Are you sick of my Christmas market posts yet? I sure hope not, because while my parents were here visiting last week, we hit up not one...not two...but SEVEN DIFFERENT CHRISTMAS MARKETS in just 8 short days! Talk about exhausting (but really, really fun!). I wanted my mom to get the full 'Christmas in Germany' experience, so we made a list of markets we hadn't tried yet (and sprinkled in a few favorites D and I had already visited) and drove all over Germany taking in the wonders of this fun market season.
The Mannheim Christmas Market was compact, having roughly 200 stalls just around the historic Mannheim Wasserturm (water tower), but because we got there just as it opened for the day, we enjoyed a crowd-free time shopping and eating to our heart's content! There's definitely something to be said for that whole 'early bird gets the worm' thing. :) The crowds started filing in around lunchtime, so we finished up our shopping and decided to head over to another market just a few towns away. But before leaving, mom fell in love with glühwein (like mother, like daughter!), D finally tried that Eirpunsch eggnog impostor (and hated it, just as I suspected he would), and I tried the Feuerzagenbowle (rum & sugar infused glühwein) again and didn't hate it...so a grand time was had by all! Germany friends...while there was nothing too unique about it, I'd still recommend adding the Mannheim Weihnachtsmarkt to your Christmas market hit list this year!
