Hopping on and hopping off trains, traipsing through Christmas markets, Interrailing has been so much more than amusing. We checked out of the hotel, after a hearty and leisurely breakfast.We wheeled in our luggage to the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, boarded a train, bidding adieu to Frankfurt. We settled in to our reserved seats on Deutsche Bahn train to Nuremberg, our next destination. I updated our Interrail pass with the current travel itinerary. The train started to roll out of the platform, moving swiftly out of the station and the city. The train chugged along, the coach was absolutely quiet, with no noise not the even usual white noise , except the rhythmic sound of train chugging along,which to me sounds like a mother singing a lullaby to her baby, gently rocking her to sleep. The peace and quiet of the car, with the rolling meadows and countryside outside the window of the train, put us in to a sweet slumber, and both of us dozed off, me happily resting my head on my husbands shoulders and he resting his head on top of my head. We woke up to a commotion and chatter when a few more passenger boarded in at the next station. It was a crisp bright winter afternoon, with blue skies when train pulled in to Nuremberg. We walked in to the hotel. We were greeted by a very warm and friendly staff at the reception who gave us a lot of insight on the city, a map of the city and also told us about the famous Lebkuchen of Nuremberg. It’s a bit like gingerbread but not in its entirety. Nuremberg is the second largest city of Bavaria. It’s known for bratwurst /sausages, Lebkuchen, toys and Christkind Market/ Christmas market. The city is known for its infamous Nazi rallies. After the war, trials against German officials ,were held in Nuremberg, called the Nuremberg Trials. The Christmas market of this city is amongst one of the oldest known markets, is almost 400 years old. I had heard a lot about the Nuremberg Christmas market. Two years back, returning back from a Christmas market trip while I was waiting for my luggage to arrive , at London Heathrow Airport, is when I heard about Nuremberg Christmas market. It was from a fellow traveler standing next to me, while waiting for luggage, as we started exchanging our travel stories in order to kill the time. He was returning from a Christmas market trip, but unlike us he had been on a River cruise. He thought Nuremberg Christmas market was the best market he had seen on his trip. Since then I haven been looking up information and reading about Nuremberg . The market in Nuremberg is very traditional, the stalls at the market sell the best traditional handmade Christmas decorations, there are no plastic decorations sold at this market. And now I was very excited to be at Nuernberg.

We walked towards the market, feeling extremely hungry. We discovered an Indian restaurant called Sangam on the way and we stopped over and enjoyed the delicious food. The Christkindlmarkt market did live up to its name, it is indeed one of the best markets I have visited, very traditional and beautiful. It is held at the main market square. The iconic landmark of Nuremberg Christmas market , golden angel is easy to spot and is everywhere, in the lights, the tree decorations, handmade curios. It follows a tradition of Chris kind/ Christ child , handing out gifts to children. The Christ child, at this market is a girl with golden hair and not baby Jesus. Every two year a girl with golden hair from the city is chosen to be Christkind, who would walk around the markets and handover gifts to little ones. We walked around in the market, looking out for the Christkind, but no luck of spotting her. We walked back to towards the hotel, talking about our eventful day and thinking about how wonderful it was to watch a sunrise in one city and sun set in another.

The next day we planned to visit Munich, the capital and largest city of Bavaria. We booked a late afternoon guided walking tour of Christmas Markets at Munich. We had a easy start of the day, beginning with a leisurely breakfast. There is something revitalising to start a day in an unhurried way, sitting and having a conversation, contemplating and simply being in the moment. After the breakfast, we went to the Handwerkerhof/Handycrafts market near the station. It’s a medieval shopping area, withal collection of little shops selling locally hand made items. The items are priced on the higher side, given that they are handmade and unique. I particularly liked a cook shop selling carved rolling pins. After a bit of stroll and wandering around in the market, and we walked to Nuernberg Hauptbahnhof to board a train to Munich. It was a pleasant journey of an hour in to Munich Main station. On reaching the Munich station, we had a lunch at the station which was pretzel and Minestrone soup. There are plenty of options to eat at station. We then walked over to place we were meeting our Guide for the tour. The tour begins at the station, takes you through the oldest Christmas Market at Marienplatz, Sendlinger Market, then with a 10 minutes stop at Christmas village at Munich Residence and the tour ending at Medieval market. The tour was informative, giving you the history of the markets and it also gives you a fair idea of different market, and you can explore further on your own, based on your liking. The tour was two hours and we booked it from viator. We liked the Marianplatz market, and on the way we noticed a St Michaels Church with beautiful murals on the walk, we were interested in visiting it. We were feeling peckish, so we stopped over at an Italian cafe/bistro.. We had the most delicious Pinza, which is sort of flatbread with sauce and topping, but not big as a pizza. I had not heard of a Pinza before this visit, and I really loved the taste and portion size of it. I would so love to try Pinza again. After a Pinza, I was looking at some cannoli filled with sugar, when the waiter who looked at me watching the cannoli wistfully, suggested a profiterole, as the cannoli would be too sweet. The profiteroles were simply divine and I am ever so grateful to the waiter, who had recommended both the Pinza and Profiterols. It was such a warm and welcoming cafe, and I am so upset with myself for forgetting the name of the restaurant . But I will always remember the place in Munich where I tried Pinza for the first time. We walked around the beautiful Marianplatz Christmas Market, visited the St Micheal s Church, and spent a memorable day at Munich. We headed back later in the night from a dazzling Munich to Nuremberg. We were back in Nuremberg in one hour and in to our hotel, resting our heads in warm beds and giving our our aching feet a good rest and a nights sleep.

The next day s itinerary was a day trip,to Regensburg. We started the day with the same leisurely pace as the previous day and reached the main station. We boarded the train to Regensburg, a heritage town on the banks of Danube. Our first visit was to the Thurn and Taxis Christmas market. It is considered to be the romantic Christmas market. The Christmas market is in the grounds of the castle. I think it would look more Romantic in the lights and in the evening than in the natural day light. We walked out of the market by lunch time, and headed out in to the old town. It was raining, and the aldstadt looked very pretty, with it’s beautiful cobbled alleyways glistening in the rain. It was a cold winters day and with the rain pouring down, it made it even more chilly. We wanted a bit of warmth and respite from cold and rain. We went into a coffee shop called Hemingway. It’s a nice restaurant/coffee shop with friendly staff. We ordered some soup, fries and coffee. I was curious to find out if there was any anecdotes of Hemingway having visited the place and hence the restaurant acquired its name, but I could not find any. The food and the place warmed us up enough, we walked out of the restaurant, nicely wrapped up in hats ,scarves and coats. Regensburg, a heritage town, has preserved it s medieval town centre, in spite of having been heavily bombed by the Allies during the World War II. The town wanting to preserve its Medieval site, went through a slow rebuilding process and managed to save it Medieval sites not having been torn down. It managed to earn its UNESCO heritage sites. Such stories interest me, and are very dear to me, being a history buff and also as a person originating from a country with rich and long cultural heritage. My personal favourite in Regensburg were the St Peter s Cathedral or Dom,a perfect example of German Gothic architecture and the 12th century stone bridge on the River Danube to take you to other side of town. A walk around the old town centre, and crossing the 12th century stone bridge, makes you think of all the history, the past the town has had, countless lives that have trodden on the same paths, that we walk today, lived and breathed various emotions, how their lives was different than ours, yet had a similar pattern.

“ Our greatest glory is not in falling, but in rising every time we fall.” Confuscious.

We returned back to Nuernberg, late in the evening. We made our reservation for our train next day to our next destination, which was to Innsbruck.

The next day, another day of a lovely leisurely start of the day, after a good breakfast, we went to visit the toy museum at Nuremberg. It takes you on a tour of evolution of toys over the years and how toy industry was a great part of Nuremberg. The museum also demonstrated use of toys, as a tool in defining social norms to young minds, for instance, use of toy soldiers and trains for boys and dolls and doll houses for girls. As a child I did want a doll house, and all the different doll houses reminded me of my childhood desire and my husband was reminded of wanting to become a train driver and wanting a room to build a model Railway set. We both still would like to fulfil our childhood desire, me having a doll house and my husband building a Model Railway town. I am not sure, how deeply it’s driven by the societal norms and boxing, I leave the thought percolating for now.

We had a lovely stay in Germany so far, enjoyed every moment of interrailing with Deutsche Bahn. It’s a pleasure travelling in Deutsche Bahn, the staff always very polite and friendly. We boarded the train at Nuremberg, bidding adieu to Germany, Deutsche Bahn and the train hurling us off to another city, taking us ahead on another journey.

“Travelling is more fun, hell life is more fun..if you treat it as a series of impulses.”- Bill Bryson