Christkindlmarkts 2025...Day 5: Munich

We had another wonderful breakfast at the Hotel Im Weissen Rossl aka the White Horse Inn. We loved staying at this hotel so much that I am dying to go back again!

Breakfast views overlooking the lake and the lakeside pool.

Breakfast views at Hotel Im Weissen Rossl

After our delicious breakfast, we started our journey back to Munich. We took the ferry to St. Gilgen, the bus to Salzburg, and the train to Munich. It was quite the journey to and from St. Wolfgang but definitely worth it for the slower pace of Christmas Market.

The view on the way to the ferry.

Cruising away from St. Wolfgang.

Beautiful Wolfgangsee

Beautiful St. Wolfgang, we will see you again!

Once we arrived in Munich, we checked into our hotel and immediately went to the Rindermarkt for market food and gluhwein. I enjoyed a rose gluhwein and a currywurst, naturally. It was so nice to have a rose gluhwein after enjoying all of the red while in St. Wolfgang!

My beloved Christmas Pyramid. It is so crazy to think that back in 2017, we stumbled upon this area as we were lost trying to find our hotel. Who would have thought it would be one of our favorites!

We walked over to the Viktualienmarkt and were delighted to see that they have a new, larger Glühwein stall with new drink options. It is always a favorite, and we knew we would definitely spend more time here during this trip!

After the Viktualienmarkt, we figured why not just walk to Englischer Garten Park? We were delighted to get to hear the band play some Christmas Carols.

Whew, what a day it was. We were quite tired, but made it back to our hotel in time to have wine and dumplings at Dami, our favorite restaurant in Munich. We called it a night after that, feeling very much at home in our favorite city.

Christkindlmarkts 2025...Days 1 and 2: Traveling and Salzburg

We are back from another amazing Christmas market trip! While I am super behind on vacation posts, I am going to go ahead and post about this trip and will post about the other trips later. I want to get this posted while it is fresh on my mind. It was such a wonderful trip! 

Ready for our long-haul flight from Denver to Munich!

We typically try to fly United, especially to Europe, since we both have a decent status and earn reward miles for free flights. 

Ken says that I eat my ice cream sundae with the precision of a surgeon!

My favorite part about United might be the ice cream sundae cart. Although it is not as good as it used to be before Covid. That being said, United started serving my favorite rose, Whispering Angel, so it is a win-win!

We both slept for quite a while before waking up in Germany! We arrived in Munich and had to enroll in the new EU entry requirements with fingerprints and facial recognition. 

We had a little extra time before catching the S-bahn and decided to stop for our first official gluhwein of the season at the airport market!

So much happiness!!!

A peek at the airport Christmas Market

We decided to mix things up a little this year. Instead of spending the entire trip based in Munich, we decided to go to Austria for a few nights. We got off the S-Bahn at the Munich Ost station and boarded the train to Salzburg!

Travel tip: Don't forget to travel from Munich to Salzburg on the Bayern Ticket!

We arrived in Salzburg, dropped off our stuff at our hotel, and headed to the Salzburg Christkindlmarkt! We have been here a few times, and it never disappoints. 

Salzburger Christkindlmarkt under the Salzburg Cathedral

The Salzburger market is absolutely beautiful under the cathedral.

More beautiful Salzburg stahls

Loving the Salzburger Market!

We left the market and walked to one of Ken's favorite places, Augustiner Brau! Of all the breweries we have visited, this is definitely Ken's favorite. It is even better in the summer under the chestnut trees!

Visiting the Augustiner

Ken is in his happy place and recognizing that he is wearing a huge competitor football sweatshirt!

We enjoyed a few drinks at the brewery before walking back to our hotel. We grabbed our welcome glasses of wine and enjoyed the snacks the hotel left for us before calling it a night. We were quite tired from our long travel day.

Salzburg Hotel: Mercure Hotel Salzburg City

Christkindlmarkts 2023...Day 9: Christmas and Traveling Home

Waking up in Munich on Christmas is both a happy and sad day. For one, it is Christmas! We are traveling home to see our girl, Lotti! Number two, it is sad because it means we are leaving our favorite city. When we leave, there is always the hope of returning the following year, but nothing is ever promised. 

We had breakfast at our hotel and took the S-Bahn to the airport. We enjoyed a little time in the lounge at the airport before boarding our flight.

Getting cozy for our long haul flight home

Christmas mimosas!!!

Our flight was very lowkey and not very full at all. We ended up talking to one of the flight attendants a lot and several great tips for future travel in the Alps! Our Christmas day flight was just as relaxing as we could hope for.

My Christmas dinner, pumpkin ravioli

Ken's Christmas dinner, goose. Our flight attendant said this is a German tradition.

We had a wonderful time in Germany. This trip was a little more stressful than other trips. We were dealing with my mom being ill and managing it from afar. When discussed with her, she 100% wanted us to go on our trip to enjoy our time away together, knowing we would see her when we returned home. Even though we had her blessing, she was always on our minds and it was difficult to fully enjoy our time knowing she was not 100%.

As I always try to do, I made a video of short clips of our time away to somehow try to show how cute the markets are. The video fails miserably at capturing the smells and the overall environment, but alas, it is the best I can do!

2023 Germany Christkindlmarkts

Christkindlmarkts 2023...Day 8: Christmas Eve

The Marienplatz Christkindlmarkt closes prompting at 2:00 pm on Christmas Eve. We enjoyed the market for final snacks and shopped around a bit for a few gifts. Sadly, it was raining so we were dodging the rain a bit. We decided to forego lunch at the market and was able to to get inside the Augustiner just before they stopped serving lunch and drinks for the day.

Christmas Eve lunch at the Augustiner

We dropped our purchases from the market off in our hotel room and decided to go for a long walk in Englischer Garten Park. It was a nice beautiful chilly day to enjoy the park. We were delighted to see that gluhwein was being sold at one of the stalls at the Chinesischen Turm Christkindlmarkt. Of course, we had to stop to enjoy a final gluhwein!

My handsome husband enjoying the last gluhwein of the season.

As we were leaving the park, we noticed that one of the drink spots we love so much in the summer was open and serving gluhwein! We had just enough cash left to be able to enjoy one more. Luckily for me, this stall sells rose!

Englischer Garten Park Gluhwein stall, open on Christmas Eve!

Buying our gluhwein

Three gluhwein options at this location

We were not the only ones taking advantage of this stall on Christmas Eve

So happy to be enjoying a bonus gluhwein!

This being our third time to spend Christmas Eve in Munich, we knew that our dining options would be limited. We also knew from last year, that there is a small cafe that is open that serves slices of pizza. We had pizza slices to go last year, but enjoyed pizza and drinks inside the cafe this year.

Christmas Eve dinner!

After pizza, we walked through the Marienplatz one final time to bid farewell, as we were leaving in the morning. 

Merry Christmas Eve!!

We ended the night with a glass of wine and paprika chips in our hotel room and feeling grateful that we got to visit our favorite city during Christmas.

Christkindlmarkts 2023...Day 7: Augsburg

A perfect day trip from Munich is to Augsburg. It is approximately a 30-minute train ride on a regional train. We had such a wonderful time visiting here last year that we wanted to make sure and visit again. It is such an easy day trip that I think it is a not to be missed location during Christmas.

We arrived late in the afternoon to enjoy the market at dusk. I remembered from other visits here that they have so many different drink options with different styles of mugs and glasses.

Augsburg Christkindlmarkt

Augsburg has a Christmas Pyramid!

It was 

Enjoying our special mulled syrah!

After taking this picture a man approached us after hearing us speak English. He was from the US and had moved to Germany a few years ago after he reconnected with a German lady that he had met while he was in his 20's and stationed in Germany. Facebook helped to reconnect them and they were both single and thought why not! He told us that he gets homesick and likes to come to the market and listen for American English and talk to American tourists. We enjoyed talking to him and listening to his life in Germany including how he was able to get insurance. 

Sweet treats in Augsburg

The Augsburg Christkindlmarkt

My favorite photo from the evening

One of the busiest gluhwein stalls in Augsburg. It was drizzling and we found a dry spot under the Christmas tree to enjoy our gluhwein until the drizzle passed.

The market does get busy!

We shopped around for a while buying a few things for home. We ended up at the same stall as last year and the lady running it remembered me from last year. She was very kind and boxed my items for me very nicely so that I could get them home safely.

Shopping in Augsburg

We had such a fun time in Augsburg!

We had a short train ride back to Munich and we made it in time to enjoy our favorite gluhwein stall one more time in the dark. The Christkindlmarkts close at 14:00 on Christmas Eve, so I always like to make sure we can enjoy the market in Munich on the 23rd at night time.

Getting gluhwein at our favorite stall. Rose for me and Rot for Ken.

One of the reasons we love this gluhwein stall so much is that there is a seating area inside complete with a fireplace!

We enjoyed our gluhwein, closed down the market, and went back to our hotel to watch Christmas movies in bed.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation for the win!

Christkindlmarkts 2023...Day 6: A Lazy Munich Day

Friday was another lazy day in Munich. We had planned on a day trip to Augsburg, but with the weather forecast being unpredictable, we decided we were better off staying in Munich. Neither of us slept well again overnight so we slept in and had breakfast at the last moment before getting ready for the day. We made our first stop of the day the Medival Market. I ended up getting some nice gifts here last year and wanted to shop around it again during the day when it is not as packed as it is at night!

It was drizzling again today so we did our best to stay dry.

Munich's Medival Market on a less busy early afternoon.

For whatever reason, we always buy some candied nuts at this market and walk around and enjoy them while we shop and sip our gluhwein. 

We had an earlier dinner at Eataly and enjoyed shopping around the store. We had found a wine bar in the Viktualienmarket last year and we decided we would stop by and enjoy a little non-mulled wine for a bit.

Enjoying wine at the bar of the wine bar. It was very busy and clearly a favorite with locals after work. 

We left the wine bar and walked through the Rinkermarkt so that I could see my beloved Christmas Pyramid.

The Rindermarkt is such a great area away from the main Marienplatz market. 

The Christmas Pyramid, looking fantastic in the Rindermarkt

We walked home through the Marienplatz so that we could stop off at the Augustiner for a little Bierhalle action. 

It was probably our most low-key day of the trip. Between the unpredictable weather and our lack of sleep, relaxing around Munich was just what we needed.

Christkindlmarkts 2023...Day 5: Munich

We woke up to a rainy day on Thursday. We tried to take advantage of breaks in the rain and skip out for small amounts. I did find time to run and of course I ran around the Marienplatz and saw the Marienplatz from one of my favorite viewpoints. 

Marienplatz scenes during my run.

It ended up raining more and we decided to relax in our hotel room during the storm. We both had a difficult time sleeping during this trip and found that we enjoyed afternoons in our hotel more than usual. 

Once the rain finally slowed down a bit, we ventured out to the closest gluhwein stall near our hotel. We ended up enjoying gluhwein with some Americans we met here that were originally from Chicago but now live in Tennessee. We talked to them for quite awhile about music and other things. 

Gluhwein is amazing, rain or shine.

Gluhwein and spiral potatoes make me happy!

The rain started to get heavy again so we darted into our favorite gluhwein stall to sit by the fire and watch others run around in the rain. 

My forever favorite Gluhwein stall in Munich!

Warm by the fire with rose gluhwein in hand

Once the rain stopped, we walked to Englischer Garten Park to the Chinesischen Turm Christkindlmarkt, which happens to be Ken's favorite market.

Englischer Garten Park's Weihnachtsmarkt

Eisstockschiessen is the German version of curling and it happens to be something that I hope to play one day in this exact spot.

It looked like it was several work groups that were there playing after work. We can only understand a little bit of what is going on, but we love to watch the game!

Enjoying gluhwein and watching Eisstockschiessen.

One of the best views at the Englischer Garten Market

All smiles at Ken's favorite Christkindlmarkt

We left the park and on the way was Hofbrauhaus, so we figured we should stop to enjoy a drink before calling it a night!

No matter how many times we go to Munich, we must stop by the Hofbrauhaus at least once each time!

Ken loves his one liter of dunkel!

I prefer wine, but love to take a sip of Ken's dunkel and of course, will never miss an opportunity to pose with a one liter!

We left the Hofbrauhaus feeling happy after our wonderful day in Munich, despite it being a rainy day!