Sunday Church Phot-o' the Day: Inside the Frauenkirche; Nuremberg, Germany

Interior shot from the Frauenkirche, the Church of Our Lady, on the Hauptmarkt in Nuremberg, Germany. The Hauptmarkt is the large square just north of the river (the Pegnitz, for those keeping score) that is the center for Nuremberg's famous Christmas market.

I visited Nuremberg in December 2018 specifically to visit the Christmas market. Nuremberg's Christmas market is considered to the best in all the world by the experts -- yes, there are people who are experts on all the various European Christmas market -- which in yet another tangential digression is more appropriately referenced as an "Advent" market since they are open for the Advent season, pre-Christmas, rather than the Christmas season, which begins with Christmas Day.

One of my more major travel regrets is that I did not set aside enough time to see and explore Nuremberg. The Christmas Market the evening of my arrival was all the Nuremberg I allotted time to see. The next morning I was off to Trier, Germany. Nuremberg would have been worth a whole day, or two. I'm not sure if I'll make it through to here again, since Nuremberg is a little difficult to get to, as it's in the center of the country and all the major cities and other places people want to see in Tourist Germany are on the country's periphery. This looks like a regret that will always remain unsated.

The Trier Christmas Market

Mary and Joseph,with their baby in the stable. Santa and the reindeer on the roof. With a snowman. At the Trier Christmas Market.

And so the trip ends with a couple of visits to the Trier Christmas Market.

The Christmas Market was just a block from my hotel.  Downtown Trier is not really that large, so that's not surprising,

On a cold wet Sunday, the place was quite crowded.

The stalls were all decorated with evergreen branches thick on the roofs, which made for a nice Christmas look.

Christmas churros!  And a long line to get them.  Santa loves him some churros.  De claro.

 Reindeer on the roofs, too.

And evergreen boughs on the Christmas merry-go-round.

It was the usual mix of food selling (and hot booze selling) stalls and those selling Christmas tchotchkes of various kinds, mostly ornaments, candle holders, or Christmas houses.

And, of course, Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Santa and the reindeer.  All together.

I guess that's a Christmas windmill.

Why not?

This place was selling chocolate covered fruits, mostly bananas.

Even the trash cans were decked out in holiday cheer.

Yes,  Seriously.  That is a trash can.

The Zamboni was out at the Christmas ice skating rink.

And right on the main square of the Christmas Market was one of the most beautiful McDonald's I have ever seen.

Yes.  That is a McDonald's.  You can see the golden arches.

There was an organ grinder.

No monkey.  But "What Child Is This," which is generally not one of my favorite Christmas songs, really sounded good on the hand-cranked organ.

I tipped a euro coin.

One of the purpose of this trip was to explore the Christmas markets of Germany.  (That, and like the McDonald's we just saw, I deserved a break today and needed the de-stressing trip.)

I would not want to do this every year, but this was a great treat.

And of course I returned after dark to get some supper.

And this was dinner:

Chiliwurst!  This was the hottest, spiciest bratwurst I've ever had.  Quite good.

The Christmas carousel was well-lit, as were some of the attendees, I presume.

The crowds were starting to thin out.

I'm not sure if the Christmas windmill was generating sufficient power to keep the lights on.

Last chance for Christmas tchotchkes.

Or Christmas crepes and waffles.

Apparently they go through a lot of nutella at these booths, since that seems to be what people nowadays want on the Christmas crepes and waffles.

O Tannenbaum!  Let's get in the mood with the song sung in German:  click.

Or do you prefer your "O Tannenbaum" by Andrea Bocelli?

And with that my first winter trip to Europe comes to an end.

The Nuremberg Christmas Market

"Baked potatoes" made of marzipan for sale at the Nuremberg Christmas Market

Next stop: Nuremberg, Germany.  I have now completed the Austro-Hungarian Empire part of this vacation and have moved into Germany.  I have come from the Christmas Market.

 
Nuremberg is reputed to have the oldest, the biggest, and the best Christmas Market in all of Europe.

And it was much much bigger than the biggest I saw in Vienna, although Vienna had Christmas Markets scattered all through the city.

No need to take the horse drawn carriage to get there:

My hotel is right in the middle of the action.

But, first, a church.

This is the Frauenkirche Nürnberg.  This is the Catholic Church that is right in the middle of the Christmas Market action.

Almost Lutheran-like in being austere.  In Vienna, the Catholic churches went over-the-top in being ornate, ushering in the Baroque style, a branding move done to "compete" with the austere, stripped-down Protestant churches.  I guess in this part of German there was more of a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" ethic.

Lots of Christmas trees lit up for the occasion.  Germany did invent the Christmas tree, after all.

And booths selling the seasonal grog.  The local grog seemed to be more hot mulled wine, rather than the more alcohol-intense rum punches in Vienna.

Let's move over to the children's section:

The booths all have things up on their "roofs".

Santa and his sleigh.

Angels.  Who I presume we have heard on high.

Elves.

Even Teddy Bears.

They had a carousel.

And what had to be the shortest railroad ever in the history of the world.  That is one tight circle.

 And they had a stone statue of that gentleman, although I'm guessing he's a permanent resident and not here just for the Children's Christmas Market.

They did have many of the same booths in the children's section as they had in the main section.

And they had a nice wooden creche, off to the side, out of the way.

And they had food.  Supper was one of those hot pretzels, covered in gooey cheese and salami.  Huge, tasty and filling.  What more do you want from street food?

The market just spills all over the old town part of Nuremberg.

This is the part of the city within the city walls.  No time to explore the walls or anything else in Nuremberg.

I've got only one night here and the whole point of Nuremberg being on the itinerary is this:

Or more like this:

Food!  Dessert!  Christmas confections!

I got one of these, which is a giant marshmallow.  This is the rum flavored.  The marshmallow was not stiff and chewy as I expect.  It was creamy.  Like a marshmallow cream, or a sweet meringue.  It was very good, but almost too sweet.  Almost.  (Time to cue up the Dean Martin.  CLICK HERE if you dare.  I heard Dean's "Marshmallow World" playing here at this Christmas Market, too.  It's becoming the theme song for this Christmas.  This youtube clip is even better, because Dean sings with a cigarette in hand.)

Should I have gone for the more traditional cookies instead?

Church break.  Time for a church break.

This is the Lutheran church in this part of Old Town.  Sebalduskirche Nürnberg.  St. Sebald's Church.

This may have been the coldest church in which I've ever been in.

That is not a metaphor for Lutheran austerity.  Well, not intentionally.

But all of the stone made this much colder than it was outside.

It was beautiful.

But, then again, so is Christmas capitalism.  Here, at least.

There's always someone dressed in an animal costume.

As I said, my hotel, the Sorat Hotel Saxx, is right on the square.  After a week-plus of tiny hotel rooms with European-sized bathrooms and showers, it is nice to have a hotel room with a double bed and a nice-sized bathroom.  The room is not American business hotel huge.  Who needs that much space in a hotel room anyway?  But it's nice to sleeping in a room that's bigger than the bare minimum that will fit me in it.

The market continued after it got dark.

The booths got brighter.

It was time for a hot punch.  I had the "traditional style," which is mulled wine, served hot.

In that mug.  It was very good, but it did not deliver the kick like those rum punches back in Vienna.

Then, at 9:00 p.m. sharp, the whole joint closed down.  Instantly and efficiently.  This is Germany after all.