Lori McGuffin and the Christmas Markets

As a fan of all things Christmas, I could not have been more thrilled to travel with David McGuffin’s Exploring Europe’s Christmas Market Tour in 2019. We landed in Frankfurt and drove in comfort on a bus to Austria, in awe of the majestic mountains while listening to an informative message about our future sights. We arrived outside of Hellbrunn Palace where the iconic film The Sound of Music was filmed in 1964. Seeing the mansion the characters interacted in and around and walking along the serene lake that the children tipped their canoe in was surreal. We even sang and danced around the gazebo that Liesl and Rolf shared their first kiss. Later that night, we walked around Salzburg enjoying the beautiful Christmas decorations. We walked the stairs to the top of a fortress so that we could get an incredible view of the whole city lit up at night.

Then we headed to Nurenburg, for their world-famous Christmas markets. The aisles upon aisles of handmade ornaments, handcrafted nutcrackers, and unique crafts provided hours of shopping bliss. To add to our experience, Nurenburg offered a live nativity with friendly camels and llamas that we could pet and take photos with. As we strolled, we enjoyed flavorful sausages on soft bread and hot delicious glühwein in unique mugs. Each market offers its own special regional mug that shoppers can either choose to keep and collect or trade in for a partial refund before they depart. In addition to shopping, food, and drinks, live musicians or singing groups perform Christmas carols to enhance the experience with entertainment.

Next we headed to the incredibly well-preserved medieval town of Rothenburg, Germany. The town is completely surrounded by a high wall from the 12th century that can be walked along entirely. We walked its cobblestone streets, visiting the Christmas villages, shops, and beautiful churches. At night, we took the Night Watchman’s Tour, learning the incredible history of the town and its legends. We felt like we had traveled back in time into the middle of a fairy tale.

Our ended our Christmas Markets Tour in Munich, where we shopped until we dropped! Not only were we able to visit popular high-end department stores, we enjoyed more Christmas markets with more delicious hot glühwein in unique collectable mugs and more handmade beautiful ornaments and crafts. We toured many gorgeous cathedrals with elaborate nativity scenes and appreciated the most extravagant holiday decorations yet. But the culinary highlight of the trip were the sandwiches cooked on a cedar board plank over an open flame and served fresh to us over hot crusty bread.