Gingerbread houses, Christmas trees, caroling and concerts on board ships add extra spice to cruises on Europe’s rivers during the month of December. But the biggest incentive to don winter coats and hats is the Christmas markets in ports along the way. Almost every city has at least one filling municipal and cathedral squares in the weeks leading up to December 25 and almost every river cruise line operating in Europe extends it cruise season into December to take advantage of the holiday glow. I was aboard Viking River Cruises on its Danube Waltz itinerary cruising from Budapest, Hungary to Passau, Germany with stops in Bratislava, Slovakia, Vienna and Linz, Austria.

Each city’s Christmas markets embraced the festive season by selling decorations, holiday novelties, food and mulled wine to warm heart and soul under twinkling lights on cold December evenings. Some added musical entertainment and carnival rides. Can one be too old to climb aboard a carousel?

An infectious holiday cheer brought smiles to passengers and crew on board. One afternoon crew members donned Santa hats and reindeer headbands to lead passengers in a sing-along that ended with a conga line winding through the lounge. An advent choir boarded the ship after dinner in Bratislava for an a cappella performance. In Austria, costumed singers and musicians presented songs from “The Sound of Music” and ended the evening with Christmas carols — “Silent Night” in three languages.

Passengers participated in trimming Christmas trees, personalizing globe ornaments with markers. The pastry chef patiently taught us the art of gingerbread house-making and to my envious eyes some structures turned out quite good.

The kitchen crew made an extra effort to warm us up with a holiday glow. After a shore excursion one chilly afternoon the chef welcomed returning passengers in the reception area with cheese fondue spread on slices of fresh bread plus cups of hot chocolate with an optional splash of rum or amaretto.

Have holiday gifts to buy for family and friends back home? Bring an extra suitcase. Cities along the Danube offer shopping districts with brand-name stores as well as cute boutiques. And, of course, the Christmas markets present a bounty of items, some handmade.

Christmas markets bring out residents, especially after work and on weekends. If you’re game, you might interact over a glass of gluhwein. After visiting two or three markets, the next few might seem just the same, but be on the lookout for one-of-a-kind finds and local food specialties.

In Budapest, crowds filled two Christmas markets within walking distance of our ship. A Nativity scene with large, colorful figures stood in front of St. Stephen’s Basilica where a Christmas tree towered over an ice rink. Vendors in wooden huts sold Christmas ornaments, marzipan, Hungarian fried bread and steaming cups of mulled wine.

In Slovakia, sausages and potato pancakes simmered on stoves in a small market outside Bratislava Castle perched 300 feet above the Danube. Our excursion stopped for a view from the windy terrace then descended to the Old Town for a walk on cobblestones past warmly lit cafes to a Christmas market where cloth dolls in folk dress caught my eye.

In Vienna, I strolled past Rolex, Dior and Tiffany stores on Kohlmarkt Street on my way to Café Central where a glass case overflowed with pastries. A reindeer head made from gingerbread mousse and baked apple called out to me.

Christmas markets were scattered across Vienna, one by city hall, another at Am Hof where raclette oozed onto plates and flutes of Champagne bubbled on a wooden bar. Outside Hofburg Palace, a few vendors sold high-end goods. I couldn’t resist a jaunty made-in-Austria woolen hat. At my favorite market, outside St. Stephen’s Cathedral where Mozart married in 1782, I had to have two wooden toy trains in letters spelling my grandsons’ names.

That night, we boarded a motor coach to travel along city streets lit with holiday decorations to a small theater for a Mozart and Strauss concert just for Viking guests.

In Linz, Austria, streetcars streamed past Christmas market stalls on the Hauptplatz, one of the largest squares in Europe, but shoppers seemed so engrossed in the goods they barely noticed. My search for an authentic Austrian gift for someone back home yielded only apparel from distant lands — Peru, Nepal, China — so I left, disappointed.

In Passau, Germany, our tour group went to Café Simon for a demonstration of gingerbread making with samples of three flavors washed down with an orange and rum punch. Refortified, I made my way to the plaza outside St. Stephen’s Cathedral where bells sounding the hour reverberated around more than 70 rustic wooden Christmas market kiosks. Patrons stood around high tables snarfing down foot-long wurst sandwiches. I resisted the temptation of gluhwein stands to seek out something German-made for that someone still on my gift list. I found it inside a make-shift shop where a young woman was selling woolen hats and cute head wraps made by her German grandmother.

Just when passengers think they have seen their last Christmas market, those departing from the Munich airport find one more under a canopy between terminals. More than 40 market stalls and 450 Christmas trees set up here along with an ice-skating rink with skate rentals for those who want to do a few spins before their flight departs.

For once, I was glad mine was delayed.

Viking River Cruises: 800-304-9616

The post Christmas Markets Add Festive Spirit to December Cruise on the Danube appeared first on Traveling Archive.

1. Question: What are the fun “things” or activities that people in Hamburg do for fun?

Answer:

Stroll along the Reeperbahn, have drinks and see where the Beatles perfected their craft, playing 10,000 hours on this street from 1960-62. During the holidays, you can shop at Hamburg’s many famous Christmas markets.

2. Question: What’s one thing the public probably does NOT know about Hamburg?

Answer:

Hamburg has more bridges than Amsterdam, Venice and London combined!

3. Question: What has Hamburg contributed to the world?

Answer:

The Hamburger: There are more than one theory and none is proven solely. Many believed the theory that the first hamburger originated in Hamburg as a circular cut of solid beef in a Kaiser roll with brown sauce, the so called “Rundstück warm.” Popular with sailors, they would request it upon arriving in Hamburg’s transatlantic port. When they sailed  back to other destinations they brought this simple creation with them, introducing it around the glove – which, of course,  included the U.S. After it went out into the world, it came back to Hamburg in a modified version, more like a meatloaf – similar to the hamburger today. Proof for this theory would be that in 1842 an American cookbook published a recipe of a ground beef patty under the name Hamburger Steak.

Nivea Crème (Beiersdorf): NIVEA is one of the world’s most trusted skincare brands. It all began in Hamburg in 1911, when the pharmacist and visionary entrepreneur Dr. Oscar Troplowitz recognized the potential in Eucerit, an emulsifier developed by the chemist Dr. Isaac Lifschütz. Eucerit made it possible to bind water and oil into a stable cream, and was first intended for use in the medical field. Dermatologist Prof. Paul Gerson Unna appreciated Dr. Lifschütz’s expertise in his field and introduced him to Dr. Troplowitz, who immediately recognized that the water-in-oil emulsion would make the perfect basis for a cosmetic skin cream. All it needed now was a name. To find it, Dr. Troplowitz didn’t need to look any further than the cream itself. Inspired by its snow-white colour, he called it NIVEA – a name derived from the Latin words nix (snow) and nivis (of snow). Finally, the years of research and creativity had paid off. In December of 1911, NIVEA was launched. Since then, Hamburg has always been the site of the headquarter of Beiersdorf and the biggest production site for the NIVEA crème.

Modern Television: Manfred von Ardenne from Hamburg came up with the idea of using a fast flying spot generated by the Braun tube for scanning images. On Christmas Eve 1930 he achieved the first all-electronic television transmissions with Braun tubes at the transmitter and at the receive. At the 1931 Berlin Broadcasting Trade Fair, Manfred von Ardenne presented his all-electronic television transmissions to the public. According to Walter Bruch, the inventor of colour television, that event was the world premiere of today’s TV technology with electron beams. The year 1931 marks the beginning of today’s electronic television sets.

Cruise Shipping: Hapag-lloyd is one of the largest container shipping companies with strong relations to the Americas. Hapag-Lloyd AG was formed 1970 as a result of the merger of Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (Hapag) and North German Lloyd (NDL). But the origins of these shipping lines go back much further: Hapag was founded in Hamburg in 1847 by local merchants and NDL in Bremen in 1857. The lines initially carried mainly European emigrants eager to start a new life in America. The relationship between Hapag and NDL was for a long time something special, for while they were competitors, from the 19th century onwards, they both repeatedly established joint ventures. Under its Director-General Albert Ballin (1857-1918), who is also credited with having invented the cruise, Hapag rose to the top of the world shipping sector around the turn of the century in terms of tonnage, while NDL became the shipping line carrying the largest number of passengers.

Tesa Film: Tesa’s success story begins with the unsuccessful development of an adhesive bandage. Paul C. Beiersdorf, a pharmacist, was at work on the bandage when Dr. Oscar Troplowitz took over the lab from the company’s founder in 1890. The bandage adhered excellently, but was irritating to skin. Troplowitz made a virtue of necessity and, in 1896, launched the first technical adhesive tape. Today Tesa is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of self-adhesive product and system solutions for industry, professional craftsmen, and consumers.

Mont Blanc: The start of the “modern” new century had a simulating effect on inventors and craftsmen. Ingenuity and imagination helped the fountain pen to make its technical and commercial breakthrough as a writing instrument. It was a Hamburg banker, Alfred Nehemias, and a Berlin engineer, August Eberstein, together who recognized the signs of time and decided to produce simplicissimus pens. After a short period of time, Wilhelm Dziambor, Christian Lausen and later Claus Johannes Voss took over the business and thus laid the foundation for the future internationally successful company Montblanc based in Hamburg.

Dynamite: Even though Alfred Nobel came from Sweden, he did the invention in Hamburg in 1866.

The post Three Things About Hamburg, Germany appeared first on Traveling Archive.

But that is not all the remarkably charming city has given us. It is Karl Lagerfeld’s birthplace, the home of Jil Sander, and corporate headquarters for Wempe Jewelers, Nivea face emollients, and Mont Blanc, makers of fine writing implements and luxury goods. The second-largest city in Germany, Hamburg is a verdant (bucolic parks weave through the city) and historic Hanseatic metropolis, and — you may be surprised to learn this — the city can claim more bridges than Venice.  Germany’s second-largest and arguably its wealthiest city has countless reasons to be on your bucket list.  Here are just eight:

The Extraordinary Elbphilharmonie:  The Elphi, sobriquet of the new, astonishing concert hall, opened January, 2017, after much Sturm und Drang.  Originally conceived in the early part of the century, it was to have been finished in 2010 at an estimated cost of €241.  Not. Construction concluded in October, 2016, at the cost was €789 million, but for my money (and, yes, I know, I am not a local taxpayer), it was worth every cent. Having visited it twice for two very different concerts, I found the acoustics remarkable, the design mind-boggling, and the experience overwhelming. The undulating, entry “tube” housing the longest escalator in Europe — nearly 300 feet — transports guests to the marvelously asymmetric, organically flowing hallways and tiers of the hall proper. Conceived by Swiss architecture firm Herzog and de Meuron — and with rich sound engineered by acclaimed Japanese acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota — it is perched on the Elbe River, surrounded by a watery perimeter.

The lower levels are red brick, vestiges of warehouses that up until 1902 were repositories for cocoa, tea, and tobacco.  With both curvilinear and rectilinear lines in its silhouette, the panels of glass on the upper floors reflect the water and skyline. Inside, the main concert hall seats 2,100 (with a 4,765-pipe organ!); a smaller recital hall, 500; additionally, there are countless terraces for viewing the stunning panoramas, several restaurants and bars, and capacious open space.  The promenade is open to the public and it’s a wonderful spot to simply sit and contemplate the always busy harbor.

More Music:  Hamburg was a hangout and showcase for the shaggy-haired Liverpudlians in the early 60s (and there is even a Beatles music tour), before their famed Ed Sullivan appearance.  Today, it ranks third in the world, after New York and London, for musical theater. “Rocky” previewed here and currently, “Aladdin,” “Kinky Boots,” “The Lion King,” and “Mary Poppins” are huge hits.  The musical scene is rife with jazz clubs, alternate performance venues, the Hamburg State Opera, and after-hours boites.  And if ballet is your passion, the highly regarded Hamburg Ballet (along with its school, Ballettzentrum Hamburg – John Neumeier) should not be missed.

The Port and Waterways:  Hamburg is considered the third-largest port in Europe after Rotterdam and Antwerp, and its waterways, thanks to the Elbe River, are labyrinthine. Not to mention, there is also water, water, everywhere, thanks to both the Inner and Outer Lake Alster, which are both pleasant places for an afternoon sail. Nearly a dozen companies offer boat tours weaving around the harbor and the old warehouse areas, the Speicherstadt, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015; here, 19th-century red-brick warehouses, on the periphery of endless ribbons of canals, have been transformed into trendy boutiques and cafes.

An atmospheric “nighttime lights” tour at dusk is a delight.  If you are ambitious, the Fischmarkt is a Sunday morning (5 a.m. until about 9 a.m.) experience, featuring much more than fish — souvenirs, clothing, fruit, produce, and tschotschkes; it has been the go-to place for fish since the early 18th-century.  And, if you want a local souvenir — a woven market basket — you can buy ten Euros’ worth of fruit and it will be packed up in a handsome basket, with “Hamburg” spelled out on one side.

The Dahlia Garden (Dahliengarten):  What a hidden gem, with 14,000 blooms that grace the city from mid-spring until the October frosts. Riots of color have been exploding all over this People’s Park (Volkspark) since 1920. With over 400 species of dahlias, it is a photographer’s and horticulturist’s delight… and entry is free.

The Majestic Town Hall (Rathaus) and the festive Christmas markets:  Hamburg has several holiday markets, and its most charming is the Weihnachtsmarkt, in the shadow of Town Hall; if you have time for one market only, this should be your destination. Germany offers some of the most delightful Christmas markets in Europe, where the tradition of outdoor holiday fairs is more than four hundred years old.  Steeped in custom and dazzling in presentation — horse-drawn carriages ambling through cobbled streets, glittering lights, intoxicating aromas, engaging entertainers — Germany’s markets are worth a special trip and they usually start with Advent.

Museums: While the city can boast some 50 museums — including one dedicated to Johannes Brahms, one that showcases erotic art, another known as Spicy’s (a museum chronicling the global space trade), a children’s museum, and several port/maritime/naval/nautical museums — these two are a must:  Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (Museum of Art and Crafts) has extensive collections of everything from faïence to fashion, including period rooms, vast photography archives, and a world-renowned collection of musical instruments; Hamburger Kunsthalle is one of the largest museums in Germany, and covers seven centuries of European art with outstanding works represented  in every era (including Manet’s Nana), from the Middle Ages (countless, priceless Old Masters) to post-1950 Pop Art. Additionally, the BallinStadt Emigration Museum should also be on your hit list. Starting mid-19th century and lasting nearly a hundred years, some five million emigrants fled Europe from Hamburg.  In 1899, Albert Ballin became the CEO of the Hapag company (today Hapag-Lloyd, a freight shipper), and this museum reflects the many buildings he erected as an emigration community, where those departing Europe “killed” time, getting ready for their journeys.

Miniature World (Miniatur Wunderland):  Billed as the world’s largest model railway, this attraction (75,000 square feet, spread out on several floors) features nine different, intricate railway systems, including those of Austria, Italy, the States, and diverse German systems.  The longest train is nearly 50 feet, and in total, there are 10,000 rail cars on 50,000 feet of track. The topography is dotted with nearly a quarter-million “people.” The craftsmanship is heartbreakingly detailed requiring perspicacious study; periodically the room lights dim, so that the train tableaux can be illuminated with nighttime lights, rendering an entirely different scenic panorama of the models. Expect gaggles of children here, as it is really a museum for the young, but any curious adult, especially a rail aficionado, is likely to be delighted with these models.

Cafes and Shops:  Hamburg has no dearth of high-end luxury designers and internationally celebrated boutiques, but look for local specialty shops, like Läderach Chocolates with sheets of appetizing confections, sprinkled with nuts and fruits. Bethge Stationery has elegant papers, handsome writing implements, and stunning leather goods.

The Hilde Leiss Gallery is chockablock with fine crafts — a treasure trove of ceramics, jewelry, and one-of-a-kind wearables.  For an afternoon pick-me-up that leaves Starbucks in the dust, Cölln’s is a find — gloriously tiled from floor to ceiling in colorful designs, it offers victuals that measure up to the décor, with a groaning board of patisserie-style sweets.

Where to Stay

The Hospitable Park Hyatt Hamburg

Windows on the City: Westin Hotel Hamburg

Hamburg’s Atlantic Kempinski: A Lakeside Retreat

Additional info:  Hamburg Travel

The Hamburg Pass (turbopass.com/hamburg-city-pass and hamburg-card.de) is a valuable tool for visitors, providing free public transport, some museum entries, harbor and lake boat rides, and the hop-on/hop-off bus tour, among other benefits.  For information in planning a trip, check out Hamburg Tourist Information

© 2018  Ruth J. Katz  All Rights Reserved

The post Splendid Hamburg appeared first on Traveling Archive.