Rewind: Regensburg Christmas Market

I'm obviously in catch up mode, you guys.  I'm bringing you back to the holidays and to the Christmas Market in Regensburg.  We'd visited Regensburg last Fourth of July weekend and had a blast.  What a wonderful city!  We couldn't wait to go back.  Our friends, the infamous Finch Family, live about 25 minutes (by train) from Regensburg.  The train station is literally minutes away from their house, so it was so convenient to hop on the train with strollers and Sina in a Kelty backpack and instantly be in one of the most beautiful backdrops for a Christmas market. 

Ruckin' it!

Train Ride!

It wasn't as big as Stuttgart or Strasbourg, but I think that's what we loved most about it. No outrageous crowds, not too spread out. But the setting was lovely, cozy, and oh, the food was dee-licious!

Here's a disclaimer before I go any further:  The pictures aren't the greatest.  We went to this market at night and I take horrible pictures at night time.

The market is held annually in the Palace of the Saint Emmeram--a former Benedictine monastery dating back to the 11th century, turned royal palace to the House of Thurn and Taxis in 1748.  The Thurn and Taxis family is evidently one of the wealthiest families in Germany.  Why not?  This family was responsible for establishing the imperial postal system in Europe (starting in Italy), which paved the way for the creation of an international postal system at the turn of the 16th century.  I wish we'd had a chance to tour the palace during normal hours because even at night, you can see the place in all its splendor.

This was just outside the palace entryway, where there were booths mostly selling jewelry, ornaments, liquor, and other fine local wares.

When we got there, there was already a crowd gathered in the courtyard.  Notice all the people looking upward...there was a choir singing Christmas carols from a balcony overlooking the courtyard.  And the crowd was singing along...so were we, only in English.  Also notice the gorgeous, giant Christmas tree in the center of the courtyard.  Sina was in complete awe.  It was all so surreal.

As I said earlier, the food was fantastic.  There were so many things to choose from, which is absolutely ideal when you are completely famished from not having eaten hours prior to arriving in downtown Regensburg.  Of course, we had to have some brats.  But I found a booth selling this...

I need to make a note to scribble down the names for the things we eat because I want to call this goulash, but am not 100% sure.  This was a mixture of sauteed vegetables, sauerkraut, German noodles (I want to say this is dampfnudle) and some beef.  Interestingly, they served this up in waffle bowls with garlic cream sauce.  OMG...heaven!

Needless to say...we spent a good part of the night standing and walking around, snacking on whatever we could find.  Everyone always claims that I get them mid-bite in photos.  Guess they're right.

After eating, we took a walk around the grounds and scanned some booths.  We were mostly on the look-out for ornaments, but didn't really find any that we liked.  However, we did get our hands on some good schnapps liqueur.  I think we got some in raspberry.

After about two hours, we were back on the train with our exhausted little ones.  Sina just sat in her seat in a daze until she finally decided she couldn't keep her adorable little eyes open anymore.

My two darlings.

The Christmas lights around post finally came down sometime last week.  Until then, Sina would always yell "Christmas tree!" ("Tee tis tee") everytime we passed by one.  I miss the holidays and can't wait until next year.  My mom is thinking about joining us, and I am beyond thrilled about that.  Speaking of next Christmas...I've been taking advantage of all the sales on Christmas stuff for the past month or so.  Everything is slowly trickling in through snail mail and now, I've got a new Santa cookie plate and mug set and The Elf of the Shelf book and elf set for Sina, with more stuff to come!

But ugh..11 more months to go!

Hope you guys enjoyed this flashback with me.  I'm going to try to post about our MLK weekend trip to Bavaria next.

Happy Tuesday!

Edit: One of my German readers (I know!  I can't believe I have a German reader!  How exciting!) was kind enough to email me to let me know that the noodle dish that I had that night is called schupfnudel, which are thick, pan-fried noodles.  Now I know exactly what to look and ask for the next time I go out for fest food!  Thanks, Simone!