We arrived in Vienna on Christmas Eve. Our first impressions were that of German efficiency as we waited at the spotless station for the prompt train into the city…
As we checked into our hotel (Hotel Wien) we were told that most things were closed on Christmas Eve in Vienna, as the Austrians celebrate this as we do Christmas Day. We were a little worried at first but it did mean that we could enjoy a lovely walk into the town centre in search of a hearty Austrian meal instead of settling for something local. It was great to get an impression of the city by foot and it seemed that everyone else had the same idea… the town centre was buzzing! Not a lot open though so we found one of the few places open and grabbed a table. It was quite an odd place, tucked down the back of a building with a rather bizarre interior and very dark but we weren’t going to be fussy! Then something hit us… smoke… people smoking everywhere, even the bar staff, it felt like it was wrong considering Sydney and London have the no smoking ban in restaurants, but it was quite normal here!! Very weird.
So we quickly finished our meal and headed back out to the streets decorated with some of the best Christmas decorations we’ve ever seen. We grabbed ourselves a polystrene cup of hot gluhwein from one of the street vendors and wandered slowly back to our hotel for a quick nightcap before hitting the sack.
We awoke on Christmas Day with anticipation for the presents that santa had brought in the night… oh no, that’s when I was a kid sorry… we woke up, said ‘Happy Christmas’ to each other and went to feast on the hotel’s breakfast buffet!
We spent a very cruisy day wandering the main sites of this beautiful city. At one point we decided to follow the hordes of locals entering the The Church of St. Augustin, it seems we had crashed their Christmas Day mass… the music and singing was spectacular, we just stood in awe for a while.
We then decided to seek out one of the famous Christmas markets… which we soon discovered pack up over Christmas! Yes, we were suprised too, and a little disappointed. The idea is that you buy all your things FOR Christmas at the markets, so there is no need for them when its actually Christmas, oh I see…
Seeing as we were going to have a Christmas dinner rather than lunch we stopped at a posh cafe (one of the only things open!) and had a slice of cake and a hot chocolate. Must be time for an afternoon nap…
For Christmas dinner we went with the recommendation of our hotel staff. Augustinerkeller in the centre of town was like an old wine cellar, it had a really nice cosy atmosphere and the biggest plates of food! We shared half a pig leg and it was still too much, luckily we had experience of this in Prague and knew better than to order one each… unlike some of the other dinner guests… suckers!!
We ended the evening with a hot punsch back at the hotel which was quite frankly horrible, but we persisted and wobbled up to bed… its lethal stuff!
For Boxing Day we decided to take the train to Schonbrunn to seek out the only Christmas market that was still on at Schonbrunn Palace. What a gorgeous place. Definitely worth a look even without the market. The stalls were set up on the forecourt of the palace with a big Christmas tree in the middle… this is what we had been looking for. So we had a wander around, got a mug of spicy apple punch (not the alcoholic kind this time!) and a pretzel/donut/cake thing – it was a mixture of all these! The grounds of the palace were particularly beautiful, especially on a crisp day like this one.
The afternoon was spent on the Wiener Riesenrad (big wheel) at Prater amusement park near our hotel. This was one of the first ferris wheels and was constructed in 1897, it felt old too!! The ‘gondolas’ were more like caravans or portakabins stuck to the big wheel, you could even hire one out and have dinner in it… not the most romantic thing to do with tourists gawping at you from their caravans!
We had one full day left in Austria so we thought we should go in search of some snow… a day trip to Salzburg!
We were picked up by our driver for the day (we can’t remember his name, so lets call him Peter!). He had a bit of a nervous tic along with quite a thick Viennese accent, so we were a bit worried that we might have trouble understanding him but he seemed to relax into the journey and the tic faded (or we got used to his pronunciation with it!). We picked up our travelling companions, an american couple (lets call them Bob and Judy haha!) and set off on our mission. The first hour was spent sleeping before we pulled into a motorway cafe for a pit stop.
The next couple of hours were spent winding our way through the Viennese Lake District going through the most pretty towns and landscapes. We were mesmermised by the scenery.
We stopped in Mozart’s mum’s birthplace (yes they have milked him for all he’s worth!), a small town called St. Gilgen with the most authentic, detailed Viennese buildings. A definite must-see.
We passed the hills and lakes that were featured in The Sound of Music – we must remember to watch that film again… finally reaching our destination, Salzburg. First impressions were that it was a chocolate-box city that would look even better with snow! Our guide showed us around the main sites and then left us to discover the city ourselves. First stop lunch! It was so cold outside it was too nice being in the warm so we took our time, braved the cold again to pass through a graveyard featured in The Sound of Music and headed straight for a cafe for a slice of cake and a hot chocolate!!
We really enjoyed our day in Salzburg. Peter was a great guide and Bob & Judy were pleasant travelling companions!
The next day we stocked up with Milka chocolate and headed to the airport for our journey back to England.
Despite the lack of snow for our ‘white Christmas’, Vienna had been wonderful.
