10 Best Gluehwein European River cruise Christmas markets
Have you ever just wanted to visit the European Christmas markets, especially if you live in the southern hemisphere? Well the best way to do it is on a river boat cruise, take my word for it. It's so easy as everything is taken care of, your food, your tours, your transport and your accommodation. Unpack once and that's it, how good is that. This leaves you time to spend wandering those beautiful markets with the smells of spices, gingerbread, roasting chestnuts, sugar roasted nuts and warmed mulled wine wafting through the air as you gaze at the myriad of handcrafted toys & Christmas decorations of every description as well as food stalls with so many different types of food depending on the country you are in. Germany is famous for it's markets and quite rightly claim they have the best ones but don't let this put you off seeing the others as some are very serious contenders and in the end you would be hard pressed to name your favourite one.
I was very fortunate to take a 15 day Christmas market river cruise with APT late November 2019 with my 86 yr old mother and we had a ball. We took our task seriously of finding the best mulled wine or Gluehwein as it's called and here are our results.
Budapest Score 7/10
Our first city was Budapest (pronounced Boo-da-pesht) as that was where we joined our ship. Sitting on the river Danube, Buda is on the hilly side of the river along with the castle & it's cobbled streets & colourful houses while Pest is sprawling on the other side along with the main city shops, houses of Parliament and the market. The main Christmas market is located in Volosmarty Square. It's not particularly large but also not overly crowded. Located near the river it was an easy walk from where the river boats dock, approx 20 mins. The stalls looked like gingerbread houses in the snow and mostly were situated around the square with some stalls going down the side streets. Lots of craft stalls with unique handmade wares, Christmas decorations, pottery & porcelain pieces. Down one side of the square was the food stalls with lashings of Hungarian goulash, pork knuckles, suckling pig, roasted goose legs, stuffed peppers, marzipan balls, gingerbread and of course the vats of hot mulled wine or hot chocolate. It was cold but the warm wine & food was comforting and it had the feel of a real European winter with people rugged up in furs & boots gazing at the glorious Christmas lights and a magnificent Christmas tree. The advantage of the days being so short is you get to see the lights so much earlier in the day, by 4pm it's quite dark.
At this market it was all about the vats containing the wine & not the vessel you drunk from which was only a polystyrene cup. We tried the hot mulled red wine and also the Hot beer with honey & cherry. My advice is to stick with the wine. The chimney cakes are also one to look out for.
We scored this market a 7 out of 10.
Definition of Gluehwein:
Glühwein is usually prepared from red wine, heated and spiced with cinnamon sticks, cloves, star aniseed, citrus, sugar and at times vanilla pods. It is sometimes drunk mit Schuss (with a shot), which means that rum or some other liquor has been added.
I was very fortunate to take a 15 day Christmas market river cruise with APT late November 2019 with my 86 yr old mother and we had a ball. We took our task seriously of finding the best mulled wine or Gluehwein as it's called and here are our results.
Budapest Score 7/10
Our first city was Budapest (pronounced Boo-da-pesht) as that was where we joined our ship. Sitting on the river Danube, Buda is on the hilly side of the river along with the castle & it's cobbled streets & colourful houses while Pest is sprawling on the other side along with the main city shops, houses of Parliament and the market. The main Christmas market is located in Volosmarty Square. It's not particularly large but also not overly crowded. Located near the river it was an easy walk from where the river boats dock, approx 20 mins. The stalls looked like gingerbread houses in the snow and mostly were situated around the square with some stalls going down the side streets. Lots of craft stalls with unique handmade wares, Christmas decorations, pottery & porcelain pieces. Down one side of the square was the food stalls with lashings of Hungarian goulash, pork knuckles, suckling pig, roasted goose legs, stuffed peppers, marzipan balls, gingerbread and of course the vats of hot mulled wine or hot chocolate. It was cold but the warm wine & food was comforting and it had the feel of a real European winter with people rugged up in furs & boots gazing at the glorious Christmas lights and a magnificent Christmas tree. The advantage of the days being so short is you get to see the lights so much earlier in the day, by 4pm it's quite dark.
At this market it was all about the vats containing the wine & not the vessel you drunk from which was only a polystyrene cup. We tried the hot mulled red wine and also the Hot beer with honey & cherry. My advice is to stick with the wine. The chimney cakes are also one to look out for.
We scored this market a 7 out of 10.
Definition of Gluehwein:
Glühwein is usually prepared from red wine, heated and spiced with cinnamon sticks, cloves, star aniseed, citrus, sugar and at times vanilla pods. It is sometimes drunk mit Schuss (with a shot), which means that rum or some other liquor has been added.
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