What better way to ring in the new year than with a fancy personalized bottle of Möet & Chandon Impérial Champagne!?!

Design your bottle, 750ml for $90 or 1.5l magnum for $190, at MyMoet.com. Your custom message is added to the bottle in Swarovski Crystals and shipped from New York City.

Möet’s Impérial Champagne represents all the nuances of the Champagne growing region in France. Its made of Chardonnay grapes to give it freshness, elegance and citrus; Pinot Meunier grapes to give it white fresh fruit flavor and roundness; and Pinot Noir grapesto give it structure and spiciness. Its a lively bright glass and perfect for New Year’s Eve!

There’s still time to get it delivered for Friday.  Cheers!

Our Castle Christmas began with an exploration of other parts of Bavaria, all decked out for Christmas.

Regensburg

This romantic 2,000 year old Bavarian city was our first stop and very magical at Christmas. It is among the best preserved medieval towns in Europe (only 13% destroyed in WWII) with a population of only 150,000. The town has 4 wonderful Christmas Markets to enjoy including my favorite Romantischer Weihnachtsmarkt.

Stroll the winding lanes of the Altstadt, full of pastel colored townhouses. It was named a Unesco World Heritage site in 2006. You can’t miss Dom St. Peter, the Gothic cathedral’s spires towering over town. Other must see’s are The Stone Bridge (built between 1135 and 1146 for centuries it was the only solid way to cross the Danube River), Porta Praetoris (built in 179 AD by the Roman inhabitants), and Schloss Thurn und Taxis (Franz von Taxi, an Italian entrepreneur, was bestowed with nobility in the 15th century for establishing Europe’s first postal system and acquired this palace, bigger than Buckingham Palace and still residence to Franz heirs; also home to the town’s best Christmas Market).

Historic Goldenes Kruez was our base for four nights. The hotel dates back to 1531 and was an inn to visiting emperors and dignitaries. The nine rooms are named after some of the guests like Napoleon III. Christine Horsch is your lovely host. The rooms are super quaint, breakfast is served in their Vienesse-style coffeehouse downstairs (also a great place for afternoon tea or aperitif), and the rate is only €100 per night!

With over 500 restaurants, bars and pubs to choose from, we dined at Dicker Mann, famous for its traditional fare served in a very German pub atmosphere.

Nuremberg

The heart of Franconia (which is part of Bavaria, although Franconians don’t consider themselves Bavarian), we day tripped here for the Nuremberg Christkindlesmarkt, one of oldest and biggest in Germany

Bamberg

We stopped in Bamberg, the baroque and beer town, for a few hour visit and lunch (as it lies halfway between Nuremberg and Coburg). It has the largest intact ensemble of medieval buildings and is known as Franconian Rome because its built on 7 hills like Rome. As the city of beer, it has nine breweries producing more than 50 different beer,s including Bamberg’s famous smoked beer. Hit the Brewery Trail tour with a kit from the tourist office. We did some great shopping here. Visit their website to see all the great things to do here.

See all the photos from our Castle Christmas…a Christmas we’ll always remember!

Two Christmas’s ago my in-laws were coming to visit us in Amsterdam for Christmas. Having already been to Amsterdam, we wanted to venture somewhere very Christmasy. Where to go? Germany… they know how to do Christmas. But where in Germany? A castle for Christmas sounded idyllic. After much research we landed on Christmas in Bavaria and Franconia, the southeastern part of Germany (north of Munich).

I found this fairy-tale castle from the 13th century, Schloss Hohenstein, in the dense forests a few kilometers away from Coburg (north of Nuremberg). The restored castle is surrounded by a romantic park with its own chapel, a 15 room/suite hotel, 2 restaurants serving traditional Franconian food and six historical function rooms.  A castle “Schloss Hohenstein” was first mentioned officially in the year 1306. Back then it was owned by the countess Jutta of Henneberg. In the year 1456 the Lords of Lichtenstein were given the Hohenstein castle as fief, where they resided until 1763 when Philipp Ernst Baron of Imhof acquired the Hohenstein castle. He and his descendants gave it the present appearance and also created a castle park. Between 1989 and 1996 it was restored completely and turned into a castle hotel with restaurants.

We spent a glorious four-night Christmas holiday here in the Lichtenstein Suite and Baronesse Suite with daily buffet breakfast, 3 course dinner on 23 December and Christmas Eve, 4-course candle light dinner on 1st Christmas Day and Christmas Brunch on 2nd Christmas Day for only €433 per person. We had a few days of leisure in the castle, explored the castle grounds and ventured into Coburg.

Coburg, population just over 41,700, is guarded by Veste Coburg, one of Germany’s best-preserved medieval fortresses. Its triple ring of fortified walls guard beautiful grounds, a wonderful art collection, and an original Napoleonic copper cannon. In 1530 Protestant reformer Martin Luther, under imperial ban, sought refuge here for 6 months.

Coburg also has royal lineage… in 1857, Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha married his first cousin Queen Victoria thereby founding the present British Royal Family (who quietly adopted the name Windsor during WWII).  Albert spent his childhood in Schloss Ehrenburg which had Germany’s first flushing toilet. Today a statue of Prince Albert stands in Coburg’s main square, site of their Town Hall and a lovely Christmas market (Coburger Weihnachtsmarkt) during Advent.

Before we drove to Coburg we explored the romantic towns of Regensburg and Bamberg. Visit the gallery to see all the photos from our Castle Christmas.