A magical tour of the Christmas markets along the Rhine

In StrasbourgDuring the holidays, teddy bears wearing Santa hats decorate the facade of a restaurant in France. Stuffed polar bears decorate another. During a Christmas arms race, buildings are decorated with giant gift-wrapped parcels, glittering white deer and oversized gingerbread men. The central medieval quarter turns into a Christmas maze, curtains of light glow above the cobbled streets lined with food and gift stalls. And in the central Place Kléber, the lights of an almost 30-meter-high Christmas tree flash and glow, synchronized to Christmas carols.

Christmas markets are popping up across Europe as fairytale street fairs, with temporary chalet-style shops selling everything from handmade ceramics to mulled wine and plentiful food. Visitors shuffle between the cheerful habitats, holding their cell phone cameras high.

“The closer you get to Christmas, the more Strasbourg really becomes like Times Square,” says Jonathan Frank, a former Broadway videographer who retired to the city two years ago.

A popular way to visit the markets in France, Germany, Switzerland and beyond is to take river cruises on the Rhine, Danube or Main, spending around $2,000 to $4,000 per week. Could I recreate such a holiday pilgrimage for less money by traveling by train?

Along the Rhine, through the Alsace In the region of northeastern France, trains run continuously between Strasbourg in the north and Basel, Switzerland, in the south, providing access to market towns and villages along the way. To test my budget and my tolerance for seasonal cheer, I spent about $300 on trains, splitting six nights between lively Strasbourg and the popular Colmar at Airbnbs that paid an average of $180 per night. In exchange for convenience, I hoped to gain invaluable control over when and where I wandered.

The capital of Christmas

“If you stay in Strasbourg for a week, you will gain three kilos,” says Pierre Feisthauer, a tour guide who Discover Strasbourgon a two-hour market tour I booked through Airbnb Experiences (about $26).

The tour on my first evening offered a practical layout of the land in the old town on an island in the River Ill, a tributary of the Rhine where, according to Mr Feisthauer’s count, more than a dozen markets cluster in squares and pedestrian streets, with two to three million visitors during the season.

He also demystified the food, led by tarte flambée – a thin Alsatian pizza topped with cream sauce, chunks of smoky bacon and onions – and followed by sausages, spaetzle, potato pancakes and soft pretzels, served with salted, sugared or cheese-covered (most dishes cost between 2 and 12 euros, or about $2 to $13). Dessert stands sold gingerbread loaves, too-good-to-eat nougat and cookies by the pound.

White or red vin chaud, or mulled wine (about 3 to 6 euros), accompanied it all. The white version with citrus and cinnamon notes was welcome when warm, but cooled to cloying.

It is located in a half-timbered house from around 1600 Alsatian Museum (7.50 euros) provided more context about the seasonal festivities that originated in 1570, after the city embraced the Protestant Reformation. Toys, gingerbread and roasted chestnuts still come from the original fairs, rooted in Germanic traditions, but the museum attributed the modern image of Père Noël, or Santa Claus, to 1931 Coca-Cola advertisements.

During the day, before darkness brought on the elaborate light shows, including horn-blowing angels framing the view of the cathedral’s spire, it was easier to shop. Food, including a stollen baking demonstration and $12 foie gras sandwiches, distinguish the riverside market Quai des Delices. There were stalls selling traditional kiln pottery, porcelain votives, snow globes and cookie cutters Notre Dame Cathedral. Original art and recycled gifts, such as aprons made from used denim, are environmentally conscious March out part.

“I love Christmas and it’s interesting to see how people do things differently,” beamed Denise Jimenez, who was visiting from Los Angeles. “It’s just super, super beautiful.”

Swiss Christmas

80 minutes by train from Strasbourg, Basel introduced me to the fondue dog: half a baguette with a hole in the middle filled with melted cheese and a frankfurter (10 Swiss francs, or $11.50).

Swiss innovation – including Toblerone-filled donuts – met classics like raclette at Basel’s markets on the central squares of Barfüsserplatz and Münsterplatz. On the Münsterplatz I had lunch on fondue (26.50 francs) in the stylish pop-up restaurant Wacker Fonduestubliwith sheepskin-covered stools and chandeliers made of deer antlers.

Basel is the terminus for many Rhine cruises and gets its share of holiday tourists. But the markets felt less commercial, including a Christmas tree-filled fairytale forest, with crafts such as gingerbread decorating (7 francs) and a children’s train (3 francs).

Stalls offered a mix of costume jewellery, beeswax candles, wood carvings, table top Christmas villages and paper lanterns. At the Glas-Hüttli Riehen I saw how a glassblower made clear lamps with opaque dots (5 francs each).

Reaches Adväntsgassa street festival with stalls from almost thirty restaurants, I crossed the fast Rhine on an old-fashioned skiff, tied to a river cable and propelled by the current (1 franc).

A series of 18 is free throughout the city Magical courtyards trimmed for the season led me to hidden breaks.

One of them was in a courtyard next to the Johann Wanner Christmas House, reportedly the largest supplier of hand-blown and hand-painted decorations. I had long felt that pruning a tree was a duty, but after perusing the store’s extraordinary range of ornaments in the shapes of birds, ice cream sundaes, musical instruments and, my favorites, mushrooms, I realized that it was could be a joyful craft.

Alsatian fairy tale

Since you can only spend so many hours eating carbs, sipping hot wine and browsing stalls, I came to appreciate market towns for their unrelated distractions. Few were as rich as Colmar.

About 72 kilometers south of Strasbourg, Colmar is a popular day trip destination, with six official markets in a well-preserved city center that you can walk across in less than 15 minutes. But leave a trail of pretzel crumbs in the labyrinth – I stayed there for three nights and couldn’t find my favorite craft beer stand twice.

Easy to find next to a giant Ferris wheel, Colmar’s Gourmet market nine food stalls with high tables under a spacious tent. It was a rare place to have a luxurious meal – albeit standing – with choices like oysters (six for 14 euros), charcuterie (10 euros), risotto with truffles (12.50 euros) and Bouchée à la Reine ( 14 euros), a puff pastry filled with creamy chicken and veal.

Between trips to chalets selling three-dimensional wooden puzzles, handmade animal dolls, pine cone wreaths, salted sausages and the region’s famous products Munster cheeseI took time out in Colmar’s many museums, including the Bartholdi Museum (5 euros), dedicated to the native son Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty.

On a rainy afternoon, waiting for the magic hour when the lights would turn the city from gloomy to Disney, I ducked into town. Dominican library (free). The artefacts, which explore the printing press in the Rhine region, include a 15th-century encyclopedia elaborately illustrated with woodcuts, 16th-century maps and books of Gregorian chant in a separate vaulted room with a soundtrack of music. The tour ended in a monastery from 1300, just a stone’s throw from the hustle and bustle, but far from the madness.

The villages of Alsace

For a few weekends in the heart of the market season, the Navettes de Noël or Christmas buses (15 euros) run from Colmar to a series of villages on the coast Alsace Wine Route.

Between the vineyards around medieval RiquewihrTour buses created canyons from the main roads. I dropped down next to the city walls, fortified myself with poêlee compagnarde (8 euros) – a hearty dish of sausage, onions, potatoes and bacon – and joined the crowds marveling along cobbled streets to a 13th-century defense tower edged with filled hearts .

At the next stop, KaysersbergI met Lisa Mullera ceramist from near Strasbourg, who sold delicate glazed bowls, bowls and cups in earthy glazes.

Local trains also reach some of the more remote Christmas circuit towns. Then my train to Obernai was canceled at an intermediate station SelestatI discovered the festival after a 50-minute delay, time to eat a 1.50 euro pretzel and learn that the oldest written mention of the Christmas tree was in Sélestat in 1521.

Between the delay and the delight of learning such holiday trivia, I slowly hiked, wine-drinking, reaching the summit at small, quiet Obernai, purveyor of the best vin chaud of the trip, a fragrant white laced with herbs and served next to a historic bell tower .

A modern approach

Too much of beautiful Alsace is as if vin chaud has gone cold. For a refreshing dose of modernity I headed about 40 kilometers south of Colmar to Mulhouse, once an independent country that flourished in textile printing in the 16th century. As a tribute to the past, the city chooses a new pattern every year as a Christmas print, which is found in the markets as tablecloths and strung on lanterns.

I collected the city’s fascinating history – seeing parts of the walls of the former republic and early textile workshops – from Rémy Specker, a Mulhouse resident who works in the chemical industry and volunteers as Mulhouse greetings guide free tours.

By the end of our two-hour walk, Mulhouse’s markets were open and we were feeding the locals Angus burgers and raclette sandwiches. I met a painter who decorates wooden ornaments ten months a year to supply her booth, and another whose printed tablecloths seemed to hark back to the city’s history.

I bought from both stalls, where a Christmas market story jumps over the frugal train tracks. From my prized haul of about $250 worth of art prints, ceramics, ornaments and gifts, I’m letting it be known that Christmas markets are Whovilles on steroids.

If you go…

Most of the markets mentioned here run until December 24th. Colmar ends on December 29 and Obernai on December 31.

It’s not too early to start making plans for next year, especially when it comes to accommodations. (The markets normally open in late November.)

I bought the 10 day Eurail rail pass for $305, used it for six days, slightly better than the a la carte price. Some French trainsincluding the high-speed TGV service from Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport to Strasbourg, require an additional seat reservation (12 euros).

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