now that T'giving has passed, it's time for my favorite time of year in Germany--queue the dancing elves--Weihnachtsmarkt--or the Christmas markets. Christmas in Germany is great. Well, unless you are a member of another religion and get no representation here, in which case, try Philly at Christmas as per my previous post. However, religion aside, I've never been a big fan of Christmas in the US, because of the intense commercialization and stress of the holiday. I came to Germany with no expectations for the season and was pleasantly and completely surprised.
The Christmas markets, (or CM) as I shall now use for the sake of typing, can be found in German cities large and small. They first ones start four weekends before Christmas, so the first ones near me were on Thanksgiving. Now that's a Thanksgiving treat.
Why are CM so great? First, because they are outside, so no crowded stuffy mall with cheap jewelry, perfume and sweaters brought out for the holidays. Instead, you browse among little sheds that have a window/counter and are decked out with decorations, lights, etc. like a little house. While a small town may have only one market, so perhaps 30 little houses selling food, ornaments, basically anything Xmas, a larger town such as Cologne or Duesseldorf will have multiple markets scattered throughout the city, some of them tiny intimate gatherings of eight huts.
So on Thursday I visited the old standby of Duesseldorf. D'dorf is nice because the markets are spread throughout the city so the crowds are dispersed also. D'dorf has a skating rink in the park which is also interesting to see.
My favorite part of the CM is the chance to drink Glühwein while watching the passersby. I'm not a big fan of the warm wine, so I often switch to hot cocoa. Instead of running around in a spending frenzy, many people are just hanging out with friends and family enjoying the atmosphere and a warm drink. To make this even better, many of the stands serve the drinks in a decorative mug, which you make choose to keep if you would like, they usually cost around 3 euros. They change in design each year and include the name of the neighborhood as well as the date. Scrooge that I am, for some reason they appeal to me so each year I drag my office colleagues out on the quest to find the best one. They are sooooo pleased.
Here is this year's from D'dorf's Altstadt or old town and the first office night at the CM. He is shaped like a snowman, as opposed to others that are shaped like normal mugs, or others like a boot. The writing is tough to read in the photo as he is perched festively among the Xmas lights on my window sill, but it references '2006' on his scarf and 'Die Altstadt' is across the front.
On Saturday I went to the small town of Opladen for their festive get-together. They are pretty tiny so they do not have their own special mugs, only generic ones. However, they still have the atmosphere, even if it was so warm that I needed only a sweatshirt and then it started to rain.
Still on the list--the usual standbys of Cologne, Dortmund, Essen and Aachen. New this year: Schlossburg is this coming weekend since it is only one weekend and I used to live near it. Also I've head great things about the Medieval one at Siegburg so am trying to get to that one.
Any to recommend that are within one hour by train of Cologne or D'dorf? Am open to any and all recommendations.
5 comments:
We talked about how we share the same love for CM's at the Meet-Up. You'll love the Siegberg one - I was there in 2002 at the recommendation of a friend. As with you, I rarely buy anything at them, just hang out and enjoy the atmosphere.
Unfortunately, I can't recommend any others in the area because I don't know of any up your way. Bonn was nice, but I think you've already been to that one. I can recommend the one in Nurnberg, if you haven't ventured that far yet.
The funny thing about them opening so early was that technically they're not supposed to open til Advent - the 4th Sunday before Christmas. They open before that for more consumerism.
Apparently there was some kind of religios holiday here on Sunday (Tortensonntag) and the one in my town was closed. That didn't surprise me. Some of my student said that CM's all over Germany were closed on that day, but I doubt it.
I don't know any but we tried to go to the Bonn one this weekend. It wasn't open yet though, it was on Sunday! This is the one thing I am actually looking forward to with respect to living in Germany. It sounds fun!
J: Yes :-) it was from you I took the Siegberg idea. And your student is incorrect, not ALL are closed, but most. So a big 'na-uuuuh' to your student.
Andrea: You will definitely enjoy it! In particular since you have little ones. The decorations can cause a bit of sensory overload with all of the lights and colors though. I've watched little kids bump into people/things because they are so enthralled with whatever they are seeing that they don't watch where they are walking.
I don't know you, and you don't know me, but I stumbled on to your blog after clicking several "Next blog" links and viewing random blogs.
I lived in Germany for two years, however several hundred km east of where you are, near Leipzig and Dresden. If you have the time, I hear that Dresden's Weihnachtsmarkt is one of the best around, although that's quite a ride from where you are. Being back in America, WMs are one of the things I miss the most! Enjoy it while you can!
this is what i love about the internet--the ability to cross paths with someone whom you would normally not encounter.
thanks Zachariah for the tip.
for any expat missing america--jump over to zachariah's blog, in particular the princess party and cupcakes photo in his recent posting. when the only reminder of america i see is usually grim news on cnn about iraq or bush, this is a nice change.
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