Winterdom – A Christmas Market in Hamburg

// My trip to Hamburg was sponsored by Hamburg Tourism, but it was my own idea to visit Winterdom and this is not a sponsored post //

Germany around Christmas time means Christmas markets, and Hamburg is no exception. I had hoped to be able to catch the big Christmas market in the center of the city, but it didn’t open until later in November, so I went to Winterdom in St. Pauli instead.

Calling mid November “around Christmas time”, s actually something, old-fashioned people like me, wouldn’t normally do. When I was a kid, the festive season didn’t start until December 1st, but during recent years, I have come to accept, that the Christmas season starts when Starbucks stop serving Pumpkin Spice Latte and starts serving Toffee Nut Latte in red mugs instead.

Winterdom isn’t very Christmas-ish, but it’s still a nice place to spend an evening, and like a moth, I was drawn towards all the bright neon lights. Even though Winterdom is only there for a month each year, there’s a myriad of food stalls selling everything from sausages to gingerbread hearts, and there are more attractions at Winterdom than at many of the permanent amusement parks, I’ve been to. You don’t pay admission to enter Winterdom, and compared to Tivoli in Copenhagen, the rides are cheap.

The timings for Winterdom 2015 are November 6 – December 6 and each Friday, there are fireworks at 22:30. I was in the St. Pauli area on Friday night, but it was so cold and windy, that no fireworks in the world could have kept me from jumping into the first taxi back to the hotel. Instead I went back on Saturday evening, when the weather was nicer.

Winterdom is one of those places that you would go with your family or a group of friends and even though I enjoyed walking around the area, I also felt a little odd. There’s something sad about persons visiting amusement parks all by themselves, don’t you think? I went for a ride in the Ferris wheel, but I skipped the more dangerous looking attractions, as I didn’t feel like screaming my lungs out, hanging upside down together with complete strangers.

Visit Winterdom’s website