Christmas Road Trip 2014: All Roads Lead to Bled, Slovenia

Merry Christmas! Frohe Weihnachten! Joyeux Noel!

For the last four years, my husband and I have lived in Luxembourg and Germany. We have done an awful lot of traveling, but I never took the time to write about our experience. My husband made the suggestion when we first moved to Europe that I should write a blog, but I thought who would care what I had to say. But, then I thought about it, what happens when I get old? Will I remember all of our experiences and how much fun would it be to read my own stories 20 years from now.

Christmas is one of the best times to explore Europe, as well as a time to celebrate new and old traditions. As a new tradition, I have decided to start Tannis' Christmas Blog. During the holidays for the last couple of years, we have taken road trips across Europe. Last year, for example, we took a10-day road trip to Prague, Czech Republic. We really enjoyed exploring Eastern Europe and this year we decided to explore it even more. Over the next 8 days, I hope you will follow us as we travel to Bled, Slovenia.

Before we hit the road, we kicked our Christmas holidays off with the majestic sounds of the annual Children's Choir Christmas Concert at the Cologne Dom in Cologne, Germany.

Children's Choir - Cologne Dom

On December 23rd, we left Bonn, Germany and started our journey with our first stop in Stuttgart, Germany.

For over 300 years, Stuttgart has hosted one of the oldest Christmas Markets in Germany. Visiting the various Christmas Markets in Germany is always a fun experience. Each one is different, which gives you a glimpse of the traditions for that region. In Bonn, one of the things that we look forward to every year is the Flamm Lachs mit Brot (Salmon cooked over a fire with French bread). In Cologne, we enjoy the Bratwurst and Gluhwein. In Stuttgart, they had a Flamm Mackerel. My husband likes fish, but not when you have to pick the bones out yourself so we didn't try it. Instead, we tried their version of Flamm Lach, and it was nothing like Bonn's.