Imagine our glee when, clicking about the Munich tourism office’s website, we stumbled upon their list of Munich-based webcams! Among the list of live feeds from Munich were several devoted entirely to the Christmas market at Marienplatz.

Ready for a quick (virtual) visit? We grabbed the images below at about 5 PM Munich time today. Click them to visit the webcams and see what’s happening now!

I spy Christmas Markets in Munich!

Above, Muenchen.de offers a birds-eye view of Marienplatz, site of the city’s largest Christmas market. At 4:45 PM, Munich time, we spotted a fair number of people visiting booths and an unusually large number of white sedans parked in the market zone. Look at that Christmas tree!

The webcam at Global-Christmas.com nearly brings you down to street level, showcasing many of the buildings lining Marienplatz. This photo, grabbed minutes after the top photo (this one at 4:54 PM, local time), shows night is falling fast and the crowds are turning out.

It also looks like the festive holiday lighting might be too much for the poor webcam, as the image is slightly bleached. One nice thing about Global-Christmas, by the way, is that you can enlarge their webcam for a closer look!

Finally, Marienplatz-Muenchen.de, offers its view of the Christmas market at Marienplatz. This cam is in line with the Christmas tree, looking out from what we’d estimate is the fourth floor. We grabbed this image at 4:58 PM, local time, and you can see that things have gotten darker yet, and perhaps more crowded. (This cam also has a creepy surveillance-camera quality to it, which lends a certain intrigue to the market.)

Check out even more webcams from Munich and our round-up of Christmas markets in Europe. Also, if you’re heading over, be sure to read our list of recommended budget hotels in Munich. 

Popularity: 17% [?]

Anyone who’s anybody is currently walking the floors of ARCO, Madrid’s most prestigious international contemporary arts fair. ARCO attracts the best international artists, highbrow art editors, connoisseurs, and collectors from Spain and around the world, and is being held from February 15 through 19, 2007.

Of course, if you’re no one who’s nobody and can’t afford the €40 entrance fee just to get through those abhorrently overpriced doors, perhaps you’re more like us. And what are we up to? Well thanks for asking. We’re in the kitchen attempting—and failing—to flip a Spanish tortilla like a pancake.

It turns out the Spanish tortilla is an art form itself, more complex than anything on display at ARCO and much easier to digest. The perfect blend of egg, potato, and virgin olive oil is a Spanish masterpiece. Any good Spaniard would put up a fist to defend his or her mother’s tortilla.

The secret? Add an extra egg, double the salt, and don’t worry about complex interpretations. The Spanish tortilla speaks for itself.

Popularity: 6% [?]