Wow, it’s hard to imagine that this time last year I was in Europe freezing my butt off and finally getting to experience a White Christmas! As an Australian, Christmas has always meant a stinking hot day with a BBQ and lots of salads followed by a swim and a nap. But I had always yearned for that quintessential white Christmas experience – snow covered buildings, mulled wine, and CHRISTMAS MARKETS!
First stop was Munich. The Christmas Markets in Munich are located in Marienplatz and run from Nov 25th – Dec 24th with opening hours of Monday – Saturday 10 a.m – 8.30 p.m and Sunday 10 a.m – 7.30 p.m.
The most famous Christmas market is the Christkindl market.
The Munich markets are breathtakingly beautiful with fairy lights lining the streets and illuminated Christmas trees and stars dotted around the marketplace.
The Rathaus (new Town Hall) looks even more beautiful lit up at night and serves as the perfect backdrop for these markets.
I LOVE gingerbread. Gingerbread stalls are everywhere, coming in different shapes and sizes. Happy Swah!
There are beautiful Christmas tree ornaments, photo frames and dolls for sale throughout the market place.
There are other smaller Christmas markets dotted around Munich, we stumbled upon this one whilst out sightseeing one day.
I LOVE YOU gingerbread. I demolished this in a day.
My next stop were the Prague Christmas markets. I was only going to walk by and briefly check them out but I actually enjoyed these markets even more than the famous Munich ones! The Prague markets are located at the Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square and run from 26 November – 08 January. Their opening hours are Monday – Friday 9 a.m – 7 p.m and Saturday – Sunday 9 a.m – 8 p.m.
Gorgeous Christmas trees are lit up with fairy lights throughout the Prague markets.
Similarly to the Munich markets, Prague stalls sold a variety of crafts, sweets and mulled wine.
The Prague markets also serve a dessert called Trdlo. It is a cylindrical pastry that is rolled in sugar and almonds. It looked and smelled amazing but as I am allergic to almonds I only could stare and sniff. :(
Even walking back to my hotel there were Christmas decorations and lights everywhere! It was like a fairy tale.
In the day time the Christmas markets are still beautiful (and a lot less busy). What a great time I had experiencing my first White Christmas :)
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[…] that later) – but travelling to Europe in Winter has its perks. There is of course skiing and Christmas Markets, as well as the advantage of less tourists (so you can mingle with the locals more) and cheaper […]
We didn’t get snow when we went to Prague, it was the only thing that was missing. We didn’t want a foot of snow or anything like that, just a flurry for atmosphere. But Jack Frost didn’t seem to want to co-operate. :( But it was -6, so maybe it was just as well.
And last year, we went to the Cologne Christmas markets. No snow there either, but we weren’t really expecting any. All I can say is that Germany knows how to do Christmas properly. I saw plenty of decorations that weren’t to my tastes and plenty more that I loved but I only saw one thing in those markets that I thought was horrifically tacky. And they had white lights, not coloured or even worse, those blue-tinged white lights. And a real Christmas tree outside practically every shop! It really was like a different world.
But the best bit about Cologne was finding a set of decorations that I love but thought I’d never be able to find. My Mum has these beautiful wooden decorations that her Nan bought her and they must have come from Germany, although we didn’t know that until we went to Cologne. One of Cologne’s Christmas markets is on a riverboat and it’s mostly antiques and second-hand decorations. And what do you think I found there? Only an identical set to the ones my Mum has. :) I did have to snaffle it out from under the nose of someone else who really wanted it, not to mention paying far more than what it was worth, but I’d’ve paid double.
Not sure which market is next on the list but it’ll have a hard job topping Cologne.
Thank you so much for the info Kate! And what a shame you didn’t get snow, it really adds atmosphere! I will definitely make sure I visit the Cologne markets sometime in the future, they sound wonderful :)