Nick: Well it's nearly time for Christmas in the countries that celebrate Christmas, and Wendy, one of the things we have experienced since we've been living in Europe are the different Christmas markets that you have in different cities around Europe, uhh, in the lead-up to Christmas, usually for about a month before Christmas. And something that we always like to go and check out when we have the chance. Wendy: Yeah, it's, uhh, it's definitely a big part of the Christmas tradition and the build-up, you know, in the lead-up towards Christmas. It's part of what gets everyone excited because they know that Christmas is coming, uhh, once the markets start popping up. Nick: Right, and that's an interesting contrast I think to where both of us are from, you from the United States and me from Australia, is that we … when we realise that Christmas is getting closer, it's when the department stores start to have their huge Christmas displays, uhh, and here it's more when these markets start. And of course you still have some department stores with their Christmas displays here as well.
Wendy: Yeah.
Nick: But, yeah, the Christmas markets, which begin right around the end of November, usually around the 25th, and then they last for about a month, uhh, up until Christmas, means that, yeah, Christmas is coming. Wendy: Yeah, yeah, and it's an exciting time. Nick: I think it's, umm, a tradition that's largely a Germanic tradition, and it's very big in Germany and in the Germanic countries. And so where we live, uhh, you know, in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, we're kind of in this, umm, sliver between the Germanic part, uhh, of Europe, and France, essentially. And so we have this influence of Germany as well, so if you look at some of the other Christmas markets, umm, for example Strasbourg in France has a very big one. And that's in France but it's in an area that's historically been disputed and it used to be part of Germany as well. And so because we live in Switzerland, even though we're in the French-speaking part, I think they have that influence because there's Christmas markets in the German-speaking part. Wendy: Yeah, and I would say that even in Switzerland, the best markets are probably also in the German-speaking part of Switzerland and not in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. There are a few in the French-speaking part, uhh, there's one in Montreux, uhh, which we've been to quite a few times because that's the closest one to Geneva, where we live. But, for example, Geneva - even though it's a very important city in, uhh, Suisse Romande, in the French-speaking part of Switzerland - uhh, it doesn't really have its own market. It has a very, very small one, but, uhh, not anything on the scale of what you see in some of the German-speaking cities. Nick: Yeah, I think Montreux which you mentioned is really the one I can think of … the only significant one I can think of in the French-speaking part. But I think if you look at … basically all the major German cities in Switzerland have, uhh, have a market or at least have something a lot bigger than on the scale that we have in Geneva. But the Montreux one is really cool. We go more or less every year, and it just takes over the entire town, because it's not a big town really. And so you have all of these stalls set up, and it's really quite beautiful because it's along the lakeside. Umm, and it's always packed. So if you don't like crowds, it's maybe not the best place to go. Umm, but you just wander and you see all these different stalls selling all kinds of things, umm, from different types of food but also different, umm, items, handicrafts or artisanal items that you can buy, decorations for trees, uhh, or for nativity scenes, and whatever you can imagine, really. Wendy: Yeah, lots of arts of crafts. Umm, I think it's a place where people generally go when they're Christmas shopping, right, when they're looking for gifts that they want to give to their friends and family. And so it's a lot of types of things that you would typically buy as a gift, umm, you know, not so much practical things but more of, yeah, little artsy things - something that you would like to put on a shelf and show on display. Nick: And the one at Montreux, it has, I think, five different sites within the actual Christmas market. So there's a kind of a main area that we go to where all the shops and the stalls are, and there's food and things like that. But there's also other places. There's one where you can go by train to ‘Santa Claus' village', to the north pole, uhh, which is a place that's a little bit higher up and so there's usually snow around there. And so that's something that families like to go to, or children like to go to, and then there's a castle which is near Montreux called the Château de Chillon and they have a special medieval, umm, section or a medieval fair, if you like, at this castle. We've actually never been to that section of the Christmas market but we're hoping to go this year. Wendy: Yes, we've tried a couple of times to go and, uhh, yeah, it seems like the hours are a bit funny. It's not open for the same hours as the market. The market is open pretty much all the time, uhh, for, like, one month straight. I think it's open every single day until pretty late at night. But the specific medieval part of the market that's inside the castle, inside the Château de Chillon, is not open that often and so when we've tried, it's been just about to close or we just haven't made it there at the right time. But we're going to be diligent about it this year and make sure that we do actually get there, because it looks really cool. Nick: Yeah, usually we don't make it past all the food and drink stalls I guess. Umm, and one of the things that they have there which is interesting is that they have that kind of warm or hot beer that I've had a couple of times because we're very used to having what we called mulled wine, umm, which is a wine that's warmed up and it has, kind of, Christmas spices added to it, things like cinnamon and… Wendy: Cloves.
Nick: And cloves, and these other kind of spices. So that's very common, but they have this warm beer that I've had once or twice there and that's really good as well. Wendy: Yeah I don't drink beer, so warm beer I think sounds particularly disgusting to me, but I definitely enjoy the mulled wine. Nick: No I think it was cherry flavoured or something. It doesn't taste like beer at all. It's a nice drink, ‘cause it's, you know, it's very cold when we're walking outside when we're in these markets. And so we decided a couple of years ago that we wanted to see some other Christmas markets as well. And so we had this kind of little rule that we instituted for two years I think where we said we would go to a different market. And so we went to two in Germany that are in places in Germany that are quite close to the Swiss border so that we could travel by train and you could go just for the day or for one night, I think we did. But it's not that far away, and so we went to one in Konstanz, uhh, which is close to the north-east of Switzerland, and then one in Freiburg, which is more the north, north-west of Switzerland, but again in Germany. Umm, and so there you see it, you know, it's just really part of the lives of these cities, that right in the middle of these, you know, historic cities, they just get completely taken over by the Christmas market. Wendy: Yeah, yeah, it's true. And, uhh, they also had pretty big crowds there, from what I could recall. Umm, so yeah, it's definitely a very big tradition, something that, uhh, I think the townspeople probably look forward to and I imagine that lots of people, uhh, are travelling there from other places as well, like we did. Nick: Yeah, I think they're … it's becoming now so much easier to travel around Europe. Uhh, these are becoming attractions. They used to be very much localised to their particular town but now people are coming from different places to check them out. And it's funny because in, umm, Switzerland they have deals that you can get with the train network where if you travel to one of these Christmas markets you get a little gift. Usually it's a little mug for coffee or something like that, or a little mug and you get one glass of mulled wine and that's just a little bonus you get with your train ticket. But when we went to Konstanz, umm, we also .. it said on our ticket that you got a little gift or something like that, and so you have to go to the stall and then you wait for your gift. And so we went there expecting that we would just get this glass of mulled wine, and they gave us all these bottles of stuff to drink, right?
Wendy: Yeah, yeah.
Nick: And so they gave us two huge bottles each, glass bottles, and these bags to carry them in. And it was crazy because they were really heavy and we had to carry them around everywhere, and we didn't expect the gift to be so much. Umm…
Wendy: Luckily we were travelling by train and not by plane because then we wouldn't have been able to take them, because usually when we travel by plane we just travel with carry-on luggage, and so you're not allowed to bring liquids with you. Umm, but, uhh, we did manage to get all four of those bottles into our bags and take them back with us. Uhh, so yeah, it was a nice surprise but definitely unexpected.
Nick: Yeah I think one of them was … one each was wine and then one each was a kind of juice or some kind of…
Wendy: It was a punch. It was a non-alcoholic, uhh, drink that was, you know, kind of similar to mulled wine but just without alcohol.
Nick: And so it's … just going to these Christmas markets is another way that we can get into the spirit and get into the seasons. For me it's always interesting to have Christmas in cold weather because it's not what I had when I was growing up. Umm, and so it's fun to go these markets and walk around and be cold and drink nice warm drinks to warm you up and, umm, have a nice time. Wendy: Yeah, and I came from a pretty warm climate, so even though, you know, it was … being in cold weather was part of the tradition of Christmas that was … that I always saw on TV, but it wasn't really my reality, so now I also enjoy being cold at Christmas time ‘cause it feels like it's the way it's supposed to be. Nick: Right, and the markets now become part of the tradition of what we think of ours Christmas now.
Wendy: Yep.
