'Tis the Season: Christmas Markets in Germany 2014

Nuremberg Market

One major adjustment you have to make when you move to Germany is accepting the fact that winter is miserable and feels like it will never end. I usually love winter, but Germany will ruin it for you. The sun comes up around 9 AM and sets about 4 PM. You're entire day of sun light is spent at work, in an office. That is, of course, if the sun even does make it's appearance from behind the thick, deep clouds that are a permanent fixture in the sky from October to April. Every single day, it rains at least a little. Sometimes it mists the entire day or alternates soft, steady rain. Snow is even more rare than sunlight, even though the wet air makes it feel cold enough to snow. If you have seasonal depression or a vitamin D deficiency, Germany is not a place that you would enjoy living.

Luckily, Christmas markets help make the start of winter a little more bearable. I wrote about the markets last year as well. They get talked up a lot by Americans in Germany. I won't lie, they really aren't anything too special. Most of them sell the same things and most of what they sell is crafts or Christmas decorations. The only redeeming factor that makes you want to visit them all is the food and drinks. Gluhwein (mulled wine) is a staple of all of the markets and each one will have different regional varieties. Some are fruit flavored like apfel (apple) or kirsch (cherry). Most are just red or white. You can also get non-alcoholic varieties. Other than the Christmas decor and gluhwein, the markets are pretty similar to any other festival in Germany.

Christmas market in our town.

Nuremberg

Christmas markets start in November, so the first one I went to was with friends because Greg was in the States. They are much less busy in November. Our local market seemed to have expanded or alternated stands as there seemed to be much less Christmas decor for sale and more gifts. They used the same mug this year as last year which is unfortunate because one of the wonderful things about Christmas markets is being able to collect a mug from each town every year. A lot of the larger markets will have multiple mugs in circulation for you to collect. They charge a 1-2 euro deposit per glass. If you return the glass, you get your money back. Otherwise, you essentially paid for it. Same goes at the wine and beer festivals, however those glasses are less likely to be taken most of the time.

When Greg made it back to Germany, we took a train trip to Nuremberg to visit one of the biggest and oldest Christmas markets in Germany. It was packed! It was also huge and required tons of walking all around the city. There were at least 10 different mugs floating around. We ended up keeping three from Nuremberg. The streets were filled with more young, drunk Germans than we've ever seen at a Christmas market. Usually at Fasching and different beer festivals you'll see the young Germans out in full-force, but rarely at the Christmas markets. There were several bachelor parties dressed as Santa wondering around. We had to get some chimney cake while we were in Nuremberg. Chimney cake is dough similar to a funnel cake which is wrapped around a cylindrical hot stone and placed in a rotissery oven. When it's done cooking, they roll it into toppings like cinnamon sugar and seal it in plastic. When you open the plastic, the cake starts to smoke from the top like a chimney. We tried to take pictures of it, but it was too dark to get a good shot of it with the smoke steaming from the top. It tasted like a less sugary donut. All desserts here are significantly less sugary.

People packed together in Nuremberg

Rudesheim

The next week, we visited Rudesheim's market with some friends. We had never been to Rudesheim, even though it is only a short drive up the Rhine from our town. It was such a beautiful town that we will probably go back some time. Rudesheim is a very beautiful medieval looking town with beautiful architecture and views of the Rhine. The town falls right in the center of the Rheingau wine region. Their gluhwein was nothing special, though.

The last market we visited this year was in Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Rothenburg is another  medieval city surrounded by thick fortifications and a wall. You can only drive into Rothenburg if you have a special permit. Greg read about Rothenburg on the internet and decided we needed to take a Jeep trip out there. Unfortunately, traffic was really horrible and it took us an extra hour to get there. Once there, we were a little disappointed by the market which everyone talked about so highly. The town was absolutely beautiful and the wall was pretty cool, but the market itself was pretty small. I will say, they were the most efficient by reusing all of the old year's mugs in place of creating new ones and had specific drop off locations for unwanted mugs. We ended up with three mugs from 2009, 2011 and 2013. We also bought 4 litres of gluhwein for the house and a few famous Rothenberg "Snowballs" which are a dessert made from various types of marzipan covered in sugar or chocolate. In the future, we may consider going back to Rothenburg when the weather is nicer to explore the area. It is situated right at the beginning of the famous Romantic Road.

Rothenburg

My snowball

This past week, we were both lucky enough to have 4 days straight off of work together. We were even luckier to wake up on Saturday and realize that it snowed! Last year, we didn't get a single inch of snow here. We love winter weather, so we were pretty sad to have a whole winter with no snow. That won't be the case this year.

Our mug collection from this year.

We celebrated the snow day buy dressing Augustus in his snow suit and letting him run around and play off leash. After that, we drove around our area to see the snow covered trees, hills and castles. We met some friends and their children at a large hill for some sledding. I convinced Greg to take me ice skating, even though he hates it. We ended our day by making a snow fort and drinking gluhwein. It isn't officially our three year anniversary yet, but it was a great anniversary present!

Snowsuit Augustus