Christmas Market in Nuremberg, Germany

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Last weekend, we went to Nuremberg, Germany to go to the Christmas Market. Every December there are Christmas markets in many German and Austrian cities with traditional food, drinks, and decorations for sale. We chose Nuremberg because it has one of the most famous Christmas markets and because we found a great flight deal to Stuttgart, only a two hour train ride away.

When we arrived the first night, we found out that our hotel was celebrating its one year anniversary. They had free drinks and “science experiment” type appetizers prepared by a team of chefs. One of the friendly chefs explained the different foods to us and brought us all sorts of things to try: rose petal soup served in a large fake syringe, coconut “caviar” (the caviar was really just coconut milk dripped into a chemical to make small, caviar-sized droplets) served with a big eyedropper full of orange juice and olive oil, chocolate and lemon mousses dipped in liquid nitrogen (it made the outside super-crispy), and chocolates filled with a creamy center made of grass (like from the lawn…he assured us that they washed it first). Everything was actually pretty good, and the free glasses of wine being passed around didn’t hurt either.

The next day, we took a walk around the Nuremberg city center, went up to the castle on the hill, and then checked out the Christmas market when it opened mid-afternoon. There were lots of Christmas decorations and other holiday paraphernalia, but our favorite thing was the food. In fact, during the day, all we ate was market food: Nuremberg bratwursts with sauerkraut, Lebkuchen gingerbread cookies, and Glühwein, a spiced wine that’s served warm. We also enjoyed some non-German food finds like sushi, Korean kimchi, and Starbucks coffee (which we’ve missed, as the Starbucks empire has not made it to Portugal…yet) as well as bratwurst with curry powder and ketchup (check out the picture below).

After more than tripling our daily caloric allowance during the afternoon, we thought we would top it off with some bratwurst and sauerkraut for dinner. We followed the aroma of roasting sausage and we ended up in a restaurant with big communal tables, complete with German waitresses wearing big dresses, aprons, and pigtails who slammed beers down on the table and bossed everyone around. We were seated at a table with a nice group of Germans from Munich and we ended up talking and drinking with them for two or three hours. They even gave us some good tips for our trip to Germany next summer.

Traveling in Germany was really fun and easy and really did fit some of the positive stereotypes. On the train from Nuremberg to Stuttgart, there was a brochure on every seat stating exactly what time we would arrive at each station along the way, all of the connections that could be made at each station, and which track number each of the connecting trains would be on. Amazing. It was also fun to feel a little less foreign - people for the most part seemed to think we were German, although they quickly realized Lindsay wasn’t when they tried to talk to her and she just stared blankly back at them, muttering “Deutsch… nein…”

- Jason/Lindsay

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