The Gdansk Christmas Market

Welcome to the last official week of November, it is crazy how time flies! I read an article last week that the Gdansk Christmas market was one of Europe’s most beautiful Christmas markets and it did not disappoint.  While usually I love planning my travel well ahead of time (and I said in this post I was not travelling for six weeks) I booked a spur of the moment trip only three ays before taking off.   I took an early morning flight on Saturday from London to the seaside city of Gdansk in Poland and came back on Sunday night.   Since it is officially off season and the town is relatively small none of the large airlines fly there so I had to book flights with Ryan Air.  They are not my preferred airline and this was proven once again with 3 hour delays on both my flight to and from Poland.  Even with the epic travel delays I had a lovely time.

In April I will have lived in the UK for five years and even if I lived here the rest of my life I do not think Christmas Markets would ever loose their allure.  Part of the reason I chose Gdansk is because their market opens relatively early in the season – November 18th this year – unlike others which do not open until December.  It was described as a fairy-tale Christmas atmosphere and the snow on Saturday night turned the old city into a true  Winter Wonderland. These photos are all taken in the Old City of Gdansk – the heart of the market this year is in Targ Węglowy, an adorable cobbled square, and spans out a few blocks in every direction – take a look:

If you are looking to go this season it is open until December 23rd and nearly every vendor take credit card so no need to take out cash.    I tried many delicious foods at the market, as well as a lovely glass of mulled wine, and my favorite was probably the trdelnik which is originally a Czech desert rolled dough that is wrapped around a stick, then grilled topped with cinnamon and sugar – yum!

Would you want to visit the Gdansk Christmas market?