I have just returned from a wonderful week visiting the Christmas markets in the western part of Germany. Here is a diary of the foodie highlights along with a few other photos and details.
The whole trip was done by train, we caught the Euro Star from London, sped through to Brussels and then caught a couple of little local trains to get to our first destination, the boarder town of Aachen.
We arrived quite late in the evening and were slightly deflated to realise that the (rather small looking) Christmas market was all packing up for the night at 10pm. We decided that our first nights meal should be sausage based so we purchased some 1/2 meter bratwurst. After a couple of drinks at a nearby bar we headed back to the hotel. It was Saturday night and the town was dead, yet when we had tried to book, all the hostels and cheap hotels had no vacancies, we wondered where all these supposed crowds were.
We spent night at the
Art Hotel Superior, comfortable with spacious rooms, a bit excessive for a back packing trip but nevertheless nice.
The next morning we returned to the market via the train station where we dropped our bags (just 3euros for a locker that fitted all our bags- how convenient! We could do with these facilities in the UK) and then walked down into the main town, stopping to look at the Theatre and Hot Spring buildings. We soon came across a small market consisting mainly of food stalls. I grabbed a nutella filled crepe which was a lovely little breakfast snack! I also noticed that you could have alcohol poured on your crepe, but I thought it was a bit early in the day for that.
Our next stop was the
Cathedral, a stunning building and totally worth the visit. In the adjacent square, I noticed a baker selling little men made of bread. I was intrigued, so I bought one. It was a brioche type bread, glazed, decorated with raisins and sugar cubes and a little clay pipe. It turns out its a traditional seasonal food called a
Weckmann.
Behind the cathedral in a large square we came across what we were looking for: the rest of the markets. There were an unbelievable amount of stalls, and crowds and crowds of people (they must have all gone to bed early before we arrived!) I picked up some lovely Christmas gifts and we visited the bar where we enjoyed some Mulled Wine and
feuerzangenbowle.
I decided I didn't want sausage again for lunch after the previous nights metric monster so instead I had some lentil soup. I was slightly alarmed to see that the girl serving me took a sausage, passed it through a slicing machine and put it into a bowl into which she then served my soup!
After a drink in a lovely ancient looking pub under the
Rathaus (town hall) we headed towards the train station and our connection to Heidelberg.
We again arrived at Heidelberg late at night. After a warm welcome at the excellent
Steffis Hostel we walked down the main street a short while to a bar called
Merlin. I had a huge portion of chicken schnitzel and chips. We noticed that this restaurant served beer from the the
Heidelberger Brewery which happened to be right next door. We particularity liked their festive offering of the Weihnachtsbier.
Monday we had a full day in Heidelberg, so after breakfast at the hostel we took a trip on the funicular rail way up to the
Castle, where we enjoyed some stunning views of the city and its meandering river. One of the items of interest in the castle is this HUGE wine barrel!
Afterwards we went back down into the town to look at the Christmas markets. The markets in Heidelberg are small and dotted around the historic old town. We alternated browsing the stalls with exploring old churches. We noticed a distinct difference here from Aachen, less food stalls, with a much more diverse range of gift items available. We also noticed that the stalls had a fairy tale style decoration to them.
For lunch we visited and ancient old restaurant called
Güldenes Schaf. I enjoyed a dish of pork schnitzel, spaetzle (a type of noodles) and mushroom sauce. The food was all home cooked, with huge portions and what appeared to be the obligatory side salad. It was a great restaurant full of lots of wonderful old features.
After lunch we spent some time admiring the city's old bridge and the 'Bridge Monkey' (rubbing different parts of his body brings luck in various areas of your life. Needless to say he has very well polished boy bits)
We then headed for the Vetter Brauhaus where I ordered a dark 'Bock' beer. The brauhaus had a lovely interior, the mash tanks actually visible sat at the end of the room. Feeling slightly wobbly I looked Bock up in my phrase book 'a beer brewed to be stronger'. The bar tender informed us that it was around 6% in strength. Good job I only had the 1/2 litre then.
Taking a tip from the bar tender we had dinner at Bier Bretzel a medieval themed restaurant were we ate Flammküchen a type of German style pizza with sour cream instead of tomato sauce.The Christmas markets are a great way to spend an evening, they stay open till late, and you can enjoy a mulled wine whilst you browse the stalls- we found that hot wine is a very civilised thing to drink whilst doing some shopping. (I think they should bring this idea in at Tesco- it would make shopping much more fun).
On our last morning in Heidelberg was spent trekking up the very steep philosophers way walk for lovely views of the city. Back down the other side we found a cafe which served the most amazing cake in gargantuan portions.
The train to Frankfurt got us in mid afternoon. We found the markets here to be substantially bigger than the others we had seen at that point. We were also quite amused by the ancient looking timber framed buildings which were actually only constructed in 1986 (what was left of the original old buildings got almost totally destroyed in WWII). Nevertheless they provided a very theatrical back drop for the markets.
On the hunt for an evening meal, and after being told our planned choice was fully booked, we stumbled across a dodgy looking little pub. I wasn't that hungry so had Hawaiian toast, not a culinary delight but worthy of a photo for its aesthetic appeal.
By night the markets in Frankfurt were much more raucous than in our previous experiences, probably due to the younger, less conservative residents of Frankfurt. There was also a much higher ratio of stalls providing alcoholic beverages.
Our hotel didn't provide breakfast so we ate on the hoof. These potato cakes with apple sauce were just the thing before following a walking route of the city.
I would really suggest doing the route (map available from the tourist info office) as it really did include all of the interesting sights. The route passed through this street, renowned for its array of cafes and delis. We stopped at fish deli chain Nordsee for fried fish sandwiches, a bargain at just 2.50€.
The walk took us past the financial district, were you could go to the top of one of the skyscrapers to take in the view.
On the south side of the river we took a diversion off our route and went down Textorstraße where we found Frankfurt's famous Apfelwein (AKA Cider) taverns. These places are quite tricky to find, being set back from the roads in yards. Look out for the signs featuring the little blue and white jugs.
In the first place we shared a selection of starters including a mashed up cheese mix, delicious frankfurters with vinegary potatoes, and a potato sausage with 'Green Sauce (We asked the waitress what the real name for the Green Sauce was in German. She replied with a grin 'Grün Soße'!).
The second place was busier, owing to what looked like an office party down from the city. We were beginning to find that in Germany, you often in pubs don't get your own table, you just sit on a long bench wherever there is space, and you have to drink the house tipple as most places only offer one or two choices, which I much prefer over the commercially branded, mass produced lagers we get in the UK. The cider was lovely but it was exceptionally cheap and dangerously strong!
It was dark by the time we got on the train to Cologne, which was a shame as the train follows the route of the Rhine valley with all its amazing castles and river views. Due to the late arrival (and a cider headache) I spent a quiet night at the hostel.
Cologne has an amazing cathedral and many different markets. For breakfast I tried this snack of chopped nuts covered in chocolate and for lunch I something I forget the name of, but it was a flattened ball of dough that had then been deep fried and covered in sour cream and cheese- you could choose to have all manner of sweet or savoury toppings.
We then visited the
Früh brauhaus. Cologne is famous for its top fermented Kölsh beer. The style of production means that the beer is less fizzy than other continental beers. The drinks are served in 200ml glasses so your beer is always fresh and at its best. The blue robed typically boisterous '
Köbes' waiters then just run round replenishing empty glasses as quick as you can drink them and leave a tally mark on your beer mat to keep count of the drinks. It takes stealthy drinking and firm convictions to get your bill when you want to leave before you are presented with another full glass of beer.
After a recommendation from one of
the hostel staff we arranged to go to
Haus Scholzen for our evening meal. The restaurant was very popular so we had to make a reservation. We knew right from the minute we arrived that we had made a good decision, the restaurant was full with what looked like huge parties of locals and family groups, the staff were bustling in and out of the kitchen bringing out plate after plate of wonderful looking food. The menu is traditional German fayre, heavily based on meat and potato dishes, with delicious looking gravy and sauces.
After passing round their only English translated menu and looking at the huge dishes the other diners were being presented with we decided to skip on a full starter and instead decided on an appetiser that consisted of a glass of schnapps topped with a slice of black pudding (served cold and quite different to English black pudding) with a blob of mustard. It was nothing like anything I had ever tried but it was really tasty and a great introduction to the meal.
My main course I had beef, that had been marinated and then served in a rasin sauce. It came with potato dumplings and apple sauce. The portion was huge and the beef was beautifully tender, the rich rasin sauce was a perfect compliment.
The kitchen had closed by the time it came to pudding, but there was still a good choice of cold puddings in the display case, so I chose a lemon roulade.
The prices were really reasonable and the atmosphere and service is excellent. If you are ever in Cologne, I thouroughly reccomend you consider this place for an authentic German meal. Its a little out of town, but only a 5 minute walk from the PiusStrasse U-bhan station.
The second day in cologne was spent visiting more of the varied markets- the medieval market and the old town market. We had hot 'Meth' mead whilst looking at the medieval themed stalls of fine wood carvings and metal work.
The old town market had a magical feel about it, the huts were decorated with wood carvings and there were lots of nice samples of meats, cheeses and baked items to try as well as the usual craft and gift items.
One of the stalls was Russian themed with hot vodka cocktails. I tried a 'Red October' made with raspberry juice and a decent slug of vodka. We were chatting to the Russian stall holder and asked if this was a traditional Russian drink. To this the guy rocked with laughter and replied No! the Russians do not drink cocktails, this is only for the Germans! Authentic or not, it was delicious! (The mugs are beautifully decorated and different in every town, in Cologne different in every market. You pay a small deposit for them, but you can choose to keep the mug. Most are maked with the year, so they make great souvineers)
We went for lunch at the
Mühlen brauhaus where we enjoyed an excellent meal from the discounted lunch menu. This dish of fish in breadcrumb, tomato sauce and boiled potatoes was only around 9€ and was washed down with several more glasses of deliciously light (yet deceptively strong) Kölsch.
I spent the afternoon climbing more than 500 steps to the top of the magnificent and ornate cathedral and enjoying the views before then exploring the rest of the markets. On the Ruldoplph platz the were serving whole deep fried Camembert with a choice of cranberry or horseradish (!) sauce. It made a delicious little supper after the huge lunch.
It was an early start for the train the next morning leaving Germany for a quick stop in Brussels. Once there I spent the day wandering round the streets looking at the flea markets and antique shops, and statues of dogs and little boys relieving themselves, before stopping for some one of Belgium's best known delicacies... now I'm normally a ketchup girl, but anything other than mayonnaise would have just been inappropriate!
I paid a quick visit to the slightly rubbish chocolate museum before heading up to the Palace of Justice to take in the awesome city views.
Tea was a crepe filled with ham, cheese and spinach washed down with
Juplier another light fresh, and deceptively strong beer! We then headed back to the Grand Place square, where as part of the festive celebrations the huge ornate buildings were flooded with disco lights and club music. It has to be seen to be believed (
this was on You Tube filmed the same day I was there). Unfortunately all this was 20 yards from my room and went on until 11pm so I had it to lull me gently off to sleep!
We had to be at the station early the next morning but there was the chance for some last ditch take away Belgian-ness which I ate on the Eurostar on the way home!
I really enjoyed my trip to Germany, each and every one of the towns were different, with huge variations in the Christmas markets and in food and drink traditions. Even though Germany is so geographically close to us, the local food (and beer) is refreshingly different and rally worth the effort to seek out. If you enjoy the German Christmas markets here in the UK, I would definitely recommend you try to visit Germany during December, the real markets are amazing!
Headingley seems to have a disproportionate amount of Thai and other eastern eateries. Sukhothai is arguably the smartest out of the lot.
I had the squid for a starter, a good sized portion, nicely presented. The first piece was a bit tough and I was worried that the dish had been over cooked, but all of the other pieces were beautifully soft, it must have just been a rouge tough bit.
Despite this it was still really tasty and packed with peanuts and good sized chunks of chicken.
For pudding I opted for the ginger and lemon cheesecake. It looked spectacular in its presentation, but sadly lacked any zing in terms of flavour.
