After years of roasting turkeys in 40°C Australian heat, one Melbourne family decided enough was enough. With their eldest now officially an adult, they packed scarves and beanies and flew halfway across the world for a real white Christmas.
The mission: eight cities, seven countries, every Christmas market along the way – and a mission to eat absolutely everything.
Prague served up klobása and chocolate-dipped fruit on sticks. Budapest delivered lángos dripping with sour cream. Nuremberg introduced the family to feuerzangenbowle – a 9,000-litre cauldron of mulled wine with a flaming rum-soaked sugar loaf melting overhead (11 a.m. felt perfectly acceptable). Hand-painted ornaments from Bratislava and delicate watercolours from Budapest slowly filled their suitcases.
But the bigger the name, the bigger the crowds. London’s Leicester Square and Covent Garden turned into human pinball machines. Prague’s Old Town Square crushed the joy out of the fairy lights. The family mastered survival tactics: split up, conquer the queues, reunite and eat standing over a bin.
Then came Luxembourg City – added almost as an afterthought for its Riesling-spiked pork pie.
Everything shifted.
Stepping off the train, the pace slowed. Fairy-light avenues led them to five separate markets glowing without the crush. Snowmen wore hand-knitted scarves. Giant gift boxes swung overhead. Vendors smiled, chatted and had time to ask where the family was from. Kniddelen (dumplings drowning in bacon and cream) and gromperekichelcher (crisp potato cakes with apple sauce) were devoured on actual benches. Crémant flowed. Marshmallows roasted over open fires.
After seven countries and countless mulled wines, the verdict was unanimous.
Luxembourg City isn’t the biggest or most famous Christmas market in Europe. It’s simply the one that still feels like Christmas.
Source: BBC
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