We had a fabulous time visiting Munich, staying with Andrea, Kelly and Josh. After arrival by train and a great Thanksgiving-Friday meal, we got to sightseeing. The weekend was the first of Advent, the Christmas season. The town of Neubiberg where they live was having its Christmas market so we visited there first. After admiring the handcrafted ornaments we found the Gluhwein stand and had our first order. It's a hot spiced wine, traditional in Germany, Austria and northern Italy in winter. A great hand-warmer, too.
There are many more pictures on my FLICKR page, http://www.flickr.com/photos/24327800@N05/
Next we decided to go to Nurnberg, which has Europe's largest Christmarket. It's a beautiful old city center with castle turrets, walls, and cathederals. The square in front of the largest church holds the market, with hundreds of vendors of handmade decorations, toys, food - and more gluhwein! All of the markets have different mugs for the drinks (you can also get non-alchoholic kinderpunsch, or chocolate) so we collected quite a 
few. We spent all day at the market and had to refeul with sausages. In the evening, we strolled the streets of the old city as it was lit by white lights and shooting stars.
few. We spent all day at the market and had to refeul with sausages. In the evening, we strolled the streets of the old city as it was lit by white lights and shooting stars.
There are many more pictures on my FLICKR page, http://www.flickr.com/photos/24327800@N05/
We continued our quest the next day, taking the train into Munich to see the markets. The largest in the main square, the Marienplatz. There are several others, specializing in other handiworks, including the woodworks at the Residenz, and manger-scene figures at the Sigmundstor. All included many gluhwein and sausage stands. We wandered the streets and stalls, people-watching, shopping, and eating. A fabulous day, and we returned a number of times. We especially liked the use of natural materials for decoration; evergreen and bare branches, friut and nuts, figures formed from grass, holly and mistletoe, many adorned only with a ribbon or single glass ball.
The people-watching was terrific. Munich is always fashion-forward and it did not dissappoint this time. The women's trend was to tall boots, skirts over tights, and a short warm coat. Some wore sleek pants instead of skirts, but all wore boots, some leather with spiked heels and the younger ones with pleather uggs-types. In the city center we also saw a lot of traditional Bavarian dress - heavy wool coats with leather trim, Loden coats (dark green felted) and wonderful variations fine wool hats with feather plumes, fur trim or silver derorations. Maybe we'll put together a post just on fashion later.
Our other travels took us to Bad Tolz, in the alpine foothills, a lovely old city center with a fine market. Kelly and family come in summer for hiking, and the winter was also charming. Kufstein, Austria, just across the border was a traditional old street on the river. We had visited there 20 years ago and took some updated photos. We also took a number of drives through the countryside, with new fallen snow making for charming winter scenes.
Check further blog posts below (earlier posts) for our travels to Salzburg, and Italy on the same trip. Thanks again to Kelly, Andrea and Josh for their great hospotality!
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