Ravenna Gorge Christmas Market

This was one of the Christmas markets I was most looking forward to. It’s in Ravenna Gorge in the Black Forest in Germany, right under a viaduct that is all lit up at night. My brother clued us into this place and it was awesome! In fact, while we were there Chris told me this was when he felt like it was Christmas (this was after an entire week in Alsace visiting various markets so that’s saying something) – I think he used the word “magical” and I completely agree! It took some advance work to get here and it was so worth it. I had to sign up for a newsletter to know when the tickets went on sale – a newsletter that is only in German so thank goodness for google translate!! Then you have to book a timed entry – it’s pretty minimal cost (€ 8.50 per person including the shuttle) but it is limited, which helps keep it less crowded. There are 3 towns you can get a shuttle from (or you can book extremely limited parking, plan to take a taxi, or walk down through the gorge).

We stayed in Hinterzarten at this awesome hotel called Nation (https://naturion.de) – it was a B&B with a great breakfast (but note it is cash only – I made the reservation online but you pay at checkout and I had to run into town for the ATM!).

While we were waiting to check in to our hotel, we stopped at a bar in town called S’Pfännle Hinterzarten (https://www.spfaennle.de/spfaennle.html) to have coffee and cake (Kaffee und Kuchen) – and we decided we had to try Black Forest Cake since we were in the Black Forest. It was so good! It was flavorful and surprisingly light – and also not overly sweet. Kaffee and Kuchen is a cool German tradition that I think we should embrace in the US! https://www.iamexpat.de/lifestyle/lifestyle-news/a-guide-germanys-kaffee-und-kuchen-tradition

We took a shuttle to the market from the Hinterzarten train station (a 10-15 min walk from our hotel). We got to the market while it was still light and were there when it got dark so it was a perfect time of day. This market is only open on weekends – we just happened to be going this direction (from Colmar to Munich) on a Friday so we spent a night here and got to see this market.

Tickets opened about 2 months prior – I was neurotically refreshing their website from New Orleans to get tickets (incidentally the site crashed when it opened!). But my persistent paid off! (https://www.hochschwarzwald.de/en/christmas-market-in-the-ravenna-gorge)

I feel like we saw this theme throughout our trip but this viaduct stayed intact from Allied bombing in WW2 (stuff around it was hit) but then the Germans destroyed some of it in their retreat to hinder Allied advancement. Thankfully they reconstructed it.

There was a path you could walk up to see the nativity scenes.

And the market was right along a creek.

You could also walk up the hill for an awesome view of the market and the viaduct (although it was a semi-treacherous walk – especially coming down in the dark!)

This particular market has a lot of local artisan booths (I believe it is considered an arts market). It was also the best spätzle we had anywhere. You could get it with cranberry sauce on top which I had never seen.