Birmingham's Frankfurt Christmas Market

For the past eleven years, Birmingham has celebrated the Christmas season by putting on the Frankfurt Christmas Market.  It has become the biggest outside market in England, and is in fact the largest authentic German market outside of Germany.

Did you know?: The market is named the Frankfurt Christmas Market to celebrate Birmingham's partnership with Frankfurt, Germany, they have been twin cities for more than 40 years.

Being a huge lover of Christmas, naturally Birmingham's Christmas Market has been on my to do list since I arrived in England and I was finally able tick it off! This past weekend joined by our friends, Sam and Marta, we made our way to Birmingham's City Centre to kick off the Christmas season! If you are thinking of attending the Frankfurt Christmas Market or just want to know more about it, here are the five top things I learned:

Start your experience with a Weiss (wheat) beer! The Germans know how to make good quality beer and the Christmas market is filled with stalls offering just that. You'll pay around £4 a pint, plus a £3 deposit on the tankard which you can either get back at the end or keep the glass. Some stalls do offer the option to have your beer in plastic cups but I'd recommend going for the proper experience!

Attend the Frankfurt Christmas Market on an empty stomach. Trust me when I say you will not go hungry at the market, never have I seen so many food stalls in my life. Start out with a Bratwurst or Frankfurter which you can top with all your favourite condiments served from what can only be likened to cow's udders. These are not your average size sausages, one stall was selling the sausage by the half-metre!

If you are not a fan of German sausages there are plenty of stalls serving up hog roasts in a Brötchen (roll) with Bratkartoffeln (fried potatoes) and Sauerkraut on the side! If you were foolish enough to eat before arriving at the market there are plenty of snack items as well such as; Brezels (pretzels) and that Yuletide favourite - roast chestnuts! For those with a sweet tooth save room for candied nuts, gingerbread, chocolates, and my personal favourite - a Waffeln (waffle) topped with Nutella!

Warm up with a hot chocolate or Glühwein (mulled wine). "If the weather outside is frightful" then nothing can be more delightful than a hot drink! You'll find the stalls offer more than your average mug of hot chocolate. You can get anything from brandy to Baileys added, as well as marshmallows and cream. Glühwein is a traditional Christmas hot drink made of  red wine and various spices such as cinnamon and cloves. Either are the perfect drink to warm you up on a cold winter's night.

Get some Christmas shopping done. It was not just the food stalls that caught my eye, there is plenty more to see! You can find traditional Christmas decorations like nutcrackers, of all shapes and sizes and wreaths. Besides the festive gifts you can also find things like handmade jewellery, candles, and woolly hats. The market is a great place to find unique gifts and inspiration for those hard to buy for people.

End your day by playing some carnival games. There is a little fun fair on one end of the Christmas market with a ferris wheel, giant swing, and of course some carnival games. I would strongly encourage you to make this your last stop for the day, because if you are lucky enough to win a prize they are huge! You will not be wanting to walk through the crowded market all day with it, trust me from experience.

Erin x

Birmingham's Frankfurt Christmas Market is from now until 22 December and open Monday-Friday, 10:00am to 09:00pm. Entry is free.

Where'd You Go? -- A Quick Recap

They say “time flies when you’re having fun”, well that is the understatement of the century. It’s hard for me to believe it is already April, it seems like just yesterday I was back in Vegas trying to arrange a wedding for early January. Now three months on I’m once again in the middle of wedding prep, this time for a wedding reception being arranged by Luke’s mum to celebrate with family and friends who were unable to attend our Vegas festivities at such short notice. Happily, my mum and Dan will be able to join the English lot in the festivities and will be around for a few days before continuing their European adventures in Amsterdam. Lucky sods! Also joining the ‘roast beefs’ will be Domi from France and Luke and I couldn’t be more thrilled. It was Domi who introduced us, she was my host mother and Luke’s boss, because of this she calls herself the marraine (godmother) of our relationship. Unfortunately Yann, my petit-frère, won’t be able to join her but as Domi says, that just means they’ll both have to come out and visit again. I am really looking forward to the reception and it is so close now!

Since I last wrote there has been an American invasion in the form of my friend Amy, who I’ve known since we were wee tots of nine. It was great to catch up with her and show her my new home.  Luke, Amy, and I spent two days in London, courtesy of Amy’s mom and the rest of the time she stayed with us in Worcester. Amy and I had a couple of lovely day trips as well. One to Stratford, Shakespeare’s birthplace, where we walked along the river and I introduced her to Pimm’s (a typically English summer drink). Another was to Birmingham’s Bull Ring for some much needed retail therapy. Amy will be back this summer with her family, so if things go as planned we’ll get the opportunity to pop into London and see her again.

Tower Bridge after our boat cruise on the River Thames

Jetlag - 1, Amy - 0

Cherry Blossoms in Stratford

Erin x

Bicycle Race

It has been a pretty busy week this week up in Manchester, filled with lots of interesting experiences. My time in Manchester is done for now though, which I have mixed feelings about. I enjoyed my time in Manchester but I am also looking forward to living down South. Currently I'm sitting in a Starbucks in Birmingham while Luke has a job interview before we meet up with Lindsay and head to Warwickshire.

The weather has continued to be lovely, which Luke and I have been taking full advantage of. Been watching a lot of footie (that's football aka soccer for all you Yanks) and having barbecues. I'm also proud to announce that both the USA and England are moving forward to the knock-out round in the World Cup. USA at top of the group no less, not bad considering many thought they might not make it to the next stage.

Sunday was of course Father's Day and we spent it with Luke's granddad at Luke's aunt's house in Middlewich (a town about on hour outside of Manchester). It just so happened that this weekend Middlewich was hosting a boat festival (it sits on a canal), so after our lunch buffet Luke and I walked down to have a look about. It was interesting, mainly because of the people watching, there were a lot of gypsies (gypos) about, one even with a horse tied to the side of their boat!

Perhaps one of the most enjoyable things to happen this week was on Monday. Luke and I joined Ben and Helen, his flatmates, for a bicycle ride to Reddish to do a spot of fishing. What's more impressive is we biked eight miles to accomplish this, I haven't ridden a bike since I was nine except one small bike ride in Sardinia last year to the store which was less than a mile away. Ben let me use his new bike to make up for my disadvantage. We caught a few things, not as much we expected but at least we caught something this time! The ride back was rough, my backside was extremely sore and a few of the hills left me feeling out of shape but the accomplishment of the long bike ride was worth it!

Wednesday had an eventful ending to the day, Luke and I were just deciding what Family Guy episode to watch to fall asleep to when we hear the startled shouts of Ben from downstairs, "HELEN!" We looked to each other in confusion before a second shout came from Ben, "HELEN, BRING WET TOWELS!!!" Luke realized what was happening before I did. Sure enough as we ran downstairs and into the kitchen we were greeted by a massive cloud of smoke as the smoke detectors started going crazy.

The small fire had already been taken care of by the time Luke and I arrived, but the amount of smoke it created was unreal. Ben had turned the grill on intending to make a late-night snack before deciding to just have a bowl of cereal, and had completely forgotten to turn it off. So, Helen and I ran around the house opening all the windows and doors while Luke fanned the smoke out and Ben kept turning the smoke alarm off. We'd been at this for about two minutes when Luke's last remaining housemate, Adam, came downstairs in his dressing gown rubbing his eyes and utterly confused. An amusing end to the day to be sure.

Today is Friday, and like I said I'm sitting in Starbucks waiting for Luke's mum to arrive, which should be any moment. Luke should be done with his interview in a half hour and then the three of us are going to do a spot of shopping before Lindsay drives us back to Southam, where Neil will pick us up from tonight. Going to be spending the weekend near Milton Keynes with Neil and Nicola, which I'm excited for, haven't seen them since Christmas!

Erin x