Our first big city Christmas market and our last market of the season (maybe) was our very own city, Stuttgart. Brian’s heart’s desire was to ride the massive Ferris wheel set up at the Palace that overlooked the whole city, and Nola was dying to ice skate. Her hopes were dashed as it was far too warm. The rink had been converted to a rollerskating rink!

I’ve been planning to get my kids to this market since I first went on opening day with friends. This is consistently voted one of the top 10 Christmas markets in Germany and it’s right in our area. It’s both a traditional and a medieval market and in such a great setting with the half-timbered houses and history of Esslingen.

I finally did it! All this time as a mom I have wanted to take my family to see the Nutcracker as it was such a big memory of mine growing up. Some places we’ve lived it has been too far away to do, or too expensive, or the kids were not the right ages to brave it alone with Matt away working. But this year! I was determined and it was perfect!

We snuck away on a Saturday in the late afternoon, or rather the kids rolled their eyes at the thought of another Christmas market and I jumped at the opportunity to go with just Matt. The Lienzingen Market is a tiny little one about an hour away on the way to Bad Wimpfen, and thinking about it now we can combine our visits to the two markets for next year.