So the Christmas Market season is finally upon us. All over Germany, almost every town will have some kind of market at its centre, with Glühwein, Bratwurst, and even Germknödel, dinner-plate-sized steamed dumplings made on the spot.  There’ll be all kinds of fruit-based cakes in the Weihnachtsbäckerei, and of course the ubiquitous Lebkuchenherzen (giant gingerbread hearts that taste like cardboard) dangling on ribbons all over.

Amongst the multitude of crafts stalls there’ll be acres of handmade woolly hats, handmade tree decorations, and useful handmade wooden things (bet you didn’t know how many useful handmade wooden things you needed). Look out for brightly-painted bird houses, the little men made of prunes and apricots, and the irresistibly dangly mobiles (and I don’t mean phones).

There’s an informal schedule for the markets. The early part of the evening is the time when families, particularly those with younger children, meet up, to be followed later by groups of friends and work colleagues, on seasonal outings. It’s usually all done and dusted by around 8pm on weeknights, and 10pm on weekends.

In the big cities, of course, the flavour, and the merchandise, is altered a bit by international visitors, because Christmas has become a big player in swelling Germany’s annual visitor figures. This nation has always had a big emphasis on its city breaks, and the presence of a market adds an extra reason for jumping on a plane, particularly in a drab time of year, when airline tickets are relatively cheap.

So which to choose? We recommend you avoid the obvious, ie the likes of Cologne or Berlin. The most atmospheric markets are in the more out of the way spots which might take a bit more effort to reach, but they’re worth the time. Somewhere like pretty half-timbered Bernkastel-Kues, for example, on the Moselle (access from Frankfurt-Hahn served by Ryanair). Or Nuremberg (Air Berlin from Gatwick) with its special Christkindlesmarkt. Or particularly holy Regensburg (Lufthansa to Munich then train), with its Cathedral Sparrows and four markets down narrow, cosy lanes. Or Düsseldorf (easyjet from Gatwick) which instead of one large market has seven separate Christmas themes and attractions in the Altstadt. Or Dresden (new flight with OLT-Express from Southend), the home town of Stollen, which has Germany’s oldest Christmas market, dating back to 1434.

Above all this is the time of year to put the onrush of consumerism, modernisation, technological innovation to one side, and get snuggled down and cosy. It’s a time of year when the oldest traditions are still the best.

*UPDATE: following regional elections at the beginning of April, the newly-empowered Green Party has called a halt to the building of the bridge described in the blog below, so the Moselle is reprieved for a couple of years at least. But the access roads are completed, so locals believe the bridge will come. It’s just a question of when.

The Moselle in pictures is a prettier, cosier version of the Rhine. Not so many barges, and fewer castles, but dreamier, more flower-strewn and with more village life. Wonky half-timbered houses teeter along the riverbanks like old ladies who still insist on wearing their stilettos, rouged up with geranium windowboxes. Meanwhile their washing lines run up and down the adjacent hills supporting ancient vineyards, frilly with blossom early in the year, and then curtained in green as the summer progresses.

It’s a traditional landscape, and it has featured in poetry, prose and painting, but now it is at the centre of a row about progress not unlike the one that’s already simmering in the UK over the new London to Birmingham rail link. For there’s a new motorway bridge being built across the river valley at Ürzig, a small village just upriver from the tourist honeypot of Bernkastel-Kues, only about 20km west of Frankfurt’s Hahn airport.

The idea of this Hochmoselbrücke is to connect Frankfurt and Frankfurt Hahn with Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The bridge itself will be 480ft high and a mile long, and plans show it to be of no particular architectural distinction, unlike the motorway-bearing Millau Viaduct in France, which was designed by British architect Norman Foster and has become something of a tourist attraction in itself.

In fact on this occasion the British have been wheeled out to criticise the bridge’s construction, most noticeably in the shape of venerable wine writer Hugh Johnson, who criticised the ‘highway on stilts’ as a ‘great shadow of uselessness’ which will ‘banalise’ what is essentially a 17^th century landscape.

There’s a strong protest movement resisting the bridge, particularly as they fear it might affect the quality of the celebrated local Riesling, but it looks as if they’re fighting a losing battle as the construction cranes begin to loom over the river valley, peeping over the fringe into the landscapes they are about to uproot.

For the British visitor, and for Ryanair, the new bridge will mean that Frankfurt Hahn will become more of a hub for onward journeys westwards, and not largely eastwards towards Frankfurt, as at present.

But such convenience has its price. If you want to see the Moselle valley in its unsullied configuration, I’d recommend that you go there soon.