It’s Christmas time in Europe which means it’s time to heat up the Glülwein, set up the festive light and pull out the trinket stalls – in short it’s time for Christmas markets! After hearing everyone talk about Christmas market festivities, I knew we would want to check out at least one before we went to the States for the holidays. I did some googling and landed on Strasbourg as our Christmas market destination, the self named Capital of Christmas. Bill and I had some company on this trip, shout out to Christy one of my fellow American expats in the EY Amsterdam office. It’s always a little nerve wracking when Bill and I travel with other people particularly if I am the planner. When I am planning for just us, it’s less of a big deal if something doesn’t go quite to plan or a a bust of an activity. When I plan for a group of people, it’s an added level of pressure to make sure you make their experience is positive. Well if you had judged how this trip was going to go based on the three days leading up to our departure you would have said it would be a disaster. I told Christy it would be no problem if she stayed at the Airbnb we booked if she was ok sleeping on the couch. As I looked more closely at the Airbnb photos the Wednesday before we left, however, I noticed the couch was the bed. With some quick maneuvering Christy found a hotel and hostel to stay at thankfully that didn’t cost a fortune. The problems with the Airbnb continued from there. Thursday before check in I go an email from a third party service the host used for check in stating they would meet us at the apartment at 9:30. That was problematic considering that’s when our flight landed (which I had told the host when we initially booked). Anyway I messaged them to say we were landing at that time so we would need 30-45 minutes to get into the city. No problem right? Apparently big problem because they emailed us back that they would not meet us after 10 pm and we would have to get a hotel to check in the following morning at 10 am. Ridiculous. As luck would have it the hotel Christy booked randomly had three bedrooms so it all worked out. Still irritating. In the end, the 15 minute overage didn’t actually make a difference because we had to wait for maintenance issues in Amsterdam and were delayed an additional hour. So we batting a thousand out the gate but we did in fact eventually make it.
Saturday we woke up and we were supposed to meet the Airbnb 10 but they delayed it until 10:30… then 11:30… Although annoyed by the delays we didn’t have a strict schedule of the day (pause for shock) and this gave us time to get breakfast. We went to a restaurant at the entrance of an area called “Petite France” which is a darling part of the city. The buildings are all old and quaint and charming. I was excited to explore that area more later in the day. The breakfast spot was called Cafe Bretelles (don’t ask me what it means because I couldn’t tell you) and it was pretty good. It didn’t appear they had an actual kitchen as the majority of the plates were cold dishes. I settled on the yogurt and granola breakfast which randomly includes apple juice (actually super tasty). It was in retrospect smart that we had a light breakfast before the day of Christmas market snacking – because obviously one of the best things about markets is the food!
After breakfast we walked back to our hotel to pick up our luggage and meet our Airbnb host or rather the people he hired to meet us. When we entered back into the city all of the roads were blocked to cars and there was a security checkpoint where we had our bags searched. An ever present reminder that in the world we live in something as good natured as a Christmas market is tainted by the threats of violent people. I mostly mention this in light of the shootings that occurred in Strasbourg this week. I’m not entirely sure where in Strasbourg it occurred but Bill said it was outside of the security check and if that’s the case it means these measures were successful at least in the heart of the markets. Events like these should not make us stop living life or doing the things we want to do it just means you need to take extra precautions and always be aware of your surroundings. Anyway enough sad stuff, back to me bitching about this Airbnb experience. So Bill and I arrive at 11:30 and no one is there… 11:45 no one… so I call the host. No answer. I call the service and they are extremely confused who I am and why I am calling. They finally figure it out and say someone is on their way. On their way? They were supposed to be here. At 12:05 some guy finally shows up and says sorry and all I can say is “ya me too” because while I consider myself understanding, they refused to wait an extra 15 minutes for me the night before but I wait 35 minutes for them after they already delayed from 10 to 11:30 and it’s supposed to be fine? I don’t think so. I was already writing furious Airbnb reviews in my head.
When we finally did get in, we dropped our stuff and left to meet Christy in Kléber square. Our Airbnb was right by the cathedral and the streets were packed. I did not realize what a tourist destination this was. On the walked we saw lots of shops with elaborate festive displays on their facades which really puts you in the Christmas Spirit. The cathedral is also quite beautiful. It jets out of the skyline as the surrounding buildings are not super tall. I wish we had gotten the chance to go through but the line was so so long.
We arrived in Kléber square and the first thing we had to do was obviously take a picture followed very closely behind by our first glass of glühwein. It was neat that all the stalls with glühwein used the same cups so you would keep you me cup and they would refill it. Then at the end of the night you could return them for a euro back. Reduce reuse recycle!
Cookies in hand we made it to our first set of market stalls near the opera. There were some artist stall but mainly just trinkets and food. Thankfully I wasn’t too tempted to buy any trinkets – still suffering from post-moving stress. The smells of German food were too tempting though and I caved in some sauerkraut and cheesy potatoes.
After the opera we went over to the cathedral area but it was way too crowded so we headed over to Petite France. It kind of reminded me of scenes from Beauty and the Beast the more we walked around. Old buildings in a modern city seemingly untouched by time.
While we were strolling we happened upon a church where a choir was performing. Queue goose bumps.
Have Passport Will Travel 