Off to the Market.. the Christmas Markets!

Germany is known for Christmas Markets. I wasn't sure what to expect but let me tell you.. the Germans know a lot about Christmas! (which is slightly strange because it is a rather godless nation..) Anyway I have been having a great time exploring the markets and doing a bit of Christmas shopping too. I normally despise the whole shopping business but I've found that Christmas Markets are another story. For one thing, you never get over heated because you are outside. Occasionally you find yourself slightly freezing to death and so you go and drink something hot or eat something warm and continue to make your way around. The markets have hundreds of booths selling all kinds of things from jewelry to toys to clothes to trinkets to Christmas decorations to food.. to food.. to chestnuts that really are roasting on an open fire. OK have you actually tried those? Chestnuts? Um.. overrated! But it's part of the experience!

Anyway on Saturday, my friend Kristen and I took the train to check out the Cologne Christmas Markets. It was pretty fun and the markets are nice. It's interesting because they are right next to a gigantic cathedral, which adds a definite element of "Old Europe" to the mix.

I took some pics of the Cologne Markets and a couple of Duesseldorf but I'll try and go back to the ones I really like best sometime before I go home. Obviously the photos do not capture the fun of the markets, although they do omit the irritation of crowds of Germans bumping into you and not apologizing. Apologizing is purely Canadian.. oh and so is smiling apparently. But I digress.. so here are some photos of Christmas Markets.. until blogs learn how to incorporate a scratch-and-sniff element, you'll just have to trust me that all the Christmas smells are half the fun!

The last two pics are from two of the Duesseldorf Markets. The blue one is the "posh market". It's very upscale with higher quality gifts. I never go there, except for photo purposes. The last pic is of one of my more favourite markets but it is difficult to capture it as people kept moving around.. imagine! I'll work on getting a few more pics up.