MMM MMM WINE TASTING!

Hey Everyone!

Today we got to have class off to go wine tasting with our professors! haha crazy, right?! So we got up extra early and took a bus to Ludwigsburg which is about one hour away. There is a Schloss(castle) here that is very famous. Our tour guide was great and the best part about the castle was they have kept everything the same since the 17th century. So, even though the drapery or furniture (for example) is old and starting to fall apart, it's so neat to know that it is in the same position and hasn't been touched or enhanced or anything. The gardens all through the grounds of the Palace were gorgeous with newly bloomed flowers and fountains. It was gorgeous! After our tour, we went to have lunch with the group. We split from the professors and went to this great little Italian Restaurant.

Next, we made our way to the Winery! This is how you say it in German:

Wurttembergische Weingartner-Zentralegenossenschaft

No biggy...haha So we drove just a little ways and began our tour. We had a great tour guide again and she showed us how they do everything from cleaning recycled bottles to fermenting and storing the wines! It was really neat to see the factory and all the machines in action. The barrels and stainless steal cylinders were HUGE and there was a constant fresh wine aroma in each room. After the tour of the factory, we went to a conference room where there were place settings waiting for us. We had bread and cheese and sampled six different types of wines. 6 of us had to present on a different type of wine when we started sampling it from an informational paper the Brixner's gave us in class on Monday. It was really fun! Then we all went and bought a few bottles of the wine's that we liked and sampled more to bring home :) It was such a great day and we had a ton of fun with the Profs and the wines!

This evening we've been packing and preparing last minute details for OUR LAST TRIP OF THE SEMESTER!!!

Wow, I know, it really is crazy that everything is coming to an end. It seems like just yesterday we were writing our first blog entry and going to Berlin.

Starting tomorrow the four of us are taking an overnight train to Malmo, Sweden where we are staying 3 days with Anna's family who lives there! Then we are flying on Monday to Athens where we are meeting up with Sam, Lindsey, David, Jeremy and Linda. The nine of us are going to stay one night in Athens, tour around the city, and leave the following afternoon on a ferry/cruise ship to the island of Santorini (check it out online :) its GORGEOUS) Then we are staying all day Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and coming back to Athens late Saturday night. We plan on getting tan here and sitting on the beach...so hopefully it will help our winter paleness haha. We fly back to Germany on Sunday morning to close a wonderful final trip to our semester abroad. We will have three weeks left after this trip is over and we have projects and studying for finals to do. I don't think we'll be going anywhere else because our Eurail(train passes) are going to be expired!

We will be thinking of you and I know I am going to be sending a lot of post cards from my last destination! I'll make sure the other's do too ;)

Have a lovely 10 days and Happy Easter to you all!

With Love,

Lauren & the girls