My husband and I just returned from a Christmas cruise through Germany, Slovenia, and Budapest. Christmas markets have been a feature in Europe, primarily Germany, since the Middle Ages. The first date I found stretched all the way back to the 1200s but the date usually accepted for the first Christmas market is 1434. They have evolved into markets for food (gingerbread, for example, and the famous meter long sausage), Artisan products, and my favorite: Gluhwein. This is basically mulled wine and it is good! We also were able to keep the mugs. I now have a nice set of six.

Gingerbread in all forms: small cookies, cakes, and several different recipes, is huge there. Gingerbread as a baked good is very old, almost as old as bread which puts it almost into the Neolithic. My favorite was made solely with honey, water, and rye flour. Quite different from our American made. And, I might add, totally without ginger.

We also tried raclette, melted cheese poured over home baked rye bread. Wow!

Artisan products include wooden items – bowls, spoons, cutting boards, baskets, glass and paper ornaments, textiles – my husband bought socks.

One of the markets was in the courtyard of a castle. We took a tour, and part of the family’s home was from the Middle Ages with the stone crypts. Hard to imagine one family living in the same house for a millennia.

The Christmas markets are so popular that they are frequently located within blocks of one another. In Vienna, we could see a market from the market we were currently standing in. Within in the limits of the city center, there are 13 and of course many more outside.