The last couple of days have been both very eventful and very uneventful.
We left Toronto on Thursday evening for our overnight flight to Munich. We landed on Friday morning, just a touch later than expected, waited a LONG time for customs and a LONGER time for EDP’s ski bag before emerging from the airport to see our first Christmas market.
Because it was really early in the day, it wasn’t fully up and running yet but it was a pretty cute way to say hello to Munich again. We soon made it onto the S-Bahn and emerged from the station to find our hotel. It was supposed to be very close but we weren’t sure what exit to use so we picked one with an escalator and headed off in what we thought was the right direction. It wasn’t. We turned around and headed back the way we came and did get to where we needed to be.
Now, it was snowing. It was quite a wet snow but snowing. We were really hoping our room would be ready so that we could change clothes and get down to the market since we only had a half day in Munich. And it was! So with bags dropped and hats, boots & mitts acquired, we headed off to Marienplatz. It was a snowy walk. The snow was still quite wet but who doesn’t want snow falling while they visit their first German Christmas market?? We got down into Marienplatz and got our first glühweins from the very first hut in the market. What a way to start! It was warm and tasty and just what we needed as we wandered around.
Something that’s quite lovely about the markets is that your hot beverages are served in mugs. You pay a deposit for the mug and you can either keep it or return it for a refund. We didn’t opt to keep any of our Munich mugs as souvenirs, which I may now be regretting since I didn’t add to my magnet collection with a Christmas stall magnet, but I guess that’s another reason we have to come back. Anyway. Armed with our glühwein, we wandered around, looking at all the stalls. There were so many food vendors - warm nuts and chocolate-covered fruit and gingerbread and SO MUCH WURST! It wasn’t very busy, which was great, so we got a snack (pretzel for me, wurst for EDP) and continued to wander. Most food and drink stalls will have some small standing tables, often covered, where you can enjoy your treat but we wanted to see as much as we could so we wandered through the main market and some of the side streets, taking it all in. EDP soon saw another wurst stand that he liked the look of so we shared another wurst before trying to find the Medieval market, which is know for its feuerzangenbowle, which is a glühwein with rum and spices.
We seemed to still be a bit of a ways when we saw what I thought was the right market so we abandoned the map and tucked into another market. This one was super cute with some lovely stalls. Much of what we saw at Marienplatz seemed quite commercial and many of the vendors had the same nutcrackers and candles and whatnot. Part of what we were looking forward to was the unique things - and there were a few of those at Marienplatz but it does seem to have become quite commercialized. This market seemed to have a few more unique things but still not a lot to catch the eye. We had the infamous feuerzangenbowle which was DELICIOUS and you could easily loose track of how many of those you had.
From there, we made our way over to the intended market, the Medieval market which was much smaller than I expected but we shared some käsespätzle (so yummy and warm) before heading back towards the main market to get apple donuts and some fried potatoes. We had seen both stalls earlier in the day but didn’t think to drop pins on a map so it took some work but we did manage to find them again. The donuts were amazing - basically an apple fritter but so much better than any I’ve had - and those St Jacob’s ones are pretty good! The snow was still coming down and was still quite wet so we decided it was time to head back to the hotel to dry out. We were quite full so we didn’t need dinner but I really wanted to see a market at night so I convinced EDP that we should go to a little market just around the corner from our hotel and I’m glad we did because it was so beautiful with the lights and the snow! We didn’t make any stops, just took a nice wander around before heading back to snuggle down for a good sleep.
The plan for Saturday was to take a train up to Nuremberg, tour around the Old Town a bit before heading over to their famous market for a food tour and some time on our own before a late train back to Munich. But on Saturday morning, all the trains were cancelled. It was still snowing. Munich had already gotten about 30cm of snow. The city had ground to a halt. No trains were running until at least noon. So we figured out a plan - go get breakfast and then head to the train station to see about getting on a later train. We managed the first part with no problem but as we wandered, the city was so silent from the lack of traffic and I knew in my heart that we weren’t going to make it to Nuremberg. Everything was shut down. No flights in or out. No trains. No busses, trams, or S-Bahns. We took a quick tour through the little nearby market and the vendors were all shovelling and trying to clear snow off their roofs and off the trees. The roofs had all been clear when we made our first trip down to Marienplatz on Friday. It was so much snow. And we’re Canadian. We headed back to the hotel and I found a 24-hour news site that was running constant updates. Police were asking people not to travel. The airport was closed. The Friday flight from Toronto had been diverted to Paris. The hotel concierge told EDP that even if we could manage to get out, we might not get back. There were a lot of people without hotel rooms because the city was booked up. Our hotel was expecting a lot of cancellations but they hadn’t started to roll in yet. We were happy we had our room still!
So, we officially pulled the plug on the Nuremberg market and instead, headed back to the local market for lunch. After an eierpunsch for EDP and a heidelbeere glühwein for me, we acquired a salmon sandwich for EDP and a crepe with Nutella and marshmallows for me. Then, it was back to the hotel to keep an eye on things. By the early afternoon, it was looking like nothing was going to start back up any time soon. We tried to change our train tickets that were taking us out of Munich and into the Dolomites but after well over an hour without getting through, we headed back to Marienplatz for dinner. The snow had stopped, by that point.
We strolled through the market again - it was MUCH busier than our previous visit. One might say packed. But it was beautiful to see it all lit up at night! We went back to the same wurst stall we had been at on Friday so EDP could try a different wurst while I had raclette. EDP also had the world’s largest baked potato, which was so toasty warm and yummy. We topped that off with some warm candied almonds and another round of glühwein before heading back to the hotel to try to change train tickets again. By that point, everything had been cancelled for Sunday. It looked like some of the regional trains might be running but it wasn’t clear. While on hold, EDP had the genius idea to check busses. After some frantic googling and mapping, we eventually got tickets booked on a 6am bus out of Munich. It was after midnight before we got everything sorted and got all packed up. Neither of us slept well with alarms set for 4:45. If we didn’t make the bus (or the bus got cancelled), we’d be stuck in Munich. The hotel assured us there would be rooms but someone had posted to Reddit that he had been charged €650 for a night at a Hilton, which is where we were staying. No idea if it was the same Hilton but I bet we’d have been looking at a minimum of €350, not to mention losing a day in the Dolomites.
4:45 arrived and we were up, packed and checked out shortly after 5. We got to the S-Bahn and discovered only one line was running. It got us to the central train station around 5:30 and then we had a 5ish minute walk up the road to the bus station. It was pretty busy. When our bus arrived, it was swarmed by far more people than it had seats. We were so happy we had tickets and assigned seats as people were getting turned away and weren’t happy about it. I don’t blame them. Trains are far more popular than buses but nothing was running. We did learn that helicopters were being sent out to start identifying where tracks had issues that needed to be cleared so who knows when they’ll be running again.
It was a long night and a long bus ride with an extra transfer we wouldn’t have had if we took the train but we made it to Santa Christina, our base for 3 days in the Dolomites. It’s quite dead in town as the big opening for the lifts and gondolas isn’t until Tuesday but EDP will have a couple of runs to ski tomorrow before a hopefully great day on Tuesday (and part of Wednesday.) We did nap a little before dinner but exhaustion (and relief) is setting in.
In all, I’m so happy we got into Munich on Thursday versus being diverted to Paris. And I’m happy we got out today instead of waiting for trains to start up again. We lost our day in Nuremberg but EDP has agreed we’ll come back in a few years. The Munich market was wonderful to experience and the snow has been so beautiful. But I’m also really happy we’re in Italy now.
