Christmas Markets
By way of background, my first ever “solo” trip was as a Senior in High School. Over the holiday break I visited a friend and her family in Germany for two weeks. This was a trip that stuck with me. As my friend showed me her country during the time of winter wonderlands, my mind was captured by the magic of Christmas.
Since then, I have experienced a Christmas Market here and there while traveling during the Winter Months. It was in 2014, while in Tallinn, Estonia enjoying their city market, that I first thought - “ohhhhh! What would it be like to travel throughout Europe with the purpose of discovering Christmas Markets?”
It seems as though many others are thinking the same as Christmas Market Travel has become quite a trend and I’ve been following an abundance of Christmas Market focused social media accounts!
Now, as a parent, it’s been such fun dreaming this trip of allowing my son to experience a sense of the magic I enjoyed many years ago as a high schooler.
And now we are embarking on an 12-day adventure through Europe at the beginning of their Christmas Market season. Like the beginning of all trips, we have no idea what is in store. I am sure that experiences will be much different than those I’ve previously had and plans are often aspirations not a prediction of what will happen!
I’ll be chronicling our adventures on this page and welcome you travel along with us! As always, I love hearing your thoughts, suggestions, and ideas - so feel free to email me at mindelynn@readfarandwide.com!
In order to start our Christmas Market Adventure, we needed to first make our way across the Atlantic. So we flew from Boston to Amsterdam (which was a much easier flight than our Newark to Cape Town flight that we experienced last June!). For the most part Jack slept, I played solitaire, and Sean watched movies. Fortunately there were no problems and upon landing we made our way through customs and to the train station. (Btw - major respect for Amsterdam having a great train station connected to their airports. This makes me really love a place!)
Despite a bit of a delay that caused some stress in making a connecting train - all went smoothly and we arrived in Cologne - the first stop of our Christmas Market Adventure
Cologne, Germany
So I’ve lost the amount of times that I’ve visited Cologne. One of my closest friends has lived there for quite some time and we try to connect every other year. I’ve grown to love the city and for the most part can get may way around with little problem, which is a nice thing when I’m traveling with Jack and his grandmother.
We got a great hotel near the main train station which meant we were within walking distance to . . .
The Christmas Market at Cologne Cathedral!
I’m not a huge person for “Top ## best places” lists - but for what it is worth, Cologne is often on those lists for Christmas Markets and the Cathedral Market is usually the iconic picture they use to show how dreamy it is.
So it was epic to have this be our first market experience. Despite Jack’s jet lag - we lived it up. We got our first glasses of gluhwein, kinderpunch for my mother-in-law and hot chocolate for Jack. I got my first spatzle of the trip (when is Kraft or Annie’s going to figure out how to sell spatzle in a box?) and we meandered through the stalls.
We arrived shortly before sunset and were able to see the lights come on and the whole area transform into a wonderland. We bought a handful of ornaments, collected our first souvenir Christmas market cup (more on this later) and called it a night knowing that this whole idea of building a trip around Christmas Markets has some great possibilities.
The next stop in our adventure was to check out the Chocolate Factory tour in Cologne which is located along the Rhine River and provides iconic views for a lovely early morning walk. I’ve been on the tour before - but never with a 6 year old, which made me realize they hand out much more chocolate to kids than adults - what’s with that?
But seriously - this tour is really fun. It is more than showing the production of chocolate (which is presented as a form of art), as it communicates the history of chocolate and its interplay in colonization, climate change and culture.
The exhibits, artwork, and artifacts are top notch. But the star of the show is the production demonstration of chocolate. For those who grew up watching Picture Picture on Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, this is legend (iykyk). And it’s a good thing Lucy and Ethel never tried to get a job here as they wouldn’t have lasted near as long as they did in I Love Lucy.
So having sampled the right amount of chocolate and picking up a few treats to take home, we exited the chocolate factory into the…
Cologne Harbor Christmas Market
As I mentioned, the chocolate museum is right on the river so it only makes sense for there to be a Christmas Market outside the museum with a nautical theme.
After getting our 2 gluhweins, 1 kinderpunch, and 1 hot cocoa from a charming tall ship bar - we started to meander like one does. Since we know there are many Christmas Markets ahead, we are in more of a scouting phase of our trip. Looking to see what the selections are like and then strategizing how to financially and logistically get the treasures back home.
A highlight of the harbor market, in addition to the ship bar, is a ferris wheel that provides fantastic views of the city. We took a ferris wheel ride which was longer than we expected and then enjoyed some french fries, mushrooms and a corn on the cob for Jack. So far, I’m impressed with the variety of foods. Maybe by the end of this, I won’t want anymore gluhwein and french fries for awhile… but there are worst things in life.
Bonn, Germany
As I mentioned, I have a very dear friend who lives in Cologne, so it was a priority to find time together. It was especially meaningful as we realized that we first met 30 years ago!
We had such fun catching up and watching our kids figure out how to play, despite not having a shared language (fyi: The game Uno is fantastic for such situations).
My friend had the great idea to make a day trip to Bonn - which Sean and I had never been to. We knew it was the capital of Western Germany and birthplace to Beethoven, and had a haunch that they’d have some good Christmas Markets - so off we went!
Before exploring markets we decided to take the kids to see Beethoven’s birthplace which is now a museum. Keeping our expectations low - we entered the house with three kids in tow and with the goal of not causing any permanent damage to the artifacts. Fortunately there were plenty of interactive exhibits, and a great ap to download. It was really well done and I was particularly impressed with how Beethoven’s struggle with hearing loss was explored. Surprisingly - music wasn’t playing throughout the house, but the experience was still impressive
Earlier in the year, I had the unique opportunity to hear all Nine of Beethoven’s Symphonies performed in order over the span of a month and a half. The experience has stayed with me and a highlight of the museum was seeing a copy of the Sixth Symphony in Beethoven’s handwriting. Things like this make travel so special.
After a quick stop at the Haribo candy store (#funfact: Haribo is from the city of Bonn) - our Christmas Market adventure began.
It was wonderful for Jack to have two friends to show him their favorite treats: spiced almonds, potato twisters, lebkuken, and crepes were all new to Jack. Nutella with Sprinkle Crepes were a fast favorite. Of course, we enjoyed french fries and another round of 2 gluhweins, 1 kinderpunch, and 1 hot chocolate.
Another highlight was a children’s ferris wheel were the kids got to ride without adults. This also made allowed us to enjoy our gluhweins without kids for a bit.
Once again, we were able to see the Christmas Market transition from daylight to evening. This is such a neat experience to see how the lights make the setting all the more magical.
To Be Continued . . .
