Friday, December 2, 2011

Christkindlesmarkt

Today was the annual PEP trip to the World Famous Christkindlesmarkt in Nuremberg.  This is considered the Christmas market of all Christmas markets. My goal today was a simple one.  Find Christmas gifts so that they can be sent to the U.S. next week and get there in time for Christmas day.  I expected to know no one on the trip.  Other friends that were hoping to come along didn't sign up before all the slots were full, so I figured it would just be a trip by my lonesome.  Turns out the group was full of familiar faces, so taking off on my own to attain my goal was going to be a bit of a challenge.  It was a fun day. I enjoyed spending my time with new faces and friends and exploring the stands for Christmas goodies to send back home.

I did manage to pull away from the group to do some shopping on my own.  I knew if I didn't, I would lose focus and miss out on this awesome opportunity to get all my holiday shopping done.  The market was busy, even on a Friday morning. After having been to the Christmas market in Bamberg several times already, I was really curious to see what the World Famous Christkindlesmarkt would be like.  (The Christmas market in Nuremberg is the only one that calls itself "Christkindlesmarkt".  All of the other markets are generally referred to as "Weihnachtsmarkts".  Just shows you how big this Christmas market in Nuremberg is that no other town market carries the "big" name.)  The most notable difference was that I heard English more than German today. Tourists from all over the world were in Nuremberg to experience the market that everyone in Germany talks about.  I refused to speak English, and I was commended by several different people on how well I spoke German.  Let me just say that my German is not good at all, so that just goes to show you how impressed they were to hear an American at least try to speak the native language.  Either way, it was fun to get the compliments.

Somehow I managed to get all my shopping done in the quick two hours the group was in Nuremberg, and I still had time to spare.  Almost as if it were planned, I ran into a small part of the group and enjoyed some bratwurst and gluhwein with my new friends.  Here are some of the pictures I took while I was taking it all in.












We plan on seeing several more Christmas markets this season. I'm excited to explore the differences between each one.  Now that I have my shopping done for family back home, I'll be focusing more on the experiences at each one and collecting German Christmas goodies for our own collection at home.  And, of course, I'll be enjoying each market with my hands wrapped around a warm cup of gluhwein to make my heart smile and my fingers stay warm.

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