Riyadh to Germany: Christmas Market Tour: Part 2

We've flown from Riyadh to Germany and totally enjoyed a day in Frankfurt, now it's time to start the Christmas Market Tour.

Day 1:
We met Greg, our tour guide, and said a quick hello to our other fellow travelers as we joined the rest of the German Christmas Market crew on the bus.  Our first stop was Heidelberg Christmas Market. Cute. I love the cobblestones in these towns. A bit wobbly underfoot, especially with ice, but I can imagine the clip clop of horse drawn beer kegs – for some reason Germany is synonymous with beer.

The ruin on the hill, Heidelberg.

On the walking tour - Entrance to the bridge

No idea...but was I there?  Yes I was!

Craftsmen, Heidelberg

I envisaged I would find lots of arty crafty types making their own Christmas related goods on a Christmas Market Tour.  Not quite.  It was fairly repetitive merchandise and mainly useful as Christmas tree decorations - not terribly popular back in Saudi.  You had to search for the true handcrafted creations, but once you found them, you usually weren't disappointed.  These were the only two I found early on the tour making their own goods.

I met a lovely German family while I ate my Kartoffelpuffer – a German potato pancake with apple sauce on a wafer. Rather nice on a cold day. And the obligatory cup of Gluwein. We decided to start a Christmas cup collection – at least one per market.

Oh - TrinkHalle, not Beer Drinking Hall

On to Baden Baden – a spa town with well heeled types wrapped against the cold browsing the stalls.  After being told all about the spa’s in Baden Baden it would have been nice to experience a mud wrap. But alas, it was not to be.  Instead, we got led on a walk to the ‘Drink Hall’, which ended up not being what we thought. It’s basically the’ Trinkhalle’, a pump room housed in an impressive building fronted by large pillars and lovely artwork that accommodates some healing water that you pay 50c to sample. We followed it with Gluwein.

After a quick look around and a bite to eat it was back on the bus and we headed off to Triberg, a little working town in the black forest, with a stop to take photos of a house size cuckoo clock.   It's a pity it was dark.  It would have been nice to have a closer look. 

Gunther, our driver, had to back us down the hotels' long driveway - not an easy feat given the snow everywhere, the rather steep drop off to one side and the narrow space he had to work with.  Claps and cheers all round once we arrived.  That evening we enjoyed a welcome dinner at the hotel, looking out at the snow falling while we were snug, warm, well fed and wined.


Day 2:
Next morning, we woke up to snow covered, hillside beauty and went out to take pictures of candy floss topped hedges (snow looks so light and fluffy when it’s new - have I already said that?) and steep, snow covered roofs huddled into the valley – very quaint and Christmas looking.

The snow shovel was out, the automated and manual variety, to clear the bus.  We grabbed the manual one to have a go.  There is no doubt that clearing snow off paths and driveways is a great way to keep skinny over winter.

Sludge and my Caterpillars

Back on the road, there was a slight change of plan due to weather conditions.   It had started to rain and that fluffy snow was turning to sludge, I was glad I bought Caterpillars before I left Saudi.   We had a potty stop by Lake Constance and one of the many churches in Germany.   Then on to Lindauer for lunch – the markets, unfortunately, were closed.  While Gregg was talking history a huge dump of snow fell off a roof and landed on the bonnet of a car parked below with a heck of a thud.  We moved the group into open spaces – better to be wet than dumped on. 

Oberammergau was our next stop – a real Christmas town. The famed Kathe Wohlfahrt shops were here. Actually, I discovered, they are everywhere. It’s amazing what you could waste your money on under the excuse of “Christmas”. Here’s just a few samples of what was on offer in the shops:

Witches???  Xmas???

These are popular

We were a few weeks late for the Passion Play that won’t be around for another 10 years – interesting story that one. Lots of paintings on buildings in this town tucked away under the mountains.  I love how artwork is everywhere in Germany - Inside buildings, outside buildings. I love the old buildings and architecture. I actually really enjoyed Germany.

Fussan night lights.

We spent the night in Fussen, another cobble stoned cute town.  Our attempts to find the recommended local brewery were to no avail.  Instead, we wound up in a nice little eatery, with a few others from the crew who also failed in brewery finding endeavors, where I tried Liver Balls and Sauerkraut.  There's no point being in a new country and not trying the local dishes.  Despite the title, it wasn't bad actually.  Washed it down with a local beer that started with ‘A’.  (A beer? Alcohol?)

Whew!

Day3:

Off to mad Ludwigs castle – Neuschwanstein - a nice little walk up the hill.  Ludwig II built this castle as an escape from the throngs, and he never finished it. What was completed, however, had all the latest mod-cons of the time – central heating, automatic flush dunny, running water. I quite liked the kitchen and could imagine myself a cook of the time, ordering peeps about with loads of firewood stoking the stoves.

View from one castle to the other

Lunch was coffee on the bus and left over breakfast. German breakfasts, we decided, were perfect for bus tours. They have loads of meat – sausage and ham – with rolls and eggs, tomatoes and Danish treats. I’d eat Bircher Muesli with fruit for brekky and make a packed lunch out of everything else. Brilliant!

The scenery of the alps provided a stunning back drop as Greg regaled us with the history of the area, Bavaria, and the Prince-Bishops in charge.  Potty stops, there were two, were a monastery (another OTT decked out church) and a rather large summer residence, Nympenburg, with an iced over pond that one of the crew decided to stand on. Wayne whipped out his video because if the ice had cracked he wouldn’t have wanted to miss that, now would he?

We traveled on to Munich and were unloaded at the Christmas markets with the promise of seeing the glockenspiel in operation. Nope! It only goes at lunch time. Never mind, Gluwein got me over that and the fact the we had lost one of our trio in the crowds. The place was quite busy.

Munich had my favorite hotel of the entire tour with central heated bathroom floor and a huge triple room.  We had time to change for dinner and off to a beer house we went. The Lowenbrau was walking distance up the road, and we couldn’t possibly leave without scoffing a pork knuckle and a few brews.

Self-explanatory

I quite liked Munich and would love to go back to see the museums - actually I’d like to see the museums and galleries at a few of the cities. Sounds like an art and museum tour is on the cards too!

The rest of our journey took us to Salzburg,  Nuremburg and back to Frankfurt.  It was a whirlwind trip and I have to say, I quite enjoyed it.  This was my first ever bus tour and it did what it said it would - took us to all the Christmas Markets on its route through Germany.  There was little time for self-exploration of the towns or meeting the locals which was something I was wanting to do as time drew on and my passion for shopping began to wane.  But there was plenty of time in the evenings to get to know fellow bus travelers and the end of the trip saw a lot of email and facebook swapping with promises to stay in touch.




Ka Kite,
Kiwi

From Riyadh to Germany: Christmas Market Tour

Last week, three Kiwi ladies, myself, Margaret and Michelle, flew out to Germany for a six night, seven day Christmas Market tour.  It was brilliant.  Margaret organized the tour through Blue Danube Holidays – basically she said I’m going, I said, can I come, she said I'll send you the link.  All I had to do was fill in the form and stump up with the money when the request arrived.  Headache free planning on my part.

I’ve never flown Lufthansa before – loved it.  We had the 2am flight (yay) but the rear of the plane was empty so I scored a row of seats for a 5 hour kip.

Margaret’s friend Ken, who moved to Germany 30 years ago, picked us up from the airport and, after we had dropped our bags at the hotel, he whisked us off to his place, a good hour out of town, to meet his wife, Liz, and spend the day.

We were lucky, the temperature the day before was -15C. Today was only -5C. Snow was everywhere. Brilliant!  I haven’t spent much time in snow.  Taumarunui had snow if you went up the mountain, but to have snow falling while you’re shopping is a novelty, and I was like a kid on her first holiday – ‘Look at that’, ‘look at this’, ‘can I get a photo’, ‘Oh that looks soooo German’ - I couldn’t get enough.  I didn't realise they grew so many grapes in Germany - there were kilometers of vineyards.  A summer time wine tour must be on the cards!

We passed through small villages down in gully’s that were so picturesque with their pitched snow covered roofs and narrow streets. In between were snow covered fields, some being turned so the brown sod was a contrast to the whiteness.

Ken explained that all the farmers lived in the villages.  The government didn't allow housing on farmland because it was used for farming, so the only buildings on the land were sheds, and small ones at that.  I quite like that idea. It worries me sometimes that New Zealand has allowed our farmland to be cut up into lifestyle blocks. Soon we’ll run out of that green grass Destination NZ likes to promote.

In this part of the globe Kiwi's are well known for our milk and lamb (You’re from New Zealand, you guys make Anchor milk!) Once the life-stylers get sick of the life style New Zealand will have major urban spread as the blocks get subdivided and built on. I like the adage ‘more grass, bigger cows’. It will be a sad day when NZ has to start raising our sheep and cattle indoors because the green pastures got gobbled up by housing.  It's an absolute fact that, in comparison to produce from other countries, NZ milk, cheese, butter and lamb all taste better, I’m certain because of their outdoor life – or maybe I’m just Aotearoa biased.

Anyway, moving on. I totally enjoyed our ride to Kens little village. The roads lined with snow covered trees were Christmas card picture perfect - I used to think they made those images up!

On the way Ken asked what we’d like for breakfast. “Bacon!” was the chorus. We bought two packs. We ate them both, along with eggs and some lovely German Danish and a Custard Round, home baked in the local village bakery, that was delicious. We couldn’t find another like it on our whole tour.

The supermarket really drove home that we were in Germany.  In Riyadh we are used to chaos, utter chaos and dust and noise and clutter.  The German supermarket was clean, with wide aisles and washed vegetables and not a sign of rot anywhere.  Germany is very organized.  Honestly, we were blown away by the supermarket – and it wasn’t even a big one.

After breakfast, Ken took us on a tour of neighboring villages. They are cobble stoned and winter cute. I’m glad we had the chance to visit smaller villages with someone who knew the place and in such a relaxed fashion, because we didn’t get the opportunity on the tour.  Ken took us up the hill for a snow walk – guess who landed on her butt?  Fresh fallen snow is so fluffy. And everything, everywhere is so white. With the sun out you actually forget it’s cold.  Real cold.

Lunch was bread and various sausages and meat followed by Gluwein – warmed red wine with a few spices thrown in.  Lovely. We had a lot of Gluwein in the next few days. It certainly warms the cockles.

Later in the afternoon, Ken took us back to the hotel. We had a light meal for dinner and headed off to bed early. Our bus tour started the next day, and we were a bit tired from our early morning flight.

Coming up in the Next Issue, Part 2 of "From Riyadh to Germany: Christmas Market Tour”

Ka Kite,
Kiwi