dresden christmas markets

The Dresden Christmas markets deserve a post of their own.

In total we visited 5: the Advent am Neumarkt next to our apartment (pictured above), the medieval market on our way to Residenzschloss, the Striezelmarkt (the main one) and smaller ones at Munzgasse and near the Frauenkirche. I like that most stalls still sell local or handcrafted items, but I couldn't help comparing prices with the ones we'd been to in Bayern: it's way more expensive to buy these things in Dresden.

The medieval market was especially nice and my favorite one, I think because it was enclosed by such beautiful buildings, and everyone was dressed in period costumes.

Or maybe because I found a stall that was selling handspun yarn. I bought 3 skeins, they were irresistible.

The smaller ones near the Frauenkirche and Munzgasse were quieter and not so crowded...

We went a couple of times to the main Christmas market at the Altmarkt (the Striezelmarkt). This is a huge market, almost comparable to my favorite one in Nuremberg. I particularly loved the children's area and the gingerbread house. There were a lot of events going on, and I was sorry to see that we had missed the Stollen festival by a week. The Dresden Stollen is the most famous one, a sort of moist fruitcake which is the main specialty at all the local markets. We tried one on our last day and although I'm not usually a fan of fruitcakes I can say I quite enjoyed this one.

More photos on Flickr: Prague, Dresden.