Epic Christmas Market Trip 2023

We embarked upon an epic Christmas market spree in December that took us through the Black Forest, Switzerland and Alsace region of France for a variety of markets. Let's dive in...

Rottweil

Rottweil is the oldest city in Baden-Wurttemberg and was the first market of our journey. It was along the route to Ravenna Gorge, so it was worth a pit stop. If you have driven in this direction you may remember the giant tower that looks like a drill bit. We still don't know what that tower actually is, but we can now stay we've been to the town where it's located. 

Rottweil has a small, quaint market that greeted us with local musicians, gluhwein and quesadillas (the latter being quite unexpected). Their mug celebrated the 30th anniversary of the market, so we made sure to keep one to add to our growing collection.

Charles tried the quesadillas and thought they were tasty enough. Good Mexican food is quite hard to find in Germany. I loved the quirky styling of their booth.

Ravenna Gorge

Ravenna Gorge often makes the top of Baden-Wurttemberg's Christmas markets. A few people I know had been in the previous year and warned me that, while it's magical, it is crowded. I was hesitant to go because that, but figured it would be good to visit while we had the chance. We went on the final day of the market and booked a ticket with shuttle pickup from Hinterzarten. 

The warning about the crowds was right on point. We opted for the 4-6pm time slot and it became more and more packed while we were there. It was shoulder to shoulder in some parts making it a little hard to navigate and view booths. I did not love it. But I had a delicious variation of gluhwein called a Schwarzwald Marie which included a cherry liqueur to mimic the flavor of black forest cake.

We stayed one night in Hinterzarten which was an adorable Black Forest town. It was a Sunday which typically means shops are closed in Germany, but a few gift shops were open so we visited before our shuttle to the Market.

B&B Zartenbach: Our hotel was very quaint and comfortable. We booked a very small room since we stayed for only one night; it was snug, but perfect for our short stay. The included breakfast was the perfect fuel for our onward journey towards Switzerland!

We arrived at the market before dark, so it was fun to see it transform as the darkness set in.

Konstanz

We had visited Konstanz earlier in the year to see Mainau Island, but did not explore the city very much. The market lines the lake and was a nice size, not too busy and had a variety of booths. I was excited to eat Tirol Knodel which reminded me of last year's epic Christmas market trip to the Dolomites.

Winterthur

Winterthur was our first market in Switzerland and was just a quick stop before arriving in Zurich. The market was very small, but we enjoyed some delicious apple rings with vanilla sauce. 

Zurich

Zurich boasts several markets spread throughout the city and we visited them all (I think). Zurich proved to have an impressive array of food options that made my heart very happy. To name a few: Indian, empanadas, tacos, arancini, Ukrainian, African, Portuguese, Asian, Swiss (of course) and so much more. 

I adored the Weihnachtsalle market the most. Throughout the market were little booths styled like living rooms where you could sit and enjoy your gluhwein and food. I, sadly, did not snag any photos, so you'll just have to take my word for it. This market was also close to the one located in the train station which exceeded my expectations, as well. 

25hours Hotel Langstrasse: I was in LOVE with our Zurich hotel! It was right down the street from the Weihnachtsalle and train station markets which made it super convenient for this trip. Aside from that, the hotel was so fun! It was decorated with a modern-vintage mix and had some really cool special touches. For example, there was a Polaroid camera in the room. You could buy film in the little lobby shop and use the camera around town. This hotel is now one of the benchmarks that I'll use to judge future hotels on our travels.

I have been dreaming about arancini since visiting Sicily. When I saw it at the train station market, I had to have one!

Breakfast on our first morning in Zurich was spent at Babu's Bakery and Coffeehouse. The hotel offered a breakfast add on, but it was a bit pricier than we wanted, so I opted to look for other spots in the area. Charles hates waiting in line for a restaurant, but I took a chance on this place despite the almost guaranteed wait. It was well worth it for this breakfast sandwich and my latte.

Our second morning was spent eating breakfast at Bank which had really cool latte art! I had a croissant breakfast sandwich that was good, but not as drool worthy as the previous day.

Mulhouse

After stopping in Basel, Switzerland and being very much disappointed in their market, we continued to the Alsace region of France for the next round of Christmas markets. Our base for the next two nights was Mulhouse (it's pronounced very differently from how it looks for English speakers). 

La Maison Hotel Mulhouse: I had some high expectations for our hotel in Mulhouse. The website made it seem very hip and funky (we were worried that we were too "square" to stay there). But it was kind of a mixed bag. The common areas like the lobby and breakfast room were fantastically decorated for Christmas. If you enjoy a vintage, maximalist vibe, these rooms will make your heart sing. Our room was a bit of a disappointment in comparison, but still very comfortable and right around the corner from the Mulhouse Christmas market. 

The Mulhouse market was on the smaller side, but in the shadow of the beautiful cathedral. The town is beautifully lit up for the market and hosts a little Christmas train that plays music as it drives you around the city. We could hear the train's music from our hotel room as it drove by. It was adorable!

Mulhouse is also where I discovered that vin chaud blanc is far superior to gluhwein. I have since reached out to my local community for a recipe so I can recreate it at home.

A slight letdown about the markets in Alsace is they use plastic cups versus mugs for the hot wine. They were beautifully designed, but harder to hold with the hot beverage inside.

We found a booth selling Canadian poutine at the Mulhouse market and ordered the Authentique poutine. It hit the spot!

Eguisheim

Eguisheim is a small town in the Alsace region. I had visited back in March with friends and loved it. With it all decked out for Christmas, it was just as magical. The market is very tiny with just a small selection of booths. But we enjoyed some vin chaud and window shopping. 

Side note: The Eguisheim vin chaud booth charged a deposit (pfand, if you're familiar with the German term) for the plastic cup. However, they did not take the cups back so we were stuck with it.

Turkheim

Sadly we did not fully get to experience Turkheim's market. When I was researching for the trip I had noted that its market opened at 11am. We arrived around 12:30pm, but sadly it did not open until 2pm. We walked around the area and saw the shuttered whimsical and colorful booths. We did get to say hi to some sheep, so it wasn't a total loss.

Colmar

I visited Colmar twice in 2023, each time with different sets of friends. Colmar is an adorable town and often tops the Christmas market lists. There are a variety of markets spread around the town. Since I had been before, Charles left me in charge of navigating around which was a huge mistake. I am directionally challenged to say the least. We ended up walking in circles the whole afternoon. 

Charles enjoyed a meal in the gourmet market. Aside from a yummy croissant bagel sandwich and tasty hot spiced apple juice, I was not in love with the Colmar market. It was just too spread out and crowded for my taste.

We had hoped to visit at least one more market on our 2023 Christmas Market spree, but it was unpleasantly rainy on the day of our departure from France, so we visited the Cora grocery store to stock up on some French goodies like crepes, butter and soap before heading home to relax after so much excitement. 

I hope you have a chance for your own Christmas market spree in 2024! 

Nove, Italy

The annual spouses' club board trip to Nove, Italy was at the end of August! I visited with the club two years ago and was excited to visit again for some camaraderie and shopping. We left bright and early to caravan down.

We made one pit stop for lunch at a restaurant overlooking a beautiful lake. Once we arrived at Le Nove hotel and got settled, we immediately visited a couple local pottery shops. The first one was Edelweiss which has so many cute pieces. 

Another Nove favorite is the "chicken man" who offers a variety of chicken pitchers. I don't remember the story behind them, but there is a story. They come in several sizes with many different designs so everyone is sure to find one that suits them. Since my last visit, he had moved locations to the town center across from the tower. 

A new-to-me shop was the pewter store. I had LOW expectations for this shop thinking that it would be filled with a bunch of old people stuff. I was pleasantly surprised by the interesting variety of items. They must work with the local bases often because we found a ton of US military items like these decanters. 

I splurged for a single room on this trip and it was so worth it! This is the view from my room. Le Nove is a surprisingly modern hotel with air conditioning and a nice breakfast spread.

You cannot visit Italy without some wine tasting! Two of the ladies set up a visit to one of their favorite wine producers--Riva Granda. We planned to just stop and pick up some cases of wine, but they treated us to some snacks and a little tour of their vineyard. 

On our second evening in town we visited nearby Bassano del Grappa to walk around before heading to dinner at a nearby winery.

Our Trips & Tours chair set up a wine tasting at this local winery. I opted to be a DD for the night, so I did not have a chance to sample any of their wines, but the estate was lovely! It is owned by sisters; supporting a female owned company felt really good. 

Aside from pottery shopping, the big draw was a huge flohmarkt (flea market) in a nearby town. This market happens on the last Sunday of the month. When I say it's huge, I am not exaggerating. We spent hours walking around, haggling and enjoying gelato and did not even see all the booths. 

Two years ago when I visited Nove, a friend and I had hoped to visit the inside of the church that is located near the flohmarkt, but ran out of time. This year I made a point to check it out. 

I am not a big spender and came home with only a few treasurers from the weekend, but am really happy with all of them. I was extra excited to find the tiny greyhound figurine to gift to Charles. 

Petit Prince and Alsace

With France being so close to Stuttgart, we made an overnight trip to the Alsace region. We started off in Ribeauville where we grabbed sandwiches before a wine tasting at Trimbach. The wine tasting was quick with a tasting of five wines. Our host did not speak a lot of English, so we did not receive a lot of the history of the winery. However, the wines were enjoyable and I purchased two bottles to bring home. 

After Ribeauville, we drove on to Colmar to check into our hotel. Greet Hotel Colmar is a little outside of the city center, but offered a great rate, free parking and breakfast. I really enjoyed their design aesthetic and air conditioned room.

We headed into Colmar and rode one of the little trains for an overview of the city. It was a little hot under the plastic roof, but it was good to see all parts of the city to orient ourselves.

We walked around the town to see things a little closer up and visited a bunch of shops in search of the perfect trinkets to remember our trip by. I purchased an ornament featuring three Alsatian girls to commemorate the time with my two friends. 

Before heading back to the hotel to rest after our day's adventures, we stopped at a restaurant for dinner. I ordered one of the rosti dishes. It was so delicious!

The next morning, after enjoying some local specialties for breakfast, we drove to the Parc du Petit Prince. One of my friends is a big fan of the book, so I made sure to add this to the itinerary. I had low expectations and expected to only spend an hour or so at the park, but it ended up being super fun! We rode a few of the rides, including the little train, and took a bunch of pictures. 

We agreed that we wouldn't travel out of our way to visit this park, but while in the area it was a fun activity. Even as three adults, this park was a win. 

A sunny day in Esslingen

I have now visited Esslingen on three different occasions. With it being so close and being easy to train to, you would think I would make it there a little more often, but such is life! While hosting two friends from college, our first stop was to Esslingen for a walking tour to see the highlights and learn some history of the tour. Our guide was an American who has lived in the area for over a decade. 

It was a super sunny day, so our pictures were all a bit washed out by the harsh light. The Esslingen Rathaus is iconic, so worth sharing a picture of even if it is not the best quality. 

The story behind this fountain was fascinating! In a nutshell, there was a postman back in the day that found a valuable ring. He went around town trying to find the owner to return it. The owner had been murdered and no one knew who had done it. The postman was accused by the man's nephew of murdering him. Eventually the postman was sentenced to death. Afterward, he would reappear as a ghost to the nephew. After some time, the nephew was so distraught and traumatized that he finally confessed to murdering his uncle. The town decided to erect this statue of the postman with the story around the base. I suppose it is part contrition and part cautionary tale.

Our tour ended at Kessler for a sekt tasting. Sekt is Germany's version of champagne and this brand is Germany's oldest sparkling wine producer. The Kessler founder studied in the Champagne region of France and made his sparking wine using German grapes. We all tried the classic and it was very tasty! I brought home a couple bottles to enjoy later. 

By the time our tour was complete and we had tried some sekt, we were ready for a hearty German lunch. Our tour guide recommended Weinkeller Einhorn and it did not disappoint. I had the traditional Swabian dish called Maltauschen. This was the best Maltauschen I have eaten since being here in Germany. 

Faro, Portugal

We flew into Faro, but did not spend as much time there as we did in Albufeira. There was a lot we could have done with more time in the city, but alas, we had just one day to explore. 

I did not see as much street art as I thought I would in either Albufeira or Faro, but I spied this mural near where we parked. 

The Faro harbor was a nice place for a stroll. There was a little market set up across the street with about ten vendors. We laughed about if we could hear the ocean if we put our ear to this giant shell (hint: we did not).

We walked by this statue of a woman with a shell head later in the day and it was almost fully submerged in the water due to high tide.

We had originally booked a dolphin watching tour out of Faro, but due to rough seas it was cancelled. (We also had a cancelled boat cave tour from Albufeira the day before for the same reason). We booked a bird watching tour in the natural park instead. We know almost nothing about birds and ended up on a tour with some bird enthusiasts. While we did not get as excited as they did about all the birds we saw, it was still a relaxing and peaceful tour on the solar boat through the channels of the park. In the picture below I am looking at flamingos in flight (that made me happy).

After our bird watching tour, Charles found a pizza place for lunch. We drank some Portuguese wine and ate an amazingly delicious pizza. It was probably one of the best pizzas I have had in a while.

We totally lost track of time during lunch and missed our walking tour that we booked through Airbnb. We felt HORRIBLE! We are not usually "those" people. But what can you do??? To walk off the bottle of wine we enjoyed at lunch (we're light weights), we walked around town on our own to enjoy the colorful buildings, tile work and views of the ocean.