9 Days, 9 Countries, 9 Christmas Markets (part 1)

Over the next nine days, we are going to be traveling to nine different countries, all by train to visit the best Christmas markets in all of Europe. Always exciting. Nothing is booked yet, so this is all subject to change. But the current plan is to start here in Brussels, Belgium, then head to the Netherlands, Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia. And that's as far as I've gotten in all my planning. This has to be the most bizarre Christmas tradition in all of Europe.

And then at the end of our night, magical mulled wine, delicious food, Christmas filled days later, we're going to rank all the Christmas markets and let you know what we think is the best one in all of Europe. It's a tough job. Somebody's gotta do it.

Friesland. I'm about to wait in line for probably at least 30 minutes. Best for fries.

Day one.

Here we go. For those of you who don't know, Belgium actually claims to have invented what we call the French fry. So this is a local experience.

And do you know how hard it is to break the habit of saying French fry? I've called these French fries so many times.

Also, apparently in Belgium, you don't eat ketchup with your fries. I made that mistake yesterday, and all the Belgians said you have to have it with mayonnaise. So I. I asked the guy and he said, samurai sauce, which kind of tastes like spicy mayo. Big fan. But in the US it's ketchup all day, every day.

And they're French fries.

Those are french fries.

No.

Oh.

Oh, they're getting wet. It was almost the perfect start. If it was like 3 degrees colder, this would be so magical.

I'm still having fun.

You can't complain when you're eating French fries at a Christmas market.

Belgian, Belgian, Belgian.

Just feel like somebody's gonna come out of nowhere and tackle me.

Me. I cannot believe this gets to be our life for the next.

We are going to gain so much weight. No, we're walking, dipping French fries. And mayo feels so fat.

So in addition to french fries, Belgium is also known for a lot of weather. Dang it. I promise I'm not doing this on purpose. Belgium is also known for several other unhealthy things. Belgian waffles, Belgian beer, Belgian chocolate. So in addition to visiting the Christmas markets today, we want to check those four things off the list.

Yeah, we should be training for this.

Somebody's got to do it. For some reason, that guy collecting the trash reminds me of the beginning of Monty Python where they're like, bring out your dad.

Bring out your dad. So it's obligatory in Brussels to come to this fountain, which is a little boy peeing. So here we are.

I was actually reading on the Internet today to, like, tell the story. And it's just like, they put it up one time and it became a thing. People stole it, they put it back up. They built a better one. The real one's in a museum somewhere.

You're in for a treat.

See, he is literally a symbol of the city.

Looks like your bachelorette party.

Whoa.

I like it.

It's called Alambic. It has one of the longest brewing times in the world of any other beer because it goes through spontaneous fermentation. So yeast just, like, appears out of the air, and then it happens.

There were people in Belgium who loved catching fish out of the river and frying the fish. And one day, the river was frozen and they fried potatoes. Fry was born in 1680 in Namur.

Wow. It's not raining. The wet streets are reflecting the Christmas lights. And we are heading to the largest market in the city. Bring out your dad.

Game on.

Dang it.

This is not the largest Christmas market, but they had curling, so we had to stop. People won't believe this, but I think Kara actually might be more competitive than I am.

You can do this.

All right. It all comes down to this. Cara's up by one. You've heard of a soar loser? You're ready to see a soar winner. If Kara wins, that's what you're gonna see.

For the.

He's good at everything. He beats me at everything. He couldn't give me just this one time. Is this what I think it is? That's a church. And that is a public urinal. I've never seen this before.

It's the weirdest place I've ever peed.

Ah, escargot.

It's so Christmassy.

This square is pretty incredible. One side, you have this magnificent church. On the other side, there's a merry go round.

It's so cute. I'm so happy.

Enjoy. Wow. It's still warm. I love it. Thank you.

For our American viewers, Belgium does waffles different. There is no option for maple syrup topping. Instead, they bake the sugar and the vanilla right into the waffle. What could be better at a freezing cold Christmas market than a warm, steaming waffle? So, so far today, I've had french fries, a beer waffle. Mmm. No, not again.

Top three waffles I've ever had in my life.

So that's a lot. Man's had a Lot of waffles. I just don't love sweets. It's a bowl made of cheese.

This is definitely not Belgian.

It's literally a Parmesan bowl. And he's put the hot pasta inside and he's stirring it up. It's melting the cheese from the bowl into the pasta. Grazia mille.

Prego. Ciao. Pretty much in Italy.

Very Belgian. I'm so hungry. This is so exciting.

Wow. That feels like old times. This is her post. Pasta dance.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Cheers.

Cheers.

The first of many.

What is the stuff?

Lava. That is glu vine, otherwise known as glow wine. Also used to sterilize medical instruments.

Glu vine is basically hot wine with Christmas spices. I think it's what I associate with Christmas markets the most. Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear.

We're going to be ranking these Christmas markets on a lot of different factors, but this one might be the most important. Yeah.

So this one tastes amazing, but it's in a plastic cup.

And I'm pretty sure I saw them pouring the wine out of a box. Loving the vibe with the parasol.

Should we ride it?

It's way too expensive, as it turns out. Godiva, one of Cara's favorite chocolate brands, is made here in Belgium.

I'm having my Belgian chocolate in the form of Godiva dark hot chocolate.

It's as delicious as it sounds.

What a great country. Belgian beer, Godiva chocolate, French fries. Oh, gosh. Also, the square that we're in is called the Grand Place, and it is indeed grand. I think this might be the most beautiful square in all of Europe. And I know that's a big statement, but every building surrounding the square is incredible. Wow.

This is epic.

So every hour during the Christmas markets, they do a light show on all the buildings in the Grand Place.

So one thing that I thought would be fun as we do the sprint through nine different countries would be to research the Christmas traditions in each country. And Belgium has already been super interesting, at least from an American perspective. So instead of Santa wearing a big red suit here in Belgium, he dresses more like a bishop. He kind of looks like the Pope. And then instead of using reindeers, Santa uses a horse. And the kids leave out carrots and a sugar cube for the horse, and then they leave out milk or a beer for Santa. Also, Santa comes here on December 5th, as opposed to the 25th, and the kids don't hang stockings. They leave their shoes out, and Santa leaves presents in their shoes.

I thought I was just.

Good morning. It is very early. I stayed up way Too late last night, changing all of our plans. But I'll explain shortly because we have a train to catch that we're running late for.

This train station is beautiful.

So the original plan for today was to go from here to Valkenberg, Netherlands, which should have been a short two hour train ride. But instead we are up before 6am starting a nine hour train journey.

Okay, I think we're gonna make it. We still have 15 minutes to find our next train.

We're gonna make it. We don't even have time for Starbucks.

So last night I got a message from a guy named Chris who said, I hope you're coming to Salzburg for the Krampus run. And I was like, wonder what that is. It looked like the most unique thing I've seen at any Christmas market ever in all of Europe, of all the ones I've read about. Also, it's still raining.

Again.

Wow, it's snowing in Germany.

All right, three hours later, we have made it to Frankfurt. We have 15 minutes to find our next train. And if I'm lucky, get a pretzel. If you've never had a German pretzel before, add it to your list of things to do before you die.

We're looking for the 9:50 train to Munich.

It's 14 minutes delayed, but on platform number nine.

Perfect. Thank you.

You're welcome. So our train in Munich was delayed by 14 minutes. So the good news was we had plenty of time for a pretzel. The bad news is now we only have two minutes to make our connection. Once we get to Munich, US attending a Krampus run is in jeopardy. Also, I don't think I did a very good job of explaining this morning, but the Krampus run in Salzburg only happens be to once a year. And that's why we're having to make this crazy sprint today. And we're throwing off all of our plans.

All right. Oh, that's a bummer. Or seat the house.

All right, from here we have two hours to municipal.

I'm attempting to plan tonight and tomorrow, hopefully on this train. I can't believe we just threw everything out the window last night.

And it's only day two.

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Well, so much for German efficiency. The trains ended up being 30 minutes late. We've already missed our connection. So now we have to figure out how to get on the next train to Salzburg.

Grandpus. You better be good.

We're running for a train that we don't even know if we can get on. But it leaves him four minutes.

Got bad news. I just talked to a guy. He said Salzburg train cancelled. Nilch, no more.

I've always wanted to go to the Christmas markets in Munich.

That's the spirit, Nate. I hadn't even thought about the fact that they have them here.

It really feels like our luck is running out. We're having a good time.

Should we do it?

Might as well try.

It's like the same amount that we had to pay for our hotel and we lose our hotel if we don't go and we have to buy another hotel here. So in a crazy way, it's cheaper.

No way. Someone accepted.

We might be taking an Uber to Austria. I'm not fully convinced that this Uber driver understands what they just accepted.

Did he just leave?

I think you realized that we were going to Austria.

We have called a second Uber. All right. Uber's actually here trying to strike a balance between going fast and not slipping on the ice.

Are you okay to go to Salzburg? Yeah. Great. Thank you so much. No problem.

Okay. You? Austria? Yeah. Yes. Something. Salzburg.

Salzburg.

Is this the longest trip you've ever taken? My longest trip. Turn. I drive. How many hours? Six. Wow.

That makes me feel a little better. Nice work.

So much.

Now.

We made it. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Yeah. Was it worth it?

Yes. I love it. Here.

So far, it feels much more intimate than Brussels.

It has been 12 hours since we left our hotel room this morning.

Oh, what a great surprise, though. The lady gave us champagne to check in. I think she could tell we had a long day. All right, we're gonna throw on all of our layers and then hit the streets. I can't believe it.

Where is no Krampus?

No Krampus is yet, but the Salzburg Christmas market is amazing.

It is a completely different vibe than Brussels so far. I don't know how to explain it. It's something about it feels more, like, quaint and, like, local, even though I know it's not. I'm sure we're surrounded by tourists, but.

It'S all kind of, like, compacted. Everything seems be to be decorated a little bit nicer.

They're playing, like, traditional, like, organs instead of, like, KE on the speakers.

We still have an hour and a half until the canvases come out.

I just caught sight of the glue vine cups.

Oh, it smells so good. Let's go number one. Oh, my God, it's so cute.

How good is this?

We did it. It was all worth it.

How much better is a mug than a plastic cup?

Oh, I would say it tastes better too. It might just be the cup, but.

I think it might be better.

It's definitely better.

Cheers.

Cheers.

So warm my hand. Exactly 14 years ago, according to Facebook, we went to Vienna and experienced Europe and Christmas markets for the very first time. I never even heard of a Christmas market until 2014, and we've literally been dreaming of doing this trip ever since. 2014. So the fact that we're here, especially back in Austria, like, I can just cry.

Let's go find some food.

Dish number one in Salzburg. I'm going to be honest, I have no idea what this is called. It's a big fried pancake with sauerkraut on top. And I heard that you're supposed to eat this, so this might be my only chance of enjoying what's considered a pancake because it has sauerkraut. Okay, here we go.

Is this Cara liking fried dough?

I don't know what they fried this in, but I'm in love with it.

Whoa. Ooh.

Those bells sound ominous.

The krampus.

Could be the krampus.

We came to this market prepared with a list of Austrian Christmas market classic dishes that we had to try, and we're just walking around trying to find all the foreign words that we don't even really know what they are. But Nate just found Kaiser Smartsh.

It was described on the Internet as cut up pancakes with Christmas spices. Apples, apples, raisins. And it looks like she just put applesauce all over the top of it.

Almost lost an eyeball.

Turns out we weren't the only ones who had the idea to come out and see Krampus.

The Krampuses are coming.

Can you imagine what it would be like to be a child at Christmas?

Trauma typing. Why?

Oh, she's been taken by the Christmas. Please put me in a headboard.

I thought this would be like a haunted house in the US where they couldn't actually touch you.

My face was in his soggy, hairy armpit.

So worth everything we went through today to get here.

Wow.

They've just let him loose in the streets.

I think she likes me.

Oh, oh, I got a whip. I got a whip.

What is the switch?

Take her.

Take her. You can have her. I don't know how I feel about this.

So we were talking to a local who was telling us this is the biggest Krampus run, but this is like where the tourists come, so they're extra nice. She said she had bruises on her legs that lasted until February last year.

I think it just kind of hit my Krampus limit. I don't like being touched by guys growling at me with whips.

There's a lot of different waves coming through. You'll see a guy carrying a sign at the beginning. And it's each village that's bringing their Krampuses here to Salzburg. I'm glad we got to see the Salzburg market for like 30 minutes before, before they came out so we could get like the nice Christmasy version of it before the chaos ensued.

Imagine if we just showed up, like during this.

Wow, that one got me pretty hard.

Did you take it? Oh, my gosh.

Good morning. We ended last night with a walk up to the fortress overlooking the town. Wow, spooky.

Yeah, it is.

And then this morning I woke up and booked train tickets to Nuremberg, Germany, going back through Munich because it said the trains were running. And then 15 minutes after I booked the tickets, I've now gotten six messages alerting me to all the nudeless place.

All right, we are crossing our fingers and heading to the train station. I think we forgot to mention we left our huge backpacks in Brussels. In fact, everything we need for the next nine days in these tiny backpacks. Goodbye, Salsburg. I hear that Salsburg is surrounded by the Alps, but we'll never know. We'll never know the invisible else. You like that?

It's Too cloudy to see anything. I'm pretty sure it has not stopped raining since we started filming this video.

High shoes. Definitely not waterproof.

Look at the fortress. That's where we walked last night. What a beautiful city. I can only imagine what this place would be like. Not in the rain.

Got some light lunch to go. It's probably the only fresh veggies that I will be eating today.

Traditional Austrian poke bowl.

All right. By making it on this train, we have ensured that we are going to go to our third country in three days. The question now is, will we make it all the way to Nuremberg?

All right. We made it back to Munich. It is just as chaotic as it was when we left.

I think we are going to Nuremberg. I'm still not 100 sure, so I haven't even booked our hotel for the night. But on that last train, I planned Christmas markets in both Munich and Nuremberg because I had no clue where we were going to end up.

The train that goes to Nuremberg is here, so I'm feeling pretty good about our chances.

Always exciting.

Nuremberg.

Yeah.

This is not the train we thought we were getting on.

All right, and now to book our.

Hotel for tonight, ladies and gentlemen, Next up in a few minutes.

One day, we're gonna make it to a city before the sun sets.

Right out of the train station, we're already on a street filled with Christmas lights. Lots of people, little stalls. I think we're gonna like it here.

Welcome to Nuremberg. Welcome to Nuremberg. First things first.

Cheers.

Our first German glue vine.

Yum. I don't know if it's better than Austria, but the mug is definitely my favorite mug so far.

We're totally keeping one of these. And it says something Moggs now on. What do you think that means?

Would you like another? So the Nuremberg Christmas market is one of the oldest in all of Europe and probably the most well known in all of Germany.

It's been around since, like, 16 something.

1628.

The one thing I have noticed, though, is they're playing zero music. I mean, looks wise. It's incredible. There are so many stalls, lights everywhere.

By far the most crowded market we've been to yet.

I don't know what that means.

Romania, usa. Is this German or Romanian?

This time is from.

How do you say thank you in Romania?

In Romania.

Enjoy. Have a good night, guys.

Well, I'm still not sure if what I ordered is Romanian or German, but the mushrooms smelled and looked way too good to pass up, and those guys were really fun. It's basically sauteed mushrooms with some like sauce and herbs, most importantly garlic.

If you're ever, like, feeling like you need attention, go to the middle of a crisp Christmas market and pull out a camera and start talking to it. And everyone will look at you very awkwardly, especially if you're eating. Simple, very satisfying. The sauce is what really takes us to the next level, though. People are still staring.

Hello.

Everyone.

There we go. Let's get out of here.

Okay. I'm about to try my first traditional German gingerbread.

Whoa. That tastes nothing like American gingerbread.

What?

This is like a chewy, doughy.

Spicy experience. I kind of love it.

I feel like I have to say that there are little sausages everywhere. That's all everyone is eating.

But we don't think here. And it is the most tempted I've been to eat pork all year.

We decided to order one of the delicious looking sandwiches that we see everywhere, but with no meat. So this is basically just a really delicious bun with hot sauerkraut and mustard.

That's gross. To try the traditional dish without the main event. People laugh, hate care in the background. My kind of sandwich.

I don't think I've ever said this to the Internet, but I actually used to play trumpet in middle school. Some of these kids up here are super young. I'm trying to imagine my middle school self being up there playing for this size of crowd.

The line for this hut goes all the way back there.

Nothing compares to this line anywhere else in the market.

Should we get it?

Yum.

All right.

We finally got the fried potatoes. There were a few different toppings. Applesauce is one of them. I did not get that. I went with garlic once again.

Oh, my gosh.

This might be my favorite thing I've eaten.

Oh, my gosh.

I know.

That's way better than gingerbread.

What is it?

I don't know. Some kind of glue. Vine with fire. How fun.

My hands are on fire. No pun intended. We were attracted to this red light like a bug. Like we were going, like, what?

You've got to take this. You've got to take this. It's burning my hands so bad.

According to the lady, it's two different types of wine, spices, rum, and sugar. And somehow they add flame to the mix and they call it.

What?

Duncan?

It sounds much better when you say it.

No, you're getting there. You're getting there. Don't worry.

Prost. Prost.

How does it differ from glue vine?

The rum is strong. That's all I know.

I may have gotten Covid from touching the same thing as Everybody else touches. But apparently, if you spin that ring three times, your wish will come true.

Wow. She climbed. Cara. Cara. You don't have to be that high. I don't think you're supposed to climb. I feel like we're gonna get kicked out any minute.

I spun it, like, eight times just in case.

That is gonna do it for episode one. From here, we go to France, then to Switzerland, and then from there, we have some things to figure out.

So we decided that we're gonna rank the Christmas markets on three different factories. @ the end of each episode, we'll rank the three that we went to based on glue vine, vibe, and.

Food. I would say that the cup goes into the glue vine, ranking 100, because these are the only souvenirs that we're bringing with us. Best vibe, Salzburg. Forget Krampus. The hour that we got to spend there before the Krampuses started running.

Wild. I was very.

Happy. Nuremberg is my number two. But it. It's.

Crowded. Like, no.

Music. Salzburg wins five best glue.

Vine. I'm gonna have to go with.

Germany. I'm not sure that the glue vine that we had here was better than what we had in.

Salzburg. It was, but they.

Have. Okay. Best.

Food. Brussels is what I enjoyed the.

Most. Same.

Really? This might be a little unfair because Germany and Austria are major, major, major, like sausage eaters, and we just don't use.

Them. But good so far. Brussels.

Brussels. But it's fun because it's like all three. One and.

Something. Hardest one to get to Salzburg. Second hardest to get to Nuremberg. See you in the next one. Please don't give up on.

Us.

I still don't know the name of this, but I'm going to call it an Austrian taco. Look at that dog. Look at.

It. Look at it. Look at it. It's just a normal.

Dog. That is not a normal dog. That is an above.

Average.

Is that Santa or the.

Pope? I think I could put the Ferris wheel in my suitcase and bring it home, since you never let me ride.

It. Oh, don't do.

That.

I feel.