Birmingham Frankfurt and Craft markets
3 December 2009
The Frankfurt market is an annual feature held in Birmingham city centre for the weeks leading up to Christmas. The market consists of a number of stalls selling traditional German food and various gifts.
As well as the German stalls there is also a traditional craft market featuring English crafts as well as a selection of food and crafts from around the world.
The market is very popular and gets very crowded particularly on weekends and evenings. It is best seen during the evening when the lights help with the atmosphere, but during the peak times it can be very difficult to see the stalls and it's best to avoid those times if possible, especially if you have a pushchair. We have taken a pushchair during a busy period in previous years, but this year we arranged a baby sitter for our youngest, and just took our 4 year old daughter along.
If you are not driving (we took the train) then there are some bars within the market selling German beer, hot wine and other alcoholic drinks. These are served in glasses or mugs for which a deposit is charged. The glasses / mugs can be returned (along with the token) for the deposit back or kept as a souvenir.
There is a small craft market adjacent to the Frankfurt Market which also continues to Centenary square where the Birmingham Eye (big wheel) is located.
Unfortunately when we visited the Eye was out of service with an estimate of at least 30 minutes until passengers were to be allowed on, we decided not to wait, although I would like to return at another time. There is a carousel and helter skelter for the Children. The queue for the carousel was very long but moved fairly quickly.
There is plenty to buy across the various market stalls with lots of unique gifts for those hard to buy for friends and relatives.
For a better idea of the stalls on offer see Birmingham Christmas lights and markets photo gallery.
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