First Stop....Nürnberg!

Nürnberg Weihnachtmarkt

About 6" of snow fell during the course of yesterday and last night canceling schools on base and allowing us to kick of Christmas vacation early. I was actually hoping this would happen so I could get us packed up and on the road earlier than if I had gone to work. We decided to head to Nürnberg to spend the night before heading on to Garmisch for our stay there. Nürnberg hosts the original Weihnachtsmarkt. Yep, the whole Christmas market tradition was believed to have started here with the Nürnberg Weihnachtsmarkt! The first mention of the market in writing is 1628, and in 1737 a list showed that 140 craftsman had been granted a spot in the market to sell their goods. It is still going strong today as one of the most beautiful and largest markets in Germany. It's was a must see for us, since we have been to so many Christmas markets, it only made sense that we visit the most popular and historic one in Germany! We got to Nürnberg a little later than planned and had to quickly check into the hotel and head over to the market. We of course stopped for some Starbucks first thing. They don't do eggnog lattes over here in Germany, but they do have their own special Christmas coffees and my new favorite is the toffee nut latte....a more than adequate stand in for my beloved eggnog latte. Delicious!

The market was HUGE and was actually several markets within the large market. There was an international market with booths representing different countries, a kids market with kid themed goods at the booths and rides for the little ones, and a general market with just about every kind of gifty goody imaginable and all kinds of food. Smelling all the heavenly scents from the market was not good for us starving travelers. We browsed and ate and then headed back to the hotel to warm up. One might wonder what exactly you do to entertain a two year old in a tiny European hotel room barely big enough to walk around the bed. Well you unplug the phone and let him play with that of course. As you can see, he was highly entertained!


Then he realized Daddy was filming, you know how much he loves the camera!


He eventually gave up shooing off Daddy and went back to playing...






The next morning we got up and walked back into the old towne for some more Starbucks and market fun. We browsed one last time before heading out on the road for Garmisch, off to the Alps!