In my continuing quest to visit lots of Christmas markets this season (see No. 7 on my 32 Things list), we visited the Weihnachtsmarkt in front of Hamburg’s town hall on Saturday night. It’s the largest one in Hamburg, and I find it to be one of the most beautiful too — with a gorgeous gigantic tree of lights that is backdropped by the majestic Rathaus, twinkling lights reflected on the water, and about a hundred impeccably decorated stalls of holiday goodies. Plus, Santa Claus flies through the air with his reindeer, saying Ho! Ho! Ho! and then a bunch of stuff in German that no one can really hear well enough to understand.
We hit the market at about 7:30pm on Saturday night (i.e. Prime Time) and it was plenty crowded. We more or less made a beeline for the Glühwein. After two cups (each with an additional shot of rum), I stuck one of the mugs in my purse as a souvenir*, and we wandered around a little more. Some of us (i.e., not me) ingested a toasted baguette covered in cheese and curry powder (any idea what these are called??), which smelled terrible, but they insisted it tasted delish.
It was freezing that evening, so we later sat ourselves down in a heated tent and had another mug of Glühwein, for a total of three for me (which was two too many, in case you wanted to know). I would have liked checking out some of the stalls a little more carefully, but maybe on a week night without all the crowds. All in all, though, an enjoyable evening of holiday spirit (even if my lips were stained purple afterwards).
Gorgeous, huh?
I’ll leave you with my running tally of all the important Weihnachtsmarkt statistics so far for this season:
- Christmas Markets Visited: 3
- Cups of Glühwein Consumed: 4
- Souvenir Mugs Collected: 1
- Bags of Schmalzkuchen Consumed: 1
- Pairs of gloves lost: 1
And some Christmas market-related links, in case you can’t get enough:
- Berlin’s Christmas Markets (from December 3, 2009)
- Weihnachstmarkt (from December 7, 2008)
* Next time I’ll follow the lead of cliff1976 over at the Regensblog and just ask to buy a new one.
I love Christmas markets! And the photos make me feel like I’m there in some part. Have fun!!
I found that Santa Claus that periodically shoots across the sky both creepy and fun at Hamburg Rathaus.
Next year, check out the smaller Christmas market a street away at the Alster Lakes. It is a little less crazy but there is plenty of gühwein.
Monica
Emily: Glad you’re loving the Christmas Markets. There’s a new post coming up tomorrow on my last market of the season!
Omnibus: I totally agree with you about the Santa! I also love the Jungfernstieg Market (made several visits there last year), but never got to it this year — I find the white lights and tents are gorgeous!