If yesterday was all about the train, today was all about the Christmas Market. Since Erich is still not feeling great, we got a nice slow start, and got over to the Old Town around 11 a.m. On the way we bought some postcard stamps at the Post Office, and Heather got some more practice with her German. She was a little rusty yesterday, coming up with Spanish or even French words before she could even start to figure out the German word, but today it is all coming back to her. It's a little freaky how quickly she's remembering not just the words, but also the accents and slang.
So the first thing you get to in the Old Town is the Craftsmen's Market, which was basically 6 tents of little crafts and 3 tents of gluhwein. On intot he old town, there were various tents with gluhwein, nurnberger bratwurst, spiced nuts, cookies, gluhwein, olives, nurnberger bratwurst, ornaments, nurnberger bratwurst, other crafts, and gluhwein. After a little while, you get to the children's Christmas Market. This is separate since it includes rides, which are forbidden in the Nuremberg Christmas Market. There are also crepes, Belgian waffles, cookies, spiced nuts, candies, and gluhwein.
A few hundred yards away is the main market square which holds the real Christmas Market. About 170 stalls with all kinds of traditional foods, crafts, nurnberger bratwurst, gluhwein, and some touristy trinkets. Just north of the main Christmas Market is a sister city market with many of Nuremberg's sister cities, including Shenzen and Atlanta. Each stall sells traditional goods from that country and city. Atlanta, for example, sold biscuit mix, Oreo cookies, Coke products and Obama for president hats. This market also sells gluhwein. No wonder all these people are so cheerful, they're drinking hot mulled wine all day!
After a few hours of freezing cold, we headed back to unload and rest, then headed out for a second go and dinner. We at a great little place just off the Christmas Market (nurnberger bratwurst for me, of course). Then more gluhwein for the walk home and off to bed. Fortunately, Erich seemed to perk up after dinner, so maybe he is through the worst of it and will be back in true form tomorrow.
Tomorrow, we hope to get to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, the best preserved medieval town in Germany.
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