Bavaria

One of the best parts about Christmas in Europe is the Christmas Markets!  Every year in early December, David and I head to Hyde Park and Southbank to stroll through the London stalls, sipping on mulled wine and eating sweet crepes.  In the past, we’ve also visited the Bratislava and Moscow markets.  And this year we were lucky enough to be in Budapest when theirs began.

The best markets are in Germany, though, so last week we took a trip to Bavaria to experience them first-hand.

Even though we had been up since 4 AM to catch our flight, 

I still love this picture of us

Nuremberg hosts the largest market in Germany, but we also wanted to visit a smaller Bavarian village to get away from the hustle and bustle.  We’d heard great things about Rothenburg so we took the train to the Tauber Valley and spent a couple of nights there.

Rothenburg was picture-perfect.  The city is one of the only walled medieval cities still in existence.  Very little has changed since the 1300’s.  Inside the walls, picturesque gingerbread houses line the streets, Christmas stores surround the central marketplace, and the landscape is dotted with church spires.

It was kind of strange to take a vacation for the sole purpose of shopping and eating, but because Rothenburg is such a small town, there wasn't much else to do.  We slept in late every day, only getting up before 10:00 to enjoy the breakfast part of our B&B.  At night, everything closed at 8:00, even the market, so we were forced to do nothing – just relax.  

We spent the days wandering along the medieval walls, visiting the churches, and took a tour of the former abbey to see the oldest kitchen in Germany and artifacts from the 1200s.  And of course we shopped and ate… a lot!

Potato pancakes - my favorite!

David and I love German food!  We feasted on buttery wild garlic baguettes, potato pancakes, apple strudel and fritters, chocolaty gingerbread, bratwursts, schneeballs (German funnel cakes shaped into snowballs), wiener schnitzel, potato dumplings, cheesy spaetzle…  and washed it all down with eggnog, gluhwein, winter beers, kinderwein, and apple cider.

On Friday, my cousin Dieter took the train out to meet us.  It was perfect timing because Dieter just graduated from brewery school (congratulations!) and was heading home to Minnesota on Monday.  It was really sweet of him to spend one of his last days in Germany with us.

Cousins in matching coats

After walking a third of the wall and having lunch at the market, we decided to check out the Torture Museum.  This is one of the top attractions in Rothenburg, and gave great insight into the life of a criminal during the Middle Ages. 

Anyone could’ve been a criminal back then.  No evidence of any kind was needed – just testimony from two people was enough to sentence someone to death!  And if you didn't die, you were often subjected to some strange punishments.  From chastity belts to shame masks to torture chairs.

Dieter and David demonstrating how they would strut around 

if they had to wear one of those stupid masks

One of the contraptions we discovered was a chair suspended over the river.  Its purpose was to punish bakers whose loaves were not the perfect weight and size.  The baker was strapped inside the chair and repeatedly dunked into the icy river.  An early form of water-boarding for baking a bad batch of bread!

On Saturday we finished off our city tour by walking the remainder of the wall and then shopping for some last-minute gifts.  Usually smokers and nutcrackers are collected over the years, but we weren't sure when we’d be back so we went a bit overboard and picked up nine of these little wooden men.

That afternoon we took the train to Nuremberg and were met with a totally different Christmas market experience.  Every year over 2 million people visit the market. 

It was so crowded.

We were glad that we had visited Rothenburg because it was much more low-key but still offered all of the same German specialties.  Nuremberg was too crazy.  We should’ve known because when we were trying to book a hotel, we got the last room at the Sheraton.  And we booked over a month in advance.

The market starts near the train station at Frauentor Gate and meanders all the way through the pedestrian streets to Hauptmarkt, the main square.

Frauenkirche 

We had dinner at the market but that was it.  We decided to try again on Sunday morning, hoping it would be less crowded.  But even with the terrible rainy, cold weather, it was still packed.  So we picked out the last of our smokers and nutcrackers, had some snacks, and then headed to the Toy Museum.

After lunch at a traditional bratwurst restaurant, it was already time to head back to London.  We weren't too sad about ending our vacation, though, because we knew our families would be flying over to England in just a couple of days! 

Have a very happy holiday season – we’ll see you next year!