Christmas and New Years' Eve in Germany

I recently went to Germany for Christmas and New Year, my first trip since arriving in the UK. It's such a wonderful place to be at this time of the year. There are of course plenty of Christmas markets and Gluhwein to be enjoyed over Christmas as well as firecrackers to dodge on New Years' Eve! I met my boyfriend in Berlin, where we spent the majority of our time. This was my first visit to Berlin - and hopefully not my last. It's a great city with an interesting combination of historic sites and a big party scene. We spent Christmas Eve with some friends for a nice three-course dinner and then roamed the Christmas markets on Christmas Day. The first market we visited, Gendarmenmarkt, was a bit 'fancy' with a €1 entry fee, but it definitely had more to offer than other Christmas markets. There were several pop-up restaurants at this market, so we decided to stop for a sit-down German lunch.

We spent the first half of Boxing Day on the Discover Berlin Half-Day Walking Tour. I really enjoyed this tour and found it was an efficient way to find the main sites in Berlin, while also benefitting from the knowledge of the guide. The tour covered a number of sites, including Museum Island, the Book Burning Memorial, Brandenburg Gate and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It was primarily focused on Berlin's history from WWI-WWII and the guide provided a lot of very helpful information along the way. We spent the remainder of the day in the Deutsches Historisches Museum (German history). Unfortunately, we left what I would say was the best bit to last. If you have any interest in swords, castles and relics from a few hundred years ago, I suggest heading to that section first!

On Wednesday we headed to Mitte to check out Distrikt Coffee, one of the many brunch locations in Berlin. It certainly delivered the goods with a very Melbourne-style brunch and coffee. I then walked from Mitte to the Bauhaus Archive and managed to accidentally walk past the Reichstag on my way there. You know you must be somewhere famous when there are queues of people and tourist buses everywhere! The Bauhaus Archive was slightly underwhelming. I hadn't read into it much and had expected furniture and other Bauhaus designed products, but this museum was focused entirely on photography. In the evening, we met friends for dinner at Lokal. This restaurant made up for the Bauhaus Museum. If you're looking to treat yourself to a nice dinner in Berlin, I highly recommend it! I had the most amazing pumpkin soup for entree, followed by a generous main and delicious dessert!

We visited the Stasi Museum on Thursday, the former headquarters of the GDR Ministry for State Security (East Germany). The museum is split into sections of informative displays about the Secret Police and rooms that have been left just as they were when the Berlin Wall came down - it feels like stepping back in time. It even includes props to show how the Secret Police spied on people - I was most surprised by the camera hidden in a watering can!

Friday was spent on a tour of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. This certainly isn't a tour for the lighthearted and it also happened to be the coldest day of the trip. The camp is in Oranienburg, requiring a fairly long commute by train from Central Berlin. This particular camp was primarily focused on political prisoners, but also housed a number of other prisoners throughout WWII. The guide was very informative, although we didn't learn too much on this tour that we didn't already know. What I hadn't realised was that concentration camps in East Berlin continued to be used by the GDR.

On Saturday, we made our way to Nuremberg to meet some friends for New Years' Eve. This is a beautiful city complete with all of the features you'd expect of an old German city - an old city wall, a castle on a hill and a lot of pretty bridges! I definitely recommend a trip to Nuremberg if you ever get the chance. Unfortunately, since we were there over the New Years' break, a lot of attractions were closed (including the castle). We could, however, still go up to the outside of the castle and enjoy the amazing view.

On New Years' Eve, we went on a day trip to Bamberg, an old UNESCO World Heritage-listed town with several remaining medieval buildings. We spent the day walking past a number of buildings, including Bamberg Altstadt (an eye-catching building over a bridge) and Alte Hofhaltung. Thankfully, some Christmas stalls were still open, where I tried blueberry Gluhwein (delicious, of course). In the evening, we took a train into the centre of Nuremberg to watch the fireworks and avoid getting blown up!

New Years' Day was, of course, quiet and we only made it into Nuremberg at around 3pm - just enough time to have one more look at the view from the castle and enjoy one last German sausage!