Christmas... in November

26th November 2014

If you know me (and I know that you do because only my parents read this Blog) then you’ll know that I love Christmas. It’s the most wonderful time of the year and I can’t get enough of it. I’ve documented my love of Christmas before and with being in China last year and missing out on all my favourite things (presents and overeating) I’ve been particularly excited about the prospect of a good old fashioned festive season.

One thing I’ve always wanted to do is go to a Christmas market and after years of thinking about it, we finally decided to go. Rory suggested a trip to Salzburg and Munich; we’d see two different cities, go to two different countries and effectively double the Christmas cheer. I was completely sold, so we set about booking flight, hotels and train tickets and now we’re finally off.

We arrived at Salzburg airport and got a taxi to our hotel, the lovely Hotel Altstadt which overlooks the Salzach river. We spent a bit more on the hotel and I’m really glad we did – it’s an enormous building, full of character and there were even chocolates on our pillows, which gives it a 10/10 from me!

Despite having just flown in we were feeling fresh faced and so set off on our first adventure. This consisted of us walking around the city, going down side streets, getting lost and falling in love with Salzburg. The old town where we were staying is home to the Mozartplatz, Residenzplatz and Kapitelplatz... I bet you’re starting to see a theme developing, but basically these are just really nice town squares and luckily for us, they were full of Christmas cheer.

I was really impressed with the Christmas markets – they were quieter during the day but even at night they weren’t too busy. You could quite comfortably walk from stall to stall without being rushed or crowded which was ideal because some of the stalls were beautiful. There was also some amazing food on the go – hot baked potatoes, pretzels and chocolate covered pancakes were just a few things we tried.

For dinner we decided to try some traditional Austrian cuisine. We found a small tavern on Tripadvisor and headed there for some goulash, schnitzel and of course, strudel! Rory even had a tankard of beer which I’m told was delicious! After dinner we had another walk through the city, most of which is pedestrian access only which makes it so much nicer. I loved the quaint shops and the Christmas decorations – there are real Christmas trees on each and every street which makes the whole place smell amazing and we even stumbled across some Carol singers who were standing outside the Salzburg Cathedral singing Christmas songs!

When we were absolutely worn out we headed back to our lovely hotel, tucked in to our chocolates and started watching Game of Thrones which was the perfect way to end our first day in the beautiful city that is Salzburg!