Dresdens Striezelmarkt, or: Magic Fairytale Christmasland

 

We spent the last two days in the magical Christmas-land of Dresden. The German Train (Deutsche Bahn) has a special group ticket where you can have up to five people travel together for a special price--as long as you take regional (not high-speed) trains. So the trip took 3.5 hrs from Berlin, but was pretty cheap (about 50 EUR each way). We played Bohnanza (Elisabeth's favorite game...she brought it with her) the whole way and the time flew by. 

It gets dark here so early (around 4:00 pm), so our first experience of Dresden was at night, with all the buildings illuminated and the Christmas market (here called Striezelmarkt) gorgeously decorated and lit up.  (We all agreed it is much prettier at night.) And it magically stopped raining while we were at the market! Poured the whole time we were on the train, and all night after we got back in for the night. Keinen Schnee. :(

 We wandered around the market, had some Apfelglühwein (apple cider), rode the little ferris wheel and got a view over the market (first picture at top), and bought lots of Christmas gifts. Dresden is near the Erzgebirge region, which has all these traditional little German artisan woodcrafts (the little angels, Christmas trees, Räuchermännchen). And of course Dresden is best known for Stollen! Had to get some of that...I may actually be sugared out by Christmas. Seriously. I know: even for me it's extreme.