Wandering Mainz, including the Christkindlemarkets

• Intro: Visiting the Christkindlemarkets of Mainz
• Review: Hyatt Regency Mainz
• Wandering Mainz, including the Christkindlemarkets
• Review: Lufthansa First Class Terminal and Lounge (yes, both!)
• Review: Lufthansa First Class 747-8 – Frankfurt to Washington Dulles
• Conclusion: Visiting the Christkindlemarkets of Mainz

Our first (and only) full day in Mainz, was a late start. We had slept in, to try to overcome our jetlag, and grabbed a light bite to eat in the lounge of the hotel. Contributing to that, was the fact that the morning was forecast to rain, and rain it did. Even so, we were out of the hotel about 11am, and decided that we would wander around Mainz a little bit, before we made it to the Christmas Markets.

You can see the main Church in the background, but this is a rare daylight photo of the park that we traversed pretty much every time we walked over to the Christkindlemarkets.

Further along than the park, we decided to continue walking along the Rhine, despite the overcast weather, it still made for an interesting walk, and some interesting architecture, as you can see to the left.

Of course, for me, I enjoy the floating style of architecture, you can see here one of the many river cruises that float up and down the Rhine. One thing that–at least in my mind–would be interesting to do, someday, would be to take a “Christmas Markets’ Cruise,” visiting a number of small cities along the Rhine.

After some touring. We finally made it to the Christkindlemarkets.

There was an interesting juxtaposition, in that, the way we entered (which was not from the aforementioned park, this time), we saw a farmer’s market-like set-up, further down the street, which we wandered through. Perhaps the greatest question we had, was, what kind’ve chicken lays the technicolored eggs…

It was interesting to continue down, and see the different produce available in the farmer’s market area. Also interesting was the “people watching” aspect.

Of course, who could forget the most important fruit of all – wine!

We turned down a small street, just to catch back up with the main road, but happened upon a beauty shop (or hair dresser, I’m not sure), and I just happened to stop long enough to see the dog in the window. We stopped slightly longer, because at first, it wasn’t quite clear that Fido was real and not just part of the display. Talk about a well behaved dog.

Soon enough, we were back to the main drag, the view below, is looking down toward the main Christmas Markets.

As we got closer, the ornate-ness of one of the centerpieces became much more apparent.

But before we got any closer, we had to stop for some pretzels! Besides, what a deal!

As the three of us munched on our pretzels, I snapped a shot of the Mainz Christmas Markets 2015 map.

And of course, another photo of the markets, from our happy Pretzel place.

Wandering the markets further yielded a Nativity scene, that was worth photographing.

And of course, from the raised Nativity, there was a nice opportunity for some more photos, like this:

This:

And this:

Of course, we couldn’t wander the Christmas Markets too long before we’d happen upon either more food or Glühwein, in this case, we were looking for some food.

And other food and beverage shacks…

But, where we couldn’t pass buy was the potato pancakes… Amazing potato pancakes!

If that previous photo didn’t make your mouth water, perhaps this one, complimented with the mulled wine that helped wash the potato pancakes and apple sauce down.

Next I did happened to visit and snap a photo of some wonderful paper products, some of which even found their way under a couple of Christmas trees.

After a brief snack and wandering the shops, we ended up heading back to the hotel to rest. But we had made it a point to return in the evening for more mulled wine and some gifts.

At night, the trees were lit up wonderfully.

And night the booths were lit up beautifully.

Of course, the lines for mulled wine were longer. They were also complimented with some live Christmas music.

And, I couldn’t forget to take a shot of our beverages. My older brother was enjoying the hot chocolate with whipped cream — I don’t recall whether or not I was jealous, as my father and I were trying different mulled wines, this time, mine, the brown mug, happened to be some Apfelwein, which was quite good.

Crowds were much, much larger in the evening.

And the spirit of Christmas was very present, as these children were able to dip into the fondue fountain.

Conclusion

To be clear, this was the entire reason for the trip of my Father, Brother and I. I think they would both agree, it was worth the trip. We ended up packing things in early, before 8pm, with a brief stop at the lounge and then a good nights’ sleep, before an early morning breakfast.