MUNICH
They say Munich's Christmas market goes back to about the 14th century, making Munich's Christkindlmarkt the place for people who like to wander aimlessly and feel that they've made wonderful discoveries in the process.
Here, it's natural to go with the flow of foot traffic, which — oddly — seems to move counterclockwise through the Christmas stalls of Marienplatz, down to the booths selling nativity sets in Rindermarkt and swinging back around to finish among the butcher shops and bakeries of a separate market.
Shoppers can crowd beneath City Hall at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. to watch the Glockenspiel mechanically recreate a 1568 jousting tournament, which culminates with one of the riders being unseated. Choirs, live ones, sing from its balcony at 5:30 p.m.; and there's a seasonal post office in one of its courtyards where letters get a special Christmas postmark.
If you don't let yourself get distracted by the windows of the big department stores, it's easy to find yourself drawn down a pedestrian street to the booths of Rindermarkt (the lane), where all the shops and booths sell beautiful hand-carved wooden manger pieces.
NUREMBERG
Nuremberg's market attracts some 2 million visitors each season and has a knack for bringing glorious order to the chaos of Christmas.
This huge market has 190 booths covering over 2,500 square meters. Every booth is hung in red-and-white striped awnings. There is also a separate children's market with modern amusement park rides.
What distinguishes Nuremberg's main market is its adherence to strictly traditional standards. Stalls are decorated with garlands of real fir boughs, not plastic ones. Cardboard boxes can't be shown. Recorded background music is forbidden. Only time-honored market items such as nutcracker dolls, prune men, candles, glass ornaments, nativity sets, cookies and sausages may be sold.
Laws guarding the market's reputation are almost as old as the market itself, the earliest of which might be the law of 1610 prohibiting "indecent joke articles." This is, after all, the city that a long time ago regulated the size of its famous sausages — the Nurnberger Bratwurst — to the length and circumference of a finger, so that, as one version goes, they could be passed through a keyhole to prisoners.
Strange laws such as this seem to have been a good idea as the market is best known for its food, especially the aforementioned grilled Nurnberger Bratwurst — a delicious, thin and spicy kind of sausage. Another favorite among visitors is the local Lebkuchen, or gingerbread, which is made with honey and is very sticky and very sweet. In the evening, the market is softly lit by hundreds of tiny lights, and bands arrive to entertain the guests.
資料來源：http://chinapost.com.tw/guidepost/topics/default.asp?id=3128&next=1&sub=6
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