Digital Wanderer

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Valencia — 19, Christmas markets in the Netherlands, and caffeine madness

 2023-04-06

In the Netherlands, there is a tradition of holding Christmas markets on weekends, probably copied from Germany. Even so, locals say the markets in Germany are better and travel over there. But the local stuff is plenty for us. The next evening, we scooped up another friend and hit up one of these markets. It was super cute: little stalls, lively dancing, mulled wine, which they call here, traditional local dishes—croquettes, and, of course, sausages with braised sauerkraut. Our Christmas spirit levels instantly shot up so high that we went and knocked back some mulled wine in a noisy tavern.

We took a trip to another town that has a big cave where they apparently also celebrate, but we didn't get into the cave—I forget why now. Apparently it was closed because a carnival procession was happening right in the town center. We caught only a passing glimpse of it because we were starving and scouting around for something to chow down on. All the restaurants were booked solid, so in the end we scarfed down some fried mushrooms and croquettes from a temporary wooden stall.

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