Nuremberg, Germany Christmas Market

I have to say that I was so excited for this trip! Prague turned out to be a wonderful weekend with lots of great finds. Everything I had read said that Germany had the best Christmas markets. If Prague was great that only meant Germany had be awesome! I had decided on Nuremberg, Germany because that's where the first recorded Christmas market was held and it's still listed as one of the top markets in all of Germany. It did NOT disappoint!!

Now remember how in my last post about Christmas markets I told you that they are all outdoors and how cold it typically is over here at that time? Well it was unbelievably cold in Nuremberg for the weekend!! I'm talking below freezing! I thought Prague was cold...ha!! I may have not had much feeling in my fingers, toes, or face, but it did not dampen my spirit just my picture taking abilities.... oops!! :(  I only have a few pictures because it was way too cold to even want to think about taking the hands out of the pockets and removing the gloves to snap a picture. Plus the market was even bigger than I had imagined and we barely had enough time in two days to check out all the booths!! I was in my own little Christmas heaven!! =)

Here's looking out over part of the main square. You can see that despite the cold there are still lots of people over in that main street on the left. 

Here's looking out the other side of the square, so many booths!!

Here's an example of one of the booths. They literally use every nook and cranny to display all their goods in their tiny booth. Some of the ornaments are even hanging from the ceiling!

A traditional find at many of the booths are these little handmade incense smokers. 

This was my favorite local specialty. These little characters are made of prunes, figs, and walnuts. They represent different patron saints and are to be placed in your windows to protect the house and its inhabitants. Can't say that I took one home with me, but still fun to learn about local traditions. 

This post wouldn't be complete if I didn't mention the food! I'm sure you can all guess one food found at many of the booths. . . . . sausage, of course!! All sorts of different brats and sausage sandwiches. There were lots and lots of gingerbread stands, as well as, different types of roasted nuts/almonds/walnuts and such.

Here's one of the yummy three sausage sandwiches. Then they had spicy mustard to top it.

Here's a piece of gingerbread. You could either get it glazed or plain, both were good!

After all that fun I never got a picture of us actually in the market, so I had to have our picture snapped at the train station before we left town to prove we there!!

Despite the absolute frigid temperatures, the weekend was a blast!! We found so many great decorations for the house. The thing I wanted most to find was a nice nativity set for our home. I have been searching for the perfect set for a long time! My mom has a beautiful handmade nativity set that my grandmother made for her. I've always wanted one of my own, but never found one that quite fit all my requirements. It was my goal and hope that I could find a beautiful set over here to have to pass down to our children some day. The nativity is what Christmas is all about. After lots and lots of searching we found one!! The pieces are all hand crafted by a German company and it's absolutely beautiful!!

Not the best picture, but here's the nativity set we found for our home.

I know Christmas time isn't the ideal time to travel for most, but if you love Christmas and don't mind the cold it is totally worth it! I really hope we get to go again some year!