On the evening of Dec. 4th, MIL and I weren't as exhausted as everyone else, so we left the men and children and walked a few blocks to the Strassenbahn (electric train). We took it to Bismarckplatz, on the western (I think) end of Heidelberg's main street.
This street is the mile-long Hauptstrasse. I rather like this write-up of it. That link also has some better pictures than I thought to take.
The Hauptstrasse would be impressive any day in any season, especially to someone like me (I've never been to NYC, Paris, etc.). The buildings are huge, many very old, and storefronts glitter with every purchasable item imaginable. Chocolate shops, bakeries, and pharmacies seemed to take up more than their fair share of the street, but there were clothing stores aplenty, restaurants, parfumeries - you name it and it was there. I even saw a Pizza Hut and a Subway. (As if I'd go there with authentic German food next door! :-p)
There's a huge department store near Bismarckplatz as you cross the streets to continue down the Hauptstrasse - it's the Kaufhof Galleria, and you could get lost in there! I was dazzled by everything I saw in there - huge Weihnachtsmann (Christmas Man - Santa) chocolate figurines, elaborate displays everywhere - it was amazing. (And dogs wandering in and out of the fine china and glassware, of course...I still can't get over that.)
Add the Weihnachtsmarkt to the already impressive street, and you have a truly singular experience. Most of the major German cities do some form of Christmas market, but I liked Heidelberg's the best - it was big and had a more festive air than some of the others we saw.
Ok, pictures! I know that's what you really wanted to see anyway, right?
Here are the few decent shots I have of the Weihnachtsmarkt in Heidelberg (I did much better with the next few places we visited, I promise!) - This is a small part of one of five or so groups of market stands for the festival:
This guy was out there every day (no, that's not water on the ground around him) - sometimes he had two or three of these flaming sticks in the air at once:
There were a lot of street performers, mostly musicians, on the Hauptstrasse. I wish I had taken a picture of this one guy playing the pan flute - he was awesome!
Germans take their desserts very seriously, although most of their confections aren't as sweet as the typical American dessert. They're certainly full-flavored though! There was one of these stands for about every four other stands of all the other kinds. :-D
I usually stopped at one stand for Flammkuchen (a sort of tortilla pizza with bacon, a white sour cream-based sauce, and onions) and another for my dessert. By the time my last day rolled around, the guys in the pastry stand automatically switched to English when they saw me coming. :-D
I think this picture turned out well. It's the Heidelberg Christmas tower, and each of those red candle things is almost the height of a full-grown man, to give you some idea of size (you can see the people in the very bottom of the picture - the thing is huge!). It turned slowly, and the figures in it moved. Very, very cool.
Like I said, I did much better with pictures later on - check that link for more pics of Heidelberg's Hauptstrasse. I visited every chance I got, even venturing out on my own the day before we left, just so I could stroll this endearing street one more time.
