And We Have A Winner

Not surprisingly all the cities in Germany are very competitive about who has the best Christmas Market. Now I have hardly been on a compressive tour, but so far I have visited three different markets in Berlin and they are at the bottom of the list. The Prague Market was good, but had more food and less Christmas which is a strike against it in my book. Today I visited the Nuremberg Christmas Market and it is the bomb. No wonder people come from near and far to visit it.

Nuremberg is considered Germany’s most German city. The Market lives up to its German heritage. There are more christmas decorations the than all the other markets put together. Of course sometime there are so many that it is hard to see them.

I have tried to steer clear of buying the painted glass ones in fear that they won’t make it home in one piece. I love the whirlly ones that spin around from the heat of candles, but they are incredibly pricey. I have tried to purchase unique things I can’t find at home, which is harder and harder in our ever shrinking world.

Carter and Russ have been very good sports about my Christmas Market obsession. Today they let me wander on my own. They found the best place to wait was the Lions Club Of Nuremberg coffee house. Earlier in the day we ran into a Santa who told us about the coffee house set up in a church meeting room. The members of the lions club baked homemade cakes that they sold with the coffee or tea. It was a lovely place to get to sit and rest and hide from the Christmas Market craziness.

Carter made good friends with a retired college professor who was working the coffee house. He told us what not to miss during our visit to Nuremberg. By the time I had caught up with them Russ had enjoyed his stolen and coffee, but I was able to enjoy the rest too with some apple cake.

We are yet to have some things that apparently were invented in Nuremberg, pretzels and gingerbread, but we still have another day, although that one is designated as our day of history. More to come on that tomorrow.

We also ate our first and probably our last traditional German Lunch. Carter and I are not fans of potato dumplings, which is a potato, flour and egg concoction that is more like a ball of paste than anything resembling a potato. Mine was with Pork knuckle that I had in honor of my father who made me promise to eat one and Carter had duck. Russ had Nuremberg bratwurst which are smaller than regular brats. All fine, but heavy.

Our waiter thought something was wrong with us when we told him we were done with out half eaten plates. Just too much German food for us. Thank goodness we walked almost ten miles today because we need something to counteract the food.