We’re in the second week of Advent, as the Germans would say, and it was another packed one! As we approach the shortest day of the year, it’s fully dark when we leave the house in the morning—and already nearly dark again by the time we leave work. At least we’ve been lucky, though, with temperatures staying on the warmer side. We’ve been happily getting by with lighter jackets while out and about.
Entirely unrelated to Christmas—but very exciting for our family—we got a new clothes dryer 🤣. The Army issues our appliances to us when we move in, so ours were creeping up on five years old and very outdated compared to newer models. Our old dryer had broken several times, but they kept repairing it.
Last week, the door latch broke again, and when I called for a fix, they told me that due to the current budget situation, there was no funding for repairs. Instead, they’d have to issue us a different used dryer. I was only cautiously optimistic but to my huge surprise, they delivered a brand-new one—and it’s a third larger!
It’s still about half the size of an American dryer, but it has made laundry so much easier—I’m in heaven. We also have a new washer coming next week, and I’m really hoping we might finally be able to wash a duvet at home instead of schlepping to the laundromat—praise be! 🙌
On Monday evening, I played hooky from German class to help surprise a friend for her birthday at the Stuttgart Christmas Walk at the Wilhelma Zoo. Every year, the zoo is decorated with hundreds of light installations and lines the trails with plenty of glühwein huts while the animals stay warm inside.
We started with dinner at the Amazonica restaurant inside the zoo and then continued with some glühwein on the walk. We’ve done this twice before as a family, but I could never get tired of this event- it’s so beautiful! This time, it wasn’t too crowded, and unlike our last visit in 2023, it wasn’t below freezing. We had such a fun time oohing and ahhing at all the displays.
On Wednesday, I had my work Christmas party in downtown Stuttgart. We started with lunch at Ochs’n Willi’s, right on Schlossplatz and then continued the celebration with some glühwein at the Stuttgart Christmas Pyramid, inside the Stuttgart market.
I rushed back from the market to make it to Senior Bonfire Night at the high school. This year’s class council has done an excellent job planning and hosting events to make the seniors’ year memorable! This one was a pizza party, followed by hot chocolate, s’mores, and a bonfire at the school. All the kids made lots of sweet memories!
I took off work on Friday to meet my Maryland friend, Susan, in Frankfurt for a day of Christmas markets. It’s become an annual tradition for us to meet somewhere between our homes in Stuttgart and Wiesbaden to explore markets and catch up.
I took the early train and arrived at the Römerberg market right as it opened at 10. Unfortunately, we quickly realized we were each at different markets 🤣—Frankfurt has several, after all. We shared our locations, and I set off to meet Susan where she was. Somehow, we must have passed each other along the way, because by the time I arrived at her spot, she had gone to where I’d originally been standing. 🤣
After more back-and-forth, we finally met at Römerberg, where we had our first glühwein of the day. Then we walked down to the Mainz Riverside and checked out the Love Locks Bridge. We lucked out with great weather—the temperatures were still warm, and the sun was shining—so we enjoyed sitting by the river with our glühweins for a bit before heading to the next market at Hauptwache.
There, we had a feurezangebowle in another cute mug. Feurezangebowle is a hot wine with a sugar cube and rum added. We grabbed some lunch, did a little shopping, and even rode the carousel!
Finally, we finished up at the pink market in Frankfurt, where everything was pink, including the Glühwein. It was a great day out, and it was so great to catch up with my old friend!
I barely made it onto my train back to Stuttgart and promptly fell asleep—something I never do. I only just woke up as we were pulling into Stuttgart station, and I’m still amazed I managed to sleep through the two other stops. I’m so lucky I woke up and didn’t ride on to Munich!
It wasn’t quite time to head home yet, so I left the train station and walked through the Stuttgart Christmas market, taking photos.
A friend from work came and met me, and we enjoyed a few more glühweins and a pulled pork sandwich before I finally headed home.
Saturday was the second wrestling match of the year, and it was at home, which meant we could all sleep in a little! We had a house full of boys the night before, who stayed over in anticipation of the match. Matt dropped all of them and Brooklyn off at 6:30, then remained at the school because he was working the ACT that day. I got to sleep in a little before heading to school at 10!
Ryan’s first match was pretty early in the day, and he got a pin in under a minute! He brings so much energy to all of his matches, it’s really fun to watch! He had only two bouts that day, then got another pin just over an hour later and took first place in his weight class by lunchtime!
They held senior recognition during lunch break, and Brooklyn was recognized for her 3 years as the team’s manager 🥲.
After that, we were out of there so early! I still had a bit of shopping to do, so I stopped by the packed Breuningerland mall, grabbed everything I needed, picked up a glass of champagne from the Veuve Christmas hut in the parking lot (Germany never ceases to amaze me!), and then headed home for a short nap.
We needed a nap because we had a big Christmas party in the evening! The theme was National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and everyone had to come dressed as a character. Matt and I dressed as “Christmas Eve Clark and Ellen Griswold.”
We loved all of the costumes- we had just about every character covered, even the cat that gets electrified by the Christmas tree! It was a late but super fun night with friends!
Sunday was another day of Christmas markets—there are no rest days during market season! While Matt and the kids were recuperating at home, a group of friends and I set off for Würzburg, about 2 hours north of us. We’ve brought visitors here several times, but this was our first time visiting during the Christmas season.
We were fortunate with traffic and parking and made it in about an hour and a half and found a free parking spot only a five-minute walk from the market, yay!
The market itself was set up in the Marktplatz, and it was pretty small. However, there were about five or six mugs to choose from. We did a lap of the primary market, surveying the mugs and selected a cute heart-shaped mug for the first glühwein. Then we did a second lap of the market, each choosing some food to eat. Then we did a third lap of the market, each of us getting a second glühwein and mug, before walking down the HauptStrasse, which was also set up with stalls all the way to the Opera House. Even after taking three laps around the market, we were done in under an hour.
After Würzburg, the main scheduled attraction of the day was the Bad Wimpfen Christmas Market. Our stop in Würzburg was so quick, though, that we decided to make an extra stop in Tauberbischofsheim on the way.
Würzburg is actually the first stop of Germany’s Romantic Road, and Tauberbischofsheim is the third. The Romantic Route is a scenic route in southern Germany that runs about 460 km, connecting storybook towns, medieval cities, vineyards, and alpine scenery. Because of this, Tauberbischofsheim has been on my list of places to visit since we moved here, so I was very grateful for the opportunity to make the stop.
Tauberbischofsheim has a tiny market, held for only one weekend. We arrived a little after one and realized the market didn’t even start until two, lol! So, we did a short self-guided walk around the town while we waited. We saw many half-timbered streets and old churches before finally making our way to the Castle Square, where the market was set up. The old tower had even been decorated with a Santa climbing the exterior and a shooting star at the top!
The market opened promptly at two, and we had a glühwein (only generic mugs here) while watching a children’s show starring Ana and Elsa from Frozen. Then, it was time to head back to car.
We made it to Bad Wimpfen by around 4pm. I visited this small walled medieval city last Spring and loved it! When this year’s Christmas market guide came out, its market was one of the most highly recommended, and I could not wait to visit again!
We had to park about a 15-minute walk away since there’s no parking within the city walls. Once we arrived, it felt like the entire town was decorated for Christmas—it was absolutely beautiful. The market stalls were spread across several squares and lined the streets in between.
As night fell, the city became very crowded. With the old streets being so narrow, there wasn’t much room to spread out, and it took a while to move around. Still, we were all able to grab some snacks for dinner and do a little shopping. The market was really beautiful and the setting of the market within the city walls gave it such a great atmosphere; the market definitely lived up to its hype!
Sunday was a relatively early night, and I was home by 7PM. We decided to break tradition by ordering sushi instead of Thai food, which we ate in front of the TV. We have one more week at home before we start our holiday adventures!
Gilcrests Abroad 