Anna Demchenko, a student from France, tells about how the New Year is celebrated in Strasbourg, the capital of the Christmas markets - fairs, the lack of New Year's festive food, endless mulled wine and house parties.
Anticipation of Christmas and New Year
New Year and Christmas feelings appear from the moment you start decorating the city. Strasbourg is considered the “Capital of Christmas markets”, which begin a month before the New Year, when absolutely the whole city turns into a real fairy tale. Preparations for this event begin at the end of October, including the New Year's beauty on the square. So the feeling that the holidays are coming soon begins with the beginning of this very preparation. But this has a small drawback!
All decorations are removed immediately after the new year. That is, if in Ukraine the post-New Year decorations hang for another 2 weeks, then here they are removed literally the next day. And there is a sorely lack of snow.
Local Christmas customs
There is a cute traditional little thing here - go to one of the Christmas markets and drink some hot wine (white, red, or just, well, very sweet applesauce).
Festivities in the streets (fairs and concerts)
The festivities here are incredibly large-scale. Considering that Strasbourg has a special fame in the field of Christmas trade (again, markets), people from all over the world come here to have time to taste festive choucrut and flambé tart, warm up with hot wine and, of course, where without the famous pancakes with nutella and other all kinds fillings, which they nicely call crêpes. During the Christmas market, you can completely forget about the bicycle as a means of transportation, since at this time it is difficult to move even on foot. Live music from different countries is played on the central square 2 weeks before Christmas. Of my favorites - playing the bagpipes!
Local New Year's Eve specialties
Once I witnessed a dialogue between two madam (French and Italian). The Italian woman asked the French woman how you manage to stay so slim and happy, to which the French woman replied: “Cupcake in the morning, and sex in the evening”. Well, yes, the phrase is a little pop, but I myself wonder how they manage to maintain such forms, while consuming an incredible amount of food!
The French do not have New Year's dishes, for them - every day is a holiday. I have never seen a man so passionate about a meal in my life. They can talk about food incessantly and (as they like to joke about themselves), they talk about food while eating! (“We talk about food while eating” - that's how my supervisor told me in the original).
The most favorite dishes of my region (Alsace) are fish chukrut, tartflambé, tiramisu. Drink it with white Alsatian Gevertsraminer (each pronounces it in his own way). And, of course, cheese! All kinds of odor and stench.
Establishments
New Years are celebrated here at parties, anywhere! It is not customary to meet on the square, maybe due to the fact that the city is small.
The variety and color of local clubs have always amazed me! They are very strange and very simple. I can only recommend a Latin bar, which is located in an old small boat. It is decorated with New Year's lights all year round, the music is the same and loud all the time, but the mood is always healthy. We usually go there for a couple of hours to dance after a house party, which are more popular here than the clubs.
The trip this year began to take shape in October and we did not consider other options besides Strasbourg, although we were there relatively recently - in the summer of 2015. But here I will not talk about the city itself (about it in another review), but will show the festive atmosphere that attracts millions of tourists to Alsace in general and to Strasbourg in particular annually.
We felt this when we started looking for accommodation options. I opened Booking and was horrified - on the 10th-20th of December the prices were simply cosmic - from 150 euros per night plus breakfast. Therefore, I had to move away from the holiday closer to November, and in the end I found an acceptable option for the period from November 30 to December 5 in the Adagio Access Strasbourg Petite France apart-hotel, already checked on a previous trip - I will write about it separately. As a result, for 5 nights it turned out with taxes 740 euros. And the savings on breakfast are just wonderful. We cooked the same omelet with sausages in the room, and we bought cheese, ham, wine and sweets for tea, as well as excellent dishes for warming up in the microwave "for a penny" in the nearest Carrefour store. In short, a great option. The hotel itself didn’t offer anything new, but it didn’t get any worse either. True, the room was on the "ground" floor with direct access to the courtyard, but it did not bother me at all.
Therefore, the first life hack of this story is to start preparing for your trip in December in advance. Otherwise, you will have to overpay. So we were lucky with the hotel.
But, he still had to get to. I again chose the Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt and then by bus. In the summer, the period between the landing of the plane and the departure of the bus was almost an hour and a half, but in the winter the schedule changed and I was offered 2 options - the bus would leave in 1 or 3.5 hours. I thought for a long time, even called the Lufthansa office with a question - will we make it in time? I was convinced that these options have been repeatedly tested and worked out, so there is nothing to be afraid of. And I, a fool, believed ... Although, the weather intervened here - it was on the night of November 30 in St. Petersburg that heavy snow fell and although we got to the airport easily (I ordered a taxi 6,000,000 at 4 am and along the WHSD in 40 minutes and 1120 rubles everything went fine), but before the plane took off we were sent for de-icing and instead of 6.15 we took off only at 7 o'clock. True, we almost compensated for this delay in the air, but still sat down 10 minutes later, then taxied around the airfield for a long time and went to the terminal by bus. Jumping out first to the passport control, we saw there a group of aggressive black women with children, who were proving to the German border guards their right to enter the country, and they resisted in unison. Having lost some more time waiting, we jumped out and went, according to the experience of the previous trip, for the luggage. We quickly saw the tape with the designation of our flight and were very happy when at 8.05 it started working and threw out several suitcases - but ours was not there. There were still 25 minutes left before the bus left and I was not very worried. But another 10 minutes passed, and our suitcase did not appear. My wife began to worry and we decided that I should run to the bus and persuade the driver to wait for us, since we were registered for a specific flight. I ran to the bus and, together with another lady from our flight, persuaded the driver to wait for our luggage for at least 5 minutes, after which I rushed back (and this is a completely different terminal), but I just couldn't get into the baggage claim hall - I had to run to bypass. The wife was close to hysterics, because the tape stopped, the luggage was taken away and no prospects for the appearance of our suitcase were foreseen. I found an employee in charge of luggage, and I say - where is our suitcase? He looked at the boarding pass and said: “Oh, are you going to Strasbourg? Your luggage must be collected in the railway station hall! "
Yoly-Pali, this is next to the place of boarding the bus! I ran back there and, indeed, I see - in the center of the hall there is a certain area fenced off with ribbons and there is just our suitcase standing there! This is the place.
Day 1 Moscow - Frankfurt - Wiesbaden - Ruedesheim
Departure from Moscow, arrival in Frankfurt am Main. Meeting at the airport 3 hours before departure. The exact flight and departure time information will be provided 2 weeks before the start of the tour.
Tourists flying to Frankfurt on their own from their own city must be at the meeting point no later than the arrival of the main group.
Accommodation in a bus, transfer (~ 30 km) to the city of Wiesbaden, the capital of Hesse and one of the oldest thermal spas in Europe. Walk with an accompanying person. Goethe and Dostoevsky visited the city, who in 1860 lost all his savings in the casino.
In the afternoon, transfer (~ 30 km) to Rüdesheim am Rhein - the capital of winemakers, a walk and tasting * (from € 8) of Rei wines. Recommended! Eiswein or ice wine.
In the evening, transfer (~ 60 km), accommodation and overnight at a hotel in Germany.
Day 2 Koblenz - Bernkastel-Kues
Breakfast in the hotel.
In the morning, visit the town of Koblenz, inspection of the "German Corner" - the confluence of the Moselle and Rhine rivers.
Moving (~ 100 km) along the Moselle wine road to the romantic town of Bernkastel-Kues, famous for its wines and "fabulous" houses, a walk with an accompanying person around the city. For those wishing to taste * Moselle wines (from € 12).
In the afternoon, transfer (~ 50 km) to the oldest city in Germany Trier - tour of the city with an accompanying person: Porta Nigra, Cathedral and other historical monuments
In the evening, transfer (220 km) to Strasbourg.
Accommodation and overnight at the hotel
Day 3 Strasbourg - Baden-Baden *
Breakfast in the hotel.
Walking sightseeing tour of Strasbourg: the historic center of Grand Ile, the Gothic cathedral of Notre Dame, the Petite France quarter and much more. Free time.
Trip * (~ 60 km) to Baden-Baden (€ 15, transfer). City tour with an accompanying person: Kurhaus with casino, Trinkhalle drinking gallery, st. Lichtentalleralelee.
For those wishing to visit the thermal complex - Caracalla Therme ticket from € 15.
In the evening, return to Strasbourg, it is possible to organize a traditional Alsatian dinner * (from € 20).
Overnight at the same hotel.
Day 4 Strasbourg - Ribeauville * - Colmar *
Breakfast in the hotel.
Free time in Strasbourg.
Walk * on a boat along the canals in Strasbourg (approx. € 13.5 / 7.8 up to 12 years)
or travel * through one of the most picturesque places in Europe - Trip "Alsace Wine Route" - Ribeauville - Colmar (€ 30, transfer). Wine-making village Riboville, walk with an accompanying person, it is possible to visit wine cellars with tasting * (tasting of local white wines, from $ 10), transfer and inspection with an accompanying city of Colmar - "French Venice".
Overnight at the same hotel.
Day 5 Strasbourg - Black Forest *
Breakfast in the hotel.
Free time in Strasbourg or full day travel in the Black Forest * (€ 35 transfer).
Freiburg (~ 87 km) is the "pearl of the Black Forest" of the Black Forest. Inspection of the Old Town: the famous Münster Cathedral, Münsterplatz Square, Old and New Town Halls, the Old Craftsmen Quarter, and much more.
Transfer to the city of Staufen (~ 20 km) - "the city of Faust", the city known for the works of Goethe. City tour with an accompanying person.
Transfer to Triberg, the capital of the famous cuckoo clock, guided tour. Inspection of the largest cuckoo clock in the suburb of Triberg - Schonachbach.
Return to the hotel in the evening.
Day 6 Basel - Zurich
Breakfast in the hotel.
In the morning, transfer (~ 140 km) to Switzerland in the city of Basel. Sightseeing tour of the city of Basel, which stretches on two banks of the Rhine: Greater Basel - Cathedral, Marktplatz and Fischplatz squares, Spalentor gate, Market Tower, Theater Square and more.
In the afternoon, transfer (~ 90 km) to Zurich. Inspection of the city of Zurich with an accompanying person: Bahnhofstrasse, St. Peter's, Niederdorf quarter, Grossmünster and Fraumünster cathedrals with stained glass windows by Marc Chagall and more.
In the evening, transfer (~ 160 km) to Germany, accommodation at the hotel.
Day 7 Rothenburg an der Tauber - Würzburg
Breakfast in the hotel.
In the morning, transfer (~ 150 km) to the town of Rothenburg an der Tauber. Inspection of the city-museum in the open air, famous for its Christmas traditions. Rothenburg an der Tauber boasts the most impressive medieval architecture in Europe. Walk around the city with an accompanying person.
In the afternoon, transfer (~ 60 km) to Würzburg. Sightseeing tour of the Bavarian city of Würzburg - the center of the Franconia region, famous for its winemaking. St. Kilian Cathedral, Hofkirche Church, Marienberg Fortress. Free time in Würzburg. Tasting * Franconian wines (from 12 €).
In the evening, transfer (~ 120 km) across Germany.
Overnight at the hotel.
Day 8 Frankfurt am Main - Moscow
Breakfast in the hotel.
If there is time, a tour of the city of Frankfurt am Main with an accompanying person: the bank quarter, half-timbered houses in the Römer quarter, the Goethe house-museum, St. Paul and others.
Transfer to the airport, departure from Frankfurt. Arrival in Moscow.
Flight and departure time information one week prior to the start of the tour.
Tourists flying from Frankfurt to their own city independently organize their own transfer to the airport or can join the main group if the time coincides.
1 day Moscow - Frankfurt - Wiesbaden - Ruedesheim 28.12
Departure from Moscow by DME by morning flight. Meeting at the airport 3 hours before departure.The exact information on the flight and departure time will be indicated in the section 2 weeks before the start of the tour.
Tourists flying to Frankfurt on their own from their own city must be at the meeting point no later than the arrival of the main group.
Accommodation on the bus, transfer (~ 30 km) to the city of Wiesbaden - the capital of Hesse and one of the oldest thermal spas in Europe. Walk with an accompanying person. Goethe and Dostoevsky visited the city, who in 1860 lost all his savings in the casino.
In the afternoon, transfer (~ 30 km) to Rüdesheim am Rhein - the capital of winemakers, a walk and tasting * (from € 8) of Rei wines. Recommended! Eiswein or ice wine.
In the evening, transfer (~ 60 km), accommodation and overnight at a hotel in Germany.
2nd day Koblenz - Bernkastel-Kues - Trier - Strasbourg 29.12
Breakfast in the hotel.
Accommodation and overnight at the hotel
Day 3 Strasbourg - Baden-Baden * 30.12
Breakfast in the hotel.
Overnight at the same hotel.
4th day Strasbourg - Ribeauville * - Colmar * 31.12
Breakfast in the hotel.
Free time in Strasbourg. Walk * on a boat along the canals in Strasbourg (approx. € 13.5 / 7.8 children up to 12 years old)
or travel * (€ 30, transfer) through one of the most picturesque places in Europe - "Alsace Wine Route". Wine-making village Riboville, walk with an accompanying person, it is possible to visit wine cellars with tasting * (local white wines, from € 10), transfer and tour with an accompanying city of Colmar - "French Venice".
Return to the hotel in Strasbourg, preparation for departure to the city to celebrate the New Year.
New Year's Eve dinner * at a restaurant in Strasbourg ~ from 20:00 to 23:00, with a glass of wine.
We invite you to the Alsatian restaurant "Le Gruber", located in one of the most beautiful buildings in Strasbourg, listed as a cultural heritage of the city, and unconditionally participates in the picturesque charm of the historic center of Strasbourg.
Musical animation accompanied by an accordionist and guitarist.
Celebrating the New Year on the festive streets of the city.
Around 01-00 return to the hotel.
Day 5 Strasbourg - Black Forest * 01.01
Breakfast in the hotel.
Free time in Strasbourg or full day travel in the Black Forest * (€ 35 transfer).
Freiburg (~ 87 km) is the "pearl of the Black Forest" of the Black Forest. Inspection of the Old Town: the famous Münster Cathedral, Münsterplatz Square, Old and New Town Halls, the Old Craftsmen Quarter, and much more.
Moving to the city of Staufen(~ 20 km) - "the city of Faust", the city known for the works of Goethe. City tour with an accompanying person.
Transfer to Triberg, the capital of the famous cuckoo clock, guided tour. Inspection of the largest cuckoo clock in the suburb of Triberg - Schonachbach.
Return to the hotel in the evening.
6th day Basel - Zurich 02.01
Breakfast in the hotel.
In the morning, transfer (~ 140 km) to Switzerland in the city of Basel. Sightseeing tour of the city of Basel, which stretches on two banks of the Rhine: Greater Basel - Cathedral, Marktplatz and Fischplatz squares, Spalentor gate, Market Tower, Theater Square and more.
In the afternoon, transfer (~ 90 km) to Zurich. Inspection of the city of Zurich with an accompanying person: Bahnhofstrasse, St. Peter's, Niederdorf quarter, Grossmünster and Fraumünster cathedrals with stained glass windows by Marc Chagall and more.
In the evening, transfer (~ 160 km) to Germany, accommodation at the hotel.
Day 7 Rothenburg an der Tauber - Würzburg 03.01
Breakfast in the hotel.
In the morning, transfer (~ 150 km) to the town of Rothenburg an der Tauber, sightseeing of the city - an open-air museum city, famous for its Christmas traditions. Walking around the city with an escort, getting to know Christmas nsk traditions of Bavaria. Visit to the "Christmas Village": the wonder shop is located inside the interconnected half-timbered houses. In the romantic scenery of the market square, decorated with a 5-meter white Christmas tree, you can find absolutely everything that has to do with the theme of Christmas. Visit to the Christmas Museum *, from € 4.
In the afternoon, transfer (~ 60 km) to Würzburg. Sightseeing tour of the Bavarian city of Würzburg - the center of the Franconia region, famous for its winemaking. St. Kilian Cathedral, Hofkirche Church, Marienberg Fortress. Free time in Würzburg. Tasting * Franconian wines (from 12 €).
In the evening, transfer (~ 120 km) across Germany.
Overnight at a hotel in Frankfurt (possibly in the suburbs).
Day 8 Frankfurt - Moscow 4.12
Breakfast in the hotel.
If there is time, a tour of the city of Frankfurt am Main with an accompanying person: the bank quarter, half-timbered houses in the Römer quarter, the Goethe house-museum, St. Paul and others.
Transfer to the airport, departure from Frankfurt, arrival in Moscow.
For information on flight and departure time, see the section a week before the start of the tour.Tourists flying from Frankfurt to their own city independently organize their own transfer to the airport or can join the main group if the time coincides.
Thinking about where to spend your New Year's holidays? I have an idea! Strasbourg is ideal for this purpose.
Strasbourg is the capital of the Grand Est region in northeastern France, which includes Alsace, Champagne, the Ardennes and Lorraine, and is the seat of the European Parliament. The city is close to the border with Germany, so both French and German traditions have influenced its culture and architecture. Strasbourg Cathedral in the Gothic style is famous for its astronomical clock, in which figures of Jesus Christ and the apostles move daily, and a spire 142 meters high, from the central part of which offers a stunning view of the Rhine River.
Strasbourg is rightfully considered the capital of Christmas. Fortunately, during the Christmas holidays at the end of December, I also happened to be there. I saw a fairy tale with my own eyes, after all, such an atmosphere happens there only once a year))
There were a lot of tourists, despite the cold weather (more precisely, all this time a very cold wind was blowing, it is better not to go out without a hat, scarf and gloves. The temperature can be deceiving, it seems like it is not low, but the wind does its dirty work))) ). In the pre-New Year period, Christmas markets are always organized in all parts of the city, where you can buy everything: from candy canes to dishes, and, of course, take a glass of mulled wine to warm up.
The city is very clean and cozy, especially "Petite France" with all its cute cafes, "gingerbread" houses, narrow cobbled streets.
I strongly advise you to take a boat cruise to the European Parliament itself (yes, the boats are heated there)))), listening with the help of an audio guide to interesting facts from the history of this famous ancient city.
And be sure to taste the local cuisine!
I highly recommend visiting this city, especially during the period of Catholic Christmas and New Years. You will see original, intricate decorations on the "gingerbread" houses (everyone does his best), numerous cozy cafes with excellent cuisine, bright light shows.
