INGREDIENTS l lb. of each: raisins, currants, golden raisins, breadcrumbs, brown sugar 8 oz. suet 4 oz. each: mixed peel, glace cherries chopped, almonds chopped 1 each: lemon – grate rind, orange – grate rind, carrot – grated, apple – grated 1 tbs. flour 1 tsp. mixed spice Pinch salt 6-8 eggs 10 oz. stout (bottle) or dark beer (Guiness is good) OR 5 ozs. each: brandy and milk
PREPARATION Mix dry ingredients first then mix with lightly beaten eggs & liquid. Grease the bottom of a bowl large enough to hold pudding and press mixture into it. Place wax paper over the top and then foil over that, crimping it around the edges to keep firm. Either cook for 2 hours in pressure cooker with about 2 inches water or put in pan with water on stove for 4 hours. Keep checking water in pan to prevent burning. Store well wrapped for as long as possible for better flavor. Some people make them one year to eat the next. Serve with hot custard, cream, or brandy sauce.
Why steam for so long? Christmas puddings are quite dense because of all the fruit, nuts, etc. they contain. Steaming is the best method of cooking because it allows a slow cooking which ensures a moist and palatable result (cakes being less dense can cook for less time and still remain moist, so baking is the best method). If you used a faster cooking method for a Christmas pudding you would get a crusty pudding. A pudding steamed for 2 hours, rather than 4, would probably still have some uncooked mixture in the center. So, while the cooking time obviously depends on the size of the pudding. (This is when it is cooked on the stove – not the pressure cooker) Related: Quick Christmas Pudding Recipe used by kind permission of Hazel Whyte
By Don Heimburger Photos by the author and courtesy Visitbelgium.com
What’s a 13-letter word that starts with a “B” and combines the capital city of Belgium with the concept of excellent food?
“Brusselicious” is the 2012 theme for Brussels’ Gourmet Year, and a fitting description of this city of 1.1 million that boasts no less than 19 Michelin stars among its dozens of top restaurants.
In 2006 Brussels was the capital of Fashion and Design, followed soon after in 2009 as the capital of the Comic Strip. Now it becomes the city of Culinary Delights, but locals and in-the-know visitors to this cosmopolitan city, with German, French and Flemish influences, enjoy their Brusselicious lunches and dinners every day of the year.
FRENCH FINESSE, GERMAN PORTIONS The old saying is that the Belgians cook their food with the finesse of the French, but serve it in generous German-sized portions. Some specialties of Belgian cuisine include moules frites (mussels and fries), Waterzoo (fish or chicken stew), Stoemp potato (potatoes and vegetables mixed together), and Salade Liégeoise.
So what’s cooking in Brussels in 2012?
There’s a fairly long list, but it all begins with Brussels’ traditional menus, which start with fresh meats and produce, and are then honed with a top chef’s creativity and skill. In Brussels this is just the way they do it. After all, they have a reputation developed over the years, that they refined plate after plate.
Brussels’ gastronomy will be on the move this year when a new designer tram will be introduced that will provide meals on board as guests roll around the city. Menus will be arranged by two-star chefs, and food will be served to 34 people on board the train during two-hour-long dinner parties. Departures start on Tuesdays and go through Sundays. This novel “meals on wheels” idea will appeal to the combination railfan and foodie.
As many as 35 giant artist’s reproductions will be introduced to the streets of Brussels during 2012 as well. Early in the year, artists were finalizing their creations in an old factory building called Carthago Delenda Est. Giant brussel sprouts, chocolate bars, mussels, pints of beer and giant cones of fries were masterfully being sawed, glued and screwed together to remind the city of its food heritage.
As many as eight themed dinners are being sponsored, from a Banquet des Miserables to mark 150 years of the finishing of Victor Hugo’s novel Les Miserables, to a Belgian Wine Growers Dinner, a Five Senses Dinner (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch) and a Medieval Ommegang Banquet (Ommegang recreates a famous celebration of 1549 on the Grand Place in honor of Charles V and his son Philippe II).
The Bocuse D’Or Europe is the highly prestigious gastronomic competition held for 20 of the world’s top chefs this year in Brussels, who compete over a two-day period to claim top honors. The dozen best chefs then are entered into next year’s world finals in Lyon, France.
How about a Chocolate Week? With evening events, visits to chocolate workshops and a Chocolate’s Fair in town, what’s not to like?
A restaurant festival, publicized as the biggest gourmet event in Belgium, is coming to Brussels September 6-9. Imagine 100 restaurants and bars serving up their best dishes—with cooking on the spot—in a Brussels park.
TOP OF FOOD CHAIN The 2012 culinary program doesn’t stop there, not for a city that loves to be at the top of the food chain. There’s a “Chipstands Festival” (you heard it correctly). So the city with some of the best frites (French fries) in the world will sponsor a competition and special events based on the fry. Would you like ketchup or mayo with that?
On a cooking platform 15 feet above the ground, Brussels’ star-studded top chefs will surprise and delight audiences with their “Dinner in the Sky” skills in the middle of the city. Also in August and September, the famed 650 tasty Belgian beers get their due during a weekend at the Grand’Place with tastings and more.
The city is also offering its own bottle of Brusselicious Beer, made by adding brown sugar to a bitter lambic. Lambic beer is produced by spontaneous fermentation: it is exposed to wild yeasts and bacteria that are said to be native to the Senne Valley, in which Brussels lies. It is this unusual process which gives the beer its distinctive flavor.
Other events are also planned, such as a Thai Food Festival, a Savoring Brussels Festival (dedicated to the flavors of fresh produce), and a Brussels Wine Weekend with open houses at some of the wine cellars and wine bars throughout the city.
Brussels’ ornate Town Hall
BUSINESS, BUT RELAXED Brussels is, despite its European Parliament designation, a business center that appears to be relaxed at the same time. A tour of this multilingual city revolves around the Grand Place and its many gilded houses and the ornate town hall building (see it at night for a spectacular view).
Check out the Mont des Arts and its museums: the René Magritte Museum occupies the house in which the Belgian surrealist painter worked. On the ground floor of the museum is the apartment where the painter lived and worked from 1930 to 1954; exhibits of the artist are on two upper floors.
At the Belgian Comic Strip Center you can meet the comic strip character Tintin and his sidekicks, created by Belgian artist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name of Herge.
Walk to another part of the city and see the huge stone columns and a good view of the lower part of the city from the immense Palais de Justice, and visit the Atomium, with its gleaming spheres. It’s said to be “neither tower, nor pyramid, a little bit cubic, a little bit spherical, half-way between sculpture and architecture, a relic of the past with a determinedly futuristic look, museum and exhibition center; the Atomium is, at once, an object, a place, a space, a Utopia and the only symbol of its kind in the world which eludes any kind of classification.” The Atomium was the main pavilion and icon of the World’s Fair of Brussels in 1958.
If you’re in the market for shopping—or just window shopping—Brussels has it. Walk over to Avenue Louise and see its shopping arcade, or Boulevard de Waterloo, Rue de Namur or Avenue de la Toison d’Or for some upscale finds from classic to trendy.
Now back to Brusselicious food. One other very famous food delight is the Belgian waffle. I learned there are actually two types. One is the Belgian waffle, a light, fluffy waffle eaten with or without syrup and served at the more prestigious restaurants and hotels. Then there’s the thicker Liege waffle that is smaller, sweeter, heavier and more filling. You can find the heavier waffles served at stands everywhere in Brussels, usually with toppings such as whipped cream, strawberries, cherries, confectioner’s sugar, or chocolate spread.
If Belgium has a national cookie it is the Speculoos. Originally created for children to celebrate Saint Nicholas day on December 6, the treat is now widely popular and often found along with a cup of coffee in restaurants and bars as a side treat.
So add waffles and Speculoos to the large selection of foods that keep visitors going back to this vivacious gourmet city.
And to think, all this high cuisine started with the lowly Brussel sprout, from which the city gets its name. It just goes to show how inventive the Belgians are in the kitchen. They’ve taken the art of preparing and cooking food to new heights over the last few decades. Some would call that a Brusselicious endeavor. I’d say it was a call for dinner…in Brussels, of course.
IF YOU GO… Brussels has a number of interesting districts to visit. The Brussels Card is valid for 72, 48 or 24 hours and allows you to visit 30 Brussels museums. It includes a public transport ticket and a full-color guidebook, as well as discounts at some tourist attractions and stores. Go to www.brusselscard.be.
The 2012 Michelin Guide shows the following Brussels restaurants have earned Michelin stars:
2 STARS Sea Grill Comme Chez Soi Le Chalet de la Forêt (New addition)
1 STAR Alexandre Jaloa (New addition) La Truffe Noire La Paix Bruneau San Daniele Kamo Senza Nome Le Passage Bon-Bon Michel Terborght ‘t Stoveke
I’ve been in love marzipan ever since I first tasted it as a child. Back then, marzipan candy was a rare and expensive treat, often difficult to find in the United States. But when I later moved to Europe, I discovered a whole world of marzipan, enough to nourish my lifelong love affair with this seductive sweet.
I’ll admit it: I’ve never met a marzipan I didn’t like.
Marzipan is nothing more than a smooth paste of finely ground blanched sweet almonds mixed with sugar. Other ingredients are sometimes added, too, such as water, egg whites, sugar syrup, honey, almond extract, a small amount of bitter almonds, rosewater, orange blossom water and food colorings. But that description doesn’t do justice to the tantalizing taste of this tempting treat, nor to the many ways in which marzipan is used today by professional confectioners and home cooks.
On the grocery shelf, the difference between “almond paste” and “marzipan” is mainly the ratio of sugar to almonds, with marzipan containing more sugar. That ratio varies, depending on the individual producers and the various countries where this confection is made, some of which have laws regulating the proportion of each ingredient. The finest German marzipans contain two parts (or more) of ground almonds to one part of sugar. Others contain 50% almonds and 50% sugar. Danish Odense marzipan, the European brand marketed widely in the United States, has only 28% almonds. (Odense “Pure Almond Paste” contains 45% almonds.)
MARZIPAN MIGRATION Culinary historians think that marzipan originally came to Europe from the Middle East, where almond trees and sugar cane have been grown since ancient times, and where there’s a long history of making sweets from almond paste. Even though the early Greeks and Phoenicians planted almond trees around the Mediterranean region, it was the Arabs who expanded the almond orchards, introduced sugar cane cultivation, and began producing marzipan in the areas of southern Europe they conquered and colonized between the 8th and 11th centuries. After Arab power waned in those parts of the Mediterranean, during the 11th to 15th centuries, the secrets of marzipan-making were preserved by nuns in Catholic convents, who produced these sinful sweets for sale to support themselves. That’s why former Arab-ruled lands such as Spain, Sicily, and Malta still have strong marzipan traditions today.
Historians surmise that marzipan spread to northern Europe from Venice and the eastern Mediterranean during the time of the Christian Crusades, from the 11th through 13th centuries. Certainly by the Middle Ages marzipan was known in France, England, and Germany, although in many places it was considered a costly medicine, sold only in pharmacies. It soon became a favored confection of the upper classes, whose cooks molded marzipan into elaborate and fantastic shapes for use as showy centerpieces or edible finales to medieval feasts.
Sign for the Mazapan Artesano
MARZIPAN MANUFACTURE A traditional confection in Europe for several centuries, marzipan is made today by both artisan confectioners and big industrial plants. Centers of marzipan manufacture include Toledo, Spain; Palermo, Sicily; Budapest, Hungary; and Lübeck, Germany. Each has its own style of marzipan, with more or less sugar, baked or unbaked, and modeled into more shapes than you can imagine. At marzipan stores in Europe, I’ve seen this sweetened, colored almond paste formed into fruits, vegetables and flowers, from miniature to life-size; animals from penguins, polar bears and “good luck” pigs (for the New Year) to walruses, lions, hedgehogs and squirrels; Easter eggs and Easter rabbits; Santas and angels; fish and shellfish; lifelike sandwiches, cheeses and sausages; even modern marzipan cell phones and McDonald’s-like cardboard packets full of french fries.
Marzipan has other uses, too. Europeans fill chocolates with marzipan; wrap it around nuts, candied fruits and other sweet fillings; bake it inside cookies; and stuff dates, prunes, peaches and apples with it. They roll marzipan into thin sheets as a covering for fancy cakes and use it as ingredient in tortes and tartes, pies and pastries, sorbets and ice creams, even sweet dumplings, ravioli and roast pork. I once ate at a restaurant in Lübeck that featured “marzipan lasagna” for dessert, made with layers of white marzipan “pasta” and a red and green fondant filling.
MARZIPAN MUSEUMS Several cities in Europe have marzipan museums, most of them attached to a confection company’s coffee shop, candy shop or factory store. The Niederegger Marzipan Salon, on the second floor of the Konditorei-Café Niederegger in Lübeck, Germany, has a display about the history of marzipan. But the actual shop on the ground floor is even more interesting, where you can buy more than 300 types of the company’s products, including whimsical edibles made out of marzipan and Niederegger’s irresistible Cuandolé marzipan liqueur.
Leu’s Marzipan-Land in Lübeck features a “Marzipan-Show” on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. You’ll see all the stages in the manufacture of marzipan, as well as an unusual exhibition of large marzipan sculptures, before pigging out in the shop where you’ll be tempted to buy more marzipan than you should ever eat in one sitting.
Hungary boasts three marzipan museums, all owned by the Szabo confectionery company. My favorite is the Szabo Marzipan Museum in Szentendre, a pleasant (but now overly touristy) little artists’ village not far from Budapest. This small museum is chock full of displays of colored marzipan shaped into Disney characters, a Cinderella coach, a massive wedding cake, a cactus garden and even a detailed replica of the Hungarian parliament building. On the ground floor there’s a traditional confectionery kitchen where you can watch marzipan being made and a shop where you can buy goodies to go. Next door the Szabo café-and-pastry shop offers a wide variety of luscious Hungarian cakes, tortes, ice cream concoctions, marzipan candies, coffees and teas.
The smaller Szabo Marzipan Museum in Budapest features large marzipan sculptures of the Matthias Church, the Fishermen’s Bastion, and the Chain Bridge across the Danube (all local landmarks), a Chinese pagoda, several Harry Potter characters and other curiosities, some made from more than 100 pounds of marzipan. And there’s another Szabo Marzipan Museum in Pécs, also connected with one of their coffee-and-pastry shops.
In Sonseca, Spain, just south of historic Toledo, you can visit the interesting Delaviuda Marzipan Museum at the Delaviuda candy factory, which shows how Spain’s distinctive (and delicious) marzipan is made. And finally, Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, also has a couple of small marzipan museums in the Old Town. I just haven’t managed to eat my way that far north yet.
‘Tis the season when a young elf’s fancy turns to thoughts of gingerbread. Although these sweet-spicy cakes and cookies are popular year-round in many countries of Europe, they’re particularly associated with the winter holidays. Bakeries from Sweden to Slovakia to Switzerland turn out tons of commercial gingerbread products, often packaged in brightly colored wrappings and tin boxes. And home bakers dig through kitchen drawers and recipe files to find favorite cookie cutters and family recipes for their own Christmas gingerbreads.
Although flatcakes made with honey and spices were baked by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, the gingerbreads of northern Europe probably date only from the Middle Ages, when honey was still the main type of sweetener available locally, and exotic, expensive spices such as cinnamon, black pepper and ginger were increasingly being imported from faraway lands in the East. A taste for gingerbread eventually spread throughout Europe, with certain cities becoming known for their own particular types: Strasbourg and Dijon in France, Torun in Poland, Tula in Russia, Aachen and Nürnberg in Germany, Basel and St. Gallen in Switzerland.
MANY VARIETIES Gingerbread recipes evolved over time and in diverse places. Various kinds of gingerbread were, and still are, made with different combinations of honey, sugar, flour, eggs, almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, raisins, lemons, candied orange peel, candied citron, rosewater, rum, brandy, black pepper, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, cardamom, coriander, aniseed and saffron. Although these baked goods are often referred to as “gingerbread” in English, some of them don’t contain any ginger at all.
The variety of possible ingredients and textures causes some confusion about what “gingerbread” actually is. A cake, a cookie, or a loaf? Hard or soft? Thick or thin? Glazed or unglazed? Decorated with fancy frostings, or with fruits and nuts, or even with expensive gold leaf? At various times in its history, gingerbread has been all of these.
GERMAN GINGERBREAD In the Middle Ages, the city of Nürnberg became one of the most famous places for making gingerbreads in Germany, where these seductive sweets have long been known as Lebkuchen (or sometimes Pfefferkuchen, when their spiciness comes from black pepper instead of ginger). Records show that Lebkuchen was being baked in Nürnberg as early as the 14th century. Traditionally, the stiff dough was pressed into highly detailed molds made of wood, metal, or terra cotta, which imprinted intricate designs on the Lebkuchen before it was removed from the molds and baked in a hot oven. Nürnberg Lebkuchen contained such costly ingredients, and was of such high quality, that it was accepted as payment for city taxes and given as gifts to nobles, princes, and heads of state.
Over time, as the prices of ingredients fell and the demand for Lebkuchen increased, faster production methods became necessary. The elaborate handmade molds were replaced by less detailed, often mass-produced, molds. Simpler decorations―such as nuts, candied fruit, and sugar frostings―were applied to the tops of many cookies. And the shapes were simplified, too, evolving into the basic human, animal, and geometric forms common today.
In the early 1800s, gingerbread houses became popular in Germany after the publication of the Grimm brothers’ fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel. And during the 19th century, ornately decorated Lebkuchen hearts also became the rage. Covered with fancy designs and romantic sayings made from colored icing, these large heart-shaped cookies were often exchanged between sweethearts. You can still buy them at almost every German festival and special market, including the Christmas markets held in many German cities throughout December.
The Lebkuchen produced in Germany today comes in all sorts of sizes, shapes, flavors, colors and textures: rounds, rectangles, squares, hearts, stars, pretzel forms, St. Nicholas (for Christmas), lucky pigs (for New Year) and rabbits (for Easter). The Lebkuchen dough can be “white” (light colored) or different shades of brown. Some Lebkuchen are also covered with white or chocolate icing, and some are filled with marzipan or jam. Honey Lebkuchen is sweetened only (or primarily) with honey. Oblaten Lebkuchen are cookies with the dough mounded on top of a thin wafer before baking. And delicate, elegant Elisen Lebkuchen are made with at least 25% ground almonds, hazelnuts, or walnuts, and no more than 10% flour.
GINGERBREADS ACROSS EUROPE You’ll also find similar spicy cookies of different shapes, colors and textures called Printen (in Aachen, Germany), Pfefferkuchen (in Pulsnitz, Germany), Spekulatius (in the German Rhineland), Leckerli (in Basel, Switzerland), Biberli (in the Appenzell region of Switzerland), speculaas Holland, speculoos in Belgium, pepperkaker in Norway, pepparkakor in Sweden, piperkakut in Finland, pebernǿdder in Denmark, pain d’épices in France, licitar in Croatia, mézeskalács in Hungary, perníky in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, pierniki in Poland and prianiki in Russia. Other towns and regions have their own specific names for the many varieties of gingerbreads produced there.
Europeans also use gingerbread cookies as ingredients in other dishes. You’ll find crumbled gingerbread used as a stuffing for pork and for pasta, as a thickener for sauces, a flavoring for soups, a crunchy texture in salad dressings, and a base for many puddings and desserts. There’s even a German-Italian “fusion” dessert called ” Nürnberger Tiramisu”! And for people who just can’t get enough of that sweet, spicy, Christmasy taste of gingerbread, the Belgians have recently invented a gingery, caramely speculoos spread, similar in texture to Nutella, made from crushed gingerbread cookies.
If I’ve whetted your appetite for these European gingerbreads, my best suggestion is to travel there and taste them for yourself. You can also mail order many of them from the websites listed below. Costard, the clown in Shakespeare’s play, “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” had the right idea when he said, “An’ I had but one penny in the world, thou shouldst have it to buy gingerbread.”
Explore the Christmas Markets with this easy river and rail adventure.
By Marilyn Heimburger Photos by Don Heimburger
As the weather turns colder and stores begin playing Christmas music to heighten anxiety about getting everything done before Christmas, I yearn to spend the Advent season once again in Germany’s beautiful Christkindlmarkts.
Not long ago, a friend also expressed her longing to visit the famous Christkindlmarkts in Germany and Austria during Advent, but didn’t know where to begin. Which ones should she see? How do you find accommodations in each town, and arrange transportation from market to market? The planning seemed too daunting, and she just never got started.
European Traveler discovered the perfect plan to make that dream come true: last Advent we took a nine-day Christmas market tour by river and rail that was easy and convenient. We experienced more than a dozen Christmas markets along the Danube River in Germany and Austria, with guided tours in towns along the way.
VIKING AEGIR The river portion of our “Advent along the Danube” trip was on the Viking Aegir, a 1-½-year-old Viking River Cruise ship which sailed from Budapest to Nuremberg. One of the best perks of a river cruise is that you unpack only once for the week. Meals are provided for you, and the ship delivers you from market to market, with local tour guides waiting when you dock, and activities onboard while you leisurely cruise from market to market. What could be easier?
On board the Viking Aegir, passengers relax in comfort with a beautiful view of Germany and Austria through panoramic floor to ceiling windows.
Although the cruise began in Budapest the day before, we chose to fly to Vienna and board the ship there. We moved into our spacious stateroom, complete with private bathroom with shower, drawers and closet for clothing, queen-sized bed, mini-fridge, TV and sliding glass doors on the balcony, offering a non-stop view along the Danube as Austria and Germany glided by.
Comfortable cabins await the passengers aboard the Viking Aegir cruise ship.
VIENNA’S MAGIC OF ADVENT Since the boat dock is some distance from the city center, Viking provides bus transportation to and from Vienna’s largest Christmas market, which glitters in the shadow of Vienna’s City Hall. Named “Wiener Adventzauber,” or “Vienna’s Magic of Advent,” it features hundreds of vendors in wooden huts offering local pastry, sausage and hot drink specialties, gifts, decorations, candles and accessories. There are pony rides, story reading on the Celestial Stage, appearances by the Viennese Christkind, and even arts and crafts and baking stations inside the Rathaus so children can make their own gifts and Christmas goodies.
Located inside Vienna’s Rathaus is a baking workshop, where children can make their own cookies.
Within walking distance of the Rathaus market are several other Christmas markets, smaller but with their own local focus and definitely worth a visit. Markets in other parts of Vienna are on Maria-Theresien-Platz, in the Old AKH, on Freyung, the Am Hof Advent Market, at Belvedere Palace, on Karlslatz, on Spittelberg, at Stephansplatz, on Riesenradplatz, and at the Schönbrunn Palace. To see all of them would take an extra day or two! We saved some of our market visits for after the cruise, when we returned to Vienna by rail for our flight back home.
Vienna has several smaller Christmas markets each with their own style and specialties, and each worth a visit.
The local food experiences aren’t limited to the Christmas markets. Upon our chilly return to the ship, we were met with Lebkuchen and hot mulled wine, and Vienna’s famous Sachertorte for dessert after the onboard dinner.
900-YEAR-OLD MELK ABBEY The small Christmas market at Melk, Austria, our next port of call, is only open on weekends, and unfortunately not during our visit. But we enjoyed a guided tour of the beautiful 900-year-old baroque Melk Abbey, and bought the famous local apricot liqueur.
A “Taste of Austria” luncheon aboard the Viking Aegir featured plenty of sausage and a Lederhosen-clad accordion player.
Leisurely travel on the Danube with its many locks means plenty of time for relaxing. To add to our Advent experience during that time, local culture is brought onboard: “A Taste of Austria” lunch included music by a Lederhosen-clad accordion player. A strudel-making demonstration showed that a tea towel was the trick to rolling the paper-thin dough around the apple/raisin/rum filling. As we neared the Bavarian town of Passau, a traditional Black Forest cake was the featured dessert after dinner.
(left to right) The Simon family bakers demonstrate the art of making gingerbread in Passau.; A beautiful Advent wreath is easy to make, as demonstrated in Passau.
ADVENT TRADITIONS IN PASSAU Our stop in Passau began a complete day of Advent tradition, all within easy walking distance from the boat dock. We learned the history and art of making Advent wreaths and the famous Simon family gingerbread, and were treated to a midday Advent organ concert at Passau’s St. Stephen’s Cathedral on the world’s largest cathedral organ. The main Passau Christmas market boasts a Bavarian flair with crafts and regional specialties, sausages, Glühwein and gingerbread.
Back on board our Viking ship we enjoyed tea time with plum cake, apple cake and other regional dessert specialties.
HISTORIC REGENSBURG The next day’s stop in Regensburg included a town tour with visits to the Hutkönig, a world famous hatmaker; a cuckoo clock-making demonstration; and the oldest sausage kitchen in Germany, which has been serving sausages for 900 years, since catering to the workers who built the adjacent Stone Bridge.
(left to right) A cuckoo clock-making demonstration was a tour option in Regensburg.; Regensburg’s famous Hutkönig had very special hats to offer.
ROMANTIC MARKET AT THE PALACE OF THURN AND TAXIS Regensburg’s main Christmas market spreads out near the cathedral, but another Regensburg highlight is the Romantic Christmas Market set in the courtyard and surrounding park of the Palace of Thurn and Taxis. Here the pathways are lit by torches, lanterns and lighted ropes wrapped around wooden fences, and there are hay bales for seating and open fires for warming stations. The bough-covered wooden stalls offer unique products obviously chosen for their quality and beauty. Although there is a fee of 6 -7 Euros to enter this private market, it was one of our favorites, and well worth the price.
The beautiful Romantic Christmas Market is on the grounds of the Palace of Thurn and Taxis in Regensburg.
After a full day in Regensburg, the local Advent experience continued on board as we were greeted with hot Glühwein and heart- and star-shaped Lebkuchen.
Red- and white-striped awnings decorate this Lebkuchen stall at Nuremberg’s historic Christkindlmarkt. The Christkind stands high on the balcony of the church on the left to open the market.
NUREMBERG’S CENTURIES-OLD CHRISTKINDLMARKT Our ship’s last stop was at Nuremberg, which boasts a 400-year-old Christmas market tradition. Once again, Viking provided bus transportation to and from the Christkindlmarkt on the Hauptmarkt square, since the boat dock is some distance away. Nearly 200 wooden stalls decorated with red- and white-striped awnings invite visitors from all over the world – more than two million each year – to sample the traditional gingerbread, sweets, sausages, potato pancakes and Glühwein, to buy their ornaments, candles, toys and prune men.
(left to right) The Children’s Christmas market in Nuremberg has rides and booths with hands-on activities for children, and appearances by Nuremberg’s Christkind.; Nuremberg’s unique Handwerkerhof is located at the distinctive Königtor within the historic city walls.
A few steps away is a children’s Christkindlmarkt with colorful rides, booths with hands-on activities, hot punch and Nuremberg’s beloved Christkind.
Don’t miss the nearby “Sister City” Christmas market featuring wares from Nuremberg’s sister cities around the world, and yet another Christmas market setting in Nuremberg’s distinctive Handwerkerhof, located at the Königstor within the historic city wall.
Though the river cruise part of our trip was over, and it was difficult to leave the cocoon of comfort we experienced on the ship, we had more markets to visit on our way back to Vienna.
INTER CITY EXPRESS SPEED AND COMFORT With a first class Eurail pass in hand, we boarded the fast Inter City Express (ICE) train from Nuremberg to Vienna. The Eurail pass, which we had to purchase in the U.S., allowed us to hop on and off the train for more Christmas market visits enroute to Vienna. Sitting in a six-seat “quiet room” directly behind the engineer gave us a clear view of the tracks ahead, a rail buff’s dream. The track generally followed the Danube, busy with barge traffic, with snow-covered mountains in the distance and large balls of mistletoe visible in the bare trees along the route.
Through the panoramic windows we watched the snow-covered forests and villages speed by, looking like gingerbread creations sprinkled with powdered sugar. We saw firewood meticulously piled high in covered sheds in preparation for the long cold winter, and churchyard cemeteries somehow decked out with colorful plants: lavender, heather – where does all the winter floral color come from?
MORE CHRISTKINDLMARKTS AT LINZ Soon we arrived at Linz, the location of our next Christmas market experience. We left our luggage in lockers at the train station and bought a ticket for the Linz City Express which took us through the town’s main shopping area to the Christkindlmarkt near the river on the Hauptplatz.
Nestled between the town’s centuries-old Baroque townhouses, this market featured wares by artists and artisans, with traditional hot drinks, Bratwürstlein and pastries. At the nearby Goldmann’s Bakery we sampled the town’s famous Linzer Torte. Lights above the stalls are designed to look like river waves, and a specially-designed light display above the river depicts angels blowing bubbles through a straw.
(left and bottom right) Vendors at the Schönbrunn Christmas Market offer painted pewter decorations and beautifully detailed figures for Nativity scenes.; Hot Glühwein in generous mugs, and stick-to-the-ribs comfort food hit the spot at the Schönbrunn Palace Christmas Market
Another short City Express ride delivered us to the Christmas market at the Folksgarten, which featured rides for children, stalls offering warm hats, scarves, decorations, and more hot drinks, pastries and comfort food.
Retrieving our luggage, we completed our train journey to Vienna, where one more very special Christmas Market beckoned.
SCHÖNBRUNN PALACE CHRISTMAS MARKET Vienna’s famous Schönbrunn Palace hosts its own large and very beautiful Christmas market. Situated on the grounds in front of the UNESCO World Heritage site, this unique market still has plenty of room to wander through the juried product stalls. Six food stands are centrally located, as is a towering lighted tree and a magnificently carved nativity scene. The Schönbrunn Market celebrates its 21st year in 2014, and has grown in size and popularity each year. This market easily sets a new standard with its attention to detail in set-up and design.
For those wondering how to experience the Christmas markets in Germany and Austria in comfort and convenience, this trip by river and rail is the answer.
European Traveler 