Christmas market season: Dresden
I love December in Europe. This continent really does the Christmas season well. Markets pop up in hundreds of cities in and around Germany, full of holiday decorations, handicrafts, seasonal treats and hot drinks. You’ll often find Christmas markets in multiple squares around a city or town, each market consisting of a cluster of small wooden huts selling various goodies.
The eastern city of Dresden hosts Germany’s oldest Christmas market. Dresden is one of my favorite cities in Germany, and it is worth a visit any time of year, but if you can make it during the month of December, you’ll find the city even livelier than usual.
The regional culinary specialty of Dresden is stollen, a Christmas sweet bread with raisins and marzipan which is sold at many stands at the markets. In addition to Glühwein (hot mulled wine), you can find rum-based hot drinks, as well as warm eggnog-like concoctions. The various Christmas markets around the city each put out their own souvenir mugs in which the hot drinks are served – you can either keep the mug when you’re done with the drink, or return it for the deposit you paid up front.
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Love the Christmas markets! I did most of my holiday shopping at the one in Bolzano-Bozen (on my way up to the budget ski lodges in the Dolomites/Swiss Alps) whilst living in Rome. (I actually recently blogged about the Bolzano-Bozen market over at my blog, High Culture on a Low Budget…check it out!)
Though no one does the holidays quite like Russia; between December 25th, New Year’s, and Russian Orthodox Christmas, Moscow is in perma-Nutcracker mode. Which always warms my Jewish heart
Love this site! Look forward to reading more.
I love Bolzano – I feel like such a linguistic genius there (since Italian and German happen to be the only two foreign languages I speak). I understand more than even most of the Italian tourists!
Truth be told, I was getting really tired of Italian and was dying for something Germanic, so it was great to switch it up there. I was also on cornetti and pizza overload, so the culinary migration from Austria was v. much appreciated.
I miss Christmas festivities and traditions in Germany. So much so that we’ve Dresdner stollen and Nürnberger lebkuchen air shipped!
[...] presents Christmas market season: Dresden posted at Europe String. Maybe next year I can do my shopping at these Christmas [...]
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