Good Times: To Market, To Market

It's been four weeks since we first embarked on our Dutch adventure; it's been even longer since we've seen friends or family. So you can imagine our joy at spending the weekend exploring the Frankfurt Christmas Market with our good friends, Matt and Kerri, and their boys, Ethan and Ryan, who are on their own European adventure. We last saw Matt and Kerri when we joined them for a pub crawl through Cedarburg in early September, shortly before they departed for a three-year stay in Switzerland.

A couple weeks ago, Kerri and I hatched a plan to meet at one of Germany's popular Christmas markets before we all headed home to the States for the holidays. After some research, we settled on the Frankfurt Weihnachtsmarkt, one of Germany's oldest Christmas markets. It also happens to be located halfway between us!

Jim, the twins, and I made the drive to Frankfurt on Friday afternoon and arrived early on Friday evening. Since it was raining on Friday night, we put the twins to bed shortly after our arrival and stayed in our room the rest of the night. With the Nowicki family not scheduled to arrive until noon on Saturday, we headed to the market to scope it out on Saturday morning.

Once we were within a few blocks of the market, the delightful scent of grilled sausage lured us toward Frankfurt's old town, where we found a beautifully decorated fir tree reaching into the sky and more than 200 stalls offering mulled wine, bratwurst, Christmas ornaments, soft pretzels, crepes, frites, candles, gingerbread, and much more. We were immediately impressed with the Christmas market; Jim, in fact, proclaimed his love for the market soon after we were seduced by its sights and smells. We quickly toured the market, sampling some gluhwein, bratwurst, soft pretzels, and crepes (Nutella!), before we headed back to the hotel for nap time.

By the time the twins awoke from their nap, we had connected with Matt and Kerri, who must have arrived while we were walking back from the market. We made plans to head back to see the market at night, and met a short while later to do just that! With our babies strapped to our backs, we fought the crowds to sample even more of the market's goodies!

Kerri and I, sans babies or husbands, returned later that evening to try to accomplish the shopping and picture-taking that we couldn't attempt earlier in the night. We didn't have nearly as much time as we would have liked to do so (The Market closes at 9!), but it was so wonderful to have some "girl time" with Kerri.

The gang was back at the market before parting ways on Sunday morning. Kerri and I were able to buy the souvenirs and gifts that we had wanted to the night before, the kids got to ride on the carousel, and the guys got their brats. Everyone was happy!

It had been a long time since either Jim or I felt truly at ease when out and about, but spending time with our friends brought us that sense of comfort that we had been missing.

We have all agreed upon another rendezvous before we go home in the spring. We're thinking France next time!

Jim and I fell in love with the Christmas Market so much that are hoping to go to the Christmas Market in Muenster this upcoming weekend.

I hope that Muenster is ready for us. We're going to eat all the brats and drink all of the hot apple wine!

Click on the pictures below to enlarge them!

Many of the Christmas Market's stalls are set up on the Romerberg Market Place.

The market extends through the surrounding streets.

Nearly every stall sells Gluhwein, a hot mulled red wine. Even Santa recommends it!

Jim was a big fan of the Gluhwein. I preferred the hot apple wine that I tried on Saturday night.

Jim was also a big fan of the bratwurst.

I skipped the gluhwein and the bratwurst and headed straight for the Nutella crepes.

Chug-a-lug!

With the twins on our backs, we headed back out to the market on Saturday night. I am grateful that it was petite Miss Maddie on my back, as even she became heavy to carry by the end of our visit!

It was a good call to go with our hiking backpacks; we never would have navigated through the crowds with a double stroller.

Gotta get your Gluhwein!

Ryan was out for the count before we even made our first food stop!

After eating some delicious potato pancakes, it was necessary to wash them down with some hot alcoholic beverages.

The Nowicki Family

Ethan - who is HUGE, by the way. At 7 months, he probably weighs 8 lbs. than Maddie!

We took a spin on the Wheel of Meat. Jim and Matt vow to build their own Wheels when they each return home.

Brat #2 for the day for Jim!

I was positive that the twins would fall asleep in their backpacks just as they had done when they rode in them the first time, but they stayed alert for our entire stay at the market.

But this guy was OUT!

That's a lot of sausage

Chocolate covered pear pig, anyone?

These gingerbread cookie necklaces were EVERYWHERE, and while they may have been appealing to the eye, they weren't very tasty. I bought one for each of the twins on Sunday. They refused to eat them. When we tried them, we understood why. They went right into the trash.

It was shortly before 9:00 that Kerri and I started noticing vendors closing their stalls. We realized that the market was closing. We rushed to buy a few ornaments and take some pictures before the lights went out on the Market.