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Sunday, December 9, 2018

Email to Friends: German Christmas Markets 2018 - Stuttgart, Tubingen, Esslingen, Rothenburg on de Tauber, Nuremburg, and Bamberg

Flew Iceland Air from Seattle to Reykjavik and then on to Frankfurt. I had worked the night before, so managed to sleep pretty much all the way. Wade did not have as good luck crashing out on the plane. Jumped into the long distance train under the airport and headed straight to Stuttgart (December always has train pass specials and picked up a 10 day twin pass before leaving the States). I enjoyed the scenery on the 1.5 hour ICE train ride through Mannheim to Stuttgart while Wade slept. I marvel again at how easy it is to get around in Germany (even easier since this is my second visit).

Checked in to our cute hotel, Pension am Heusteig. It is in a neighborhood, but walking distance from the Christmas Market at Stuttgart's City Center. There is a yummy bakery across the street and a grocery store. We drop our backpacks and head to see the Christmas Market. Early night, as we both are still a bit tired and we want to hit the ground running in the morning.

Woke up early and head to Tübingen for the annual International Chocolate Festival. I had missed it by a week the last time I was in Germany. The town was super cute and so many good chocolate treats (some with free sample!!!) They have truffles, chocolate covered fruit, cookies, crepes, hot chocolate, and chocolate marzipan liqueur. There is even paintings done with chocolate and chocolate seminars. I actually got full on chocolate (and we all know much I love to eat and how rare it is for me to get full on anything).

After that, we head to one of favorite Christmas Markets in Esslingen. It is medieval themed and has lots of entertainment everywhere you look. I wanted to see the start of the festival where they have a fencing match on a platform each evening, but apparently they no longer due this after someone almost fell off (must have been last year?). The kids area is great with hand cranked rides, archery competitions, hatchet throwing, and a game where you have to guess which box the live mice will run to. There is also flame jugglers and music. I learned I am not so good at archery. Oh, and Wade beat me at the live mice game (but, I also picked a stone that reminded me of my cat to mark my box, which in hindsight is probably not the best to lure in a live mouse). Long day, but we had so much fun!! Then took the train the 20 minutes back to Stuttgart.

Early the next morning, we catch the train to Rothenburg ob de Tauber. We check in to our hotel, Hotel Eisenhut, which is centrally located in the walled city and extremely nice (but more expensive and less homey than my last place I stayed at while here, which was fully booked this time).  We hit up the Medieval Crimes and Justice Museum, which I visited on the last trip, but I knew Wade would like it. We wandered their Christmas market, which is pretty small and uneventful. Had a nice sit down dinner of beef goulash, spaetzle and a beer at a little restaurant/pub. At 8pm, we headed out on the Nightwatchman tour, which is a great way to learn about the town's history and the guy who has been running it for years has a great sense of humor.

Woke up early and took a few photos without the hordes of tourists (the town is a stop for many tourist buses, so less crowded at night and early morning). We walked part of the medieval wall that goes all around the town, with views of rooftops and the vast farmlands and valley nearby. I love this town because it is so easy to imagine what it was like back in the medieval times. I was hoping for snow while we were there, but looks like we are about a week too early. We ate a yummy breakfast at the farmhouse hotel I stayed in the first time I came before grabbing out bags and heading back to the train station.

Next, we headed to Nuremberg. I had never been here before and had heard from so many people how great it is. I wholeheartedly disagree with those people. The Christmas Market is a mess. Granted, it is a Saturday, but it is wall to wall people, everyone is pushy and appears to be in a foul mood, and the city is dirtier than any others and not all that pretty (understandable, considering the history). We returned to the hotel somewhat disappointed. At least our hotel, Centro Hotel Nurnberg, is nice and has free gluhwein and free breakfast with perfect bacon and yummy cheese.

The next morning, we ate breakfast and Wade chatted with some folks from Dusseldorf that were also very disappointed with the Christmas Market. We set off for the very somber trip to the Documentation Center Museum and Nazi Rally Grounds for some WWII history. The museum was very well done with interesting movies and audio chock full of information in many different languages. But to see the actual sites was very eerie and it made me super uncomfortable to see people talking smiling selfies and wanting to stand in the famous spot Hitler stood in. So I tried to focus in plants and things I live growing out of something so vile.

Having enough of Nuremberg and to change the mood back to Christmas, we decided to visit a nearby little town called Bamberg, about a 40 minute ICE train ride from the city. The town supposedly sits on 7 different hills and it was so much more our speed, Cute little town with beautiful architecture and smiling, friendly, helpful people. They have an absolutely beautiful Old Town Hall set on a river with painted walls. The market was smaller, but full of yummy food, families, and space to move. This is also the home of my favorite Rauchbier (smoked beer), but didn't find that out until we had already left. I hope to come back here and stay to explore more for a day or two when the weather is a bit better for hiking the hills (and to drink my fair share of rauchbiers).

Tomorrow, we head to Frankfurt!

Hope all is well at home.

Love,
Betsy

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