Christmas in Salzburg

As a self professed lover of all things Christmas, when planning our trip we faced a very real conundrum as to where to spend my favourite time of the year with many appealing options…

Doug however was quite insistent, to get the most magical Christmas experience We MUST be in Austria for... so to Salzburg we went. 

We arrived a little earlier than expected due to poor weather in Kitzbühel meaning we had some time to wander around. First stop was of course Chinese food for Poor Doug, who had gone the longest he ever had without the Asian cuisine (about 8 days). We the decided to walk up to the fort that overlooks the city, which was a good idea in theory but ended up being a very steep 2km hike! 

Once we reached the top the views over Salzburg were breathtaking - it is such a beautiful city. 

We visited the museum on the history of the fort, and learnt that first settlement there was in 870 with construction starting in 1077! After an hour or so we started to wander back through the Christmas Markets and found ourselves a tiny little Christmas Tree to make our hotel room feel more festive. 

Stiftskeller St. Peter is a restraunt within an Abbey (yes, Maria Von Trapp's Abbey) that opened around 803AD, making it the oldest restaurant in the world! 

So of course it meant we had to go there for dinner! There was a tiny Christmas Market out front then we walked into the tiny pokey little rooms all the diners were in.They were out of the pasta I had ordered so swapped it with a €50 Truffle Pasta free of charge instead- no complaints over here!

The next day was Christmas Eve, meaning not alot was open. We set each other a budget of €10 and split up to buy presents to pop under the tree for the next morning. We met up at lunch for a VERY large schnitzel- you know it's going to be good when they ask you if you want it cooked in butter, lard or oil! As everything after 2pm is closed on Christmas Eve in Austria we decided to spend the afternoon doing the Sound of Music tour. We got to see the house and lake in Salzburg then ventured into the Alps further to a little town, Mondsee, where the wedding scene was filmed. The movie sights were great to see (and I loved the sing-a-long), but visiting a church in tiny little Austrian town, on Christmas was pretty magical as well. As we ventured back we realised we hadn't adequately prepared for dinner, as everything including supermarkets were closed, so it was some 2 minute noodle style pasta from the service station for our Christmas Dinner! We ate in bed while watching The Sound of Music and Love Actually. 

Our last day in Salzburg was Christmas Day - which meant opening our small gifts from each other! We popped a bottle of service station champagne and made some Mimosas while exchanging gifts. We both bought each other a small ornament for our tree next year. Again, as not much was open we had a cooking class booked in. We learnt how to make the perfect Apple Strudel (ours was soooo tasty) and Vanille Kipferl which is what my Oma makes every Christmas. Then it was time to make our pilgrimage to Munich airport for an early flight to London in the morning. The airport oddly had an outdoor Christmas Market within it -which served as our last dinner - Currywurst for me and 1/2 metre! Bratwurst for Doug!

Distance travelled: 39,892km

K x