From the October 19, 1953 feature: LIFE GOES TO A GAY OUTING IN THE AHR VALLEY—G...

From the October 19, 1953 feature: LIFE GOES TO A GAY OUTING IN THE AHR VALLEY—Germans Enjoy A Winy Holiday. According to LIFE, "Six days a week in summer and early fall the Ahr Valley in Western Germany is a peaceful, verdant place with nothing stirring but a few vintners who plod slowly along its sheer rock terraces tending to their vines. But the first light of Sunday brings hundreds of rumbling buses, whining motorcycles, carts, cars loaded with visitors from cities as far away as Frankfurt and the Ruhr who come to drink the red wine of the Ahr, which is rare in a region noted for white wines and a lot cheaper in the valley than it is back home." Pictured here are joyous visitors sitting atop wine barrels singing along with an accordion player in the biggest wine cellar in the Ahr. (Ralph Crane—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images) #Germany #AhrValley #Wine