Christmas Market at Schloss Guteneck

On to the next Market Adventure!!! Because Weiden's market was so much smaller than we were expecting, we had the whole afternoon left with rather glorious weather for this time of year. (No snow, yay!!!) I had brought the directions for a medieval Christmas market not far from Weiden with us...just in case. I really wanted to go but Thomas was less convinced...at first. I think this was hands down the BEST market we've been to and it will be hard to beat the fun factor we found here. For more info and photos, they have a website here. There was so much to do and see, that I found myself forgetting to take photos here! It was just completely, totally awesome in every possible way!!!

By the time we got there I had two desperate needs. One, find the bathrooms! Secondly, I was starving!!! And what was the first thing I saw? This!!!

Yum, Yum, YUM!!!!!!

Bella of course wanted a cheeseburger. Kids!

But Thomas and I knew what was good! Spit roasted pork, with fresh saurkraut and rye bread. I ate Thomas' saurkraut - love it!!!!!!

Bella thought drinking out of a huge mug was awesome!

See?

Fresh mistletoe!

Blacksmith tent

Real furs for sale!

Is that a head on a spike??? Oh my!

They even had camel rides!

There were tents all around the grounds - so cool!

All of these animals were made out of wood and bark. Such creativity!!!

After walking around, and having "nibbles" of all kinds of yummy treats, we heard some music...

...and spent the next 45 minutes enjoying it!

It was a mixture of medieval, Celtic and traditional German songs.

And The Bella? She was entranced and enraptured!

Apparently, many people come "in costume" here!

She had been clapping, and now looks like she's praying!

No clue what this instrument is called, but it has strings, and keys and she was turning a knob on the side with her right hand. She had crazy red hair and Thomas thought she looked like Merida from the movie Brave, lol!

The music was really "speaking" to Bella - even more than music usually does! She had to dance!!!! So I had her take off her coat and off she went. We were just "in the moment" and enjoying it, so I didn't get more photos or any more video. She danced non-stop for about 20 minutes. The singers were loving it and Bella got tons of smiles and applause. Which of course she just ate up!!!

In the hall were quite a few vendors, so we walked around the perimeter checking them all out, while still listening to the music. We found one stand that sold girls headbands, and I let Bella get a pink one with a long pink veil. Of course now she wanted to dance wearing it, lol!

And look! Now the singers were dancing too!!!

Bella's Best.Day.Ever!!!!

Awesome costumes!

Inner courtyard

Hot chocolate break!

It was getting darker and the lights were being turned on.

Petting the donkey.

This was such a cool place to visit!!!! We will definitely do this again next year, and stay longer. And we'll make sure Bella gets her dance on again!