Aachen Christmas Markets! 🎅🏾 Mulled Wine, Wurst & Sauerkraut | Germany Winter Bike Tour

Days 280-281. 88km (93,829kms 8yrs)

A big day ahead had me out on the road a little after sunrise in order to cover the 80kms to Aachen within daylight hours. A climb of no more than 100m got me warmed up, after which it was flat for pretty much the rest of the day.

Though the weather was grey and miserable it remained basically dry. On the flat plains there was no barrier to slow the wind coming from the west, so I spent much of the morning with my head down.

In the afternoon I co-ordinated to meet my friend Dan who gamely left the warm to ride the final few kilometres with me into Aachen. Here I spent a cosy evening along with wife Gudrun catching up on the 6 years since we’d last met.

It had appeared I would just miss the famous German Christmas markets, but on discovering I could catch the first day of the ones in Aachen I’d rejigged my timetable a little. So after a superb German breakfast of good fresh breads, cheeses, and cut meats I set out on a beautiful crisp 2C day to ride the few kilometres into the city where the markets were in full swing. At first it was easy enough to wheel the bike about the marketplace between cathedral and town hall, so I checked out all the stalls of local foods and crafts, enjoying a lunch of sauerkraut and wurst. But as night fell – around 5pm this far west – things really began to pick up. I tried a glass of white Glühwein – the unappealing local name for the excellent mulled wine. In the UK I’ve only been familiar with red mulled wine so this was a delicious discovery.

I couldn’t stay long though, I had an appointment with Warm Showers hosts Mahdi and Myriam – an Iranian student couple who’d prepared a feast of Persian foods for me, including one of my absolute favourites – zerersk pollo – in their student dorm. Throughout the evening I was transported back to this beautiful land and culture. What a fantastic food day to complete my trip across Germany. Netherlands AND Belgium tomorrow!

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