Flash-back: Christmas in Austria, Volume 2 (Salzburg)

After Innsbruck we spent 3 lovely days (including Christmas Day) in Salzburg. Salzburg is home of Mozart, the Von Trapp Family and the Sound of Music kitsch, and a really impressive medieval fortress.

[Backstory: When I was 15, I came to Salzburg on a day trip from Munich when I was on a Holt High School study abroad summer trip to Germany. At age 15, I liked the scenery and castles just fine, but what most impressed at the time was the highest concentration of hot women I'd ever seen. So the nostalgic 15-year-old boy in me was interested to see Salzburg again. I can report to interested readers that the lady watching is better in the summer than in winter. Or maybe it was just better because I was 15 and excited by anything with hips and breasts. Hard to say. Now back to your regularly scheduled blog programming...]

We wandered the Christmas Markets here too (although I think I liked them more in Innsbruck), checked out the Fortress "Hohensalzburg," went to a Mozart museum, and perhaps best of all, took a cheesy package bus tour to see a Christmas Eve celebration in the village of Oberndorf, about 40 minutes from Salzburg, where the song "Silent Night" ("Stille Nacht" in German) was first performed. We slept in a lovely inn situated in a 700-year-old building (too bad those THICK old walls blocked the wi-fi signal. Alas...)
We discovered that Christmas Eve in Austria is a more important holiday than Christmas Day, at least in terms of tourist venues, stores, and restaurants being open. We ate at an Indian restaurant for dinner Christmas Eve (also open that night: Chinese and Sushi), and it was so good we went back the next night, even ordered the same thing. Who knew Austrians did their Indian food so well?

Enjoy the pics...

The Christmas Market in front of the Cathedral. Right at this moment (about noon on Christmas Eve, I believe), the horse was whinnying wildly, the cathedral bells started clanging, and the fortress started firing off many, many, many rounds from their cannons. The cacophony was impressive, even more so than me using "cacophony" in a blog post. I tried to embed video of this at the bottom...maybe it worked?


In Salzburg, the mannequins wear dirndls. And those dirndls are expensive (I think some were over 400 euros, if I remember right.)
Let's not forget the traditional fashion for the gents, either. Love the drawn in facial hair.

After you buy a dirndl and a hat, you might want a baby.

Lovely old town of Salzburg, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.


The "Silent Night Chapel," erected on the site of a church where "Silent Night" was first performed (the church was destroyed in a flood, I think). We saw a made-for-tourists Christmas Eve concert there -- hokey, but worth it.


The Salzburg Cathedral (side view).

A poorly lit image from Christmas Eve Mass in the Salzburg Cathedral. Unheated room, of course (wear your jacket!), but the wondeful organ, choir, and the rendition of "Stille Nacht" made it well worth sitting through a Catholic service that I don't believe in, given in a language I don't really understand.


Shannon grinning in the fortress.

View from a fortress window.

Hello, dazzlingly beautiful bright sun-shiney day-after-Christmas in Salzburg! This is a view from the top of the tower in the fortress. Before we went to the fortress I got up and took a morning run all along the hill that the fortress is on, and got to enjoy the rising sun throwing Alpenglow on the surrounding peaks. Too bad I didn't go running with my camera.


I'm not sure what Austrian emperor or general I'm trying to impersonate here, but if I ever have a mustache 1/16 that impressive, I will die a proud man.


Once again, putting the FUN back in funicular, this time riding down the hill from the fortress.


View of Salzburg and the Tyrolean Alps from the plane as we flew off to London. Bye! Thanks for the Indian food!

Flash-back: Christmas in Austria, Volume 1 (Innsbruck)

As the mercury edges over 90 degrees here in Sofia, I thought it would be a good time for a flash-back post, from a far, far colder time -- like Christmas in Austria. We have so many pictures and stories to tell from adventures this year that we haven't yet had a chance to write about. We wrote about our misadventures getting to Austria already, but didn't have a chance to show some good pictures of the nicer parts of that trip once we actually got there.

When we finally arrived in Innsbruck, we were cold. Really, really cold. And exhausted. Standing-outside-in-the-cold-all-night-on-a-train-platform cold and exhausted. We were thrilled to be in the storybook old town of Innsbruck, but it was still cold, and the main things to do were 1) go skiing (cold) or 2) wander around the cute outdoor Christmas market (still cold). We never motivated to go skiing, but we did wander around the markets and pick up some lovely souvenirs. We also went to the Alpine Zoo, halfway up the mountain outside of town. Oddly enough, due to the oddities of temperature inversions, it was much warmer there than in town. We also sadly never were able to connect with our friends Meghan and Justin (and cute baby Orla), who were part of the reason we had gone to Austria in the first place. Oh well...life happens. Here are some pics, in no particular order.


Swarovski Crystal has their headquarters not far from Innsbruck, and they maintain a very cool display store in the old town, complete with cellar-level crystal wonderland with lots of decorative things not for sale. There are lots and lots of really pretty, painfully expensive things there. Here is a crystal flower, that I'm pretty sure cost more than our car.

Grey morning in Innsbruck. No snow, but damp and blustery.

View overlooking the old town square from the clock tower at city hall, with Christmas Market booths below.


We like to put the FUN in "funicular." View from the funicular station near the AlpenZoo, looking over Innsbruck. You can see that there is not any snow in town. We were left dreaming of a white Christmas.
Bobcat at the AlpenZoo. Rawr.
Piglets at the Alpenzoo. Not terribly mountain-themed, but c'mon! Look at how cute those little porkers are!

Morning Alpenglow on the Alps, from the street in front of our hotel. It didn't stay that sunny, but it was nice while it lasted.
Above: The river Inn, with snow-covered peaks behind. The name "Innsbruck" means "bridge over the river Inn". So now you know.

Artisan making glass snow-flakes. She had very nice work. We bought lots.

Self-portrait while shopping at the Christmas market. Check out my new WARM multicolored hat!

Below: Gluhwein: spiced red wine, served hot from a kettle to warm you on a chilly December eve. Ambiance: excellent. Taste: unpleasant.

Below: There were giant dolls from various fairy-tales set up in the old town around the Christmas Market, which were at times both whimsical and a bit creepy. I don't know what fairy tales most of them were from, because my German wasn't good enough. Click HERE to link to part 2 of this post, about our time in Salzburg.