This week I had a day off work and decided to spend it in Birmingham, a city in the West Midlands, about 200 km NW of London. Apart from being the second largest city in the UK, and also one of the most racially diverse, Birmingham has another claim to faim: it hosts the Frankfurt Christmas market, the largest Weihnachtsmarkt outside of Germany and Austria.
I love mulled wine, German sausages and yummy cakes, and could think of nothing better than pottering around beautifully decorated stalls for a few hours to get the Christmas cheer going. It was a bitterly cold but gloriously sunny day, and I loved every minute of it - including the journey there and back. It took me over 2 hours by train-tube-train each way, which may sound a lot, but it was much closer than going all the way to Frankfurt ;-)
The market had a very authentic feel to it. If I didn't know better, I'd think I was in Germany. The gifts were gorgeous and so was the food. There was everything you could hope to find at a Christmas market and then some: sausages, crepes, potato fritters, garlic mushrooms, gingerbread hearts, sweet dumplings, more chocolate than you could shake a stick at, and of course, mulled wine which you drank in special cups. I even saw some speculaas biscuits on sale and couldn't resist taking a photo ;-)
Sending you Happy Christmas greetings from Birmingham and the Frankfurt Christmas market!
9 comments:
Wow! It seems so great!!!
Well, I want to visit the much smaller German market in Hyde Park these days, I hope the feeling would be similar.
I didn't know anything about this Birmingham Christmas market. Sounds like great fun. Nothing like German-style Christmas events...
@ Gkriniaris: It should be, but I highly recommend Birmingham :-)
@ Betty: Neither did I until a couple of weeks ago. Apparently it's been going for the last four years. It started with 40 stalls and has more than doubled in size. It seemed very popular too.
It looks lovely.I wish they would have something like it here in Athens too.Went down to the tree in Syndagma Square on Sunday.It was lovely but sth was missing.
We are having a small bazaar in my area. Let you know how that goes.
How I wish it would snow for Christmas:-)
Hey Kathy, if you go to your one and take photos, send them over and I'll publish them :-)
Oh. I am so jealous. There is nothing like the food at a Weinachtsmarkt! We went to the Frankfurt market once, and I bought these beautiful glass ornaments, each with one of the boys' names etched on it. The Monkey dropped his the first year we were back in the States and I have wanted (needed!) to go back ever since. Ahhh, some day. So glad you had fun.
Well, if Germany doesn't work out, you could always try Birmingham ;-)
It sounds and looks so marvelous! We had visitors from Austria in last week who constantly talked about the "Christmas Markets". It looks like a wonderful way to spend a day - yummy food, great gift ideas, lights and good cheer! I wish we had something like that here in North Carolina, USA.
Have a wonderful holiday!!
@ Susan: Τhe Christmas markets in Germany and Austria are fantastic, and there are so many of them! Practically every town has one, and some have more than one.
You ought to get your visitors to invite you back to Austria next year so you can check them out ;-)
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