We’ve traditionally spent Christmas with my mom’s parents on Christmas Eve and my dad’s parents on December 26th. However, my last two surviving grandparents both died this spring, and my parents came to the conclusion that there’s really no point in our family and my aunt making a big Christmas dinner, getting dressed up all fancy, and then sitting around the dining room table feeling slightly awkward.
Therefore, my family and I are now heading to Munich for Christmas, since my mother made some inquiries among her friends scattered across Europe and apparently Munich has a really good Christmas Fair or something.
Now. I’ll be travelling with my family and my aunt, but it’s apparently not required for me to be with them every hour of every day. (In fact, in order to guarantee a peaceful vacation, it’d probably be good if we have some time apart every now and then.) Seeing as this is so, I would like to make some solitary sorties into town and check out what is to be checked out.
And here I turn to you Dopers to hopefully enrich my trip with tips and recommendations. I’ll be in Munich from December 23rd to the 28th. I have no idea where we’ll be staying yet, so as of yet I have no “I can’t go there, it’s too far” restrictions. I like to shop for clothes and especially shoes, I enjoy pretty much any food that doesn’t stare at me reproachfully from the plate (hello Icelandic sheep-eyeball soup…), I enjoy history and culture (also partying and clubbing, but I probably won’t be doing much of that due to the makeup of the travel party). Where should I go? Where should I not go? How are stores open in Munich over the Christmas holiday season? How about everything else?
I was in Nuremberg a few years ago during the fall and winter, and everyone said they had one of the best Christmas markets in Europe. And it was very nice; the market square in the center of town was filled with tents and stalls. There were lots of socks and sweaters, Christmas ornaments, toys; and around the outskirts were food booths with sausages and mulled wine. To an American who’s used to shopping malls, it seemed a little low key. You know how, in Peanuts, Linus used to hunt for the most sincere pumpkin patch to wait for the Great Pumpkin on Halloween? The Nuremberg Christmas market is very sincere[sup]*[/sup]. It’s about a two-hour train ride from Munich; don’t know if it’ll be open on the 23rd or 24th, though, or if it will even be there after Christmas.
Lots of other stuff in Munich. My favorite was the Deutches Museum, which is sort of a German Smithsonian.
Don’t worry about getting around, the trams, subways, and trains can take you almost anywhere.
And if it’s not, the commercialism is in a language I don’t understand, and I probably wouldn’t want to know about it, anyway.
I second that; the Nuremberg christmas fair is really nice, the setting alone (the main market square in the historic city center) contributes a great del to the experience. I don’t kn ow the Munich one, although I’ve been to Munich a lot, but I suspect it’s nice too. The second most famous christmas fair in Germany is the one in Stuttgart, also very nice there. From Munich, it’s just a train ride of about two hours to either Nuremberg or Stuttgart, but as I said, the Munich fair is certainly also worth seeing.
I looked up the dates for the christmas fairs in these cities online:
Nuremberg: Nov 28-Dec 24 Munich: Nov 28-Dec 24 Stuttgart: Nov 26-Dec 23 (unlike the other two sites, this one doesn’t seem to be available in English).
These fairs are generally quite crowded and a bit touristy, but don’t expect a lot of business going on in the afternoon and evening of December 24 - in Germany, the time when most families have their christmas celebrations is the evening of December 24, not the morning of the 25th, so I’d expect the fair to shut down in the afternoon of Christmas Eve at the latest.
Apart from the christmas fair, Munich is a really lovely city (though one of the nost expensive in Germany) in general. It has a beautiful historic city center, lots of impressive avenues, palaces and public buildings from the city’s time as capital of the kingdom of Bavaria, and the Deutsches Museum already mentioned by Robot Arm, allegedly one of Europe’s largest technological and scientific museums. Of course Munich also features the Hofbräuhaus, a must for every tourist who’s fond of beer. Regarding the newer parts of town, the very nicely kept Olympic park is worth a visit.
We’ll be in Munich at about 10 a.m. on the 23rd, so we should have at least that day if not the next as well to explore. That schedule is what I was mostly wondering about, though. In Finland, the celebrations are also on Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve, stores close and public transportation stops at around 1 p.m. and transportation resumes around noon on Christmas Day, on Sunday schedules. However, stores are closed Dec.25th AND 26th, which would be Thursday and Friday this year. Is Boxing Day a holiday in Germany as well, or should I prepare my budget to take into account an extra shopping day?
Ah well, I’m from Finland, we’re pretty expensive here too so it probably won’t be much of a shock. Hofbräuhaus has gotten recommendations from others as well, so that’ll definitely be on my list even though I usually don’t drink beer all that much. Someone also recommended Muffathalle; any experience there?
Boxing Day is the 26th, right? That’s a holiday here, shops are closed. Christmas Eve is kind of a semi-holiday - until about 2 p.m., business is going on as usual, but the shops are closing in the afternoon.
I haven’t been there, so I’m not able to rate it, but maybe others are.
If you’re interested in art, Munich has several museums you might like. One is the [(“House of Art”), offering temporary exhibitions - allegedly, the ideas for the exterior design of the building came from Hitler himself. There’s a neighborhood referred to as the [URL=“Kunstareal - Wikipedia”]Kunstareal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haus_der_KunstHaus der Kunst[/url) which features several specialized museums for paintings and sculptures.
If you’re interested in German cars, BMW’s newly inaugurated BMW World right next to the corporate headquarters could be of interest.
I’ve been to the Christkindl Markt in Nurnberg, and it’s worth it. If you get lucky and it’s snowing, it’s magical. After a couple hot gluweins, especially.
Hofbräuhaus has gotten recommendations from others as well, so that’ll definitely be on my list even though I usually don’t drink beer all that much. Someone also recommended