Christmas Markets 2012: Heidelberg

Yesterday we went to explore the Christmas market in Heidelberg. While we bought a lot more things in Heidelberg than we did in Deidesheim I was a little disappointed in the Heidelberg market. I thought it would be bigger and have more stalls with things to buy. It was very spread out over about 3 miles (Heidelberg is a big place and has an enormous shopping/pedestrian zone) with a few booths here and there and most of the booths were selling food instead of crafts. I'm sure they spread out the market on purpose so you have to walk by all the stores in Heidelberg and be tempted to shop at them.

Coming into the main square in Heidelberg, there's a big Christmas pyramid all lit up and selling Glühwein:

A shot of the top of it:

And the Glühwein mugs they sold there had hearts for handles! My favorite mugs so far:

I thought this booth was cute:

Chocolate tools!

Little cars, cell phones, clothespins, wrenches, all made out of chocolate! No we didn't buy any but we should have:

We bought one of these stars (in orange of course) to hang in our window:

We also bought one of these little handmade houses/churches with tealights in them. I wanted to buy 2 but the smallest ones are almost 30 euros!!

Maybe next year we'll add a house to our little church:

One of the meat stands. Martin got one of the long sausages in the big sausage pile in this picture. I assume it was good he ate it so fast I didn't even get a bite:

Christmas Markets 2012: Deidesheim

We decided to explore the Christmas markets in the Pfalz this year instead of traveling to a larger city in Germany to see a more well-known market. It will be good to know what's to offer here in our region in case people want to come visit us next December!

Our first market was Deidesheim which is about 9 minutes south of Bad Dürkheim by train. The market had a lot to offer - the usual Glühwein and bratwurst of course but also many ornaments, leather and wooden crafts, glassware and even some potpourri.

First things first, after enjoying the pretty sunset we grabbed some Glühwein:

Our little Glühwein mugs, with Martin taking a picture of them to send to some friends:

Then of course we had to find some sausage!

Okay so maybe the main reason we go to Christmas markets is for the food and drink but the booths were all very atmospheric and cozy too! This one had tons of ornaments hanging from the ceiling:

Here's the required heart-shaped-cookie booth:

And a few pictures of the market as a whole:

And a final mug of Glühwein while standing next to some neat burning logs for warmth:

There was also a nice brass quartet playing Christmas music but I didn't get a picture of them. Overall not a bad way to spend a few hours on a Saturday evening.