If you’ve only visited Germany once (or not at all) it probably brings to mind beer kellers and lederhosen, but I think Germany’s Christmas Markets offer a far more authentic experience. There’s nothing like sipping a hot gluhwein and munching on a Bratwurst on a cold winter night in a fairy-lit city square along with what seems to be the entire population of the place. Or browsing through the christmas decorations, beeswax candles or wooden figurines gracing the market stalls – it doesn’t get more German than that. Lest we forget, the way that we celebrate Christmas in the UK can be directly attributed to German tradition – Prince Albert introduced the idea of christmas trees and gift-giving to his family and it filtered down to the commoners like us over a very short number of years.
Dresden, where we spent Saturday and Sunday can boast Germany’s oldest Christmas market – in fact the Streizelmarkt celebrates its 574th year in 2008. It’s not the only one in the city either – there is a ‘middle ages’ themed market, with jesters, jugglers and traditional food in the Schloss courtyard, and others in each of the city’s distinct districts.
Putting all the merriment aside for a moment, When I was doing my research for the trip I discovered some uncomfortable facts about the city. Now one of Germany’s most beautiful cities, Dresden had languished under the DDR, and it took until German unification in 1990 for reconstruction to begin on most of its major buildings and monuments (I don’t need to tell you who or what destroyed them in the first place I’m sure… ). Can you imagine what a British city would have been like where big plots of land right in the middle of the city were just left covered in rubble and weeds for 50 years? It’s almost impossible to imagine isn’t it, but that’s the way Dresden was from 1945 until the fall of communism.
Yes, there are still some stark, soviet-style buildings around, but the people of the city have done an incredible job in restoring the city to its previous grandeur before that fateful February. Nowadays the city itself stands as a monument to their pride and their determination. And I can’t fail to mention the warm welcome that we got from everyone we met – I lost count of the times that people wished us a happy Christmas. We could learn a lot from our teutonic friends (not least of which how to handle our money…)
I won’t bore you by repeating Dresden’s extensive wikipedia article, you can go and read it yourself 😛 however I did take copious numbers of photographs, the rest of which you can peruse at your leisure here and here. Check out the Zwinger and the Frauenkirche for some stunning baroque architecture