A tour of Germany's Christmas markets 🇩🇪🎄

[Mattg]

Sadly this year, most of Germany's famous Weihnachtsmärkte, or Christmas markets, have been cancelled due to you-know-what. But as I think back to happier times, I thought I would share this story of a trip I did exactly two years ago, just before Christmas in 2018.

At the time I was living in the Netherlands and had a long weekend to spare, so decided to visit some friends in various places in Germany. While I was there I visited Christmas markets in six German cities & villages over the course of the weekend. The routing ended up being somewhat illogical as I tacked on the side-trip to Bavaria at the last minute, but it all worked out. This was the itinerary:

• Thursday afternoon: Train from Utrecht to Cologne, then a side-trip to Aachen
• Friday morning: Train from Cologne to Weiden in der Oberpfalz
• Friday afternoon: Train from Weiden in der Oberpfalz to Nuremberg
• Friday evening: Flight from Nuremberg to Dusseldorf
• Saturday morning: Flight from Dusseldorf to Berlin
• Sunday morning: Train from Berlin to Hamburg
• Sunday evening: Flight from Hamburg to Amsterdam (then a short train ride back home to Utrecht)

This was the first weekend of snow during this particular winter in Germany, so it was pretty cold. But over these few days I got to try a lot of delicious Glühwein (spiced red mulled wine, generally served warm in a novelty mug which is unique to that Christmas market and year). I'll let you know at the end of the trip report which Glühwein was my favourite

Generally at the Christmas markets, when buying a hot drink you pay a deposit for the cup. You can then either return the cup to get your deposit back, or keep it. I still have some of those novelty mugs in my cupboard at home - they're a nice reminder of this little trip.



As it happens, I also still have a souvenir mug from this year's New Year's market in Vienna. The mug says "Happy New Year Vienna 2020" and has pictures of a pig and four-leaf clover to bring in good luck for the new year. Spoiler alert - it didn't work.

 

[Mattg]

First up was a German ICE train from Utrecht to Cologne...



This is what the first class seats on the ICE are like:



In 2018, there was of course no border checks or restrictions and I was in Cologne in just a couple of hours.



Later that evening, I caught a regional train to the nearby town of Aachen and joined a friend at the Christmas markets there.




I love the German Christmas markets. Often there are bands or choirs playing Christmas carols and they have a joyful atmosphere. They really feel like Christmas.

Most markets have stands selling hot & cold beverages, food and sweet snacks like warm sugar-coated almonds. You can also often find Christmas gifts, souvenirs and handmade decorations.




I didn't visit it on this trip, but one of my favourite Christmas markets in Germany is a medieval market in Munich. There you can find medieval costumes and shoes, old-fashioned food and even - for some reason - medieval swords.

 

[Mattg]

I was up before dawn the next morning to travel to Weiden in der Oberpfalz. The first leg was another high-speed train to Nuremberg.



From there, I changed to a regional train for the second leg.



As I had booked a first class ticket on the long-distance train, I was also able to sit in 1st on the regional train. I was the only passenger in that section.



We had plenty of nice countryside views along the way.



I hadn't been to Weiden before, so my friend showed me around before we stopped by the Christmas market. It's a lovely little Bavarian village.





Weiden's historical Christmas market has been operating since 1600.

 

[Mattg]

That evening I returned to Nuremberg and briefly visited the Christmas markets there before heading to the airport for my late-night flight. The market is Nuremberg is one of the busiest and most popular in Germany. It's an excellent market but there are certainly a lot of people! So I can see why the local authorities were hesitant to keep the markets open this year.

Here are a few photos from 2018:





I happened to return the following year with @JessicaTam for a Flyertalk do, and took some much better photos of the Nuremberg Christmas market then!

 

[Mattg]

All 3 of the flights I took that weekend were with Eurowings. The first was a short Dash 8 Q400 flight from NUE-DUS, operated by Luftgesellschaft Walter.




I just stayed at an airport hotel that night in Dusseldorf, and returning to the airport early the next morning for my next flight to TXL. Nothing stands out as being remarkable about either of these flights, and this was the only photo I took on the DUS-TXL leg on an A320.



I joined some friends that afternoon at the Lucia Christmas market located at Berlin's Kulturbrauerei.



This was another really nice market with some great food options.



This market is also where I tried my first "Feuerzangenbowle" for the weekend, which is like mulled wine but on steroi_s because it also contains rum and is made using a flaming sugar cube, so it's a bit sweeter than normal. Yum!



We then went to the market at Revalerstraße in Friedrichshain, which was not quite as "formal" but also lots of fun.




This market also had delicious Feuerzangenbowle.

 

[Mattg]

By Sunday morning I was quite tired and hungover, but I still got up early for another train trip. This one was from Berlin to Hamburg, again on an ICE.




The train was fairly quiet - not many travelling at 8.30am on a Sunday morning! We did the 300km trip from Berlin to Hamburg in about 1.5 hours. Along the way, the conductor apologised for a slight delay due to our speed being restricted to 180km/h on a part of the track.

Before visiting some more Christmas markets, I stopped to visit Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie.



I had been to Hamburg many times but never to the new opera house, so my friend suggested we go up to the viewing deck.

After buying your tickets, you get sent up a (very) long escalator to the top floor.



And get some nice views over the habour and city (which presumably would be nicer on a sunny day)!

 

[VPS]

Aah - I was supposed to do the Christmas markets this year - so happy to get some more ideas for 2022 (hopefully)

 

[Mattg]

There were a few different Christmas markets around Hamburg




But the main one was at Rathausmarkt, outside the beautiful town hall in the centre of the old city.

 

[Mattg]

The Rathausmarkt Christmas market in Hamburg had it all!



There were rides for the kids...



A miniature train...



Handmade wooden sculptures...




Bratwurst...



Freshly flame-smoked salmon...



Of course, there was Glühwein...



...and even Santa Claus made an appearance.

 

[Mattg]

I headed to the airport after this for my evening flight back to Amsterdam.

One of the great things about flying with Lufthansa or Eurowings out of Hamburg, if you have the appropriate airline status, is that you get to use the Lufthansa Senator lounge. I especially like the HAM lounge because of the outdoor terrace overlooking the airfield. On a nice summer day, it looks something like this:



On this occasion it was a snowy winter night. I was still determined to enjoy the outdoor terrace, but it wasn't quite the same...



The temperature was below freezing so I watched as the planes got de-iced...



I was flying to AMS that evening on Eurowings flight EW7184. For some reason, there was another flight boarding at the gate next to ours, a KLM flight KL1784, which was also going to Amsterdam and leaving at exactly the same time. The very similar flight numbers resulted in quite a bit of confusion!

I was even more confused when I walked onto the apron and found this plane waiting for us:



Airberlin had already been bankrupt and ceased operating more than a year prior. But it still lives on, apparently! The flight was apparently operated by TUIfly on behalf of Eurowings, with the cabin crew in TUIfly uniforms, using a plane in an Airberlin livery. I'm still not quite sure how that all works out.

The rest of the flight was uneventful and I made it back home on Sunday evening after a very enjoyable weekend touring Germany's Christmas markets.

My favourite market overall would have to be the one by the town hall in Hamburg. But my favourite beverage was easily the Feuerzangenbowle from the Revalerstraße market in Berlin - simply delicious!

Oh, how I wish I could be back there now...

 

[Buzzard]

A fabulous TR @Mattg

 

[VPS]

Thanks @Mattg - something to look forward to even more

 

[OZDUCK]

Thanks. Very nice photos - hopefully we can see some of these sights in few years.

 

[JessicaTam]

Thanks @Mattg, you have rekindled some great memories from 2019.

"Next year" (or maybe the one after that).