Market driven
Think magical Christmas markets, festive concerts, impeccable taste and Vienna ticks all the boxes, making it one of Europe’s most popular cities come December. You can easily explore all 20 markets by foot, public transport or reasonably priced taxi. Don’t miss the spectacular Sönbrunn Palace and atmospheric Spittelberg markets and mingle with elegant locals sipping gluhwein and nibbling crescent shaped vanillekipferl (cookies) as you admire the Advent windows at the vast Christkindlmarkt in front of City Hall. See www.vienna.info and www.austria.info. Aer Lingus flies ex Dublin. Three nights hotel with breakfast and flights and transfers from €329 (www.topflight.ie). See also p28.
With a patron saint immortalised in a Christmas carol, all streets lead to the medieval square named after Good King Wenceslas. Brightly coloured stalls decked with delicate Bohemian glass decorations, cobblestone streets hung with twinkling fairy lights around a towering Christmas tree. Czech Christmas fish soup competes with hot wine to fend off the cold. Here the festive cheer continues right up until the new year. There are Daily flights ex Dublin with Aer Lingus. Flights plus three nights hotel accommodation with breakfast from €285, including Christmas market tour. (www.topflight.com). www.czechtourism.com.
If prizes were awarded for a fabulous display of Christmas lights, Copenhagen’s Tivoli gardens would be a sure winner. Those searching for a ‘different’ Christmas market experience can look forward to a 2,000 sq metre Russian city, including a scaled down version of St Basil’s Cathedral and a miniature Trans-Siberian railway at the historic amusement park. Stalls are appropriately onion-domed with lots of Russian themed gifts alongside traditional Danish treats like doughnuts, addictive pastries and caramelised apples. (www.visitcopenhagen.com). SAS fly twice daily Dublin to Copenhagen (www.flysas.ie).
Nobody does Christmas markets better than Berlin, the most famous of the 2,400 now in existence.
My favourite — it was the first I ever visited more than 20 years ago — Berlin has 60 markets open until December 31 spread over this ultra cool capital.
Make for the Brandenburg gate and Wilhelm Gedachtniskirche, where cutting edge artists and craftspeople exhibit and sell. The Sophienstrasse market specialises in eco friendly gifts and bio snacks. Children will love the fair rides and merry-go-rounds on Alexanderplatz. Aer Lingus, Lufthansa and Ryan Air ex Dublin, fly to Berlin. See lastminute.com for hotel deals.
Two Belgian cities with diverse characters, languages and rivalling traditions, yet they both enter into the spirit of Christmas with picture-postcard markets.
In Brussels, gourmet cheeses and famed artisanal chocolate are savoured from some of the hundreds of wooden chalets, while nearby Antwerp boasts a large and lively Christmas market located on the Grote Markt with its famous gabled buildings. Watch impressive skating at the ice rink and chat with friendly locals over fabulous frites and Belgian beers.
Daily Flights Aer Lingus Dublin-Brussels and Ryanair to Brussels Zuid (buses to the city take about 50 minutes). See www.visitbrussels.be and www.antwerpen.be/visit whose services include booking accommodation.
Christmas market visitors from Ireland can celebrate the arrival next summer of the European football championships in one of the host country’s most beautiful and affordable cities.
In Old Town, glittering with lights, a large traditional Christmas market unfolds on Rynek Glowny Square and beyond offering stalls laden with Polish cut glass, wooden tree decorations and food.
Free choral and folk dance performances and traditional Szopka (portable nativity puppet theatres) charm the crowds. (www.krakow.pl/en/) Flights from Aer Lingus from Dublin four days weekly.
Hungary’s capital offers a festive fix with an enticing central European flavour and the added romance of candlelit restaurants to retreat to after all that shopping and the daily unveiling of the Advent Calendar by St Nicholas in historic Café Gerbeaud up to Christmas Eve. The standard of merchandise is excellent, having been inspected by a committee of craftsmen and folk artists. Aer Lingus has daily flights ex Dublin and Malev airlines flies six days a week (www.malev.com). Flight and 3-star hotel accommodation from €265 (www.topflight.ie). For packages, see www.cassidytravel.ie, Also www.budapest-tourist-guide.com.
Connoisseurs who are well heeled enough take Christmas Markets Rhine cruises covering several countries, visiting famous markets on a truly festive voyage — each day described as “like unwrapping one beautiful gift after another”.
One such cruise starts in Basel, Switzerland and ends in Cologne, renowned for its markets, baumschmuck (Christmas decorations) and stollen, the German version of Christmas cake. Strasbourg, home of the oldest Christmas market in France, is visited; and Heidelberg, romantic city of festive concerts. See www.cruisingholidays.co.uk.
Looking for a genuine “Christkindlmarkt” (German Christmas market) but nearer home? The world’s largest authentic German market outside of Germany and Austria is now in full swing up until Christmas.
Billed as the best free night out in town, the scent of German gingerbread, roasting chestnuts, the aroma of gluhwein and German sausage — it’s all there with hundreds of stalls lining city squares and streets, selling handmade festive fare. Aer lingus has daily flights from Dublin and Cork to Birmingham. See christmasinbirmingham.com.
See www.christmas-markets.org.
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