Travel Log: Germany's Pfalz Wine Region Part One

You may have seen on my Instagram that I recently spent a week in Germany's Pfalz wine region, famous for its Riesling Trocken (dry Riesling), with an amazing group of friends. A dear friend of ours planned the entire trip for 22 people including each day's itinerary and transport, and my husband and I were so lucky to be able to just show up and enjoy each day's experiences. The Pfalz wine region is Germany's second largest wine region and covers approximately 23,700 hectares or 228 square kilometers. While it was impossible to see the entire region, we based in one of the central cities, Neustadt An Der Weinstraße (the ß is pronounced like a soft z), and did day trips by bike or car depending on distance. We visited Birkweiler, Speyer, Deidesheim, Gimmeldingen, Freinheim, and Landau. Please continue on to see photos and details of how we spent our first two days in Germany settling into Neustadt An Der Weinstraße and visiting nearby Birkweiler.

We departed Seattle Friday morning, did some work on the flight and during our layover in JFK, and arrived in Frankfurt Saturday morning around 8:30am. Unfortunately, despite arriving relatively early in the morning, it took us about two hours to get through border control due to the new EU Entry/Exit system (EES) rolled out last fall that includes facial and fingerprint scans along with a secondary verification at a manual desk with an agent. I had read that the main airport hubs in Europe have been bogged down since the rollout last fall and fully expected it to take a while, but hopefully the timing improves for visitors soon! Once we got through border control and got out to the arrival hall, finding the rental car desks and picking up our rental car in the garage was simple and fast. We got on the road and easily navigated the approximately one hour drive from the airport to our home base city of Neustadt An Der Weinstraße.

Neustadt An Der Weinstraße is a central city on the German wine route and made a perfect home base for our week of exploration. The city's history dates back to the early 1200's, but I learned through some research that there is evidence that the Celts settled in the area that is now Neustadt An Der Weinstraße as early as 150 BC! The Marketplatz, or Market Square, has existed since the Middle Ages and is lined with cafes and restaurants (our favorite coffee shop with the best cappuccinos and iced lattes, La Macchina Per Caffe, is located here) as well as hosts a farmers market on certain days of the week. One of the pedestrian streets near our hotel had a series of plaques representing wineries located along the famous wine route, which I thought was a great visual of just how large the region is and how many wineries there are.

Since we arrived in town quite a bit later than planned, we missed biking with the group to a nearby winery for some incredible bubbly and still wines (Schloss Wachenheim - but I got to try the bubbly later in the week) and a stop at a wine festival (Freinsheim Altstadtfest), but we took the opportunity to rest a bit and meet up with the group to catch up over schnitzel and dry Riesling at a local beer garden.

The following day (Sunday) we enjoyed a slow morning of coffee and breakfast at a local cafe before boarding a minibus our friend coordinated for us and heading to an annual summer wine festival at Weingut Gieß Düppel in Birkweiler. Weingut Gieß Düppel is located approximately a twenty minute drive from Neustadt An Der Weinstraße, so very easy to reach, and the summer wine festival included free wine tastings of all of their offerings in the cellar, bottles of wine and pizza/pastas available for purchase. This winery had a lovely outdoor space with covered seating and views of the surrounding hills and towns. We enjoyed trying their Riesling Trocken, Blanc de Noir, and Sauvignon Blanc--all were perfect summer wines! Attending a summer wine festival at one of these wineries is a wonderful and relaxing way to spend an afternoon and I highly recommend it!

Our evening consisted of dinner at a local beer garden and watching the World Cup final between Argentina and Spain at a local bar (that ending was wild). I hope you enjoyed this first glance at our week in Germany's Pfalz wine region and please stay tuned for more travel logs coming soon!