Germany Christmas Markets
By DropBear
At the beginning of December, in order to get into the Christmas Spirit, we went off on a trip to Germany for some German Christmas market fun. Christmas markets have been a large part of history in Germany, with the first markets held in Dresden in 1434. The oldest Christmas markets being mentioned in records were in Vienna, Austria, in 1294. The Christmas markets are generally held in the town squares and markets sell food, drink and seasonable items from open-air stalls often accompanied by singing and dancing. Australians may never have heard of Christmas markets but in the UK the first things that spring to mind are Glühwein (mulled wine), Bratwurst and snow!
We went on a tour group and headed to the Rhine Valley for our trip. We left the UK when the first lot of snow had fallen so we were a little worried about the trip being cancelled. Luckily it went ahead and after a 4 hour drive down snowy, not cleared roads, from London to Folkestone (normally this is under 2 hours) we got on the train to France. We arrived in France to find nice cleared motorways and we made up quite a bit of time to arrive in Germany late evening.
Upon arrival in the Rhine Valley we had to find out hotel, we were staying in a small hotel somewhere between Koblenz and Ruedesheim (basically the middle of nowhere as far as we were concerned!). It was dark when we arrived, but we were still amazed by the location. Right on the Rhine River, we were in a small magical town. But the real beauty of the area was revealed the next day. The next morning we head to our first market at Cochem. Along the way we realised just how amazing the Rhine Valley is. There are numerous small towns along the river with high mountains (well hills really) behind them, and on almost every peak is a castle. It is beautiful to drive down the road and see the castles overlooking their towns, taking care of the citizens.
Cochem, our first stop, is quite a small town with a small market. The town is Germany’s second smallest district seat with just under 5,000 inhabitants. Cochem sits on the banks of the Moselle and was settled in 886. Obviously much of the old town doesn’t exist now, but I think a lot of buildings are not much newer! The markets themselves were quite small with only a handful of stalls, but the Glühwein was amazing! As was the hot chocolate with a shot of rum in it! The best thing was you got your drink served in a ceramic cup which you could keep for an extra 2euros and it had a lovely decoration on it with the name of the markets (this was available in all the different markets). We wandered around the markets for a short while; it took about 10 minutes to see the stalls and marvelled at the wares. Not much appeared to be handmade but there were some lovely glass decorations, along with great wooden decorations. After the markets we headed up to the castle at the top of the hill overlooking Cochem. The castle is thought to have originally been built around the start of the 11th century; however it was destroyed in 1689 when King Louis XIV invaded the area. The castle remained in ruins until 1868 when it was brought by a businessman who rebuilt it and used it as a summer residence. It is now open to the public (though not on the day we were there!). From the top of the castle there are great views down towards the town and the river below.
Cochem town with Cochem Castle in the background
From Blog
Cochem Castle
From Blog
From Cochem we headed to the next Christmas markets which were in Koblenz which sits on the Rhine River at its junction with the Moselle. The town is over 2000 years old and in 9 BC the first castle of the area was built. In 55 BC Roman troops commanded by Julius Caesar reached the area and built a bridge from the town across the river to Koblenz. Koblenz is quite a big town, especially compared to Cochem, with over 100,000 people living there. The town is made up from a large number of amazing old buildings with squares in between them and in each of these squares was a Christmas market. More Glühwein please! We spent most of the time here walking from square to square looking around the Christmas markets. Unfortunately we found that almost all the markets sold the same things, no originality anymore! We didn’t buy anything but had a great time enjoying the snow on the ground and the Christmas atmosphere that was definitely abundant.
Koblenz Christmas Markets:
From Blog
From Blog
From Blog
One thing I have to say about this whole area is it is a large wine making region. Having been from Australia and seeing many vineyards extending over the hills of the countryside, I must say there is something quite special about seeing the many vineyards extending over the snow covered hills. The wine from this region is world renound and they make many varieties of white and red, though I think red is more the specialty.
On the next day we had a day in Ruedesheim. The area here was first settled by the Celts and later the Romans. Rudesheim had its first documentary mention in 1074. Again this is a lovely town at the bottom of a large hill. The difference here is the hill is not taken up with a castle but rather the Niederawld National Park, which contains the monument Niederwalddenkmal. This is a 10.5 meter tall figure which was constructed shortly after the end of the German-French War with the foundation stone being laid on September 16th 1871. To get up to the statue you can catch an open sided gondola, which when it’s about 0 degrees, is quite something. Between the town and the statue are many snow covered grape vines trying to reach some sun on the hillside. We started the day in Rudesheim with a visit to Siegfrieds Mechanisches Musikkabinett which is Germany’s first museum for self playing musical instruments. The museum contains a number of very interesting musical pieces including one that has a self playing piano and violins! After that we hit the town. The Christmas markets here were huge! But again, disappointingly, all the stuff on sale was the same as in all the other markets so we decided to head off for a tour of the town. We started with the Brömserburg castle which is the oldest castle in the Rhine Gorge World Heritage Site, being built in the 10th century. It is now a wine museum.
Snow covered vines with Rudesheim in the background
From Blog
Brömserburg castle
From Blog
Gondola above the snow covered vines
From Blog
Niederwalddenkmal
From Blog
Rudesheim Christmas Markets
From Blog
We also had an interesting trip home. The snow had returned with a vengeance and it was almost a white out in many areas, especially in eastern France. When we got to our lunch spot, a road side restaurant, our driver very kindly drove right up to the door so we didn’t have to spend too much time in the snow. Unfortunately as the snow was quite deep, he couldn’t see what he had stopped on and, as he discovered as he tried to drive away, he was apparently on grass and ice. The back end of the bus started sliding towards the restaurant windows, which were about 5 meters away. It is quite something to see a bus start sliding out of control! Luckily there was a metal post holding a bin up in his way and the middle of the bus wedged on this stopping the slide. Eventually, with the help of some old towels, a big bag of salt from the kitchen and help pushing from us passengers, the bus was on its way!
The whole trip was amazing due to the history of the area. The Christmas markets, whilst enjoyable with the Glühwein and the amazing food, were only made special by the towns themselves. You could imagine each of these towns through the ages and I would love to go back in summer when more castles are open to go into a few. You could easily spend years in this area and be able to see a new castle each week. So here I’ll leave you, just imagine me holding my special Christmas market mug full of Glühwein up in salute to Germany!
.......... oh, one last thing, I was told I had to mention the deep fried potato pancakes (Kartoffelpuffer) they had for sale at the markets. I didn’t eat any as they looked like heart attack on a plate (the paper plate they sat on was see through after 30 seconds) but apparently they were just what you needed on a cold afternoon after a day of market browsing and went extremely well with the Glühwein.... (happy now B?)
From Blog
At the beginning of December, in order to get into the Christmas Spirit, we went off on a trip to Germany for some German Christmas market fun. Christmas markets have been a large part of history in Germany, with the first markets held in Dresden in 1434. The oldest Christmas markets being mentioned in records were in Vienna, Austria, in 1294. The Christmas markets are generally held in the town squares and markets sell food, drink and seasonable items from open-air stalls often accompanied by singing and dancing. Australians may never have heard of Christmas markets but in the UK the first things that spring to mind are Glühwein (mulled wine), Bratwurst and snow!
We went on a tour group and headed to the Rhine Valley for our trip. We left the UK when the first lot of snow had fallen so we were a little worried about the trip being cancelled. Luckily it went ahead and after a 4 hour drive down snowy, not cleared roads, from London to Folkestone (normally this is under 2 hours) we got on the train to France. We arrived in France to find nice cleared motorways and we made up quite a bit of time to arrive in Germany late evening.
Upon arrival in the Rhine Valley we had to find out hotel, we were staying in a small hotel somewhere between Koblenz and Ruedesheim (basically the middle of nowhere as far as we were concerned!). It was dark when we arrived, but we were still amazed by the location. Right on the Rhine River, we were in a small magical town. But the real beauty of the area was revealed the next day. The next morning we head to our first market at Cochem. Along the way we realised just how amazing the Rhine Valley is. There are numerous small towns along the river with high mountains (well hills really) behind them, and on almost every peak is a castle. It is beautiful to drive down the road and see the castles overlooking their towns, taking care of the citizens.
Cochem, our first stop, is quite a small town with a small market. The town is Germany’s second smallest district seat with just under 5,000 inhabitants. Cochem sits on the banks of the Moselle and was settled in 886. Obviously much of the old town doesn’t exist now, but I think a lot of buildings are not much newer! The markets themselves were quite small with only a handful of stalls, but the Glühwein was amazing! As was the hot chocolate with a shot of rum in it! The best thing was you got your drink served in a ceramic cup which you could keep for an extra 2euros and it had a lovely decoration on it with the name of the markets (this was available in all the different markets). We wandered around the markets for a short while; it took about 10 minutes to see the stalls and marvelled at the wares. Not much appeared to be handmade but there were some lovely glass decorations, along with great wooden decorations. After the markets we headed up to the castle at the top of the hill overlooking Cochem. The castle is thought to have originally been built around the start of the 11th century; however it was destroyed in 1689 when King Louis XIV invaded the area. The castle remained in ruins until 1868 when it was brought by a businessman who rebuilt it and used it as a summer residence. It is now open to the public (though not on the day we were there!). From the top of the castle there are great views down towards the town and the river below.
Cochem town with Cochem Castle in the background
From Blog
Cochem Castle
From Blog
From Cochem we headed to the next Christmas markets which were in Koblenz which sits on the Rhine River at its junction with the Moselle. The town is over 2000 years old and in 9 BC the first castle of the area was built. In 55 BC Roman troops commanded by Julius Caesar reached the area and built a bridge from the town across the river to Koblenz. Koblenz is quite a big town, especially compared to Cochem, with over 100,000 people living there. The town is made up from a large number of amazing old buildings with squares in between them and in each of these squares was a Christmas market. More Glühwein please! We spent most of the time here walking from square to square looking around the Christmas markets. Unfortunately we found that almost all the markets sold the same things, no originality anymore! We didn’t buy anything but had a great time enjoying the snow on the ground and the Christmas atmosphere that was definitely abundant.
Koblenz Christmas Markets:
From Blog
From Blog
From Blog
One thing I have to say about this whole area is it is a large wine making region. Having been from Australia and seeing many vineyards extending over the hills of the countryside, I must say there is something quite special about seeing the many vineyards extending over the snow covered hills. The wine from this region is world renound and they make many varieties of white and red, though I think red is more the specialty.
On the next day we had a day in Ruedesheim. The area here was first settled by the Celts and later the Romans. Rudesheim had its first documentary mention in 1074. Again this is a lovely town at the bottom of a large hill. The difference here is the hill is not taken up with a castle but rather the Niederawld National Park, which contains the monument Niederwalddenkmal. This is a 10.5 meter tall figure which was constructed shortly after the end of the German-French War with the foundation stone being laid on September 16th 1871. To get up to the statue you can catch an open sided gondola, which when it’s about 0 degrees, is quite something. Between the town and the statue are many snow covered grape vines trying to reach some sun on the hillside. We started the day in Rudesheim with a visit to Siegfrieds Mechanisches Musikkabinett which is Germany’s first museum for self playing musical instruments. The museum contains a number of very interesting musical pieces including one that has a self playing piano and violins! After that we hit the town. The Christmas markets here were huge! But again, disappointingly, all the stuff on sale was the same as in all the other markets so we decided to head off for a tour of the town. We started with the Brömserburg castle which is the oldest castle in the Rhine Gorge World Heritage Site, being built in the 10th century. It is now a wine museum.
Snow covered vines with Rudesheim in the background
From Blog
Brömserburg castle
From Blog
Gondola above the snow covered vines
From Blog
Niederwalddenkmal
From Blog
Rudesheim Christmas Markets
From Blog
We also had an interesting trip home. The snow had returned with a vengeance and it was almost a white out in many areas, especially in eastern France. When we got to our lunch spot, a road side restaurant, our driver very kindly drove right up to the door so we didn’t have to spend too much time in the snow. Unfortunately as the snow was quite deep, he couldn’t see what he had stopped on and, as he discovered as he tried to drive away, he was apparently on grass and ice. The back end of the bus started sliding towards the restaurant windows, which were about 5 meters away. It is quite something to see a bus start sliding out of control! Luckily there was a metal post holding a bin up in his way and the middle of the bus wedged on this stopping the slide. Eventually, with the help of some old towels, a big bag of salt from the kitchen and help pushing from us passengers, the bus was on its way!
The whole trip was amazing due to the history of the area. The Christmas markets, whilst enjoyable with the Glühwein and the amazing food, were only made special by the towns themselves. You could imagine each of these towns through the ages and I would love to go back in summer when more castles are open to go into a few. You could easily spend years in this area and be able to see a new castle each week. So here I’ll leave you, just imagine me holding my special Christmas market mug full of Glühwein up in salute to Germany!
.......... oh, one last thing, I was told I had to mention the deep fried potato pancakes (Kartoffelpuffer) they had for sale at the markets. I didn’t eat any as they looked like heart attack on a plate (the paper plate they sat on was see through after 30 seconds) but apparently they were just what you needed on a cold afternoon after a day of market browsing and went extremely well with the Glühwein.... (happy now B?)
From Blog