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Returned from Germany yesterday. Christmas Markets Great!!
Trip Report:<BR>Returned from Germany yesterday.<BR>Christmas Markets Great!!<BR><BR>First I would like to thank Wes for all the assistance in planning this and prior trips.<BR>His advice is better than any travel agent I have ever dealt with. THANKS WES<BR>My wife and I took our daughters this trip. (Ages 16 and 8). We arrived in Frankfurt last wed. evening, then traveled to Rothenburg-ob-der-tauber to spend the next 3 nights.<BR>We stayed at the 'Hotel Bayerischer Hof'. It is located an easy 2 min. walk to the front gate.<BR>I want to say that Petra and her staff are fantastic. They have wonderful rooms, the food is prepared by a master chef and is excellent. The prices are very reasonable. They treat you like family. This is the second time we have stayed there and look forward to returning again.<BR>Thursday was spent sightseeing and shopping. Friday night we attended the opening ceremony <BR>Of the Christmas market, which was kicked off by a great band, speech by the mayor, then the arrival of the night watchman who gave out candy and nuts to the children. He then ushered in the man we know as Santa. The booths were filled with food, drink and wares. The gluhwein<BR>And kinder punch was just right to warm your hands and tummy too. It was great fun. What a great way to start the Christmas celebration. The next day was spent in Heidelberg shopping and visiting their Christmas Market. It was larger than Rothenburgs but still great. The last evening was spent in Frankfurt. The Christmas Market was a lot of fun but not the same small town feeling as in the other two. The crowd, well I would have to compare it to being in a stadium and someone yelling fire. You just jumped in and held on.WOW. It was still fun when you got off the main street. We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard Messe. It was ok.<BR>I hope this will be of assistance to others on fodors as I have rec. so much help from Wes and others here.<BR>
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Bill: <BR><BR>Thanks for the report! Do to economic circumstances I did not make my usual trip to Rothenburg this year. Boy! Do I miss those markets, it is the best way to get that "Christmas" Feeling...or was that the Gluewein kicking in!!<BR>John
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This is probably a stupid question but what is a Christmas Market - is it in a large auditorium - selling what kinds of merchandise. Please clue me in!
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I'm glad you had such a wonderful trip. I just learned about Christmas markets from this site and am very interested in a trip to Germany this time next year.<BR><BR>Rita
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Cindy - Christmas Markets are primarily a German dating back to the 1400's. They are uniformly held outside, usually in the main town sguare which is festively decorated. Smallish booths are set up on the square selling primarily ornaments, decorations and small gifts. There is usually music and carols and sometimes folk dancing. There is also good food to munch on while you shop and enjoy enjoy the "gemutlichkeit" (comeraderie). You keep warm by drinking a warm spiced wine called "Gluhwein". This is usually served in a special mug for which you pay a deposit - it is yours to keep and refill as a memento. To find more info check out the recent edition of Gourmet magazing or log on to faz.com and under living in Germany click on "Sugar and Spice." It is really a wonderful holiday experience
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Due to several request for more info on the Hotel I talked about in my trip report I thought it would help if I posted it.<BR>Bill<BR>www.bayerischerhof.com
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One question about the Christmans markets - how often do the vendors change the oils when making potato pancakes, frites, etc. Does someone inspect those things? I love the markets, but wonder if they are taking years off my life.
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Bill--Am I correct in assuming that you did this "on your own" and not with a tour company? Have been to the three cities you mention, but in the Fall. A friend and I are considering it for next year and I'm beginning to collect information.MHM
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Bill - glad you liked the one in HD - probably passed you the crowd, as I was there the same day and night...
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Oh my goodness Flying Dutchman, Germany is one of the most regulated countries in the world, let's not encourage more bureacracy. I think you are taking years off your life worrying about such things.
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I'd always wanted to see the Christmas markets and this year I went - Munich, Nurnberg and Salzburg. While festive, I was disappointed in the offerings - i guess I expected more craft type things. Handicrafts. I did try gluehwein, gingerbread and an ornament in Salzburg, a bureau cloth embroidered with blue candles. But I did most of my shopping in regular stores. For those of you who go, what do you buy?
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Vicky, I agree that the wares seem disapointing to me. There seems to bee too many plastic items, more of a flea market type. There are many nice things at the markets but not always practical. But I try to find special things from that area that are in the market. In Nurenburg, we bought a Christmas angle and of course gingerbread and saw the latern parade. In Aachen, we bought Achener prenten, a cookie made in the area. Of course you have to sample the wurst and gluwein in each market. I think it is more of the atmosphere of each one. I think that the small town markets may have the more crafty items made by the local person.
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Great posts! I enjoy reading them. We have done the markets numerous times and did them last year. Could not fit them in this year and really missed it. They are a great way to get into the Christmas spirit. That is hard to do in California and our weather....not complaining though.<BR><BR>A few other good spots to stay for first timers:<BR><BR>Rothenburg: REICHS KUCENMSISTER or MARKUSTURM. Both inside the walls and very nice.<BR><BR>Go Gluwein! Gotta get back there in 2003.
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I just got back from my visit to the Christmas markets. I visited Salzburg, Munich, Augsburg and Nuremberg, as well as a lot of small town markets that are only open on weekends or only one day of the year. I liked Augsburg the best. We started out in Bad Tolz, and thought it was nice. We had eaten in a restaurant and later were very tempted by the wursts, etc. cooked outside. The next one, in Salzburg, was OK but really had no good food. I visited the large one in Munich as well as the one that exclusively is dedicated to Nativity scenes. Augsburg had a nice background with the lit Christmas pyramid against the Rathaus. There I bought a lot of Christmas cookie cutters. My last one was Nuremberg, and while it was nice, it seemed overwhelming in size. It had a lot of Prune men, one item which I did not see in other markets except for 1 stand in Augsburg, and, my God, so much lebkuchen! I love lebkuchen, but you can't buy from every stand, tempting as it may be. We really enjoyed the small village markets as well. We happened on one in Gmund in Tegernsee which was very small and only one day long. It was very intimate, and it seemed that we may have been the only outsiders there. It was quite nice.
Another nice one was in Wasserburg am Inn, where the stands were painted different colors, instead of them all being dark wood. |
Unfortunately, other than the general ambience I have found the "wares" at the various markets to be unifromly the same straw, wood, and plastic items..some of which were not made locally.
Glad you had a wonderful time and thsnks for the report. I am wondering however, what, if anything, you thought was actually worth buying other than the food? |
Cindy and Rita:
try www.germany-christmas-market.org.uk/index1.htm and also www.pragueexperience.com (then events and Christmas 2003). I was at the Christmas Markets in Prague a couple of weeks ago and didn't see much that wasn't similiar to what I could buy anywhere else, but I had read reports about the sort of thing they sold and wasn't expecting too much so wasn't disappointed! We bought a couple of woollen hats that are very popular with the locals (particularly the late teens) for our daughter at around £5 each. This doesn't count as it wasn't on sale in the markets, but we also bought lots of very pretty Christmas wrapping paper very cheaply at the book store next to the market on the main square (close to the Tyn church same side as U Prince Hotel). We were sorry we didn't buy more as it was something different, and it was lovely watching our daughter unwrap her presents this morning and being reminded of Prague too. We also bought some beautiful local Christmas cards from another shop. I think the best thing about the markets as others have said is just the atmosphere! Hoping to try a German market next year if we don't go back to Prague. Enormous Christmas trees,the beautiful lights, children singing carols on the stage,nativity scenes with live animals,watching children skating in the ice rink,sausages and mulled wine -I didn't care what the markets sold it was pretty perfect to me :) |
Christmas markets are not just in the town squares. When I was in Vienna, we went to a castle in Krems with the Christmas market in the castle and an advent play in the outer building. The whole area was festive and fun. The quality of the merchandise was better as well.
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