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Monday, December 24, 2012

Christmas Markets in Germany

Gengenbach
Emily and I took advantage of the holiday season in southern Germany to check out a bunch of the best Christmas markets available.  The above scene is from Gengenbach, a village in the Black Forest that boasts the world's largest Advent calendar, seen on the right.


Emily enjoying a Schoki in the Gengenbach market, and then getting smacked by an endemic "Hexe" (German for "witch").   Time and time again we ran into Hexen toys, paintings, and statues...it was scary.


Here's the gate on the edge of Gengenbach with Emily running from stand to stand, searching for final snacks.

Heidelberg
The Christmas market in Heidelberg began right after Thanksgiving.  There were a handful of markets spread across the old town, and above on the left you can see the castle on the hill.  On the right is Emily with Kurbiscremesuppe - pumpkin soup, which quickly became her favorite.


Here on the left is the tower gate on the Old Bridge across the Neckar river.  The main market in Heidelberg took place outside the cathedral.

Ludwigsburg
One night we took the S-Bahn from Stuttgart to the small town of Ludwigsburg, which is famous for its Baroque Christmas market.


We came across some Alphorn players in Ludwigsburg, which prompted Emily to try a beer from a Trinkhorn.


Ludwigsburg probably had the most gorgeous decorations of all the markets we saw.

Stuttgart
The Christmas market in Stuttgart was very large and snaked around much of the downtown area.


Not the greatest smelling stand in Stuttgart's Weinachtsmarkt, but pretty cool anyway.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber
One weekend we headed to Bavaria to the popular town Rothenburg ob der Tauber.  The old walled town is a gorgeously preserved.  We headed to the Christmas market and grabbed some waffles...


We wandered up and down the cobbled streets in the snow.  Rothenburg was impressive even though it was packed with tourists.

Nuremberg
From Rothenburg we continued east to Nuremberg, which is a major destination during the holidays.


Okay, so they're no Hexen, but skeletons strangling one another on the back of a giant winged iguana were really off the deep end.  We swiftly moved to the markets...


Right after we parked, the snow started coming down.  Here is the view of Nuremberg's main Christmas market.  We didn't last long in the frigid city, and took off for Baden-Württemberg.


Thanks for checking out this Christmas Market post, and in case you missed our Christmas trip to Munich last winter, here are those posts: Merry Krampus from Munich and Christmas in Bavaria.

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