24 | Europe's Christmas Markets Destination Guide
As much as I admire Mariah Carey's romantic
Christmas list, it's a bit frugal for my tastes. I
want a lot for Christmas. Not fancy baubles
and expensive gifts, mind you, but Christmas
clichés and Hallmark movies brought to life.
The snow-globe version I'm looking for
obviously doesn't exist in the Australian
summer, so it's off I go to the northern
hemisphere to set sail on a Viking Christmas
Delights cruise on the Danube.
The seven-night journey starts in Budapest,
Hungary, with stops in the Slovakian capital,
Bratislava, Vienna and the small Austrian
towns of Krems and Linz, before finishing in
the German town of Passau. It turns out to
really be the most wonderful time of the year.
On first inspection, Christmas markets – or
Christkindlmarkts – seem to be an attempt to
break the world record for most fairy lights in
a single location. They're also a centuries-old
European tradition timed to mark the Christian
advent calendar.
Most are outdoors, usually in a town's main
square, and filled with vendors selling food,
drinks, and gifts to local family and friends and
visitors like me. Some, like the one in Bratislava
with its pedestrian-only, cobblestone streets,
have the charm of a country fête. In one pocket
What to eat and
WHAT TO BUY
From glühwein to sweet treats Jana Frawley explores what to eat and
what to buy at Europe's Christmas markets.
MUNICH, GERMANY
