The Friday after Thanksgiving, we had a new kind of Black Friday. Even though the PX was having all kinds of Black Friday sales (including 20% off of Coach Purses from 5-7 pm ...and the PX already offers a discount on the retail price...), we opted to go to Nuremburg for arguably the most famous Christkindlmarkt. (only rivaled by Rothenburg ob der Tauber - home of the Kathe Wohlfart super Christmas village/store.) We didn't go at night, which is more spectacular, but it was still lovely. We also want to make it to Amberg's market. We set out a lofty goal of seeing markets every weekend in December - HOWEVER - with a new job, I'm finding less time for all of the things I had once had oodles of time for; cleaning house, grocery shopping, relaxing in general.... I have felt myself becoming more run down as I always do when my schedule abruptly changes. I'll adapt, I always do, but there is a time to get acclimated. Add in more social obligations with the holiday season and we've opted to stay in more than go out to the Christmas markets for our weekends in December.
So far. We still have time before Christmas. :)
We did stop by Ammerthal's market, which ran only December 3rd and 4th. But it was cold and raining and it was tiny, consisting of what only looked like food and booze stands. Don't get me wrong...I love food and booze, but I'm not going to stand in the cold and rain for them.
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| Zum Christkindlmarkt |
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| I have no idea what Cathedral this is. We didn't do touristy stuff, just the Christkindlmarkt. Now we have to go back and see the city. The previous times we have been there have been for the train station and IKEA. |
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| This is a kiddos area. It was so pretty! |
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| The sign notating the kids' area. |
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| John and I debated getting one of these pinwheels where the heat from candles make it spin. Except maybe on a smaller scale. |
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| An end of one of many rows of stands. |
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| This was kind of weird. There was a simple metal ring on the iron gate surrounding this gold tower. It was small...maybe the size of an apple. There was only one. And people kept running up to it, and turning it so that it made one full revolution on the link of gate that it was attached to. Either that, or they would take pictures of each other touching the ring. It's things like that that make me wonder what the heck is going on. I'm not quite sure what to google to look it up. |
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| This was sort of the center. Behind the booth were two large trees and a place to gather. I'm told there was a formal lighting later that evening as that day was the official opening of the markt. We didn't stick around. I was toasty with my cuddlduds and down coat and new knit hat with fleece lining. John thought he would be warm enough but kept making cold sounds EVERY 15 SECONDS. (the kind where you suck in air between your teeth? know what I mean?) |
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| Another large pinwheel |
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| Again...I am severely lacking in background information. But this came trotting through and I thought I would take a pic. |
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| Ah....the goods. There were just tons of booths selling wonderful things! |
In addition to the shopping, we had bratwursts. Three small sausages on a crusty roll with pub mustard. Oh my goodness were they delicious! We also tried Gluhwein (imagine an umlat over the u), which is a mulled wine. It's good, but I don't understand the big hubbub over it unless it's just one of those holiday flavors that one comes to crave. And if you had it everyday, it wouldn't be special anymore. Kind of like eggnog. We bought some
Lebkuchen, which was good...if only to say that I've tried it. I won't rush out and buy them by the dozen, anyway. Lastly, I made sure we got some cinnamon roasted nuts as they smelled amazing. We bought pistachios, almonds, and pecans. Yummmmmmm! I also had the bright idea of hitting a Starbucks for cocoa. I wanted to see if they had city mugs there that say "Nurnberg". But they didn't. That was the only disappointing part of the day.
