Birmingham's Frankfurt Christmas Market

November weekend three found us driving north for an overnight trip to Birmingham. On the itinerary was a trip to Cadbury World and then some time at Birmingham's Frankfurt Christmas market. We found a nice hotel in the heart of the city where the six of us squeezed into a room meant for four. 

Once we got settled in our room we headed downstairs to the pool! We all packed our swimsuits when we left Maryland and it only took a month and a half of hotel living to finally find a hotel with an indoor pool. We actually left Emily in the room to work on her mountain of homework but everyone else had fun playing marco polo, sharks and minnows, and just goofing around.  I think swimming at the hotel pool may have been my favorite part of the whole trip. 

Three to a bed was a reason to complain at bedtime but everyone seemed okay with it by morning. We ordered room service for breakfast and learned that anything in its own little container tastes better. Small glass bottles of ketchup? Yummy and perfect for putting on eggs. Tiny jars of marmalade are cute and delicious. The best part was the mini pot of hot chocolate with just enough for two.

We called a taxi to drive us to Cadbury World instead of losing our great parking spot at the hotel. The driver was very friendly and helpful, giving us advice on the things we hoped to do and see that day and offering to come back and get us when our tour of the chocolate factory was over.  Apparently, it's quite a popular attraction, especially during the holiday season, so we had to wait almost two hours before we could go inside for the tour. Thankfully, the factory was set-up with that in mind and there was plenty to do outside while we waited our turn. 

Our first stop was the Santa Show where we watched a little play starring the big guy himself. At the end of the show, all the children were given gifts. You could tell by the look on the friendly elf's face that she wasn't so sure about giving gifts to Emily and Abigail. Technically they are still children, so...  Then we headed to the theater for the 4D show that was just okay. Basically, it was a short 3D cartoon with the addition of moving and vibrating seats, wind blowing bubbles around, and the smell of chocolate being pumped into the room.  After the show, we headed to the Cinderella pantomime. It was a silly little play where the audience was encouraged to interact with the characters, especially the wicked stepmother who we enjoyed booing! We grabbed a quick lunch at the cafeteria before getting in line to begin our factory tour.

As we were standing in line we were people watching and we noticed that as each group reached the front of the line there were workers there handing out candy bars. I was looking forward to our turn at the front so we'd get some candy as well but I didn't realize that they were handing out five full-size bars per individual! I was grateful for my generously sized purse once they handed them over and we needed a place to put our thirty candy bars. The only downside was that I had to carry all that chocolate around for the rest of the tour.

It was pretty standard as far as chocolate factory tours go - where cocoa beans come from, how they're made into chocolate, etc. One difference was a recreation of the street in Birmingham where in 1824 John Cadbury opened a grocery store where he sold drinking chocolate, among other things. It wasn't until 1897 that they first started making chocolate bars. At the end of the tour we were able to see some chocolates being made (Easter chocolates since they've got to be a season ahead), and make a little ourselves. We were each given a small paper cup about half filled with melted milk chocolate and then we were able to choose what we wanted to mix in. I picked fudge pieces and mini marshmallows. I was going for a rocky road experience but it was so very sweet that it was hard to finish. 

A chocolate Christmas tree?!?! Mind. blown.

Our last stop was the factory shop which was crowded, noisy, and filled with every variety of Cadbury's chocolate imaginable. The girls all got advent calendars and a few pounds to spend on whatever else they wanted. All in all, the amount of chocolate we went home with was more than excessive. I think we just finished up the last of the candy bars just this week, almost a month later.

We called our friendly taxi driver from earlier in the day, tipped him in cash and candy bars, and headed back to our hotel and the Christmas market. One of Birmingham's sister cities is Frankfurt, Germany and they've been holding this Christmas market for the past fifteen years. It's the largest authentic German market outside of Germany so we knew it was something we didn't want to miss.

Man! It was cold that day! All I wanted to do was walk through the market so we could say we'd been there and then get back where it was warm. First, we needed some cash and I spent at least twenty minutes looking for an ATM that wasn't out of money. There were so many people at the market that day that the ATMs were shutting down.

It definitely looked and felt like a Christmas market in Germany. There were wooden stalls, Christmas trees, beautiful lights, and so many options for food that it was hard to know where to start. Eventually, we settled on roasted chestnuts and crepes to snack on while we walked around looking at each stall and searching for bratwurst.

Since going to Birmingham we learned about several more cities in the United Kingdom that hold German-style Christmas markets. We'll definitely be doing more exploring next year to see as many as we can!