Luxembourg & Strasbourg Xmas Markets

Friday 10th December 2021

It was out first time travelling from our new apartment! Lew was at work all day so it was a bit of a speedy 20 minute exchange to leave the house as he biked home from his office in London Bridge. Thankfully now it only takes 16 minutes to Liverpool Street and that includes walking time. From our previous house it would have been at least 40 minutes. This is ideal for flights out of Stanstead airport which is where we were headed to. It was quite a smooth journey even going through the visa check process with Ryanair (literally the only airline that does this with my Kiwi passport) and then security. 

Our flight was delayed by half an hour but it ended up only being a 55 minute flight anyways. We were separated as usual with Ryanair but with it being so short we didn’t care. I listened to a podcast and ate the falafel + quinoa cauliflower salad that I made for us this afternoon. 

We arrived into Luxembourg and it was pretty straight forwards getting through. The usual passport control and then just showing our proof of vaccination. Its a shame the UK has gone back to a pre departure lateral flow as well as a day 2 PCR and quarantine until those return. So silly when other countries are far more agreeable that covid is now just part of our lives.

Neither of us had figured out how to actually get into the central city of Luxembourg where we were staying but thankfully public transport is totally free and Citymapper works! (This is an app and if you don’t have it I highly recommend downloading it - literally a life saver). We jumped onto a bus then transferred to a tram that took us to the central city. It was snowing lightly outside which was beautiful but it was darn cold!

We stayed a minute across from the station at Hotel Grey which was a pretty basic hotel for €89 ($148 nzd) per night and out room smelt like old cigarettes. But to be fair with a train at 7am the next morning we weren’t too bothered for one night.

Saturday 11th December 

Whos idea was it to get a 7am train? With the time different technically if we are still on UK time it is a 6am train! It didn’t take long for us to have a quick shake with water, my usual glow shot and we were out the door to the station. Lew picked up a pain au chocolat and we very easily found our train which was actually going all the way through to Montpellier (south of France). We were only doing this fiasco of a trip because direct flight into Strasbourg were £400 ($786 nzd) approx return. We found a way around it by flying and then training down! It is only 2 hours after all and its pretty darn cool to travel through the French countryside at 300 km/hr. We were surprised that no one checked our tickets nor did anyone check our passports or covid documentation despite us moving between countries! We should have known it would be like this in Central Europe with its free flowing borders.

Strasbourg 

This is a stunning old city in the Alsace region on the left bank of the Rhine. The city itself has been both part of Germany and part of France and you can see both influences in the stunning architecture. In fact people say that Strasbourg is the most well preserved German city as majority of the main German cities were destroyed in WW2. However it is currently part of France but if you cross over the Rhine then your in Germany, we almost booked accommodation in Germany as it was easy enough to take a train across there but we decided that could potentially be a nightmare with covid travelling through 3 different countries if they all have different rules.

We wandered through the city trying to find somewhere open for breakfast, it was still rather early so a lot of places were still closed or setting up for the day ahead.

Madame Julia 

This is a well known NYC style cafe that make the most gorgeous pancake stacks! They also had vegan and GF options which was fab as I don’t remember the last time I had pancakes for that exact reason. I got their pancakes brownie purple which was made up of a blueberry brownie, blackcurrant coulis, roasted hazelnuts, chestnuts and pecans. Topped with fresh blueberries and maple syrup. Woah! It was intense but so good. Lew got the toast avocado which had guacamole, beetroot, pomegranate and a balsamic reduction on sourdough bread. We added on an oat milk chai latte and hot chocolate. It was a good €40 ($67 nzd) but so worth it also being able to warm up, sneakily brush my teeth in the bathroom & also chat to Lews mum back home.

Strasbourg Xmas markets 

The market around the cathedral is the oldest in France and one of the oldest xmas market in Europe that dates back to 1570. It was called Christkindelsmärik which is a a low Alemannic German dialect of the region which was mostly spoken until the 20th century. There are multiple xmas markets dotted around the Grande-Île de Strasbourg which is the large island within the historic centre of Strasbourg surrounded by rivers on each side. It is a World Heritage site due to how well preserved the small medieval city is. We didn’t have any sort of plan whilst we were here other than to wander around aimless like we usually do stumbling (literally after some mulled wine) across the main sights. At every access point into the large island via a bridge they had security officers checking bags, checking you were wearing your mask and also managing the flow of people. Of course when we arrived at 9am on the train and the city didnt have many stores open but eventually the streets became more full as market go-ers headed out for the day. I guess in order to keep these markets open with what’s happening with covid in Europe right now (new variants, Austria in lockdown, rising cases etc etc) they had to make sure they were very covid secure. We got told off by some French police for not wearing our masks on the large island. The signs made no sense to us when translated to English but they kindly explained to us we must wear a mask everywhere on the large island - even whilst we are outside. Sigh. But I guess it was an extra layer of warmth in the cold 1 degree weather!

To get into the xmas markets we had to show proof of our covid vaccines - everyone else had the covid green pass barcode they were having scanned but we had to get our physical paperwork out. I don’t think people really know what they are looking at but we got in. These markets are gorgeous with their lights and little stalls but having snow on the ground would have made it even more so. The food they usually sell looked absolutely disgusting for two vegetarians/vegans! But I can imagine if you were not that way inclined the food would be wonderful. Think large sausages, cheesy potatoes and just loads of meat. Each market sells something different and there is everything from handcrafts to xmas decorations to handmade cookies, candles, neon lights and of course mulled wine + crepes. We of course had to grab some mulled wine to warm us up inside and out. Normally you wander around the market with this in hand as you check out the little stalls but this wasn’t allowed in the markets with covid. We actually stood out of the way of everyone behind the mulled wine cabin to drink but got told off (also very nicely) by more police officers saying we had to go into the “eating and drinking area” which meant we once again fumbled around with our covid passes and hot very filled cups of mulled wine to get into this cordoned off area. It was so cold standing there so we took some photos but basically sculled our drinks so we could move on. Safe to say it was VERY strong and we stumbled around the rest of the market desperately trying to find some food to sober us up. We had to take a small siesta along side the river before we found a lovely Vietnamese place for lunch called ‘La Rivière’. They were sadly closing up so we could eat inside but went back to the riverside to eat some hot tofu noodles and a banh mi. 

Shopping!

Some of the best shopping is those places off the main street that arnt well known mainstream brands you can find in any city. There are some I frequent when I come to France as I can never find them in London. But Lew was the one who had the success clothing wise. First stop was a great B-corp place called Faguo which we found in 2017 in Avignon which sells the BEST belts! Lew wears these daily so brought another two to add to his collection. We also found this super cool pop up off one of the Main Street. The man welcoming us was French Canadian and lives in Luxembourg and his French wife was selling her own clothing brand called Monsieur Mimosa which was super cool and the beanie was made of wool & Angora from Scotland and the shirt was organic cotton from Portugal. They both fitted beautifully as her husband was also tall and lanky so no doubt she was used to him struggling to find clothing that suits/fits him well!

We had until 6pm when we needed to check into our airbnb so wandered around more markets seeing the giant tree in Place Kleber. Turns out there is way more to this tree than we ever considered. First of all the hunt for the perfect tree starts in March in the forests of Alsace, Midelle and the Vosges Mountains. It has to be at least 30 meters high and is affixed to two cranes when they fell it to stop it being damaged. They carefully fold each branch down when transporting it and then even hand pick 18 odd branches from other trees to implant these onto the tree to give it a fuller appearance. Woah. Here I was thinking it was a mere tree cut down with a chainsaw. Now thats not all, of course it needs to be decorated! It has 7km of twinkling fairy lights, 240 illuminated bulbs, 200 twinkling bouquets and 400 red & gold baubles. Now that would be quite the tree to have to decorate. I don’t think we have anything of the kind in NZ. Most of the time we all have to swap to false trees as the summer heat swiftly causes the pines to drop their needles all over the floor making daily vacuuming a necessity. But perhaps next time I see such a tree in a city I might have more of an appreciation of how it got there. 

Airbnb

There was basically nothing left in the city in terms of accommodation when we finally booked our tickets - hence why popping across to Germany became an idea. We did find one place 30 minutes outside the city on a bus that was within out budget and would do for a night. Lew was so exhausted on the bus he didn’t realise I had stood up and hopped off the bus and I had to yell at him to get off too as he snoozed in the seat still. 

Our airbnb was a multi room house with a a shared bathroom and of course with it being a busy xmas market weekend there were three couples in the house as well our host. Brigette was lovely and welcoming and she certainly had her own sense of style I dont even know how to begin to describe it. Everything was white, blue and green shades and she even had lots of rocks in the bottom of the sinks. Lew and I had eaten out for breakfast and lunch so had found some soup and bread we could just heat up for dinner. We wernt’t sure what cooking facilities we could use and turns out this already felt like an intrusion. We were the first couple to arrive so we made dinner and promptly got our showers out of the way before anyone else arrived. Plus we severely needed to defrost ourselves after wandering around the city since 9am. We called it a night pretty early as there wasn’t much else to do and after walking at least 23,000 steps that day we were shattered!

Sunday 12th December 

We had brought our running clothes but it was safe to say we weren’t going to get a chance to go jogging. It was freezing out there and we had to check out by 10am. The fact that we were also sharing a bathroom with 7 of us total also meant we didn’t want to rush things or feel more rushed if someone is in there for a long time like they were last night. Instead we took a train back into Strasbourg central and out to the European Parliament as the building looked very impressive on the map and it was an area we hadn’t seen. We always thought Brussels was the home of this but Strasbourg is but they do also have meetings in the thriving metropolis city in Belgium. It was quite funny seeing the empty pole of which the UK flag used to fly on but has obviously been removed when we left the EU in Jan 2020.

We wandered back into town and to the train station where our train was leaving at 12.30pm back to Luxembourg. It was slightly annoying when we entered the old town area they wanted me to open up my suitcase on the ground so they could see inside. I know its for security purposed but also such a pain when your literally going to the train station. 

Train to Luxembourg

This is hands down such a good way to travel! This time we were up on the second floor and had grabbed some snacks for lunch - corn chips and salsa, cementines, apples, bananas and some dates. A bit of a strange combination but meant we could push dinner later before our flight at 9.50pm tonight. Such a long day of being outside in the cold! The F1 final race in Abu Dubai was just starting as we got to the end of the train journey so we ended up wandering through Luxembourg with one ear plug in each of our ears listening. Safe to say it was rather controversial! Also we didn’t pass through any border control, any covid checks or ticket checks on either journey in and out of the country yet again! 

Luxembourg xmas markets

We decided not to check our bag into anything and instead dragged it around with us. We wandered into the old town where we thought the markets were happening and found the first market with a large Ferris wheel. Hardly anyone seemed to be wearing masks in this market which was a lot more relaxed than Strasbourg. We tried to get in with our physical covid vaccines proof from the UK but they security guard wasn’t interested and only wanted a QR code. He told us we had to go to a pharmacy to get one. Seemed very silly when it was clear as day in English that we had been vaccinated. Anyways we moved on unsure if we would be able to see any of the markets here. We walked further into the centre of the city and found yet another market. I remembered we had the NHS covid app with a large QR code on it so figured we would give it a go this time before trying to locate a pharmacy. It worked! We got given a green wristband which would allow us priority access into every market. They didn’t even seem to care about the suitcase we were carting around! We loved these markets so much more as they weren’t as busy, you didn’t have to wear masks and you could wander around eating and drinking as you please! We had seen a lot of stalls selling white wine versions of gluwhein so decided we really had to give it a go. It was a little sweeter than the red but we prefer the red just because its what we are used to. We left this xmas market and continued to wander around town for a little bit as the sun went down and the bright twinkly xmas light came out over the city 

Chocolate house Nathalie Bonn

This was saved onto my phone as place to go. I have no idea why and it must have been from our trip back in 2018 but I am SO pleased we went. The walls are covered with different chocolate options and we were instantly drawn to the chocolate spoons. I chose a mint chocolate which was vegan since it was dark chocolate and Lew got the Peanut chocolate. We were able to take them upstairs where you got to choose your type of milk (we chose oat of course) and you put in the spoon yourself and the chocolate melted off it. Oh my gosh this was such a treat. It also filled in some time so we were able to defrost and watch the F1 highlights. We knew the dinner restaurant was opening at 6 so we stayed until 5.45pm before walking back into town via the first xmas market we originally couldn’t get into. It was gorgeous with a massive Ferris wheel and plenty of things for kids to play on and a lot more food options than Strasbourg had.

Nirvana Cafe

Lew had walked past this and noticed it earlier in the day. We saved it and knew we would come back here when they reopened. It was a small vegan place that served Indian food. YUM! We ordered an eggplant masala, onion bhaji, and a veggie curry. These came with a pilau rice which was super tasty. We definitely over ate thats for sure but we had also spent the day snacking. It was pretty cheap for Luxembourg prices as well and its nice to support a small business. 

Time to head home!

Time to head to Lux airport! We were able to hop on a bus just down the road from where we had dinner. The transport in this country is just so fab and easy to use. I think the fact that its free is also a massive benefit. We were right on time to get to the airport for our usual hour timing before our flight and I looked at the bus stops listed and made is get off at this super dark side of the road stop which was apparently the airport. As soon as we got off we both realised this was absolutely not the airport but in-fact the air rescue airport. The actual airport was now 20 minutes walk up the road. WHOOPS! Anyways it only took us 10 minutes to fast walk up the path to the airport in the thick fog. Thankfully check in, security and even boarding the plane was super simple and for once on a late night flight Ryanair was EARLY by half an hour getting into London. Meaning we were actually able to get the earlier train to Liverpool Street. Now that is an absolute bonus as it had been a very long day already. It never ceases to amaze me though that you can go from a very different country with different rules, language, food and basically blink your eye and your back in London. Thats the beauty of living in Europe.