Tea Time Travels

It has been a dream of mine for years to go to the Christmas markets in Germany and this past Christmas that dream finally came true!

I headed out to Germany to meet up with one of my best friends from college for a long weekend exploring markets, drinking gluhwein, and enjoying each market’s unique decor.

I flew into Frankfurt where I met my friend, and took the train up to Cologne. After we dropped our bags off we grabbed some lunch and had had a Kölsh, the popular beer that originated in Cologne.

We stepped into our first Christmas market and it was simply…. magical-that’s really the only word I can use to describe it! So many delicious smells filled the air as the market vendors engaged happily with the festive filled customers.

The first day we were just supposed to browse and plan our purchases, but my friend got so excited she bought things from three different stands within the first 15 minutes of being there.

We sipped our first gluhwein that warmed our bellies and marveled at the twinkling lights as the sun went down. The first market was right next to the impressive Cologne Cathedral which is the third tallest church in the world. The outline of the cathedral was the perfect backdrop to the picturesque market.

We walked further into town to look at a couple more markets before dinner. There were 6 different Christmas markets in Cologne and each one had a different theme. One of the markets was called ‘The Angels Market’. It had beautiful white stars twinkling above the market while a woman dressed as an angel rode her horse through the stalls.

The Heinzels Wintermaerchen is decorated with adorable gnomes throughout the market. I loved how each market had it’s own unique character. The best part was that each market had different cups for your gluhwein that you could keep. We collected a cup from each market as souvenirs!

After two days of exploring Cologne we were off to a smaller town named Mainz, a beautiful city on the Rhine River. After checking into our hotel room, we made our way into the city square and to the Gutenburg Museum. This museum discussed the history of printing, and even contained two original Gutenburg Bibles printed around 1450. It was so interesting learning about the history of printing and seeing how books were made. It’s really easy to take all the stacks of books at Barnes and Noble for granted not knowing how intense the printing process was hundreds of years ago.

After the sun set we walked through the picturesque Christmas market in Mainz. With this market there was no theme, just simple elegance and stunning.

We had dinner in a beautiful restaurant that was previously an old church hospital. We finished the night by trying some delicious white Riesling, originating in the Rhine region.

On our last day we met up with my friend’s childhood friend who lives in Germany. We spent the day catching up, laughing, drinking wine, and trying more authentic German foods. I mustered up the courage to order a few of our meals in German by the last day- I spent 4 months in Germany almost 10 years ago and throughout the trip phrases and words were slowly coming back to me.

My first time exploring the German Christmas markets was a magical experience, and I would recommend to everyone to add it to their bucket list!