A Christmas Market in the Rain

Ah Michelstadt Wiehnachtsmarkt, how do I love thee?  So much so that arriving in a medium hard, icy cold rain with just above freezing temperatures does not deter me from exploring.

As always, we parked just outside the old city walls and entered the storybook town through the walkway in the thick, old wall:

And David and I always kiss under the mistletoe that hangs in the archway over the main entrance just past the door in the wall (sorry that the mistletoe itself did not make it into the photo--it's up there though):  

I love the Michelstadt market because the town itself is such a lovely setting, and the market blends in very well with the town, not dominating it, nor seeming out of place; because it has a high percentage of stalls run by local artisans selling their own wares (often knitting, carving, etc more between customers) and because it is big enough to be worthwhile yet never overly crowded or overwhelming.  Here are a variety of photos from today (the rain did not seem to affect crowd levels much):

We took cover under the clock to sip gluhwein and kinderpunch.  The heaviest of the rains let up shortly thereafter:

I almost bought an owl or two for the new condo--but decided it makes more sense to buy items next year, after we move in:

The classic Lebkuchen was baked so fresh that the smell was still wafting off:

Mmm, spiral cut potatoes, deep fried, on a stick.  We first saw these at an amusement park in Spain but they have been popping up at Christmas Markets fairly often ver the last couple of years---yummy!:

And a very traditional Christmas Market treat :"Snowballs"  These are essentially pieces of pie crust formed into a ball and baked until crisp.  They are then filled with cream, and/or coated in chocolate, cinnamon sugar, caramel, coconut, etc  Rio had a cinnamon sugar treat:

An excellent Market: rain or no rain!

--Hadley

Kicking off Wiehnachtsmarkt season--Speyer 2015

It's that time of year again.  My favourite season in Germany: Advent season.  Christmas Markets are springing up in nearly every city, town and village and I love nothing more than visiting them in any free moment I can carve out.  Yesterday we kicked things off with a visit to the Market in Speyer--where the huge old Cathedral is now flanked by flags and a big tree:

It's been a while since I popped into Speyer's market, but my memory is of a market lining the main street which leads up to the cathedral.  So, I was surprised to find that it only lines the sidewalk on one side now (in teh photo below you can see the street and the backside of the market stalls, decorated with trees, so who how much space was not given over to the market).    The result was a much more cramped market, and also fewer stalls overall, than I had expected.  It was still a nice market and fun time, but definitely not up to the standards of lots of other places.  

As always, the vendors who were there had many pretty things and lots of hand made items:

There was a nice model train set up for the kids, and a phone booth with a "direct line to Santa Claus"

Dave had the first gluhwein, near the statue of a pilgrim to Santiago de Compostela --which was a gift to the city on its 2000th birthday back in 1990:

I like the tall, thin glass mugs in Speyer better than the classic ceramic mug style popular at most markets:

 And the Kirschwein (cherry based mulled wine) was much better than the norm as well--yummy!

Hot roasted chestnuts and almonds are a staple at the markets and always smell so good:

There is a smaller market set up down by the city gates--we called this the "low rent area;" as you can see the market stalls were much plainer and lacking in the charm that makes markets so pelasant.  There was a carnival ride for kids in the area though:

All in all, it was a pleasant afternoon, but a small market, needing only an hour to fully experience and I am looking forward to a better experience at the also small but (based on last year) fabulously lovely Michelstadt Market today.

--Hadley

Port Day in Chania, Crete

 This blog is a bit all over the place lately, so now I am going back to posting a bit more about our cruise over Halloween (and just to confuse things even more, there are likely to be posts abut Christmas Markets over the rest of the weekend).

Chania, Crete is another port where we took the public bus into town.  In this case, there is a small, modern town right at the port area---a large grocery store, but little charm.  The main attraction is about a 20 minute drive away.  The public bus picks up right by where you get off the ship, and as in Corfu, a round trip ticket is 2.70€.

We were dropped near the old town are and started meandering towards the famed Old Venetian Port area.

Fish pedicures are offered on just about every block in the Greek tourist towns lately and the guys had considered them the day before and simply could not resist this time around, so before we explored any further, they put down 7€ each to let fish nibble their toes for 15 minutes.

The owner talked me into putting my hand in for a minute--it felt odd (the guys loved it though):

After the stint as fish food, we headed up the hill behind the main street to see the views---we also saw the first of many stray cats as we headed up:

Back off the hill, we continued meandering towards the port

passing the church we had seen from above

 and finally arriving at the very pretty little port area:

On the opposite side of the port area from the old lighthouse is a nice paved path along the shore where you can stroll and watch waves break on the rocks:

We wandered for a half hour or so and then headed back up through other streets back towards the bus stop:

All in all it was a very pleasant port--well worth heading into town for a visit.  

I will sign off with a photo of the night's towel animal -- a cute little elephant.  We had gotten used to only one or two animals per cruise on Royal but I think on the Splendour we had one every night!

--Hadley