We were hoping while in Berlin the German Christmas Markets would be open but alas they weren't quite ready. I have been told German Christmas Markets are amazing. Near our Hotel in East Berlin was a smaller Christmas market was starting to set up so we stopped by a couple of times hoping to see some of the stalls. Alas only a few opened up before we had to leave. But we did get a small glimpse into what a German Christmas market looks like.
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| The food stalls were the first to open and at lunch time it was starting to get a bit busy. I tried Gluhwein which is a hot German spice wine. I know some people love it, but I wasn't crazy about it. |
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| By evening even though it was mostly just the food stalls and game booths open the place was packed. I haven't seen such crowds in a long time. This picture doesn't show the crowds of course |
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| I thought this was interesting--chocolate with red chili peppers. I didn't try one:0 |
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| The ginger bread cookies with royal icing were everywhere. My husband and daughter thought they were very good. I wanted to bring some back to hang on the tree but they were closed the day we stopped by on the way to the airport:( |
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| At night some of the games booths opened up and we enjoyed watching this game. Not sure of the name of it. |
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| But it looked like Bocce on ice |
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| Kids loved this one and Daddy bought a ticket for 6 down hill rides each, they were so thrilled with it. |
I kept hoping that the stalls would open up so I could get a glimpse of some of the German Christmas ornaments but that wasn't to be so we found a Kathe Wohlfahrt store and I got my Christmas fix that way.
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| I think I have several pictures over the years since living overseas of the kids next to the Kathe Wohlfahrt nutcrackers I Keep thinking about getting some nutcrackers to bring home and then I see the price and decide not too:) |
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| I love seeing all the Christmas decor and hearing the Christmas music it gets me into the mood of the holidays |
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| Across from the Christmas market was the Sony Center with restaurants and we watch them decorate the square one evening while having dinner. It was fun to see them put up the decorations! |
Now that I am back home I am in the mood to get my house all decorated for the Christmas season:)
Those downhill rides look exciting. My husband is taking one of the children to Germany for a long weekend in order to improve their German. We are hoping that they will get to a Christmas market.
ReplyDeleteI am sure they will see one open up. We saw lots of them being set up all over the city:) I hope everyone enjoys it:)
DeleteYou are sooo blessed to travel like you all do. I only dream of the places you go! Merry Christmas!
ReplyDeleteThanks Melissa, we have been extremely fortunate these past 4 years. I can't believe we go back to the states next year...I want to stay:0
DeleteThose gingerbread cookies are a German tradition, and not just at Christmas time. They are sort of like candy hearts on Valentine's day. They are given to loved ones.
ReplyDeleteOur village market opens this weekend.
How are the English Christmas Markets?
I didn't try one as I thought it might be very hard but turns out they aren't. I wanted to get a couple to take home but couldn't. We did see them all over the place.
DeleteEnglish markets are okay, the best one I have been to is in London but it was crazy expensive. The local ones are not up to my expectations of what a Christmas market should be. But I am probably being too picky:)
It looks like it was a fun trip even though you didn't get to see all you wanted too. When we lived in Spokane we used to travel down to Leavenworth. It's a little German town and they decorate all the shops and it is a great place to try German food and enjoy shopping. We loved going into the little stores. There was one for nutcracker and we bought a few. They are a little pricey. I loved your pictures and I really liked the one with the children going tubing.
ReplyDeleteBlessing to you all and keep on enjoying the adventures!
Let's see, I totally want to ride the downhill slide! My husband would probably eat the chocolate covered chili pepper and if he chickened out, my daughter would definitely eat it! I, on the other hand, am with you, no way! I so want some of those gingerbread cookies, I love gingerbread! Out of curiosity, how much are the nutcrackers? I'm sure if I tried to get one, it would costs loads more, due to the exchange rate and shipping and what not. It all looks so beautiful! I'd say we'd love to go there, but then you mentioned the crowds and we are sooooo not crowd people! So we'll have to continue to live vicariously through your posts. That means that you can't move back to the U.S. Sorry, but there are just too many people depending on you to live their vicarious European dream vacation through your blog, so you're just going to have to stay. I'll let the TSA agents know, so you can't slip back in. :-) Joking of course! Though, as happy as I will be to think that we might one day be able to meet in person, once we're on the same continent, I am going to miss seeing Europe through an American's eyes. Europeans just don't know what stuff to point out. What is daily life to them, excites us. Like, I doubt a European would have bothered to photograph the bike lanes in Germany like you did and which I found fascinating!
ReplyDeleteYou are so sweet. We are really going to miss it here. the amount of traveling we have done has been amazing. We have been so fortunate. I sent you an email with another blogger who posts on living in the UK from a US perspective :) It would be wonderful if one day we could met up, I have never been to the pacific Northwest and it is on my bucket list:)
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