sniem's VirtualTourist Home Page

December is the time when I really like living in Germany. I love going to the beautiful Christmas markets which take place everywhere from small towns to the big cities. Sometimes just a day or two sometimes for the whole month of December like in Stuttgart. There is nothing better than standing in the snow with a Gluehwein (mulled wine) to warm your hands and your body (watch out it gets you drunk real fast :-) while listening to a choir singing christmas songs.
This year the Christmas markets in the big cities start around November 25th/26th and last until December 23rd.
My favourites are, on the websites you'll find the exact dates for this year and more info on special events:

Stuttgart: http://www.stuttgart-tourist.de
Esslingen: http://www.mittelalterliches-esslingen.de/
Baden-Baden: http://www.baden-baden.de/
Bad Wimpfen: http://www.badwimpfen.org/
Nuremberg: http://nuernbergerchristkindlesmarkt.de/
Tuebingen: http://www.tuebingen-info.de/

I live in Böblingen a city about 10 miles south of Stuttgart. It's a great place to live right in the middle of Europe. I can reach about 5 different countries by car in less than 4 hours. I've travelled a lot all over the world over the past few years, but my favourite travel destination is Italy, where I go at least twice a year.

2004 was a year with lots of interesting travels, and I'm really not up to date with my travel pages yet, if you have questions on these places I'm glad to help out:

- January: Rome
- February: Venice
- March: Naples
- July: Boattrip in Croatia
- September: Trip through Italy with stops in: Florence, Positano, Capri, Pompei, Orvieto, Florence, Como

Future trips:
- December: 1 week in Rome
- March 4 days Barcelona
- April 4 days Vienna
- May 4 days Budapest
- July 1 week Ireland

These are all 15-25 Euro flights with HLX or Germanwings. I'll have to cancel my boyfriends newsletter subscription every time they have an offer he books another trip....lol

It was great to see the pace flags hanging on the balconies in Rome and Florence in 2003.

Stuttgart has become the southern German hub for two of the uprising cheap airlines "Germanwings" www.germanwings.com and "Hapag LLoyd Express" www.hlx.com.
I just love it!!! But these cheaps flights are getting really expensive because I've booked so many of them.

This is what I've booked so far and the incredible prices I've payed incl. return flights and tax:

Prague Dec21st - 22nd 2003 for 2 Euro
The trip was great, and it will surely not be my last visit to this beautiful city.

Pisa Dec. 26-29th for 30 Euro
Short visit to Florence to say hi to my friends. Seems like I'll spend some weekends at the beach in Tuscany this summer.

Rome January 31 to Feb 4: 30 Euro

Venice February 13 to 15: 60 Euro
This is the most expensive so far but it's during carnival and it was my xmas present for my mom.

Naples: March 12 to 15 : 30 Euro

I found a great project on the web here you can vote for the New 7 wonders of the world http://www.new7wonders.org/e/ so far more than 9 million people worldwide have taken part. Wow isn't that real democracy!

For me one surely is the Colloseum in Rome