Erfurt - possibly the most beautiful children ' s Christmas choir in the world

Walking around Erfurt is surreal . The amount of beautiful people per hundred metres of cobblestone you will see , is so ridiculous that even if I tell you , you won't even believe me until you see it with your own eyes .

Guess the best example is to show you this children's choir .

Pretty kids

Handbrot - happy is winter

You will not need a hand warmer when you hold a Handbrot in your hand .

The warmth that you feel will not only make you smile ,

it sets off a little sparkler sizzle that makes you so content and happy as if you were next to a special fireplace listening to the wood crackle .

Baumkuchen - German spit cake on firewood

Well here's yet another " new " discovery which is not exactly new because this has been around for a long time already , just that it is new to me . If you have gone on a gourmet spree through Tokyo , you would have probably seen this in a glitzy Ginza mall , churned out in very pristine surrounds .

What I am about to show you next is closely related to kürtőskalács , the Hungarian chimney spit cake . Baumkuchen is also a spit cake , and while they do have modern ovens to do the job , I'm sure there is nothing more magical than watching it being molded into shape over firewood , at a German Christmas Market .

Prager Grillschinken - beauty and some ham

We had a lot of free time to slowly explore all closely connected Christmas Markets in Dresden on foot . This stall is located along the quieter perimeters of the 2nd market , we visited ( there are altogether 5 in this area alone ).

Brisk business as you can see from the crowd .

Prager means Prague and Schinken is ham ....you put two and two together and it means ham grilled Czech style .

Dresden Weihnachtsmarkt - Flammlachshütte woodfire fish on a plank

Dresden's Christmas Market is so fairytale like on one hand and then on the other end of the spectrum , you have such fantastic shopping streets , this city is something serious shoppers and foodies, should place high on the bucket list .

Flammlachs is wood fire ( flamm ) grilled salmon ( lachs ) . The hut ( hütte ) itself draws you in like a magnet due to the warmth generated by the firewood and then when you see how nicely the fish is cooking , your tummy makes some noises , some saliva appears at the corner of your lips , driving you a little mad with desire , causing your wallet to magically float out without hesitation . 

Leipzig Weihnachtsmarkt - fisch that was not a fish

Think I'm getting the hang of placing yet another wrong order .

If I am not wrong , anything you think they are selling , that you would not expect them to be selling because you haven't got an internet connection to check the word out , those items , are placed on the far right of the display case .

Erfurt Weihnachtsmarkt - what on earth did we just eat ?

All pumped up from our Christmas Market food adventures so far , naturally we thought nothing of falling into line where the locals congregated .

That's how we found this little stall called BratWerk near the river that runs under the pedestrian footpath .

Nuremberg Christkindlesmarkt - tiny speciality Queen of bratwursts to King sized ones

Going through my pictures , I will probably have to recompile some of them together later . 

But for now , I'm still trying to get my bearings straight and am gathering them one by one .

( I already have a dedicated post for Schwensteak , my favourite , most fantastic German dish I ever ate in the whole wide world , so go look that up )

We tried soooo many delicious , strange and new items at all the 10 Christmas markets we went to and I ate everything as long as my tummy could fit it in , yet German food is so good for your metabolism , and organic too , I lost such a lot of weight during the time I was there , if you ever come here and don't eat , want to stick to a diet , aisey ....what is the point hah ?

German food is really good for you !

Kartoffelpuffer are German potato pancakes

Everywhere I turned , there was at least one of these stalls swamped with people , just waiting to get their fill . In the end , I succumbed .

We're not gonna leave Frankfurt without trying a Kartoffelpuffer today .

We Are All Berliners

Those who perished were not forgotten . And those who showed up to show their support were not afraid .

There were just so many ways for you to leave a message of condolence or support .

 I chose to leave my signature on this board outside the fringes of the Breitscheidplatz .

Pullman Dresden Newa

There were two more cities ( including Dresden ) left for us to cover on the tour and while each city turned out to be even better than the next , I really couldn't say the same about the hotel rooms assigned to us .

Some had grand lobbies , impressive dining services , others resembled motels most times . With

nothing exciting to look forward to , thus oldish , functional , working , with a good heater as well as hot water , was most important , what we had to make do with .

And then we came to Dresden . Several of us were assigned a special Christmas project so I thought that when I went up , I wouldn't be involved . Awww too bad eh ?

However , as I was oohing and aahing in delight at the room , I got a call from the reception requesting that I draw the shades for the Christmas light up project .

10 German Christmas markets visited by me

Before I lose track of the main objective of my winter sojourn into Germany , it was specifically to go visit the famous Christmas markets .

I can now proudly claim that " I've done it " and knock the following off my bucket list .

This is a " me " post . So don't say I didn't warn you . Will cover each in depth later ( when I feel like it , if ever hah )

1. Frankfurt - first night I fell in love with schwenk steak . Can't believe I said that . 

Had a go on the 2 tier merry go round and slowly meandered through 4 connecting markets .

Try to spot spooky ole me .

Merry Christmas everybody !

I finally met a German santa ,all the way up at the Fernsehturm , better known as the Berlin

TV Tower .

Yes , you read right ...Berlin folks . I was there the morning after the truck incident at the Christmas Market in Breitscheidplatz . 

An insta diary of my winter journey

Can't imagine what I'd do without this app  .

Posting up the photo diary first folks .

Since I was taking Qatar Airways , KLIA was my point of departure . 

Obsessed with schwenk steak

Before I begin , I'd like you to know that I'm not exactly fond of pork back home . Because of poor quality feeds and very unsanitary conditions , it not only affects the smell of the meat , it can be a major turn off !

However , I decided to brave it and the very first schwenk steak we tried in Frankfurt was so darned good that we decided to sink our fangs into one whenever there was space left in our tummies and in whichever city or small town we found ourselves in next .

Starting with this grill we found near the Galleria 

Amazing scenes direct from Frankfurt's 2016 Christmas Market

Yes ! I've finally made it here !

First via the super fabulous Qatar which treats economy fliers with gold standard hospitality .

Then through the German rail system which was a bit of a trouble to decipher and crack at first but thanks to the many friendly and helpful people I found , ( along with internet posts you see alongside the wall of my blog page ) , we made it out of the airport to our hotel outside Frankfurt and then all the way to the famous Christmas Market in Frankfurt !

First leg

I'm retyping this from Hamad International Airport , Doha , Qatar ( beautiful new airport btw ) as I accidentally deleted my earlier post and am having trouble posting because everything on my blogpost is backwards and  in Arabic  

إضافة تسمية توضيحية

It's actually pretty hilarious . Anyway the