I’m in Luxembourg, in December, there’s fresh snow on the ground, and a Christmas market in the centre ville. How could I not go?

I nearly didn’t. A combination of having gotten up at 4:30am to catch my flight followed by a day of back-to-back meetings meant that by the time I got to the hotel I was tired, hungry, and feeling more grinch-like than cheery. I almost called room service and went to bed.

But I went out instead. Because sometimes in life you just have to make sacrifices to eat fried dough in the cold while a brass band plays sporadically in-tune carols to a crowd of happy people.

The walk into town was quick enough, and soon I had a cup of spaetzle with lardons, cheese sauce, and cheese.

As soon as the fat and carbs hit my bloodstream I began to feel better about life and walked around noticing (1) there weren’t many shops of any real quality (so much for Christmas shopping), and (2) there were plenty of shops with waffles and beignets and hot drinks of all sorts.

Mmm, apple beignets and hot cocoa hit the spot!