My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
December 2024
By my second week on the ship I realized that there wasn’t much time before Christmas and I needed to see some Christmas markets!
Le Havre, France
I could see this sculpture from the ship, so the first thing I did when I got off the shuttle, was go to find it.
So it was there.
I tried to figure out if there was anything else to do with it besides take pictures, but there wasn’t.
I wanted to find a Christmas market but first I needed to find a bathroom. Finding a bathroom in Europe is tricky. In Southampton I found some clean, free restrooms in the mall. That was great. In Hamburg, later this week, I would find signs for bathrooms at the Christmas market, but when I got closer, I saw that they were charging 50¢ to use them. There was a mall that I knew about (still talking about bathrooms in Hamburg) so I decided to go check that out. The mall charged 50¢ as well! In Rotterdam, the bathroom was €1.20 (I would learn this in the future as well). Many of them take credit cards, but now I’m used to it.
So I needed to find a bathroom in Le Havre. I walked everywhere looking for a mall. I went into chic shopping centers and tried to look like I belonged there – no bathrooms. I was getting desperate when I finally found a Starbucks. Though Starbucks makes really nice mugs, I’m not a fan of the coffee. Plus I try not to go to places I can go to in the US when I’m traveling abroad. But this Starbucks was everything I needed in that moment. They let me use the bathroom for free, so in return, I bought a brownie hot chocolate and took advantage of the wifi.
Now I was ready for the Christmas Market.
This market was smaller than the one in Brugge but still very charming.
I started with a cup of vin chaud (mulled wine)
And then I got cheesy potatoes that were strikingly similar to the ones I got in Brugge. I convinced myself that this was a French delicacy because today I was in France.
Then it was time for dessert. A crepe was definitely French.
The lady poured Grand Marneir all over it.
My last stop was to get a cheesy pretzel, as I had to make sure I got some French cheese while I was in France. My plan was to save it for later, but the lady heated it up so I had no choice but to eat it immediately. At this rate, I wasn’t losing any weight on this trip.
Hamburg, Germany
A couple of days later we were back in Hamburg. My first day in Hamburg I arrived without my luggage and went straight to the ship. The second day in Hamburg I received my luggage, and I didn’t realize that I could take the shuttle into town, so I thought that my only option was to walk 45 minutes each way. It was raining so I stayed in and unpacked my suitcases. The third day in Hamburg, I wasn’t going to miss my last chance to see German Christmas Markets! In Brugge and Le Havre, I’d get to town, find out where the Christmas Markets were on the internet and then use google maps to find them. In Hamburg I saw one from the window of the shuttle. I’m going THERE! Then when we arrived at the shuttle stop, I found ANOTHER one! I went to the closer one first, slowly walking by each stand before deciding what I really wanted. It was pretty early so the stands were just setting up and there were hardly any people there. In Brugge I went for the first mulled wine place I encountered. Not this time. I made it all the way to the other end, where I found EGG NOG. THAT was what I wanted.
It was nothing like American egg nog or Wendy’s (PJ’s) egg nog.
Satisfied at this location, I set off to find the Christmas market I had seen from the shuttle.
On my way there, I ran into ANOTHER Christmas Market.
This one had glassed in boxes that had scenes from fairy tales.
And there was a big one with an elaborate miniature village.
The streets were strung with twinkling lights.
Finally I reached the market I had seen from the shuttle!
It was so Christmassy and cozy (and freezing)!
It was time for lunch.
At every drink stand they had unique little mugs. You would pay a €3 deposit which would be refunded when the mug was returned. I kept the one from Brugge, but there were so many different mugs in Hamburg I was afraid this heavy collection could get out of hand, so I returned all the Hamburger mugs.
Then, I remembered an article my friend had sent me about the Christmas Markets in Hamburg. There was “This X-rated Christmas market is held in the Kiez, the red-light St. Pauli district of Hamburg around the Reeperbahn. It markets itself as the ‘horniest Christmas market’ in the city.” Well. I had to find it.
I found yet another Christmas market on the way.
There was a bougie Christmas Market by the canals that had little stands with plastic where people could supposedly stand and be warmer, but by this time they were all starting to look the same. I acknowledged that I couldn’t eat any more food, and I probably wasn’t going to buy any more stuff.
Then I realized there was a problem. My phone was down to 25% battery. After religiously carrying around a spare charger that I never used, I was kicking myself for choosing THIS DAY to travel lighter. I might have enough battery to figure out how to get there, but I wasn’t sure I could figure out how to get back. After getting lost in Korea, I knew better than to take chances in an unfamiliar city where I didn’t speak the language. Yet I still had a HUGE debate with myself with several pivots turning back and forth. Finally I made the safe choice. I would make my way back to the ship while my phone still had battery.
I’ll just have to come back to Hamburg again for another Christmas Market season to see the raunchy Christmas Market, but other than that I was pretty content.
Southampton UK
This story is much shorter.
By now, I must be turning local because, while I appreciated Southampton’s Christmas market, after visiting three countries’ worth of them, I was fully Christmas-market satisfied.
I wandered through the stalls, admired the festive setup—but didn’t buy or eat anything.
And with that, my 2024 Christmas market adventure was complete.