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!

Christmas Market in Prague

I love Christmas time!! Minus the typically cold weather (especially in Switzerland), it's my favorite time of year. I love Christmas music, decorating the house from top to bottom, baking yummy treats with my family, the smell of a fresh Christmas tree, and people in the giving holiday spirit. It's a beautiful time of year!

In Europe they have these fantastic Christmas markets all over the place that typically run the month leading up to Christmas. Last year we went to one in Montreux, Switzerland. Then we spent a weekend in Paris to see the lights and Christmas market there. They were fun, but not what I had expected when first told about these markets. Our friends here sold the idea as this great outdoor market with lots of booths selling local cuisine and Christmas decor. I love finding new and unique pieces to decorate the house for the holidays, so it sounded like a great idea. Well last year I was a little disappointed because the markets didn't have that many actual Christmas decorations, and instead a lot more food and beverage. Plus some of the booths were selling trinkity (yes, that's totally a word ; )  junk.

I did some more research this year and found out that the Christmas market originated in Germany. There they take a lot of pride in having hand made and locally made products. They even have a committee that overseas the markets to make sure no one is selling non-Christmas decor. I knew I definitely wanted to go visit one of these markets, but we thought it would be fun to check out another country as well. We had some friends who had loved visiting Prague and it turns out they have a big Christmas market as well. So the first weekend in December we were off to the Czech Republic!

The map below gives you an idea where the Czech Republic is located in Europe. You can see it's not too far from Switzerland either.

Prague (Praha as it's known in Czech) is a beautiful city. We were there primarily for the Christmas market, so we didn't have a chance to do too much other sightseeing. It was a quick trip, but we managed to walk around and take in some of the architecture and landscape. The market was awesome! There were lots more booths with Christmas decorations.

Looking over part of the main Christmas market. 

Huge Christmas tree for the festivities next to a stage of Christmas carolers
 with a beautiful church in the background.

Taking in the color and different facades of all the buildings.

This is the Charles Bridge Tower on the Old Town side as you cross the Vltava River towards the Prague Castle. The bridge is a popular tourist site in Prague. It has baroque-style statues all along it and during the day it is filled with many artists selling their work.   

Here's the view from the Charles Bridge looking towards the Prague Castle. 

A closer view of Prague Castle and the city on the other bank.

Looking down the river.

Somewhere along the line as a child I inherited a small plastic statue of the Infant Jesus of Prague. I never knew much about the symbolism or story behind the statue. I had completely forgotten about it until we were in Prague and I was searching my travel app for sites near the Christmas market to visit while we were in town. Low and behold the church with the Infant Jesus statue was not too far away.

The exact origin of the Infant Jesus statue is not known. It is a small (19 in) high wooden and wax covered statue. Today there is a Carmelite Order of Sisters that watch over the statue. They have different vestments for the statue that are changed in accordance with the liturgical schedule. Although they didn't have much information about the statue, it was still interesting to see.

Carmelite Church of Our Lady of Victory  

Here is the ornate shrine built to house the Infant Jesus of Prague statue. 

The market is even more beautiful and filled with

 holiday cheer at night when all the lights are on!!

The other wonderful thing about the Christmas markets is the food. Jeff would tell you that's definitely his favorite part =)  Just like turkey is a tradition for Americans at Thanksgiving, as well as, craving certain foods more with the cold of winter, it is the same in Europe. Jeff and I have come to love and crave some of these local dishes and drinks during the winter!! A very typical drink you would find at all of these markets is hot mulled wine. It's "vin chaud" in French or "gluhwein" in German. It's kind of like apple cider with a kick, but it's orange juice based with red wine and spices. Another favorite of ours in Switzerland is a dish called tartiflette. It is very popular in the region where we live. It's potatoes, cheese and ham in cream. It is soooo yummy!!! The fun part of the Christmas markets in these other countries is seeing what all the local favorite winter foods are and trying them all! Remember that these markets are all outdoors and it's often in the 30s or sometimes colder so everyone is selling foods that will help keep you warm! No one is walking around drinking a cold beer or soda.

Here Jeff is enjoying some hot mulled wine and another local delicious find in Prague. We didn't learn the name of it, but it's a lightly fried cheese served on a piece of bread with the option of putting jam on top. Believe it or not it was so delicious together!! We wished we could have snuck some home in our suitcase!

This fantastic treat is called Trdelnik. It was my favorite new find!!!

Here's the ingredients in case you were curious.

This is where they are made and then kept warm.
When it's 30 degrees outside it feels very nice standing here =)

 Speaking of things to eat and enjoy. We also checked out this new food history museum in Prague. It gives a lot of history on what the early cavemen ate, how they prepared it, and how the food preparation and tools evolved. It was interesting. The funniest fact we read was that in Ancient Egypt when a man offered a woman a beer, it meant they were becoming engaged to be married!! Ladies, how many men would you currently be engaged to?!? =)

Trying to get a self shot of us and the beautiful Christmas tree!!

All in all the market was a success!! I found a couple Christmas presents, tried some yummy new food, didn't freeze to death, and most importantly found a couple new pieces to decorate our house!! I can't wait for the Christmas market in Germany!!!

Thanksgiving Minus the Turkey

We had more friends come to visit. . . yeah!!! Our good friends, Alli & Shawn, came to visit us in Geneva the week of Thanksgiving. We had such a great time!! We somehow managed to visit and laugh together so much that I don't think we made it to bed before 1am every night!! It was so great to catch up together!! After showing them the sites in and around Geneva, we all headed to Barcelona for the Thanksgiving holiday. It's pretty difficult to find a turkey around here for Thanksgiving and if found, it definitely isn't cheap, so why not get away for the weekend?!?

Barcelona is on the east coast just south of the border with France.

Barcelona is a beautiful city. A lot like Madrid, the architecture is beautiful! The city is full of life and there is so much to see and do!!

A monument to honor Christopher Columbus. This is where his ship landed
when he returned from discovering the Americas. 

Oh the beautiful beach!!! I wish it had been just a bit warmer! I probably would have planted myself there on the beach for the rest of our trip =)

More beautiful beach

We took a bus  tour to see the city. Here's a quick shot of the Olympic Stadium from  the '92 summer Olympics. The object on the left was the torch for the duration of the games. 

 Europeans love football!! Not American football, of course, but what we call soccer. FC Barcelona is a popular team in the soccer world. One of the most famous players right now is on their team, Lionel Mezzi. You can tour their home stadium in Barcelona. Plus they have a great museum on the history of soccer in Europe. Interesting fact. . .it was actually a Swiss man who brought soccer to Spain.

Shawn and Jeff getting really excited to check out the stadium!!

FC Barcelona's home stadium which holds about 100k people.
The motto on the bleachers means "More than a club."

This is the tunnel the team runs down and out to the field for every game.

Alli & I on the soccer field.

In our tour we got to go stand in the media room where all the players are interviewed after the game.  We are ready for our interview!! =)

Jeff checking out the view from the media boxes.

The most famous sight to see in Barcelona is the Sagrada Familia!! It has been under construction since 1882!! It is the masterwork of Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi. It is an amazing sight to see!

Here it is in the distance...we are eight stories up snapping this shot.

Here it is up close. It is so unique and unlike anything I've ever seen before!

You can really see in this picture the older part of the church versus the new. 

Here is one of the sculptures on the facade up close. It is said that Gaudi actually used corpses to make molds to ensure his statues (even the babies) looked as real as possible!

Unfortunately the line to get into the basilica literally wrapped around the building and we had too many other sights to see. We decided to go see some of Gaudi's other work in the city. 

Casa Batllo

La Pedrera

We took a tour of La Pedrera. . .so fascinating to see Gaudi's work and design up close. This building is actually apartments and part of the building is still private residences. Part of the tour also includes the roof. Gaudi took his artwork and sculpture onto hiding the chimneys, ventilation towers, and such.

The roof of La Pedrera. . . some of the statues look like soldiers helmets. 

This gives you an idea how tall those things are!

Beautiful sunset while we were on the roof.

Enjoying a beautiful day with the city and sea behind us.

The food everywhere we stopped so yummy!! I love tapas!! We tried so many new delicious plates, including paella. This is a favorite of Jeff's, but I had never had it before. I am definitely a fan!!

Yummy paella

Oct - Zermatt, Switzerland

For a wedding present, people in Jeff's office pitched in to get us a night stay in Zermatt, Switzerland at a very cool new modern hotel. Zermatt sits in a valley below the Matterhorn. To keep the city clean and avoid air pollution that could obstruct people's view of the Matterhorn cars with a typical combustion engine are not allowed in the city. Instead electric vehicles are used to get around the city. There is an exception made for some emergency and city vehicles. When traveling to Zermatt we had to drive to a nearby town, park our car, and take the train from there. They have a free phone at the train station when you arrive in Zermatt to call your hotel for a shuttle to pick you up.

Now we may have had some great luck with weather in London, but we were not so lucky with this trip. The first snow storm of the year was moving in the weekend we were there so we saw lots of clouds, but never the Matterhorn.

Here's the view we never had. . . the town of Zermatt with the Matterhorn in the distance.

This is more like what our view from the city looked like.... lots of clouds!!

It was pretty to see all the leaves changing colors!

This little chapel downtown has a cemetery that is dedicated to the many people who have lost their lives trying to ascend the Matterhorn. Some of the tomb stones are really unique. 

What do you do when your in a small ski resort town and all the lifts and cable cars are closed? Well we decided to go for a delicious typical Swiss dinner. We found this amazing restaurant and enjoyed quite the spread! We had fondue and some of the most delicious lamb ever!!

Jeff trying out the fondue. 

My turn. . . delish!!

Now I mentioned earlier that we stayed in this great hotel, so I had to include pictures. Our room is what they called a "cube loft". It was a crazy cool design!! They even had a spa that was included with our stay.

That's the bed upstairs with the bathroom below it. Yes you can see into the tub and sink area from the sofa. The toilet and shower are closed off.

Here's a view from the other corner. Notice the dark curtain on the right. . .now check the pic below.

This is what's behind the curtain. We actually ended up in a cube loft for a family. They have this separate two level area attached for the kids. It's a crazy design!!

This is the grand chandelier in the lobby, pretty unique!!

Here are a couple more scenic pictures from our drive home.

Crazy deep ravine we drove over

We may have missed the Matterhorn, but I did enjoy all the Fall colors along our drive!