The Beer Sabbatical: Deutschlands Weihnachtsmarkts

A German holiday tradition is the Weihnachtsmarkt - the Christmas Market. They are open-air markets set up in open public spaces within the city. They are a mixture of arts and craft fair, holiday food and drinks, (in some cases) a carnival. People visit them as part of the holiday season to shop, socialize with friends, or be together as a family. Berlin has many of them (75 listed on a website), and we visited 5 here in our city, one in Salzburg, Austria, and the granddaddy of them all in Germany, the Nuremberg Chriskindlesmarkt.

Weihnachts Zauber Gendarmenmarkt
Our first Weinachtsmarkt was at the historic and beautiful Gendarmenmarkt. This market has a traditional feel, and given that it was our first outing of the season plus maybe and the multiple cups of Gluhwein we found it a very magical experience.

Weihnachtmarkt Alexandarplatz
Settled next to Berlin's famous Roten Rathaus (red City Hall), this markt had a very family feel - small skating rink around the beautiful Neptune Fountain, ferris wheel, and lots of kids.

Nuremberg's Christkindlesmarkt
Nuremberg is a beautiful, charming, historic city about 3.5 hours drive south of Berlin. The Altstadt is a walled medieval city with small, twisting cobblestone streets. Lily spent the week there with here German class from school - staying in the youth hostel in the castle on the hill overlooking the city. Very fun! It was another one of those very enriching and empowering experiences for Lily - visiting the city without parents, wandering the city as part of tours and alone with friends...without adults or parents looking over her shoulder. One of Nuremberg's features is Germany's most famous Weihnachtsmarkt. We drove down late Thursday night to pick her up on Friday morning early so that we could see the Christkindlesmarkt ourselves as well as continue on south to the Bavarian Alps for Christmas.

We took a tour of the tunnels/caves that have been carved out underneath the city...originally to store beer in the 1500's, and then expanded to hold townspeople during air raids in the Second World War.

And we visited the Schoener Brunnen - a beautiful and historic (built in 1396) fountain the market platz. There is a story that goes along with the brass ring in the fence around the fountain...ending with those who spin the ring will have good luck. So we all took a spin.