Christmas in Austria

We spent Christmas day partially on a plane and partially in Vienna, Austria!  After a slight detour to a nearby town due to excessive fog in Vienna, we finally landed and made our way to Le Meridien hotel in Vienna.  As usual, we wasted no time in dropping our bags and heading back out to explore the city. We strolled through the town, into Old Town, and down the major pedestrian shopping streets. We passed by some beautiful buildings, and went into St. Stephen's Cathedral, which had an amazing multi-colored lighting design inside. We stopped and grabbed a classic Austrian snack of a cheese sausage stuffed into a baguette. Yumm. Then as the afternoon turned to evening, we stopped at Cafe Central for a couple Irish Coffees and a traditional strudel. Double Yumm!

The city was decorated in colorful lights, strung from building to building, and as the sun set, all the lights came on and gave the city a magical feeling! What a great place to spend Christmas!

After Cafe Central, we walked past a Christmas Market that had closed the night before, but thankfully it was still lit up all over.  The backdrop was a gorgeous building that was all lit up inside. And in front of the market, were some bright red butteflies!  We found another market nearby that was just as pretty and lit up, so we strolled past all the shops, having a vin chaud to keep us warm.












That evening we had dinner in a cave/cellar restaurant called Zwolf Apostel Keller, which served traditional Austrian food, and had musicians that come by your table and play songs based on the country where you're from.  We had some hot goulash and delicious schnitzel and lots of yummy other Austrian delights.  After dinner, we strolled back through the streets, taking in more pretty street lights and seeing all the fog that had rolled in.









The next day, we took the metro out to another Christmas Market and the Schonbrunn Palace! The market was just in front of the palace and had a huge Christmas tree in the center.  We grabbed some vin chaud and walked through the shops, mostly the same as the night before, but really interesting to see all the Viennese artwork that was displayed.  We bought two tickets to go into the palace, and followed the audio guide around the palace to see all the lavishly decorated rooms.  After touring the palace, we grabbed some lunch at one of the shops in the market, then strolled through the gardens before heading back towards the city center.









In the afternoon, we took a tour of the Vienna State Opera House and vowed that we would return to Vienna some day and actually go to an opera.

That evening, we had dinner at a more modern restaurant called Kulinarium 7.  We opted for a wine pairing with our dinner, and our waiter was wonderful, describing each dish that came out and every wine that accompanied it.  Afterwards, he took us on a tour of the cellar downstairs, where all their wine is stored, and where they had recently built an additional dining area where you truly feel like you're in a cave.

Our final day in Vienna was spent walking to another part of town to see another palace and some more gardens. It wasn't as impressive as the Schonbrunn Palace, so after strolling through the gardens, we opted to forgo the palace tour and head back to the hotel so we could get an earlier start on heading to our next destination.  Vienna was a great city to visit, but much larger than I anticipated. I was looking forward to our next destination, a smaller town, and the home of Mozart, Salzburg!