Christmas Marketing in Hamburg and Lübeck

I spent this past weekend in Hamburg at their multiple Christmas markets. I went with four friends from school - Cara, Will, Andy and Lindsay. It was an amazing, if somewhat busy, weekend. We left school a bit early and walked (with a bit of running...) to catch the S-Bahn to the Hauptbahnhof. The train to Hamburg took about three and a half hours. We had a cabin booked so just sat and chatted, mostly sharing funny school stories. Once we arrived in Hamburg we went straight across the street to a Christmas Market! The markets usually close by about 9, so we just stayed for a glühwein before heading to the hotel. The hotel was in the St. Pauli area, right beside the Dom fair. It was like a carnival/amusement park/christmas market all in one. There was even a haunted house ride and a water ride. The haunted house ride was amusing, especially the guy who would follow the people on the ride with a chain saw. The water ride was just stupid...it was running but of course no one was on it - way too cold! They even had fireworks for us :)

We got up early on Saturday and headed back to the train station. This time to take a regional train to Lübeck, only a 40 minute ride north east of Hamburg. And one thing I love about trains here - they left exactly on time! We were heading to Lübeck to their special Christmas craft market in the medieval Hospital of the Holy Spirit. The first part, when you come in, is in the church hall. This was a beautiful combination of the crafts on display and the building (left):

Then you entered the long hospital hall, where each stall is in a small cabin (right). I think each cabin was a hospital bed before, not just installed for the fair. There was also a part in the basement of the building. There I found a stall my dad would have loved. Wooden musical instruments, including some really neat looking xylophones. You can see on the right the interlocking keys, or on the left the single notes:

After this market we had lunch at an open air market in an old courtyard. 

 

 

So much good food and drink. I had a shrimp brötchen, as well as some hot chocolate and a nutella crepe. There were also more stalls of crafts and little gifts to buy. I like the stalls with all different kinds of brushes (for cleaning) - I find them amusing among all the food and Christmas crafts and decorations. 

We then headed back to Hamburg. I some how managed to nap the whole way back, something usual for me. Then had a bit of a break in the hotel before checking out yet more Christmas markets. In Hamburg, unlike Frankfurt, there isn't one or two markets. Instead there seem to be a new market down each street you turn. Ok I know this is not true, but it felt like it! 

We walked along the south side of the lake (not to be confused with the river) and then down to the market in the square by the town hall. I had dinner of deep fried cheese with cheese sauce on top! Delicious but a bit much... There were so many things I wanted to eat. 

The view of the Christmas tree in the lake, and more Christmas market stalls along the bank.

The town hall and the Christmas market and large light tree

The entrance to the Christmas market

We then headed to Reeperbahn to see the statues of the Beatles, where they use to play before becoming famous. And, of course, another Christmas market. It started to rain quite hard then so we stood under a tree and drank glühwein. After such a long day we then headed back to the hotel, cutting through the Dom fair, and played some triominoes. It is like playing dominoes but the pieces are triangles and have three numbers on them. 

Sunday morning Will, Andy and Lindsay had brunch with a friend, so Cara and I headed out to explore the city. We walked along the water and then just wandered where it took our fancy in the direction of the town hall. 

The view of the river and harbour. We walked to the left, but discovered that there wasn't really anywhere to walk along the river and mostly it was construction.

This annoying church. We could see the top of the spire behind some other buildings and were drawn towards it to have a look at the rest of the church. I love gothic architecture, but then we were disappointed to find that the rest of it was encased in scaffolding! 

Making us think of Amsterdam. I think this was foreshadowing what was to come. 

A lovely iron bridge - reminded me of Porto

Yet another church, with a Christmas market around the sides!

At the Christmas market Cara and I did a bit of shopping and had some lunch. We also had some more glühwein and hot chocolate. What is really neat about all the markets is the hot drinks come in decorated mugs. They have a picture and then the name, and sometimes date, of the market you are at. You pay a deposit (pfand) for them and then get it back when you return the mug. Or in the case that morning, I just kept the mug as a souvenir.

Some amazing chocolates we found at the Christmas market!

And now the fun begins... St. Michael's church.

Ok, so after wandering around the Christmas markets we decided it was time to head towards the Hauptbahnhof. We knew we had to head north east, so just started wandering in what we thought was the right direction. We bought some postcards, checked out the church above and then were walking through this pretty park. In the middle was a sign post, with a sign pointing to the Hauptbahnhof in the opposite direction to where we were walking! This was like Amsterdam, where we had many troubles trying to orient ourselves. As we were laughing over our map trying to figure out what had happened a nice gentleman asked us if we needed help. It turns out we had gone around the Christmas market before going in, and so managed to get completely turned around. We had almost walked back to the harbour! The man pointed us in the right direction and off we set. This time we had no problems, and even got to the station with time to check out another market:

We met up with the others on the platform. I love trains. We showed up about 6 minutes before the train was scheduled to leave and the train wasn't there. It pulled in a minute or two later and still left on time! Three and a half hours later (of mostly reading) we were back in Frankfurt. After such a nice weekend :)