Visiting Christmas Markets

All over Europe

It’s no secret that I love Christmas markets in Europe. Every time I’ve travelled to Europe at Christmas time, I’ve visited at least one Christmas market. On the motorhome holiday around Europe, Christmas markets were the focus just as the holiday with my daughter the previous year was focussed on hot springs and thermal spas. I spent Christmas in Turkey that year but we still managed to visit the Christmas celebration in the main square in Troyes.

Winter Wonderland — London

We tubed it to South Kensington and walked to Hyde Park to check out Winter Wonderland recommended to us. Bright lights beckoned us but it was almost a 6km walk to reach it. We sat down to rest and I drank a very sweet mulled spiced cider. I had smoked salmon (you could actually watch it being smoked) and chips and a tasty curry sauce. It sounds disgusting but it was delicious.

We walked through the Christmas market stalls and sideshow alley before my feet demanded I call it quits. When I could walk no further, we called an Uber. Here are some photos I took that night.

Rothenburg

Driving yourself around Europe, you can decide which markets you’d like to visit. First up was Rothenburg. Not only does it have a fabulous Christmas market it has a Christmas Shop and Christmas Museum! Many beautiful things to buy and so many choices but I can’t have everything I love. I keep reminding myself I have to carry it home to Australia! And even more delicious foods to eat but nowhere to sit down and eat them — my feet were past standing up to eat.

Heidelberg

From Rothenburg, we made our way to Heidelberg where I’d been told the best Christmas market in Europe was on top of the hill in front of the castle. We parked the motorhome halfway up the hill and walked. The carpark was full and there were dozens of people milling around, but we couldn’t find the market! The castle was all lit up and very pretty though.

We asked people where the Christmas markets were and were told just through the Castle gates, so we kept walking, and walking and walking! We asked a guy guarding the gates and were told the markets finished on the 15th of December; another guy told us they weren’t up at the Castle this year but were down in the city centre — we never found out the real story!

We gave up on the Heidelberg Christmas markets, and headed for Schwetzingen where we stayed the night in a stellenplatz. After wandering the gardens of Schwetzingen Schloss, purportedly second only to Versailles, we headed to Strasbourg just over the border in France.

Strasbourg

We had heard that Strasbourg has seven Christmas markets so we decided to catch public transport into the city rather than try to navigate with the motorhome!

At the closest bus stop, we caught the bus to Aristide Briand, all on our own with no help. Then caught Tram D into Grand Rue, where we discovered Christmas markets galore. Which one to explore first? The Marche de Luxembourg looked friendly, so we stopped for a bite to eat; a big saucisson (sausage) on a crunchy baguette with lashings of moutarde. (mustard)

We checked out a few more markets; one with just books, another with sweet-smelling “vin chaud”(mulled wine), another with craft items of every description, and finally the markets in La Place de la Cathedrale, and bought some beautiful placemats. The Cathedral itself was beautiful, but we didn’t have time to see it inside.

My feet could carry me no further so we sat down to enjoy the biggest Belgian waffle you have ever seen and the smallest coffee! You can’t have everything!

Colmar

We still hadn’t had enough of Christmas markets so we headed towards Colmar. We drove into the town, having no idea where anything was, and pulled over momentarily to get our bearings. It actually looked like a good spot to park so we left our motorhome there, and set off on foot to find Petite Venise (Little Venice) and the Christmas markets. We could not have parked any closer if we had tried!

Just around the corner and we were there, at both Little Venice and the Christmas markets! I loved both of them. I loved the painted houses and the buildings built right on, or over, the canals. We had lunch at a little Terrasse restaurant serving just “tartes flambees”, which were huge, but delicious. The mechanical horse ride fascinated me — I really wanted to have a ride, but couldn’t chance hurting my back.

I had a warm spiced apple juice with honey, which was really delicious, and I couldn’t resist the home-made macarons. My sweet tooth satisfied, we headed for the Cathedral and more markets! After getting our bearings from the photo of a map on a board (always handy to take photos of maps on boards!), we headed back to out motorhome.

We had fitted in as many Christmas Markets as we could. Christmas Eve, we spent in Nantua.