We had been seeing posts about the Cullman Christkindlmarkt and knew we wanted to go, but we had to find time. We decided to go today and of course we hear that last weekend they had their biggest crowd. There was rain in the forecast last night when we went to bed, but we got up this morning to blue skies and a cool sunshiny day so we ventured up Interstate 65 to the town of Cullman. We were following the google map and we got a notification that the exit we were going to was backed up so we got off at an earlier Cullman exit. We were greeted by this guy in a bank parking lot.

We head onward and start working our way thru the town towards the park where the event is held. As I am driving and Jeff is navigating I see the ferris wheel looming in the distance. We find fairly close parking and decided what coat we wanted as it was a little cool in Cullman, Alabama at 11:15 this morning. We then walk toward one of the entrances.

We didn’t really know what to expect. We had seen pictures, Facebook posts, some videos online and like I said we had heard about the large crowds last weekend, so we just decided to embrace the crowd and mingle with them. When get got there the crowd was fairly light. We saw some ladies with their dogs on leashes standing right outside the gate beside the map that we wanted to look at and one of them was on her phone telling someone VERY LOUDLY that it was a total waste of time and she wasn’t sure why she came. We knew the first place we wanted to go was the booth serving the raclette cheese. So we found on the map that it was on the opposite end of where we were. So off we went armed with a digital map. Along the way I found the restrooms, which were very nice even though there were only a few of them. We finally make our way all the way to the opposite end of the park and found the booth we were looking for. They were selling sandwiches with chicken or beef, onions and raclette cheese and German egg noodles with cheese and bacon bits. So we ordered. I asked for a chicken sandwich with no onions and Jeff went with the noodle dish. So as usual, I think I ended up with beef and definitely had grilled onions on my sandwich. I ate it anyway. Ours was the only order they were working on and I distinctly heard the girl who was making my sandwich verify with one taking the orders that I didn’t want onions, but they were on there and I ate them, I also don’t think that I got chicken. It’s not like the order could have gotten mixed up with someone else’s as we were the only order at that moment. My sandwich was good, albeit overall pretty plain. Jeff’s noodles were good, but he was hoping for the raclette cheese, but I guess they have to use a noodle sauce so that they aren’t dry. We found an out of the way place and stood and ate. Afterwards we found the big dining area. Oh well!

So now that we had a bite to eat we decided to start looking at all the vendor booths. We started by visiting the area with Santa Claus. That is where all the kids were. It wasn’t really that crowded when we got there, but the crowd was really picking up as it got later in the day. There are about 60 vendor booths. They have a variety of food and gift vendors. Some sell German inspired food and gifts and other have just a variety. The first booth we stopped at was for water and we had to grab a peppermint brownie. It was good, but not as good as it looked. When we went to pay he asked us what song and at first I thought I didn’t hear him correctly so Jeff asked again and he said that they will sing a song and asked if we wanted Frosty or Rudolf. One of the girls got up and started to sing and then Jeff changed his mind and they told her to sit back down. It was a group of younger people and they were just having fun.

So onward we went and saw a little bit of everything and then we found Ghiradelli hot chocolate. You can’t go wrong with Ghiradelli chocolate. LOL!! There were several booths advertising hot chocolate some as homemade, but we had a large one that lasted us the rest of our time there. There were booths selling hot apple cider and at some of them you could add with a shot of alcohol. At some of the booths it even came in a signature mug and at others it appeared you had to pay extra for the mug.

We did purchase a couple of things there, but mainly just food and drinks. We made our way back around to the liege waffle stand. Jeff was so looking forward to it. We have been on a quest for a good liege waffle. The best one we’ve ever had was the first one we had and it was from a coffee shop in Savannah, GA. We get it here and it was a huge disappointment. It just seemed like a cooked frozen waffle and just tasted like an Eggo waffle. I had one bite and Jeff had a couple before it found it’s way to the trash. Next up in our vendor booth walk was Seven Daughters Scoops where even though it was cold out I had a scoop of peppermint stick ice cream. I heard some say something about me eating ice cream and it being cold out. It was good though. We visited their shop back in February on our way back from Huntsville.

There are few, like probably 10 of the clear igloos, but they get taken really quickly and held. There were some with just one person sitting it them. They do have random booths here and there with a picnic table, but they get taken quickly too. They had ice skating, a tube slide and a merry-go-round for the kids. You had to buy tickets for those things. The line was getting pretty long on our second time around.

We had a fun day!

The Cullman Christkindlmarket is now open 7 days a week until December 23. It is free to get in and they have vendor booths and the rides that you have to purchase tickets for. Check it out! It’s worth the drive up I-65.