I will probably be flying into London meeting a family member and staying for about 4 days before we travel to Germany. I definitely want to see at least one or two of the Christmas Markets and would love to see as much of Germany as possible in 5 days. I'm really looking for feedback on "must see or must do" adventures in Germany!
Posted by
Chicago
7880 posts
Here is Rick Steves "must see or must do" adventures in Germany.
https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/germany
There are videos too.
Posted by
North Georgia, USA
1097 posts
I posted a trip report recently for our Germany trip in June. Won't cover Christmas markets but does give my impressions of several German cities. You can click on my name for my recent posts.
Posted by
1222 posts
In London I would say Tower of London, London Walks, Harry Potter studio, Westminster Abbey, play at the Globe and/or west end theatre. Germany for Christmas Markets Nurnberg.
Posted by
OP
9 posts
Thank you for the quick responses!
Posted by
OP
9 posts
Thank you for the quick responses!
Posted by
Stuttgart, Germany
3049 posts
I wouldn't try to see "as much as Germany as possible" in 5 days because you won't, but you'll spend a lot of time in transit. With 5 days I'd pick no more than two cities, or base out of one city.
Berlin is wonderful in winter, as you have amazing museums to escape to when the chill gets to be too much, and it has over 50 Christmas markets, many of them very unique. You could easily spend 5 days there and make a day trip to see the palace at Potsdam.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, culturally, you could visit the Southwest. I'm biased, but I think Stuttgart has the best single big-city market, to the point where I'm spoiled for other markets, because our stands vividly decorate their rooftops, and it seems like they're always trying to outdo themselves. But the other selling point is that Stuttgart is very close to two other unique and fabulous markets, the elegant Baroque Christmas market at Ludwigsburg (and you can always tour the "Swabian Versailles" palace there as well) and my personal favorite, the Medieval Christmas Market of Esslingen - like a Renssiance faire, almost, but still a Christmas Market. From here you could explore some Black Forest markets, like Freiburg and the famous market in the Ravenna Gorge (https://www.hochschwarzwald.de/weihnachtsmarkt). You could hop over to Colmar or Strasbourg in France quite easily from there, too. Or go the other direction and check out Munich, which is probably going to give you the most German "feel" of anywhere in Germany since Americans tend to think of Bavaria as Germany. Good markets, good museums, beer, it's hard to go wrong with Munich.