Christmas in Basel

One of the bonuses of travel this time of year is seeing and enjoying the Christmas decorations...

They were just getting started with the decorations in Brugge...







By November 29, the Christmas Market in Basel was well under way...

The Basel market is one of Europe's best with lots of booths for both gifts and food. Lots of furry animal puppets in this stall...







Soaps and wood carving here...







Christmas tree decorations...

And little 3-d winter scenes...







Paintings...







Stamps...

A glass blower...







Cookies...







And Berliners, cream filled pastries...







Raclette cheese, ready to be melted and served with potatoes, and a pickle--yummy carbs on a paper plate.







The raclette broilers...







And the raclette stand-up eater. Note the hot gluwine in the blue mugs. New mugs are created each year in each city, and the price of the hot wine includes the mugs.







Gluwine in copper pots ready to be ladeled out--good stuff on a chilly day at the Christmas Market.