Oberursel Christmas Market

The Oberursel Christmas Market is relatively small – a hand full of stands around the Rathaus selling mainly hot drinks.

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There is a merry-go-round and a steam train ride for children, and a stall selling advent crowns. But the food available is very limited. There are sausages and a stand selling fried potatoes. I even saw fish rolls, plus the usual sweet stand. But otherwise I found it pretty much uninteresting.

The main pedestrian zone has some handicraft stalls, but these seemed to be mainly jewellery and not really the type of crafts that I have seen at other markets in the past.

The highlight was trying a Hessenbollen – more about that in another post.

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Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t too good either – cold (but not so cold) and drizzle. Better luck next time?

A trip on the Rhine

This is the final part of the series about my weekend walking between Rüdesheim and Oberwesel. Part five can be found here.

The final part of our journey was to take place on the aptly named boat “Jeverland”, run by the Köln-Düsseldorfer line. We boarded in Oberwesel and sat back to enjoy the journey to Rüdesheim.

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The “Jeverland” at the berth in Oberwesel

The slow pace allowed us to look at the paths and places that we had been to the previous day, as well as seeing part of the Rhine that we had missed by sitting in the train.  One example of this was Burg Pfalzgrafenstein. Built in the first half of the 14th Century and positioned in the middle of the river, this was once a customs house and has the unique form of a ship.

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Burg Pfalzgrafenstein, standing in the middle of the Rhine

Next we came to Lorch, where we had stopped to eat the day before.

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Lorch, seen from the river

After Lorch came the vineyards – here we could see the route that we had taken.

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The vineyards on the slopes south of Lorch

After that – the part of the path that went through the woods. In the photo you can see how the vineyards suddenly stop and the slopes are covered with trees.

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The woods and vineyards between Assmannshausen and Lorch

After the next vineyards we passed Assmannshausen. In the background are the school that we walked by, the start of the steps that we used to go down to the town and the chair lift.

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Assmannshausen, seen from the river

Once again we passed the Mäuseturm, standing in the middle of the river.

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The Mäuseturm

Then came the Niederwalddenkmal, standing high above the vineyards of Rüdesheim

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The Niederwalddenkmal, seen from the river

Until we rounded the final corner and Rüdesheim came into view.

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Rüdesheim waterfront

Here we left the river behind us and stopped in the town for lunch.

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Rüdesheim

The final part of the walk took us back through the streets of Rüdesheim…

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One of the “trains” that takes visitors on rides through the vineyards of Rüdesheim

… and up the hill at the back of the town, back through the vineyards to the youth hostel where the cars were waiting for us.

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A last look back towards Rüdesheim and the Rhine

Der Weihnachtsmarkt

Der WeihnachtsmarktThe Christmas markets in Germany are known by various different names, most commonly Weihnachtsmarkt, Christkindlmarkt, or Adventmarkt.

The markets offer traditional food and drink, such as Lebkuchen or Glühwein, but also craftwork such as Christmas tree decorations.

There are markets in most German towns. In the larger towns they run for most of Advent, the smaller ones are only for a weekend.

The most famous markets are Nuremberg, Dresden, Erfurt, Frankfurt and Cologne.

In the coming podcasts we will be talking more about German Christmas traditions.

To hear a simple explanation and a short discussion in German, listen to the podcast:

(Press the “play” button to listen to the podcast)

Download a transcript

Download the MP3 file | Subscribe to the podcast

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