And now for something completely different…
Yesterday some friends and I took a Bayern Ticket up to Regensburg to hang out with Sarah, Christina, Tammy, and An and force them to show us around their Christmas markets. It worked.
The offerings at the Regensburg Christmas markets were, shockingly, pretty similar to what you find at Munich’s Christmas markets, with a couple of exceptions. For example, there was an insanely fast merry-go-round. And Santa foosball. And dates in bacon coats. I’m betting these are popular Christmas presents for men – what guy wouldn’t be thrilled to have his date dressed in nothing but a coat made out of bacon? Well, not a vegetarian guy. Or a kosher guy… damn, so much for my brilliant universal Christmas gift idea. I don’t think the coats came in adult sizes, anyway (see Em’s blog for a photo of the elusive bacon coats).
Despite the dreary weather (which later turned into delightful snow), Regensburg managed to look cute in its Christmassy decorations, although the town seems to suffer from the same multiple-Santa-Claus problem that Japan has (see the Santas climbing the building in the photo above). The hot, alcoholic beverages hit the spot (although sadly no one was in the mood to try the one called heisse Liebe).
OK, enough of these distractions. Back to my Munich Christmas market crusade!
I love your blog, it’s great! Long time lurker, first time poster. My daughter (21) is in Germany for the first time, visiting her boyfriend she met here in the States. I was thinking it would be a nice gesture to send some small gifts from here to his family that is hosting her, do you have any suggestions? They live in Gornsdorf, and I am sort of at a loss. Engraved cheese slicers? Thanks…
Hi Damsel. Thanks for de-lurking! That’s a good question… are there any food specialties from your part of the states that will travel well? For example, once I brought back Jack Daniels BBQ sauce and whiskey fudge after visiting the distillery on a trip to the US, and those presents seemed to go over quite well. See’s Candies would be good (if you’re from the west coast). Gourmet hot sauces and Mexican salsas are also hard to come by over here, but I wouldn’t pick those unless you’re sure his family is adventurous in that way. Nice candy or high-quality chocolate is probably the safest bet.
If that doesn’t work out, Germans sure do like sliced cheese. 🙂
Hey Jul. It was so much fun having y’all up here on Thursday. I know the Regensburg markets aren’t quite as individualistic as the Munich ones, but I like them. I promise that next time you come, there will be no Italian…ahem, “Italian” food.
Oh, it wasn’t so bad. 🙂 I’m just an ungrateful whiner. Thanks for organizing! Was great fun to see you.