We made it into Cologne without much trouble but decided we could visit Dusseldorf to meet some friends before our new travel companion arrived! She came on the train after her semester ended and together we visited the markets of Cologne, Luxembourg, and Basel, while eating plenty of delicious foods and of course, melted cheese! Then we flew home together and got to spend some time with her family as well as ours over the Christmas holidays.
Meeting new friends in Dusseldorf
Last summer I had learned about a few Facebook groups of nomads and frugal travelers and had been following along. I ended up commenting to someone’s question and soon we realized we were going to be within a 20 minute train ride the following day! Since our first day in the area we had planned to visit a market in a nearby city, after checking in to our hotel we made our way to Dusseldorf by train to meet a fun couple that had just come back from Southeast Asia.
After arriving, we walked around between markets, stopping occasionally for Glühwein or other foods. Dusseldorf actually became the top on my list for traditional red Glühwein! While walking we all talked non stop about places we’ve been, medical tourism, favorite travel bags and packing strategies, and our go-to travel clothing brands.
The markets here vary in each area, one was more traditional with wooden stalls that was by the river and the one in the middle of the mall felt more modern. I finally got to try roasted chestnuts, or Heiße Maronen (the ß is pronunced like two s’s). They are absolutely worth singing about, in my opinion – although they lost a little something once they cooled off.
We got some cheddar brats (käsewurst) for our dinner and tried a Rose Glühwein. It was better than the white we had in Dresden but the red was far better. Here the market was in a courtyard of a larger building, and it was absolutely packed with people, you just found a spot to stand and tried not to get bumped too much with people passing either direction. They had projected a custom video on one wall that involved the windows with candles in them, or looking like they shattered. At one point a countdown started and so many people had stopped and waited to see what happened after the countdown, and apparently it was just a countdown until the little video started over. It was a bit anticlimactic.
Before we knew it, we had to say goodbye to our new friends and catch a train to get back to Cologne to meet our new travel companion, A! If you remember, we had met up with her in London when she traveled with fellow study abroad students. Now her semester was finished and she met us after visiting a friend in Amsterdam, and getting to check off another country. We managed to beat her there by a few minutes, had a little bit of catch-up, and hopped over to a different platform to get to the station closer to our hotel. As it was quite late we got ready for bed to be well rested for a full day of markets.
Working through all the Market Goodies in Cologne
The following morning we had a lazy breakfast and then made our way out into the Cologne markets. We started by the cathedral, which was impressive on it’s own to see from across the bridge as we walked across. Here we started off with some kiaserschmarrn, or pancake pieces that were an amazing start to the day, so fresh and warm right off the giant griddle. They do a second fry on each piece in some butter, which clearly is what makes them so magical! There was also a band playing and we found our second try of kartofellpuffer, which is the deep fried potato pancakes.
We walked around this market as A wanted to do a little Christmas present shopping for her family before heading to the old town to Henzels Wintermarchen, “House Elves’ Winter Fairy Tale”. They had a large ice rink and a bridge we could climb to watch the skaters go underneath us, some cuthroat curling, and even a bubble machine.
Hungry again we split some Raclette and ham on a baguette. Raclette is another popular way to have delicious melted cheese found in this area of Europe and especially western Switzerland. They have gas broilers and the cheese is rotated under them and the top melted layer is scraped onto, in this case, our baguette. Yum!
We wandered the stalls checking out the decor and fun things they sold. In one stall there were windows into a kitchen where we watched them assemble a batch of handbrot. A dough was rolled out like cinnamon rolls but even thicker. Then they sprinkled cheese and ham on two-thirds of the width. The empty side was folded over once, then the otherside folded and pinched closed. They used a dowel to cut into buns for individual servings before putting into the oven.
We wandered to what is known as the Angel’s market, and picked up some kasespaetzel to share when A ran into a friend from her program that was travelling with her mom! She was also from MN but what a coincidence, neither knew the other was going to be there.
Having enough for lunch and walking, we started towards a train stop to hitch a ride back to the hotel. It was nice to rest our tired feet, and we found some snacks in the hotel grab and go section to work for dinner since we had enough food from earlier in the day. I think A was happy to have some downtime after such a busy semester and all her travels nearly every weekend. We may have rubbed off on her.
Adding a new Country to our list: Luxembourg
The following morning we walked across the bridge back to the main train station and had a lovely last look at Cologne cathedral and bridge. Then we hopped on a train to get to a new country for all of us, Luxembourg!
We arrived before check-in and it was starting to rain, so we popped under a table with an umbrella with our luggage to try and figure out what to do, enjoying some Glühwein, because when in the Christmas Markets.
We then found a kebab shop on the square that was open for some lunch. We ordered a few entrees to share of falafel, salad, pitas, hummus and a cheese pide (“pea-day”) on the side. In the courtyard was one of the smaller markets in the city and a large advent calendar. About every two hours they open all of the doors up to that date in December with some music playing, and we happened to catch it during our lunch.
Well after lunch was complete we managed to check in a few minutes early to our hotel. It was right on the square upstairs in a cool room with exposed beams. A had her own room area overlooking the square and we relaxed for a few hours before venturing out. We started at the advent calendar trying some different flavors of Glühwein, including raspberry and apple which were both quite good, but the plain red did hold its own between Cologne and Nuremberg in the rankings.
Next we headed towards the main market area and found some eierpunsch, this was okay but tasted like white chocolate was melted in there and for me made it too sweet. We found it a bit confusing trying to figure out the language, they speak both French and German but each booth seemed to do it differently, some had both! Thankfully I was able to figure out that Crambambuli must be the French version of the Feuerzangenbowle, the flaming sugar rum infused Glühwein.
This time they served it in a special mug with a little lip to hold the sugar cube they doused in rum before lighting on fire as they served. It was decent but not as good as the first place I had tried it in Nuremberg, I still look pretty excited in the picture though!
At the last market by the river Mr. Wander and I tried Hot Aperol and Hot Hugo drinks. Mr. Wander said the Aperol wasn’t too bad but I think the Hugo was best served over ice when it’s hot outside! We stopped by the barbecue to get some burgers and bratwurst for our dinner before making our way back to the hotel.
In the morning we went to the restaurant attached to the hotel to get our breakfast that was provided. There were tasty breads with cheese and salami, cloudy apple juice, and yogurt. Then we explored on the walk back to the train station a few monuments in the city.
Embracing the Fondue in Basel
Our train took us to the last country for the year: Switzerland! Mr. Wander and I had booked a round trip ticket to Geneva when we left in the fall so it would line up with A’s flight home. As there are several well known markets around Basel an surrounding cities we decided to stop here for a few nights.
The first evening we visited the market in town, which was extremely busy. We first came to the kindermarkt area, where they had some cool craft areas to let kids learn about and try some older style crafts and a train they could ride on. We got a pretzel and some apple rings, which are deep fried and covered in cinnamon, and of course some Glühwein to wash it down.
As we wandered to the main market we saw some interesting foods here, such as a fondue dog. They would take the bun and poke a hole, fill it with cheese, and then put a hot dog in it! After looking around a bit we came to this temporary restaurant built right onto the road, they even had chandeliers, windows and heat!. They only served fondue which was the entire basis for the appeal and we ate copious amounts of delicious swiss cheese and bread.
The following morning we opted not to take the trains to Strausberg and instead decided to explore more of Basel. We started at a cafe around the corner where they had some fancy bread displays so we had delicious pastries and some caffeine.
They decided to tear up most of the road and sidewalk outside the door to the cafe so we got to sit there for a bit longer. Then we walked under a unique roof of an exhibition center before finding a path along the river. The path brought us to the free zoo where we saw an owl, deer, wolves, bison and plenty of ducks.
A quick stop at a grocery store got us enough for a picnic and we went to a monument for the spot where three countries come together: France, Germany and Switzerland! They actually meet in the middle of the Rhine river, but this was close enough without swimming. They had the flags and country names on each of the 3 sides between the fins of this structure.
We enjoyed our picnic and started walking back along the river, where we found an interesting summer hangout spot made from old shipping containers and boats with different bars and cafes that were not open in the cooler weather. We found a local coffee shop for some warm beverages and watched boats go by, chatting about different travels and the various markets we had visited.
Mr. Wander found a cool food hall area where we could order various cuisines but we opted for pad thai. Then we decided to turn in for the evening.
Preparing to Return Home from Geneva
We had a few trains the next day to get us into Geneva but had some time to explore on our way to the train station.
We stopped by the luggage storage for A to pickup her big suitcase and then we went to get lunch at a delicious fondue place we had visited a few years before with Mr. Wander’s parents.
It was just as delicious as I remembered, and I ordered a side of potatoes since that was my favorite. Fondue twice in three days isn’t a bad way to live, ha! After dinner we took the train to the airport and walked to our hotel to get some sleep before our early morning flights to get home.
The Rankings
As we visited Christmas Markets in eight cities across three countries, we kept track and tried to compare items from each place. Below I put our favorite foods and where we had the best examples of each. We didn’t try everything from each country but it gives you a little idea of where to go for what sounds the most delicious to you. We also tried to rank the traditional Glühwein and Eierpunsch from each city but this can be a personal preference if you want yours more sweet, more spiced, or a stronger wine flavor.
Best food
- Dresden: Langos and Handbrot
- Cologne: Kiaserschmarrn – pancake pieces
- Basel: Fondue – although the restaurant we went to in Geneva restaurant was even better
- Nuremberg: Lebkuchen – gingerbread cookies
- Prague: Kolach – traditional pastries
- Heidelberg: Kartoffelpuffer – potato pancakes
- Düsseldorf: Heiße Maronen – roasted chestnuts
- Luxembourg: Bratwurst and Burgers
Glühwein
- Prague – Honey wine and berry infused red is amazing, but perhaps not traditional Glühwein
- Düsseldorf – My favorite traditional red
- Basel – Second place traditional red, but the white was quite good here
- Cologne – Traditional Red was a solid choice
- Luxembourg – The Raspberry and apple were interesting alternatives
- Nuremberg – My favorite feurzanganbowle, which has rum and sugar and at some point is set on fire
- Heidelberg – Okay tasting red, but one of the lowest costing Glühwein
- Dresden – Red was better than the white
Eierpunsch – aka Eggnog
- Dresden – Can’t mess with Oma’s recipe, although this may have been Eierlikör instead of Eierpunsch
- Heidelberg – Medium strong with cookie on top
- Cologne – Not as creamy but the last of those I liked
- Luxembourg – Too sweet, possibily with white chocolate
- Nuremberg – Extra strong, especially for the morning
Next Time
Our next post I’ll break with the typical travel content and give a fun recap of 2025 travel by the numbers. A few of you mentioned to me how helpful this was last time so I’ll continue with this tradition for now. Let me know if there is any statistic that has you particularly curious in the comments below or feel free to email me. Our travelling at the end of 2025 and in the first part of this year has been pretty busy, not giving ourselves too much time to catch up on notes and pictures to put together different posts. We’re going to force ourselves to slow down a bit these next few months so get ready for regular updates while we catch all of you up on our last semester of our “buffet” around the world!
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