Life is Fun in Spain: More with Mom & German Christmas Markets

While on a walk in Ciutadella Park with Mom, we discovered a tree we had not seen before (it's a very big park!) Here are a few too many photos of the boys and the tree!

Also in the park, we saw a guy making giant bubbles.

There are many "bubble makers" that do this in select parts of the city.

The boys and Gramma in the park.

More fun on the giant mammoth in the park...

Mom and I went to La Sagrada Familia, and I can't resist more photos.

This time the afternoon sun created amazing light patterns around the cathedral.

Mom and I came up with an idea...we want to fly to Germany to go to their famous Christmas Markets! So, we decided on going to Munich, which was the closest large city to Barcelona and has 9 Christmas markets throughout the city. We ended up going to five of them (four for Ray and the boys). We had a spectacular time. Munich was a clean, organized, well run city; it reflects the people there, who were also very friendly. We went for just two days and could have stayed longer!

In the airport...a little sleepy...to catch our 7am flight to Munich.

We found the streets and buildings to be very large, very symmetrical, and very simple in design. The building below had so many chimneys, probably one for each apartment in the building...

nice to have equality!

First off, after dropping our luggage at our Airbnb apartment, we went to brunch at our host's recommended restaurant. It was spectacular. Very German. Very Christmas-y. Very delicious.

Love those pretzels on the wreath!

(Pretzels are a Bavarian specialty; Munich is in the region of Bavaria in Germany.)

They also love to decorate with apples. They come in abundance, as we found out at the farmer's market that we passed after brunch.

Here is the farmer's market. Myriad types of bread...yum!

Love that bread man! (not gingerbread)

Every kind of apple you want...

We got off the Metro for our first Christmas market at Marienplatz, the main square in Munich.

The first thing we saw was a store that had two massive window displays, full of moving figures.

There was so much detail that you could have stood there for hours to watch all the scenes.

These figures were feeding the rabbit a carrot...was it a trap?

This bear had scissors and was cutting the monkey's beard.

After pulling ourselves away from the window display, we turned around and walked into the Christmas market. These are giant marshmallows (but softer and lighter than the ones we are accustomed to) covered in chocolate.

Gingerbread is another specialty here, with all sorts of toppings/coverings, including, of course, chocolate!

This is the town hall, a huge gothic building with a glockenspiel (clock), which is the green part in the center. It has 32 life-size figures that act out stories at particular hours of the day.

Another interesting building at Marienplatz, but we didn't find out what it is.

More chocolate covered goodies...this time fruit kebabs...

blueberries, strawberries, bananas, raspberries, grapes, etc.

The booths were so festive. Many had handcrafted ornaments and very good quality gifts.

Nicholas with his giant chocolate covered marshmallow!

Munich is, of course, much colder than Barcelona. We tried to dress very warm, but we found we needed respite from the cold, so Ray led us to a quaint and festive German café for hot drinks. It was off the beaten path, and it was packed with locals...a good sign!

Hot cocoa on a cold day...perfect.

Building decorations...they look so...German!

More of the market down the middle of town

Another Bavarian specialty...potato spätzle with sauerkraut.
(Spätzle is like short pasta noodles made with potatoes.)

Warm roasted chestnuts...they are soft and taste a little bit like a mild yam. Yum!

As it got dark, the decorations lit up!

By evening, we made it to a Christmas market with a medieval theme. It was so packed we could barely move in some parts! It was in a square surrounded by buildings on all sides.

Oh, too many treats!

We loved these stars. They are also popular decorations in Barcelona, but this shop had stars with such variety and detail we had not seen before.

Day 2: Why find a different place to eat breakfast? We went back again to our "favorite"!

The Germans sure know how to decorate! The Christmas tree originated here...and thus the evergreen decorations.

After brunch, we made our way to a unique site...surfers on the river. There is an area with a continuous wave (man-created), and the surfers ride it all year long. They wait on either side of the river and drop in one at a time when the last person has fallen. Very cool to watch!

The river surfers are at one end of a huge park called the English Gardens, one of the largest urban parks in the world. It was commissioned by a German "elector" who really liked English Gardens!

Wrestling boys, a favorite pastime of theirs!

A stop along the river flowing through the English Gardens.

We made our way to the next Christmas market at the Chinese Tower in the English Gardens.

This market had a nice outdoorsy atmosphere, of course!

Ray and Jacob needed a snack...baked potatoes!

Jacob also ordered traditional potato pancakes with applesauce.

Here is where I need to tell you about my favorite German dish called the Emperor's Mess.

It is a giant pancake made with raisins...

...then cut up or torn into irregular pieces, drizzled with melted butter, sprinkled with sugar...

...and put alongside an amazing chunky plum sauce! Sooooo delicious!

I am definitely going to attempt to make this at home! :)

Jacob was also tempted by the homemade donuts at the same booth.

Instead of a hole, there is still a thin layer of dough in the middle.

Here is the menu at the booth: top item is the pancake, bottom item is the donut.

German words are admirably long!

More city street and building photos...

Our next market was focused on ART. Lots of funkiness!

We were amazed at the freshness of the food sold in the underground Metro! Often you could smell the breads and pastries baking! Here is a pizza place that looked so good and fresh...see the piles of perky lettuce and freshly shredded carrots on the left in the case? (Yes, the worker saw me taking a photo and decided to pose...) :)

In the evening, Mom and I went to our final market called Tollwood Christmas Market. It was certainly the most entertaining! Too bad the boys missed it, but they had had enough of Christmas markets by then and decided to go see The Hobbit with Ray, which was released in Germany earlier than in the U.S. or Spain! They saw it in 3-D and loved it.

This market was PACKED. These next few photos were on the outside of the market. There was a disco ball lighting up the ground with thousands of moving lights (like disco balls do!), making me dizzy if I looked down too long. In addition to the outdoor booths, there were HUGE tents there (the tops are lit with colors) some with hundreds of booths selling any gift you want to buy. One tent was a big bar scene with German beer, etc. Others were food only.

Not sure what the pig was all about, but it was VERY large.

This was a massive mechanical camel that "walked" through a very dense crowd who seemed to be able to make way for the camel...

This stack of chocolates was shaved at the bottom and put into a warmed "pancake" that was warmed and rolled into a cone, thereby melting the chocolate. I just did not have enough room to have one of these...if only the boys were there to get one and let me have a bite (this is my typical strategy!).

This was just a really cool booth with really cool giraffes! :)

The top of the booth was even cooler!

One of the food tents was primarily vegetarian, with all those booths serving an amazing variety. Mom and I had the most scrumptious meal there (although I did not get a photo of that food).

I know I have a habit of taking too many food photos!