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Christmas Markets (2009)



 
 
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  #1  
Old October 5th, 2009, 03:13 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
-hh
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Posts: 420
Default Christmas Markets (2009)

Trying to pick which city or two...open to suggestions:

Munich
Nuremberg
Salzburg, Austria.


Been to this sort of venue before (Koln, Trier, Bamburg, etc) .. want
to try a different region.

Open to other places as well...the above is merely the current short
list. Would hopefully be geographically nearby, to minimize relative
travel times between.


-hh
  #2  
Old October 5th, 2009, 06:46 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
Runge17
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Posts: 261
Default Christmas Markets (2009)

aLL OF THEM ARE WORTHWHILE AND YOU WOULD NOT BE MISTAKEN CHOOSING ANY OF
THEM.
NURNBERG IS THE MOST FAMOUS.



"-hh" a écrit dans le message de
...
Trying to pick which city or two...open to suggestions:

Munich
Nuremberg
Salzburg, Austria.


Been to this sort of venue before (Koln, Trier, Bamburg, etc) .. want
to try a different region.

Open to other places as well...the above is merely the current short
list. Would hopefully be geographically nearby, to minimize relative
travel times between.


-hh


  #3  
Old October 5th, 2009, 12:09 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
[email protected]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 16
Default Christmas Markets (2009)

On Oct 5, 4:13*am, -hh wrote:
Trying to pick which city or two...open to suggestions:

Munich
Nuremberg
Salzburg, Austria.

Been to this sort of venue before (Koln, Trier, Bamburg, etc) *.. want
to try a different region.

Open to other places as well...the above is merely the current short
list. *Would hopefully be geographically nearby, to minimize relative
travel times between.

-hh


Stuttgart ( www.stuttgart-tourist.de ) has one of Europe's largest,
oldest, most visited and most beautiful Christmas Markets
( www.stuttgarter-weihnachtsmarkt.de only in German). All the stalls
are highly decorated and the setting is lovely by the Old Palace, New
Palace and Stiftskirche (old church). It take up many contiguous
squares and streets in the center of town, and has about twice the
number of visitors as Nuremberg's. Then there is the World Christmas
Circus ( www.weltweihnachtscircus.de ) with famous circus acts from
throughout the world. There's lots of other things to do in Stuttgart
including the excellent museums (Stuttgart is where the automobile was
invented, and has the Mercedes Benz and Porsche Museums), three large
mineral baths associated with western Europe's largest mineral waters,
Wilhelma ( www.wilhelma.de ) which is Europe's largest combined zoo-
botanical garden, the world's first modern TV tower, world-reknown
ballet, excellent opera, many musical performances many of which will
be seasonally related, etc.

15 minutes away by S-bahn are two other large themed Christmas
markets: Esslingen ( www.esslingen.de ) Medieval & Christmas Market
set in the well preserved medieval center of this town particularly
nice at night when lit up by torches; and Ludwigsburg
( www.ludwigsburg.de ) Baroque Christmas Market in this Baroque town
set near Germany's largest perfectly preserved Baroque palace (in
www.schloesser-und-gaerten.de ), the Swabian Versailles, with several
days' worth of things to see and do.

Although Stuttgart has excellent shopping, there is also Metzingen
( www.metzingen.de ) nearby, which has Germany's most factory outlets
for some inexpensive shopping.

By visiting Stuttgart, you get three excellent large Christmas markets
that are different from one another. Stuttgart is a hub for several
airlines such as GermanWings ( www.germanwings.com ), TUIfly
( www.tuifly.com ), and AirBerlin ( www.airberlin.com ).
  #4  
Old October 5th, 2009, 12:42 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
- Bobb -[_2_]
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Posts: 550
Default Christmas Markets (2009)


"-hh" wrote in message
...
Trying to pick which city or two...open to suggestions:

Munich
Nuremberg
Salzburg, Austria.


Been to this sort of venue before (Koln, Trier, Bamburg, etc) .. want
to try a different region.

Open to other places as well...the above is merely the current short
list. Would hopefully be geographically nearby, to minimize relative
travel times between.


-hh


Typical = http://www.christmasmarkettours.com/

City comparisons:
http://www.travelandleisure.com/slid...ts-in-europe/1
so for Dresden : "Look For: The best crafts Germany has to offer."
Here's Munich info:
http://www.travelandleisure.com/slid...ts-in-europe/5

Not sure if you're a visitor or a local / want to do it to "buy stuff" or
the atmosphere, but if you want to be driven around, we've done the
Christmas Markets tour down the Romantic road with DER tours. I'm sure local
companies do the same thing.

Yeah it's only 5-6 hours in each place, but was very nice way to see the
most. As part of the escorted tour we stayed a week in Berlin prior and a
few days in Munich after the tour. I thought Berlin markets better than
Munich. The Marienplatz square in Munich is nice but if you're gonna stay a
few days/week it's the same everyday. Berlin had many different areas. Also,
if you DO stay in Munich, with several churches nearby - ringing bells on
the hour, it is noisy if you stay near Marienplatz. At 23:00 / midnight
you'll here 22 ,24 BONG - BONGs - so if a light sleeper be aware.





  #5  
Old October 5th, 2009, 03:51 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
-hh
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 420
Default Christmas Markets (2009)

wrote:
-hh wrote:

Trying to pick which city or two...open to suggestions:


Munich
Nuremberg
Salzburg, Austria.


Been to this sort of venue before (Koln, Trier, Bamburg, etc) *.. want
to try a different region.


Open to other places as well...the above is merely the current short
list. *Would hopefully be geographically nearby, to minimize relative
travel times between.


Stuttgart (www.stuttgart-tourist.de) has one of Europe's largest,
oldest, most visited and most beautiful Christmas Markets
...* and has about twice the number of visitors as
Nuremberg's....*


Interesting point, as part of the reason why Nuremberg is on the list
is because of its "famous" reputation.


There's lots of other things to do in Stuttgart
including the excellent museums (Stuttgart is where the automobile was
invented, and has the Mercedes Benz and Porsche Museums)...


I've been thinking about Stuttgart ... the MB Museum is great (which
my wife hasn't seen) and the Porsche Museum has opened since my last
visit there (which happened to be during a fall wine festival). Of
course, the ideal Holiday gift to bring home would be from one of
those car factories ...or better yet, one from each :-)


15 minutes away by S-bahn are two other large themed Christmas
markets: Esslingen (www.esslingen.de) Medieval & Christmas Market
set in the well preserved medieval center of this town particularly
nice at night when lit up by torches; and Ludwigsburg
(www.ludwigsburg.de) Baroque Christmas Market in this Baroque town
set near Germany's largest perfectly preserved Baroque palace
(inwww.schloesser-und-gaerten.de), the Swabian Versailles, with several
days' worth of things to see and do.


Interesting...I'll have to track these down. FWIW, part of the reason
why Salzburg was on the list was because that region's other items ...
Lake Konigsee's chapel of St. Bartholomew, and other things that I've
seen, but that the Mrs has not:

http://www.huntzinger.com/photo/2007/germany/
konigssee_st_bartholomew5977.jpg


-hh
  #6  
Old October 5th, 2009, 04:27 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
Tim C.[_5_]
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Posts: 920
Default Christmas Markets (2009)

On Mon, 5 Oct 2009 07:51:13 -0700 (PDT), -hh wrote in post :
:

which happened to be during a fall wine festival


Ah, the Weindorf. I remember it. Vaguely. :-)

--
Tim C.
  #7  
Old October 5th, 2009, 05:10 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
[email protected]
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Posts: 16
Default Christmas Markets (2009)

On Oct 5, 5:36*pm, "tim...." wrote:
----snipped----------------
But there are visitors and visitors.

Nuremberg *is full of "foreigners" visiting the Market. *The Stuttgart
figures are probably made up of the locals visiting 30 times each.

When I went Nuremberg the market was completely full. *It would have been
absolutely impossible to get any more people in the main square, so I don't
see that raw numbers matter


Let's see, I believe that it's about 3,600 buses full of people that
come to the Christmas Market every year in Stuttgart. Many of the
visitors are from all parts of Switzerland, lots from Austria, France
and Italy also. Stuttgart is very popular because of the excellence
of the Christmas Market coupled with less expensive good shopping for
some of these countries. Large numbers of people willing to board a
bus at 3-4AM in the morning for a very long day trip speaks about the
quality of the Stuttgart Market.

Now you're also saying that the Nuremberg Christmas Market is more
crowded than Stuttgart's, which I can believe although Stuttgart gets
about twice the number of visitors, as Stuttgart's is spread over a
good part of the center of town and not just a few more limited
areas. Last year I deliberately visited at peak times in Stuttgart to
see how bad the crowding could get, and was able to move about the
market freely which is a change from a few years ago when it was still
possible to get trapped in the center of it, especially on the
Marktplatz in front of the Rathaus. I believe that they achieved this
by removing some stalls, but most remains.
  #8  
Old October 5th, 2009, 09:57 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
Runge17
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 261
Default Christmas Markets (2009)

So ?

"Tim C." a écrit dans le message de
news
On Mon, 5 Oct 2009 07:51:13 -0700 (PDT), -hh wrote in post :
:

which happened to be during a fall wine festival


Ah, the Weindorf. I remember it. Vaguely. :-)

--
Tim C.


  #9  
Old October 6th, 2009, 08:00 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
Tim C.[_5_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 920
Default Christmas Markets (2009)

On Mon, 5 Oct 2009 16:36:46 +0100, tim.... wrote in post :
:

But there are visitors and visitors.

Nuremberg is full of "foreigners" visiting the Market. The Stuttgart
figures are probably made up of the locals visiting 30 times each.


In much the same way as the Munich Oktoberfest is "full" of foreigners
while the Cannstatter Wasen (Stuttgart) equivalent may be smaller but is
more "German" and "authentic".
--
Tim C.
  #10  
Old October 7th, 2009, 03:41 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
David Horne, _the_ chancellor[_2_]
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Posts: 6,049
Default Christmas Markets (2009)

Tim C. wrote:

On Mon, 5 Oct 2009 16:36:46 +0100, tim.... wrote in post :
:

But there are visitors and visitors.

Nuremberg is full of "foreigners" visiting the Market. The Stuttgart
figures are probably made up of the locals visiting 30 times each.


In much the same way as the Munich Oktoberfest is "full" of foreigners
while the Cannstatter Wasen (Stuttgart) equivalent may be smaller but is
more "German" and "authentic".


A bar a few minutes walk from where I teach serves an excellent
selection of German beers on tap and bottled, so I just go there.

Had a Paulaner Salvator earlier today for the first time. hic...

--
(*) of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
www.davidhorne.net (email address on website)
"[Do you think the world learned anything from the first
world war?] No. They never learn." -Harry Patch (1898-2009)
 




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