I totally forgot an important Colorado connection with Riga, Latvia! We were the first to show up for our walking tour in Riga and while we were waiting our guide asked where we were from. We said the US and he asked where in the US. I said Colorado and he said- “oh, thats where the Avalanche play!” I was shocked. Here we are in Latvia and our guide knows my hometown hockey team! I guess I shouldn’t have been that surprised, Hockey is huge in Latvia. Our guide went on to explain that the only Latvian hockey player to win a Stanley Cup won with the Av’s! Pretty cool!
Ok, now to more current news. The first (official) stop on our Christmas Market Tour of Germany was Dusseldorf. The market was located in the old town which had been completely destroyed during WWII but rebuilt using the original plans. The market was very large and quite festive but it was so unbelievably crowded on the first night. We could barely move through the massive crowds, never mind get to a stall if we wanted to stop or buy something. It was just too busy to be a ton of fun. Dusseldorf is also a bit more expensive than Berlin, which surprised me since Berlin is a much bigger city. We were able to find cheap meals (doners for 2 euro) and cheap drinks in Berlin (gluhwein for 2 euro) but in Dusseldorf everything seemed to be 1-2 euros more. Not a big difference but we are on such a tight budget, we noticed and bemoaned the inflation!
We went back to the market the next day, during the day, in hopes that we would enjoy the market a little bit more. It was much less crowded, and we did enjoy it more. There were several small groups of markets, all with their own themes and decor. We saw a larger variety of stalls then we had ever seen before. There were people doing glass work and wood carving in their stalls, there were stalls with cookie cutters, stalls with birdhouses, nutcrackers and paper lanterns, there was tons of food and drinks, stollen, roasted nuts and gingerbread stands, it was great. Everywhere we turned we were inundated with amazing sights and even better smells.
There was a great street near the old town which still uses gas lamps to light the street which is lined with tons of cute outdoor cafes all decorated to the nines! There were lights strung across the streets, some of which were large circles with a person doing a cartwheel in them. The symbol of Dusseldorf is a cartwheel and we saw cartwheels everywhere, from the Christmas lights strung across the streets to the manhole covers in the streets and numerous statues throughout the city.
It was quite nice, not quite as picturesque or quaint as the Tallinn Christmas market, but very fun all the same. We got caught in a few rain showers during the day and by the time we got home that evening we were cold and a little damp. We decided to stay in that night, stay warm and avoid the crowds. So we got Chinese take out (loaded with sriracha- finally, something spicy!!) and watched Christmas movies.
A few more pics of Dusseldorf:
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