Best Christmas markets in Germany travel December

GERMAN CHRISTMAS MARKETS

Katja GERMANY 2 Comments

December in Germany is all about Christmas markets! Smell the sweet cinnamon waffles, mulled wine, gingerbread and grilled sausages while strolling around in the labyrinths with food & hand made products stands – BIG TOWNS set up several Christmas markets on larger town´s squares, SMALLER CITIES have one Christmas market and even the smallest VILLAGES usually organise a 1-day Christmas market on the first December weekend. Markets are often the event of the year for many locals and everyone is always looking forward to the moment when they open.

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HALLE and LEIPZIG, Germany | weekend trip to former East Germany

Katja CITY BREAKS, FAMILY TRAVELS, GERMANY Leave a Comment

Leipzig is just a bit under 2 hours driving from our home and makes a great WEEKEND GETAWAY spot for us! We made this short trip in Autumn and the city really surprised me with its MODERN fancy shops, nice architecture and overall atmosphere – I must confess I expected something much less up to date. It really looked like a nice city and I could even imagine living there without feeling I ended up “just somewhere”. Not sure I could say the same thing for HALLE, but more about that part at the end of this post.

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Dinner at a Michelin 3-Star Restaurant Aqua Wolfsburg Germany

dinner at a Michelin 3 *** restaurant | AQUA, Wolfsburg, Germany

Katja FOOD + RECIPES, GERMANY, SPECIAL EXPERIENCES Leave a Comment

Eating at a Michelin star restaurant has to be one of those things many people who love exquisite food have on their “do at least once in a lifetime list”. And it is not just about good food. Surely, one can eat a delicious meal in a simple street food stand somewhere in Asia as well. Here it is also about using unique ingredients, combining them in new ways, applying special techniques etc. Besides, it is about the whole experience of this culinary journey that is so special in the end. Even though it is more expensive, it is worth every euro. Since we happen to have a 3-star restaurant very close to where we live here in Germany, I could not resist going one time. Here´s how it was.

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Portugal-roadtrip-lisbon-porto-algarve-travel

PORTUGAL | 10 days north (Porto) to south (Algarve coast) road trip

Katja FAMILY TRAVELS, PORTUGAL | MADEIRA Leave a Comment

We spent his year´s AUTUMN HOLIDAYS discovering Portugal – flying to Porto where we rented a car after a couple of days and driving around 1500 km down to the south coast and back to Porto. We were really lucky with the warm sunny weather and could swim in the unusual warm Atlantic ocean! The HIGHLIGHTS of our 10-day long trip were the landscapes in DOURO VALLEY, amazing ALGARVE coastline and the towns of OBIDOS and PORTO. We ate good, we drank good and we came back with a bag of new memories. Here´s a long post with lots of pictures for those who don´t have time to read the whole text ;).

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LISBON, Portugal | weekend city trip to the Portuguese capital

Katja CITY BREAKS, FAMILY TRAVELS, PORTUGAL | MADEIRA Leave a Comment

Lisbon is a great city to visit for a weekend getaway – there is a good chance the weather will be nicer than at home, the restaurants are amazing, there are lots of museums and historic places, the whole old part of the city has amazing atmosphere with live music bars located in charming narrow streets. We spent here 2 nights on our recent road trip around the country and had a full day of sightseeing. Here is what we saw and did ;).

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ALGARVE COAST, Portugal | best beaches in southern Portugal

Katja PORTUGAL | MADEIRA Leave a Comment

On our road trip through Portugal we decided to spent a good portion of our time exploring the south of the country. We went really lucky with the weather in the beginning of October as we had up to 30C all the 4 DAYS we were there. This made it possible to SWIM and SUNBATHE on one of the best beaches in the whole Europe which made especially Lu very happy. It was over all a good time to visit as it was not so busy as in the summer and we had lots of space and peace on the beaches and in restaurants. Here are some beaches we visited.

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Portugal food and drinks - typical Portuguese dishes and what to eat in Portugal

PORTUGAL food & drinks | typical Portuguese dishes and what to eat in Portugal

Katja FOOD + RECIPES, PORTUGAL | MADEIRA Leave a Comment

Back home, we don´t eat out that often, but when travelling we love to taste something local or something we never tried before (of course there are some borders at experimenting ;)). Even though we often had apartments or rooms with a kitchen on our trip around Portugal, we almost never cooked by ourselves this time – simply because finding a restaurant was so easy and the food was just so yummy! I have to say the prices were sometimes higher than expected, but never mind, the good taste made up for it ;). So what did we eat?

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Portugal travel itinerary and basic travel costs 10 days road trip from north to south

PORTUGAL | travel itinerary and basic costs of our 10 days road trip

Katja PORTUGAL | MADEIRA Leave a Comment

Just a few more days and we´re off to Portugal! As we were searching on where to go for this year´s autumn holidays, we had two conditions. It had to be warmer than at home and it should not be too far. Somewhere where 10 days would be just enough to enjoy a little bit of everything – historic towns, beaches, nature, good food and pleasant climate. In the end we were deciding between Spain and Portugal and chose to fly to Porto, because there was a better flight connection.

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Lüneburger Heide Germany what to see and do

LÜNEBURGER HEIDE, Germany | weekend trip to the pink heath fields close to Hamburg

Katja FAMILY TRAVELS, GERMANY Leave a Comment

I have to admit I had no clue this beautiful nature park with fields of blooming heath even existed before I moved to Germany. It is located quite close to the busy higway between Hanover and Hamburg but if you don´t know it´s there you will not see it from the road. Up until now we´ve visited Lüneburger Heide two times and were stunned by beautiful pink carpets of heath stretching over the little hills and valleys. It´s great for hiking, cycling and more, so if you are travelling through northern Germany or live here around you should definitely visit, also with kids. Read more about it in this new post.

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