Our first stop was the city of Nürnberg (or in English Nuremburg), nestled in the German hillside with a river running through the middle of town. Despite its 500,000 population, it seems quite quaint — at least the center of town that we saw. We arrived late Friday evening and were glad to have dodged the London fog fiasco and started our vacation. Though we lost a bit of time, we were able to see our primary destination — the Christmas Market — Saturday morning before heading to Salzburg Saturday afternoon.
Recommended to us as one of the best in Europe, Nuremburg’s Christmas Market didn’t dissappoint. The rows of stalls filled with food and decorations spilled out of the town square down the side streets in the old town. After browsing the nutcrackers, wooden toys, and hand-made ornaments, we tried some of the local “fair food.” Our favorite were small potato pancakes served with applesauce for dipping and hand-dipped chocolate covered fruit. There were also booths selling all the essentials for Christmas dinner: wheel cheese, fresh sausages and other meats, fruits and vegetables, desserts, breads, and flowers.
Christmas in Germany is well-decorated compared to London, but noticeably “neon-free” unlike much of the States (should I admit that I kind of miss the multicolor gingerbread Christmas lights?). The shops and buildings around town were covered with classic-styled pine greens, candles, white lights, and wooden ornaments. We enjoyed walking about and soaking up this German-styled Christmas spirit. Even the “tacky” Santa was classic as he turned the crank on an old music box.While not planning on shopping, we did pick up a few gifts, an ornament for our tree and a beautiful set of three wise men incense smokers (kind of like Nutcrackers, but they have working pipes that “smoke” incense instead of cracking nuts).