“Why are all the shops closed on Sunday in Germany?”

We often ask, “why are all the shops closed on Sunday in Germany?”, its so common place all around the world now to have 7 days shopping, if not 24/7 shopping. Well it seems there's a simple answer to questions such as these. One answer is the Freinsheim 'Weinwanderweg'. Located about 30 minute train ride from Mannheim, this event was described to us a 7km “hike”. I think everyone would agree that 7km, unless its the last 7km up Everest, is not a hike. Nor do I think it can be considered a hike when there are 21 wine stalls along the 7km. A little maths tells you that it is, 1 stall per 333m. This was not a hike.

Situated in the glorious vineyards of Freinsheim, with a bright 27oC beating down and only Germany's finest wines for hydration, even the best German speaker in the group (who was actually german) couldn’t manage a coherent German sentence by the time we left. Needless to say a good time was had by all.

The following morning, we all learnt why shops aren’t open on a Sunday...