This week started with shuffling several plans around. Originally, we were unable to find a dog kennel over Thanksgiving weekend but recently some space opened up and we immediately booked the dogs and made plans to go to Austria and Slovakia for Christmas markets.
This past weekend, both countries were put into lockdown and onto the high risk list for Germany. We cancelled our travel plans and started scrambling to find something else to do over the weekend while we had the dog kennel booked.
On Monday, while we were in German class, my phone wouldn’t stop going off with notifications of all the Christmas Market closings in our area. It was a HUGE bummer. This also ruined a lot of our back up plans and what we had planned for December so we were really back to the drawing board.
Tuesday night, we decided to drive to Karlsruhe for their Christmas market. It was a little far to drive on a school night but we weren’t sure how long things were going to stay open.
The city itself was beautifully decorated and all of the market stalls looked like they were in a decoration competition. We had curry wurst, French fries, glühwein, and hot chocolate for dinner. We found the Karlsruhe market is mostly food and drink and not as much shopping. Because of the covid restrictions, the food and drink area was separated so it made shopping a little difficult, but we managed to buy a few gifts and our own Christmas Pyramid, a traditional German Christmas decoration.
Thursday was Thanksgiving and super quiet. Matt had a golf date with a friend so Brooklyn and I spent the morning trying to replicate Cindy’s homemade cinnamon rolls. They turned out fine, but nothing like the original. We also put up our Christmas tree and Christmas decorations. We had Thanksgiving leftovers for dinner, got covid tests done for the weekend, and watched a movie.
Sunday we headed to Zurich. It’s only a two hour drive and Christmas Markets were still happening so we decided to make that our first stop on our mini road trip.
First stop in Zurich was the market in Opera Square. This was another market with mostly food and drink. Since it was Zurich, every was EXPENSIVE. Glühwein was in paper cups here and not mugs, probably due to covid and it was still 10CHF! Aperol Spritzes we’re 12CHF! At home in Stuttgart, I call a €6 one expensive. C’est la vie though, we tried to live in the moment and enjoy.
We got some snacks and Ryan; a pure Swiss chocolate-hot chocolate. He even got to personally choose the piece of chocolate that would be melted into the fresh steamed Swiss milk. Surely this would be the best hot chocolate he’d ever had, right! Especially for the price of 7CHF! Wrong! He said it did not taste enough like the Swiss Miss powder from home. We tried to explain that powder is trying to capture exactly what he was drinking- but no luck. The rest of us split the hot chocolate in an effort to finish it off.
We walked down to Zurich’s lake and then through the city along the Limmat river. The city had pretty Christmas decorations and we did some souvenir shopping along the way.
We made our way through the Old Town to another Christmas Market that had a huge “Singing Christmas Tree.” It was actually a huge green pyramid that kids stood on to sing and it was pretty cute. I got a glühwein in a mug-finally! We also got Ryan another hot chocolate for 8CHF and he also didn’t like this one either! It’s only the cheap, powder stuff for this guy!
We made the long walk back to the car after the Singing Christmas Tree through Zurich, which was now dark but covered in Christmas lights.
After we got back to the hotel, we had dinner in a kebab shop… for 80CHF! You always hear about Zurich’s unreal prices, but you don’t understand it til you see it (and have to spend it).
Saturday morning, we headed back towards Germany, we stopped at the Rhine Falls, which is known as Europe’s Niagara Falls. It’s part of the lower end of the Rhine River and is Europe’s most powerful waterfall. It’s actually suggested as a day trip from Zurich but I’m glad we just stopped on the way through because there wasn’t much to do besides look at it for a few seconds.
Back in Germany, we made our way into the Black Forest, where things were pretty snowy. We made it to Ravenna Gorge, which is the Christmas Market we were going to that night with some friends. It’s pretty remote but we got reservations at a Guesthouse right at the entrance. Since we got to Germany, I’ve been wanting to stay in an authentic German Guesthouse, so two things were fulfilled on the wishlist that day.
The Ravenna Gorge Christmas Market is set up underneath a train bridge aqueduct and for good reason is on most people’s “must see list.” There was a lot of food and drink stands and some shopping. Santa was in one hut where you could write and send a letter to him and they had an oompa band playing Christmas carols. The atmosphere was 10/10.
Before it was dark, we were able to climb up a ridge to take pictures of the market from above. I swear this would have never happened in America- Glühwein drinkers slipping and sliding as they climbed up an icy hill, but it happened here and we made it to the top along with a lot of other hikers. They did eventually close the path when it got dark.
After it got dark, the aqueduct was illuminated and the huts lit up. So pretty.
On Sunday morning, we had breakfast at the Guesthouse with our friends and they headed home. I like to torture my family so I made them drive to one more Christmas Market; Baden-Baden.
This market was much more shopping oriented and without as much food and drink. I also had a hard time finding a glühwein stand selling drinks in mugs but I persevered. We had lunch at the market, did some shopping and headed home.
We ended the weekend at home, with the first snowfall at our house.
Gilcrests Abroad 