Weekend of Christmas Markets
What a great weekend!
One thing I love about Germany: The Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market). In bigger cities, the central area will usually have one (or more) running for several weeks leading up to Christmas. Even in smaller towns there is usually a Christmas Market for one day to a week. We’re fortunate to live in a very populated area with lots of cities, so there are more than enough Christmas Markets to visit within a short train ride.
All last week I couldn’t make up my mind on which Christmas Markets we would visit this past weekend. Then we woke up Saturday to lots of rain. When it finally seemed to let up, we headed out quickly to our own city’s center (we had errands to run, too) and made a quick pass through our Weihnachtsmarkt. First, I was surprised by this giant ferris wheel… I don’t remember it last year! (I didn’t ride it, though. As you can tell, the weather was bad.)
All throughout the downtown area are these huge light displays. The are each designed for a different area of Europe and made simply of Christmas lights. It’s really impressive at night.
We rushed through our errands and then about three of the Christmas Markets to beat the rain, but I had to stop for one of these fried doughs of deliciousness. It’s similar to an elephant’s ear or beaver’s tail. Not sure what the official name is here, but my H and I refer to it as Ungarns. Which is wrong. These are a Hungarian food of some sort and the German word for Hungary is Ungarn, so the stands always say Ungarn and that’s what we call them.
After this we made it home to plan our Sunday.
Which involved taking the train over to Duesseldorf. I love Duesseldorf. It’s on the Rhein River and there is a huge walkway along the Rhein. The Altstadt area has great restaurants. The Ko has great shopping. It really can’t be beat. And Christmas-time it’s only better. All the spaces that are opened throughout the year are filled with Christmas stands.
For Duesseldorf, our theme was FOOD!
We ate steak sandwiches, bratwurst, potato pancakes and then stood mesmerized as two ladies made proffiteroles (then ordered some and ate them in 10 seconds flat).
I’m already planning the Christmas Markets for next weekend.
How was your weekend?
I´ll visit the Christmas Market in Dortmund und Oberhausen. They are great! But yours in Essen is also great. In Herne we a really tiny Christmas Market, it´s not worth to go there. I love the Poffertjes!
I went to the Oberhausen one with my folks last week. That one is awesome! I think I am going there again and then it’s a toss-up between Dortmund, Muenster and/or Cologne.
This is on my “bucket list” to visit the Christmas Markets in Germany. Someday I will get there.
Looks like fun! Thanks for sharing!
So cool to see other parts of the world. Thanks!