Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Christmas Markets 2018: Day 8...Munich

We had a lazy start on our last full day in Germany.  When we finally got up and got around, we made our way over to the Viktualienmarkt to wander around.  After checking out the market and buying some of my favorite sweet peppers stuffed with cream cheese, we decided to have lunch at Fisch Witte, which is where we ate last year.  We looked for other options, but at Fisch Witte they have heaters and blankets so you can sit outside.  We enjoyed a lovely lunch of pasta, fish soup, and wine.

Vendors at the Viktualienmarkt

You can barely make out the May Pole in this photo.  In the summer time, the market is full of people visiting the biergarten.  


We left the market and walked back through the market in the Marienplatz to purchase some ornaments for gifts.  I cannot never get enough of the Marienplatz market, despite it being touristy.

Blue skies

The most fitting picture of the trip, me in the Marienplatz with a gluhwein sign behind me.  Classic Keri.

Loving our time in Munich.


We dropped some things off at our hotel and went out for a long walk.  We ended up stopping by the Dallmayr, another one of our favorite places in Munich to buy some chocolate.  After living the Dallmayr, we ended up walking to Englischer Garter park.  We wandered around the mark and enjoyed the atmosphere.  We also wanted to check to see if the vendor where we bought my Christmas pyramid was lying about it being the last one.  He wasn't, I got the last one!  

I really love the Christmas Market at the park


Live music at the Chinesischer Turm Weihnachtsmarkt

As we were leaving, we decided to walk up the hill to one of the towers to watch the sunset.  It was absolutely gorgeous and we got to see the Munich skyline.

The sunset in Englischer Garter Park

Enjoying everything about our last day in Munich


Munich sunsets in the Hofgarten

We got back to the Marienplatz in just enough time to climb St. Peter's church to get a view of the Marienplatz.  

Overlooking the Marienplatz market

Beautiful

It was so cold and windy at the top of the church!


Chimes on the hour




We spent the rest of the evening at Augustiner enjoying beer, wine, and apple strudel.  We met a nice man named Stefan that was from Cologne.  We sat and drank for hours with him talking about Germany and hiking around Europe.  

We ended the night in the Marienplatz.  The market was closed, but I just love wandering around and seeing the tree lit up with no one else around.  I felt so much gratitude for being in Germany.

We love Munich so much.


The next day we started the long journey back home.  We had such a wonderful time on this trip.  We love visiting Germany and taking in all of the atmosphere around us.  Munich is definitely one of our favorite cities and I cannot wait until we can make it back again.  I never dreamed we would visit the Christmas markets two years in a row.  Christmas time in Germany definitely has a special place in my heart.  Until next time Munich!

Auf Weidersen!  

Monday, January 21, 2019

Christmas Markets 2018: Day 6...Mittenwald...

Sunday started with more delicious breakfast at our hotel.  I ran around Munich and then we started the walk to the train station with plans to get to Mittenwald.  It was snowing on our walk to the train station, which was lovely.

A snowy start to the day in Munich

Snowy Karlsplatz


We had a great, short hour and forty-five minute train ride to Mittenwald.  We departed the train and were greeted with blue skies!  Blue skies in the mountains???  Mittenwald is a tiny town in the mountains and my friend Wendy visited with her family in the Summer of 2017 and said it was a do not miss.  The Christkindlmarkt in Mittenwald takes place for four days only and it happened to fall when we would be able to visit, so off we went!

Our view leaving the train station.  We were loving Mittenwald already.  

We did not have many plans for Mittenwald other than visit the market and wander the town.  A lot of things were closed in the town, but it all made sense once we made it to the market and saw that all the town was there.

Mittenwald, Germany looking beautiful.  I cannot wait to come back here and hike in those mountains.

Wandering around picturesque Mittenwald

Mittenwald is known for the paintings on the buildings.  They were beautiful.

The entrance to the Christkindlmarkt.  After wandering around town, we were ready for some gluhwein!

The Mittenwald Christkindlmarkt was extremely charming.

Mountains as a backdrop to a Christkindlmarkt?  Yes please!


Squinty eyes with steaming hot gluhwein!

I purchased a cute alpine Christmas owl to bring home to always remember this market.  This is the market where I discovered turbo gluhwein, which is gluhwein with a shot of rum!  It was delicious.  Ken went to find a water closet and while I was enjoying my turbo gluhwein, I met some people from Regensburg, Germany.  I sipped my gluhwein and chatting with them.  Ken joined us and one of the guys said "Wow, a true American man!"  I am not sure if he was talking about Ken's size or what.  They were all delightful and they told me that I chose well by selecting Mittenwald over neighboring Garmisch Partenkirchen.  

We said our goodbyes to our new friends and wandered into the beautiful church in the square.  It was beautiful!  We were not supposed to take pictures, but it was so beautiful that we had to sneak one.

The churches in Europe are so beautiful

Ken enjoying Mittenwald.  We brought that red gluhwein mug home as a souvenir.

We vowed to definitely return to Mittenwald to hike in the mountains.


Soon enough we were on the train back to Munich.  We arrived back in plenty of time to check out the market in the Sendlinger Tor area not far from our hotel.  

Sendlingtor Tor Christkindlmarkt

Gluhwein stand for the win!  The Sendlinger Tor market was small but very charming.


We left the market and made our way to Ken's second favorite place in Munich, the Hofbrauhaus!  Sadly, it was at the Hofbrauhaus that we realized how old we have gotten.  We found a table that was open for just the two of us and was off in the corner.  It was away from the band but yet we could still hear it.  I told Ken that I am ashamed of the old people we have become!

Ken loving his time at the Hofbrauhaus, even if it is in a quiet corner.

A little dunkel for me


The Hofbrauhaus is always a great time!


We left the Hofbrauhaus and called it a night in our hotel.  We had such a wonderful Sunday enjoying a new town in Germany.

Next up, a full day in Munich!

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Christmas Markets 2018: Day 5...Bamberg

Bamberg.  We had deemed it the unicorn city.  We attempted a visit in 2016 and failed to get there.  We went last year and it did not go at all as planned.  In all honesty, we were just waiting for something to happen to keep us from getting there on this trip.

We thought fate was going to keep us from Bamberg yet again when I could not find the confirmation for our train tickets.  As it would turn out, my credit card declined the purchase due to it being international and I needed to repurchase them after I gave my credit card company the okay.  The confusing part was the transaction appeared to go through online so I did not repurchase.  Alas, we were able to buy tickets to Bamberg with the Bavarian ticket.  It was just a little slower of a train ride than an ICE train, but waaaaayyyy less expensive.

So, we were on our way to Bamberg.  In the daylight.  We were both pretty sure something would happen and keep us from finally making it there.  Imagine our surprise when we got off the train and realized, we had made it!

We left the train station and started walking towards the old town.  Our plan for the day was to visit a few breweries and visit the Christmas market.

Our first stop was Schlenkerla for their famous smoked beer, the Maerzen.  Ken enjoys this beer, but I do not really care for it much.  It has a very strong smoked taste, but this is the famous beer of the Franconia area.

Schlenkerla

I love the signs of the breweries in this region

We left the brewery and walked around the river.  We found some really adorable houses near the water.

Some of the darling houses in Bamberg

Wandering around the old town

We finally got to see the old town hall in the daylight.  This was one of the best parts of the day.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the trip.  I am so glad we finally got to see Bamberg during the daylight!

The buildings are so beautiful and elaborate

The detail on these buildings are unreal.  Bamberg was untouched during WWII, so it is all original. 

Some of the Christmas details around town

We wandered our way all the way to Klosterbrau, which is one of the breweries we wanted to visit and did not get to.  


Klosterbrau

This was my favorite brewery of all in Bamberg.  I am not a big beer drinker, but I really enjoyed the beer I tried at this brewery.

Cheers from Bamberg!

Ken was very happy to be spending the day in Bamberg.

The funniest part of the day were the men behind Ken in the picture above.  They were having so much fun at the brewery and laughing so hard.  At one point one of the guys clasped his hands together like he was praying and was leaned over the table looking at me shouting "bitte, bitte!" (please, please) while his friends were all turned and staring at me.  Now, I know just a bit of German, but I have no idea what was going on.  Ken and I started laughing so hard and I told them that I speak English.  

They continued their antics and when we left, I spoke a little German to them.  I have no idea what was going on, but I think they kind of liked me just a bit.  

We left the brewery and went to the market for food.  The breweries in Germany usually stop serving food after a certain time and we were unable to get lunch so we were starving!

Seeing the streets of Bamberg made my day

The details of the signs is something I wish we did more in the US

The Bamberg market winds around the old town.  These were some of my favorite stahls

The Bamberg tree.  We saw this in the rain and the dark last year, so it was quite spectacular that we could see it again before the sun went down.


We chose market food for dinner.  Ken got some delicious fish and I chose curry wurst.  The market food is so amazing.  We had a little gluhwein and gingerbread for dessert.

Loving Bamberg so much!

We spent the rest of the night wandering around the market drinking gluhwein.  It was all we could ever ask for.  We ended the night back at Schlenkerla for Ken to have one final Maerzen.



The Bamberg Christkindlmarkt




Ken and his love for beer.


We left Bamberg feeling so grateful to have gotten to truly visit.  It was such a great day to be in Bamberg.

Up next, Mittenwald!

Thursday, January 10, 2019

Christmas Markets 2018: Day 4...Munich

Friday started with our usual breakfast at the hotel and my normal run around Munich.  I really love running around and checking out the different areas.  I usually find a restaurant or Christmas market for us to check out.

Ken was feeling a little tired, so he decided to rest for a bit while I went out to explore.  I had big plans to find a store to buy some candy to take home!

I walked around the Marienplatz and over to the Vktualienmarkt.

I think the main market in the Marienplatz is so beautiful, that I find it impossible to not take a picture whenever I walk through it.


One of the best gluhwein stands in the Marienplatz

After I returned to our hotel room, Ken and I headed out for the day.  Our main plan was to check out all of the local markets.  Our first stop was the Medival Market.

We had tried to visit this market during the evening two other times and it was so unbelievable packed that we never got to enjoy it.

The Medival Market gluhwein mugs.  Some drinks are served in clay goblets, which were really cute.

The market had stahls with a lot of food options and unique gift items

The market really did have a Medival vibe.  We bought some candied nuts to have as a snack for the day.  

After we left the Medival Market, we made our way to the Residenz Market, which we visited last year.  We were excited about seeing it during the daytime since we visited it during the night last year.

The Christmas Pyramid never disappoints!

I tried a rose gluhwein at this market and found it to be delicious!


After the Residenz, we went by our hotel to drop off our goodies and to start walking towards Tollwood, which is a Winter festival located on the Oktoberfest grounds.  On our way, we stopped by an Augustiner for a little lunch.  We both enjoyed a little schnitzel, because when in Germany!

We arrived to Tollwood, which is a giant festival with tents with indoor shopping and bars.  We decided to stop into one of the bar tents that had living music playing.

Live music at one of the bars.  I enjoyed an Aperol Spritz here, which was a great change from all the gluhwein.

Tollwood grounds.  I cannot even imagine how packed and busy this would be for Oktoberfest!

Tollwood grounds

Having fun at the Tollwood Winter Festival


We had one small issue here where the bartender did not give us tokens to return with our drink glasses to get our deposit back.  We knew nothing of the tokens until it was time to turn our glasses in for a refund.  It was pretty annoying, but there was nothing we could do about it.  That is 4 euro that we will never see again.

Inside one of the science tents.  The science tent had a lot of different experiments.


Tollwood after dark

We enjoyed checking out Tollwood, but we would most likely not go back again as we felt that we saw everything we wanted to see.


We left Tollwood and headed to Englischer Garten Park for our favorite market in the park. 


Chinesischer Turm Christkindlmarkt


I love the atmosphere at this market

I found and bought my most desired item of the trip at this market:  My very own Christmas Pyramid!  I was so excited to get one to bring home.  Obviously, mine is much smaller than the ones in the middle of the Christkindltmarkts.  

I enjoyed an apfel crepe at this market along with a lot of gluhwein.

Speaking of gluhwein, Ken had a little mishap when he ordered our gluhwein.  We were still on high alert after the token incident at Tollwood.  Well, since we visited this market last year, we knew that we would get tokens with our gluhwein mugs for our deposit.  After Ken ordered and paid, I asked him if he got our tokens.  He said no and walked back up to the gluhwein stahl and put his hand in what he thought was the token jar only for it to be the tip jar.  The lady selling the gluhwein looked at him like he was crazy and Ken immediately realized what he was doing.  He felt awful.  Meanwhile, I was about to pee my pants from laughing.  It turns out, there was no deposit or tokens needed this year.  Ken made me purchase all of the gluhwein for the remainder of the evening.

We spent the rest of our time at the market watching people play this shuffle board/curling game.  It was really fun to watch.

I love the Chinesischer Turm market!


We closed the market down and walked back toward our hotel.  We stopped off at Augustiner for a little goulash and drinks.  We had a great full day in Munich!

This happened walking back to our hotel.  I wish I could explain it, but I cannot!



Up next, Bamberg!!!!