We made our way over to Schillerplatz and strolled through the stands of Christmas market 2014.

Check out the decoration on top of the stalls! This sort of decoration on a Christmas market is actually special to Stuttgart. And each year, the stall with the most beautiful decoration wins a price.

Then we headed over to Marktplatz and the city hall.

Fun fact: Can you spot the numbers in the windows? Each December, the city hall (Rathaus) turns into a huge Adventskalender. From the 1st of December until the 23th one number will convert into the coat of arms of one of the quarters of Stuttgart. A choir from this quarter will perform for free on the stairs in front of the Rathaus. These mini concerts always start at 6 pm. Well worth visiting!

Now it was time for mulled wine. If you haven’t already, try white “Glühwein” ! It’s delicious! Hot chocolate with rum is nice, too by the way 😉

When you visit Stuttgart’s beautiful Christmas market 2014, you shouldn’t miss:

-having a Glühwein

–eating Magenbrot (which translates literary into stomach bread…. but is in fact very yummy biscuit, like gingerbread)

-buying at least one very cute but also very unnecessary piece of Christmas decoration

-visiting the Finnish Christmas Village at Karlsplatz

–having your picture taken of you next to the big nutcracker at Marktplatz

The Christmas Market 2014 will be on until the 23rd of December from 10 am till 9 am (on Sundays from 11 am until 9 am).  So you have 28 days, make the most of it!

More information about:

Stuttgart Christmas Market 2014 (only in German)

Stuttgarter Weihnachtsmarkt in general

Advent concerts in front of the town hall (only in German)

The post Visiting the Christmas market 2014 in Stuttgart appeared first on Living in Stuttgart.

I was lucky when I went to the Christmas market in Stuttgart during my lunch break as it had just begun to snow. And of course Christmas markets always look amazing when it’s snowing…

A great thing to do for kids is ride the miniature steam-train on Schlossplatz:

The Christmas market in Stuttgart is one of the oldest of its kind in Europe. Its roots date back to the 16th century. And it is also a very large one, including parts of the Schlossplatz, the whole Schillerplatz, several streets between Schillerplatz and Marktplatz and the whole Marktplatz. Around 280 beautifully decorated stands offer food, drinks, Christmas decorations and much more. Especially the roofs of the stands are worth looking at.

Poet Friedrich Schiller looking down on what’s going on on “his” square, the Schillerplatz.

Because of all the lights, it is always a stunning experience to visit a Christmas Market at night. So here are some impressions of one of my visits:

Two angels in front of the city hall on the Marktplatz:

Of course, the steam-train runs when it’s dark, too.

When it gets too cold, it’s a good idea to step inside the Sporer Alm, between Marktplatz and Markthalle. It’s warm and cosy inside.

Some of the stands offer very cute Christmas decorations. I have to admit, I do get weak sometimes…

When visiting a Christmas Market, it’s a MUST to have a Glühwein (mulled wine). This year, I got a bit adventurous and tried Eierpunsch, which consists of egg-nog and white wine… well, I can’t recommend it… If you want to have something different from the traditional Glühwein, try a white Glühwein. That tastes very nice.

What I found very fascinating, but didn’t have the guts to try, were these chocolate-covered chillies…

One of my favourite places on the Christmas Market in Stuttgart is the Finnish Village (Finnisches Dorf), which is located on Karlsplatz, close to the U-Bahn sation Charlottenplatz. They don’t serve Glühwein there but Glögi, which is made of berries and tastes very nice. And they sell the best salmon I ever had – seriously! You can have it on the plate for 10 Euro or in a bread-roll for 5 Euro. But they also offer a lunch special for 7,50 Euro for the plate. If you’re lucky, you find a seat inside the tent, close to the fireplace. Very cosy!

The next Christmas market I went to this year was the medieval one in Esslingen.

Actually, only a part of the Christmas market in Esslingen is called “Mittelaltermarkt” (medieval market), there is also a “normal” Christmas market around it. When you enter the gate to the Mittelaltermarkt, you step into another world…

… and meet people you would not expect…

Actually, the Grim Reaper turned out to be very polite and didn’t mind me taking a picture of him. Who would have thought that?? But I still asked him to keep his distance for some more decades… And he promised to do so! 🙂

When it comes to food, I made one epic discovery: Waffles with Nutella and cherries taste fantastic! How could I have lived without them for so many years???

There is one more Christmas market I would love to introduce to you: The Barock-Weihnachtsmarkt in Ludwigsburg. It takes place on the Marktplatz and is surrounded by baroque buildings and churches.

What blends in very nicely with the baroque surrounding are the illuminated angel statues in the middle of the market square.

Don’t they just look beautiful?

Unfortunately, it was raining heavily when I visited Ludwigsburg, so I didn’t take a lot of pictures. But I hope you can still get an idea of how lovely the baroque Christmas market is.

These were the Christmas markets in and around Stuttgart that I have visited this year. But of course there are many more around Stuttgart. I hope I get the chance to go to some of them next year.

That leaves me with only one more thing: I want to wish all of you a very merry Christmas with your friends and families! Have a good one!

More information about:

Christmas market in Stuttgart

Medieval Christmas market in Esslingen

Baroque Christmas market in Ludwigsburg

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