor and worked forever. I felt better, I was a little warmer, because someone had on too many layers and gave their coat, but the grapes only seemed to be hanging at waist level and below. What does that mean? A lot of bending and hunching. After what seemed like forever, but realizing we had snipped the grapes almost to the end of our rows, it was time for lunch.

Don't be fooled, I really wasn't smiling much during the picking of the grapes.

They made yummy soup, had bread, meat salad, fried potatoes.....and WINE! Lunch lasted a little longer, which everyone seemed to be happy about given the hard work. I even saw a few guys break out the ibuprofen!! We went back to work and finished off our rows, which took us to 2:30. Awesome, wine time, right? Uh no, at this point, the vintner said there were about 1400 square meters left at a different part of the field and the group usually stayed until 4:30. Some people were so tired that they didn't want to continue, which included the person who was my ride. I didn't want to bother anyone with a ride back and just came back with Tony.

So, unfortunately, I didn't get to stay for the other 2.5 hours of more grape picking, which would have been followed by coffee, cake, and a wine tasting. I would have stayed, even though I was tired and wet, but I was sort of okay with going home. Afterall, we had wine at lunch and I got to experience the back-breaking work of picking grapes ;)

I got home, relaxed a bit, then decided I wanted some food for my room, so I ventured to the commissary just 15 minutes down the street. I didn't stay long, but I was impressed with the selection. I picked up some staples for my room, including good coffee, since the stuff they serve here at "breakfast" is crap. (Just an FYI: I made need some Peet's coffee sent to me soon after I finish the bag I bought today. At the store, it was Newman's Own (RIP), Starbucks (yuck), Seattle's Best, or general brands I don't even consider coffee (says the coffee snob).

Any bets on how hard it's going to be for me to get out of bed tomorrow morning? Let me just give you a sneak peek: bending over to brush my teeth was slightly problematic for the muscles in my lower back. Now where'd I put that Tylenol PM...