I'M GOING TO THE CHRISTMAS MARKETS!!!
I’ve done it. I’ve roped EDP into going to the German Christmas markets with me. This is one of my greatest achievements. What’s even more amazing is he’s excited for them now, too, because he found out there’s a lot of food at them.
Originally, we were thinking about another trip to Italy for this year’s fall travel. San Marino has been on my list for years and there are still a couple of places in Italy we haven’t seen, particularly Milan. So we started with San Marino and Northern Italy. Then we decided to add a couple of days of snowboarding in for EDP. But once we pushed into winter, I wasn’t as keen on San Marino. I think we’d enjoy it more in the spring or fall. After a couple of days, EDP suggested we do 1 or 2 Christmas markets and I nearly died. I think he knew I’d try to steamroll him into dropping Milan entirely and JUST doing Christmas markets if not presented with a specific plan so he came armed with 2 markets that weren’t too far from where he wanted to snowboard AND are some of the best in the world - Munich and Nuremberg. Obviously, I suggested we add at least 15 others. That motion was denied. But we started building a plan around the Munich & Nuremberg markets, a couple of days in the Dolomites, and a few days in Milan.
The best part of this whole thing is that I’ve turned 2 markets into 7.
How did I manage that?
From the beginning, the plan included Munich and Nuremberg because they aren’t far from the Dolomites and they are both pretty famous. That’s Market 1 and Market 2.
We originally were going to fly through Rome but we were able to make it work to fly into Munich and out of Milan (who knew Milan had a bigger airport than Rome?!) And Munich has a Christmas market IN THE AIRPORT. That’s Market 3.
It turns out, Bolzano is a hub for most of the travel in to and out of the Dolomites. Most folks will travel into Bolzano and then get regional transportation out to their particular village. That’s Market 4.
And once we get into Val Gardena, the area of the Dolomites we’re staying in, there are 2 more small markets in the little towns. That’s Market 5 and 6! But the timing on Market 6 might not work out for me, we’ll see.
And guess who else has a Christmas market? Yup. Milan. That’s Market 7.
Are we going to spend significant time in any other than Munich & Nuremberg? No. I think you have to walk through the Munich Airport market to get out but we want to spend our time at the proper market so we’ll be beelining for Marienplatz. Once we’re in the Dolomites, I’ll check out the Bolzano and Val Gardena markets on my own while EDP snowboards. The Milan market has a bunch of stuff going on while we’re there and we’ll probably wander through but it won’t be the point of our time in Milan the way the markets are for Nuremberg & Munich.
I’ve wanted to go to the Christmas markets for SO LONG. I’m so excited that I’m pretty sure I’m about to be given a limit on the amount of time I’m allowed to spend talking about them. We’re currently deep in negotiations on our arrival & departure time for Nuremberg. Obviously, I think we should be on the first train out of Munich and the last train back. EDP heartily disagrees. The talks continue.
In the meantime, we’ve got almost everything planned out:
We fly into Munich on an overnight fight. We’ll get to our hotel as quickly as we can and spend the afternoon & evening at the Munich markets. hitting up the main market for gingerbread, the medieval market for bread, mulled wine & wurst, Rindermarkt for flame roast salmon and the Christmas Village for general Christmas frivolities.
The next day, we’ll head up to Nuremberg. We’ll check out the castle in the morning, take a food tour of the market in the late afternoon and then stuff ourselves with more gingerbread, bread, wurst and most importantly, Feuerzangenbowle.
The next day, we’ll head for Val Gardena in the Dolomites. EDP will snowboard. I’ll Christmas market and read. And eat the snacks I bought at the Christmas markets.
We finish up in Milan where we’re going to take in the Duomo, a couple of museums, see the Last Supper and try to get to La Scala for a performance (I’m not holding my breath. The only performance while we’re there is the opening night of the entire season… Tickets sell out in minutes.)
Finally, we’ll make our way back home again, with my Christmas market bounty taking over every bag we have and our lives, in general.
I’m so flipping excited.
