Leipzig Zoo and the most beautiful Christmas Market in Germany

Yesterday was my mom and sister's last full day here and guess what?  They finally got their luggage!  Just in time to go home...

After driving to the airport to pick it up, we got bundled up (for real this time) and got in the car for a trip to Leipzig.

My sister loves aquariums and the Leipzig Zoo is open year round, so stop #1 was the zoo.  We mostly visited the indoor exhibits since none of the animals wanted to be outside in the snow.

Except for this tiger, who looked right at home, pacing through the snow piles.  I wish I had tiger fur to keep warm!

Next stop, the train station.  Silly, you say, since we drove?  Yes, but Leipzig and Berlin are the only two cities (I know of) that have giant malls open on Sunday and Leipzig's is in the train station.  We did some shopping and admired the decorations before heading out to the Christmas Market.

Almost every German town has a Christmas Market- Dresden's is the oldest and Leipzig's is supposed to be the most beautiful.  But like Dresden, Leipzig is big enough to have multiple Christmas Markets, which was a little confusing because they were all right next to each other and along a bunch of streets.  The traditional Christmas market in Leipzig was very beautiful.  In between some gorgeous snow covered buildings, the matching huts with red and white striped roofs and decorations were great!

 The rest of the market was nice too, but since we didn't know Leipzig well, it felt like we were walking in circles.  AND it was pretty cold out even with our warm clothes.

 

 

There were some really cool things there like jewelry made from mammoth tusk and fancy things carved from wood and lots of different food than our Christmas Market has (though not all of it was good, like this disgusting waffle that we all tried!)

After driving home, it was time to pack (well, not for me, but for my mom and sister) and then off to bed so we could get up to pick up a few last things in the morning and get to the airport.

Thanks for coming Mom & Jen!