European Christmas Markets – November 2023

November 21, 2023 – December 1, 2023

Where We Stayed:

Lindner Hotel Frankfurt Main Plaza
Hyatt Regency Lisbon

Trip Highlights:

First time visiting European Christmas Markets
Relaxing spa day in Lisbon

Favorite Restaurants:

Frittenwerk

We spent the week of Thanksgiving in Europe, experiencing Christmas Markets in Germany and France. I was still recovering from a pretty serious bought of Bronchitis on this trip, so we took it pretty easy most days.

Exploring Frankfurt, Germany

We based most of our trip in Frankfurt, Germany, taking day trips to other cities we visited. Of our days in Frankfurt not at the Christmas Market a few highlights were:

Wandering around the city on foot and seeing the museums
Watching them set up for Frankfurt’s Christmas Market (which we visited at the end of our trip)
Eating lots of Frittenwerk chicken & fries and German grocery store sandwiches
Our very nice hotel room/mini-apartment with lovely views of the river and Frankfurt’s skyline

Interesting spelling
These are cheese slices shaped like bears!
The view of the city from our hotel
We ate at this shop many times while we in Frankfurt
Fun art installation at the museum of communication
Marzipan Pigs!

Cologne Christmas Market

We took a day trip to Cologne, Germany via train. Cologne has several large Christmas markets throughout the city that we visited. It was freezing and windy in Cologne that day, so we look a little windswept in most of our photos.

Favorite memories:

Visiting the main Cologne market at the base of the towering Cologne cathedral
The Elf themed Christmas market that was full of little gnomes doing tasks and celebrating Christmas
Eating sausages and chocolate covered fruit sticks
Lots of fun shopping and people watching

The famous Cologne cathedral
One of many pretzel stalls at the Cologne markets
Cologne has an entire market dedicated to Christmas “elves”
Freshly baked salmon
Sitting beneath the cathedral
Outside of the main market beneath the cathedral
It was chilly!

Heidelberg, Germany

Our second day trip was to Heidelberg, Germany. Their Christmas Market wasn’t running yet, but we mainly visited the small city to see the castle ruins and ride their old funicular up the hills. The town was very cute and we had a nice, relaxing day!

The old castle looms over the city
Views from the castle
The incoming funicular

Strasbourg Christmas Market

Our final day trip was to Strasbourg, France, just over the border. Strasbourg is known as the “Capital of Christmas” because they go all out with their Christmas markets.

Unlike Cologne, which had several large Christmas Markets, Strasbourg had nearly 20 small markets, all with different themes or special items. We spent our day wandering around the cute fairytale town looking through the market and eating fun treats.

One of the largest Christmas trees in Europe
Strasbourg was full of small markets throughout the city
It felt like we were in a fairy tale!
A marzipan pretzel at the market beneath the cathedral
These are all made of Marzipan!

Frankfurt Christmas Market

Our final day was opening day for the Frankfurt Christmas Markets. Frankfurt also had several markets, but they all seemed to run together, one market bleeding into the next. Frankfurt was our favorite of the markets we visited on our trip, having a nice blend of food, atmosphere, and shopping.

Some highlights:

Our favorite chocolate covered fruit stick stand – which had raspberry sticks (our favorite)
Trying Kinderspunch – a non-alcoholic version of mulled wine (I was still on meds from Bronchitis that didn’t interact well with alcohol)
A giant cone of Belgium frites and sauces
Wandering around the old city in Frankfurt for the first time

One market is surrounded by the old city
These chocolate covered fruit were very popular
We purchased our own Christmas star!
This is Kinderpunch… basically warm spiced grape juice
This was their smallest size

Lisbon, Portugal

Our flight home was from Lisbon, Portugal to Chicago, so we relocated to Lisbon for our final two nights of the trip.

We originally intended on visiting Lisbon’s Christmas Market and exploring the city a bit on our one day there, but the weather was awful. On our only full day there, it was down pouring the entire day. We tried to wait it out a bit, but after realizing the weather wasn’t going to let up, we instead decided to take it as a rest day and stay at the hotel.

The hotel spa had a special 8 euro package to the water spa. So, we spent several hours jumping from pool, to hot tub, to sauna, to “experiential shower” (basically a shower room with lights, sounds, scents, and temperature changes based on the seasons). We ended the day with a delicious meal at the very nice restaurant at the hotel.

It ended up being a lovely day, though we’ll need to get back to Lisbon to actually check out the city on a different trip!