2019 Christmas in Europe (Austria, Czech Republic, Germany)
 

I think I'm sufficiently rested from transatlantic travel to start a trip report of my 2+ week trip to Austria and the Czech Republic for Christmas. I traveled with a friend. She had been to Europe for Christmas before (France and Germany) and has been wanting to visit Austria. I've been to Austria and the Czech Republic a number of years ago but wanted to experience the Christmas markets, so we combined our interests and planned a trip together. We're two women in our 30's who are relatively well traveled.

My itinerary was:
Dec 11-12 Travel USA to Munich
Dec 13 Fussen/Munich
Dec 14 Salzburg
Dec 15 Salzburg, train to Hallstatt
Dec 16 Hallstatt, train to Vienna
Dec 17-21 Vienna
Dec 22 Train to Prague
Dec 23-27 Prague

This will be a detailed report, so I'll write it bit by bit - as time allows - over the next few days and weeks.

Travel
I booked my flight last February using Chase Ultimate Reward miles. I was a little hesitant to fly with United given all of the negative attention they've received in the past few years, but luckily I had a solid (economy) travel experience. I used my Priority Pass for the first time to gain lounge access for my layover in Chicago, and wow that made the time pass so much more pleasantly than it does when sitting at the gate!

I flew into Munich. Germany wasn't the focus of this trip, but we chose Munich since it's the closest major airport to Salzburg, which is where we wanted to start the trip.

Fussen/Neuschwanstein Castle
I had a day to occupy myself before M arrived and I had decided to take the opportunity to see Neuschwanstein Castle. My flight landed about 1pm, and I immediately took a train to Fussen, where I would spend the night before seeing the castles the next day. I stayed in the Maurushaus Hotel, which was a cozy hotel run by an older couple who live in the building. My room on the ground floor was a decent size, the bathroom had plenty of hot water, and from my window I could see the building on the hillside lit up at night.

I ventured out to find dinner and was surprised by how quiet the town was. I know most people come as a daytrip to see the castles, but at Christmastime I expected Fussen to be busier than it was during the evening. I didn't have a huge appetite, so I found some soup at a restaurant and then wandered around with my camera for about an hour taking photos of the cute town.

The next morning I took the bus to Schwangau. I received a free public transport pass from the hotel, so I didn't need to pay for my bus trips. I had reserved tickets online ahead of time for Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein castles. My entrance time for Hohenschwangau was 10am, but the confirmation said in big red letters that I needed to pick up tickets no later than 9am. I'm not sure how strict they are about this, but I felt it was unnecessary, as the castle is just a short walk away and I had to spend an hour waiting outside in the cold. Speaking of cold, the castles themselves were freezing inside! You'd think that they could afford to heat them with all of the thousands of people buying tickets to visit (although maybe there are more practical concerns that prevent them from heating the buildings). Hohenschwangau felt small for a castle, although that might be because the visit only takes you though a small portion of the building.

I had more time to kill outside in the cold before my entrance to Neuschwanstein at 12pm. I took my time walking up the hill. As I approached the castle it started to snow. I got wet and therefore really cold, and although I had handwarmers with me, I didn't use them because it was only the very beginning of the trip and I didn't want to go through them too quickly. It turns out this was the coldest I got on the trip, so I made myself suffer needlessly!

The castles themselves were unique and interesting. I've heard people say that it's not worth it to take the tour of Neuschwanstein since it's only 30 minutes long, but I totally disagree. If you're going to go and see the exterior of the castle, you should definitely see the interior too. It's beautiful and over the top and so unique, also it was very crowded, although this was to be expected. What I hadn't realized when I first formulated the plan to see Neuschwanstein in its winter glory is that the Marianbrucke bridge would be closed. I hadn't realized that they close the bridge, which is the point from which all of those iconic photos are taken, when the weather is icy or snowy. Now, I'm not going to say that I do things solely for the pictures, but taking photos and videos and using them to relive the trip is a big part of my travel, so this was especially disappointing.

After my time at the castles I took the bus back to Fussen and happened upon the cutest bakery/cafe for lunch - Konditorei Zuckermann Cafe. I had creamy potato soup served with really good slices of bread. I wanted to stay for dessert, but I needed to rush off to catch the train to Munich. Or at least I thought I needed to rush. It turns out the train was late, so I had ample time.

Now that I know what I know, I'm not sure this side trip to the castles was worth the expense it added on to the trip. I spent the night in Fussen rather than doing it as a day trip from Munich in order to beat the crowds, which means I had to buy two train tickets instead of the Bayern day pass ticket. And with Mary's bridge being closed I felt like I didn't get the full Neuschwanstein experience (although now that I'm going through my photos, I realize that I did get some good shots and I don't need to plan to return at some point in the spring or summer). I probably could have spent the day in Munich and been equally as happy. However, it is what it is and I'm glad to have seen the castles and especially glad to have experienced the extremely cute town of Fussen.


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Munich
I arrived back in Munich around 6pm and met up with M, who had arrived earlier that day and checked into our hotel, the mk hotel munchen city. I'd chosen this hotel because it had good reviews and was close to the train station. Judging from the number of strip clubs on the street, it's not located in the best neighborhood, which I was surprised hadn't been mentioned in any of the reviews I read. Also, the reception for the hotel is in the bar downstairs, and no one at the bar seems to be very interested in helping hotel guests. That being said, the room itself was nice and served its purpose well.

We went for dinner at Hofbrauhaus, the famous Bavarian beer hall which I would describe as somewhere that feels like a touristy place trying to be Bavarian but actually is frequented by locals. We wandered around for a while until we found some people leaving and we snagged their table. We got the giant pretzel (we had to!), and I ordered a sausage and sauerkraut and M ordered schnitzel. We don't drink alcohol, so there was no beer for us. After dinner we wandered back through the Marienplatz Christmas market, which was just starting to close up for the night.

Tomorrow, on to Salzburg!

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Adelaidean Thank you! Yes, the proprietor of my hotel gave me a quite thorough orientation and it sounds like there is a lot to do in the area, especially in the warmer seasons.

Salzburg
We arrived early the next morning for our train to Salzburg, and it’s a good thing we did because the train was crowded with people going to Salzburg for a day trip or weekend getaway. There were people who had to stand the entire way because all of the seats were taken.

We weren’t able to check in early to our AirBnB, so we stashed our bags in the lockers at the train station, which was a simple process.

We walked down to the river and across the bridge into the old town and were immediately charmed by all of the lights and decorations, both agreeing that Salzburg, although small, has a sophisticated elegance to it. Although the plan was to save the Christmas markets for the evening - once it was dark - we couldn’t help but take the time now to wander the Christkindlmarkt at Domplatz. It was packed! I had my first kaiserkrainer, which served hot dog style in a huge baguette was almost too much for me to finish.

I came on this trip intending to buy quite a few Christmas decoration souvenirs, and I had to remind myself that this was just the beginning of the trip and I need to exercise restraint. It turns out that the markets in Salzburg had some of the most unique items for sale, and I later regretted that I hadn’t been quicker to hand over my credit card. I did buy one ornament at the market and then we found the Christmas in Salzburg store, which is a shop filled with thousands of hand painted egg(shell) ornaments. It’s there year-round and worth a stop in, even if you don’t have an interest in purchasing anything.

By now it was time for our Sound of Music bus tour with Panorama Tours. We visited a park from which we could see the place where they filmed the backyard/lake scenes, the lane where Maria sings “I Have Confidence,” the famous gazebo at Hellbrunn Palace, the church in Mondsee where they filmed the wedding scene, and then a short visit to Mirabell gardens at the end. We spent a lot of time on the bus (the drive to Mondsee takes about an hour but it’s very scenic), and while in the summer I might have viewed that as a negative, M and I were more than happy with the leisurely pace. Our guide was great and took advantage of the bus time to tell us trivia and behind the scenes facts about the movie and the real-life Von Trapp family. My suspicion is that the tour is much better in the spring or summer, when the fountains at Hellbrunn are running and the Mirabell gardens are in bloom, but I had set my expectations accordingly for a winter tour and was happy with the experience. In fact, our visit to Mondsee had the added bonus of getting to experience the cutest small-town Christmas market. I had my first kinderpunsch there, and it was so good –a thick berry flavored cider.

One note – the Christmas market at Hellbrunn looked really pretty and festive and we were sad that we wouldn’t have time to return before it closed down at a relatively early 8pm.

Once finished with the tour, we walked back to the train station, retrieved our bags, and took a bus to our AirBnB. We were happy to find that, although not luxurious, the apartment was in a nice neighborhood and was true to the photos we’d seen in the listing. At this point M just wanted to eat and rest, and while that sounded good to me, I thought I’d regret not going back out to the market to see it all lit up at night, so we split up for the next few hours.

The market was much calmer by now since all of the day-trippers had left. A friend whose mother is Austrian had told me about Austria’s poppyseed pastries, so I got a giant poppyseed pretzel. It was not terrible but also not great – I didn’t think poppyseeds really had a flavor but when you eat that many of them at once they taste very earthy. I wandered through the Domplaz market and down the Getreidsgasse to the Stern Advent market taking tons of photos along the way.

They next day was Sunday, and although neither of us is Catholic, we wanted the experience of visiting the Cathedral during mass. We left the apartment about an hour before mass was to begin and took the most beautiful walk on the paths below and leading up to the fortress. The day was clear and sunny and we had amazing views of the mountains in the distance while hearing the clang of church bells. This walk was one of the best things we did during our (short) time in Salzburg. There were quite a few locals out running or walking dogs and being out there among them made the experience feel like were part of the city.

The cathedral was full, although it was apparent that many of the attendees were tourists like us. The choir that accompanied the service sang beautifully. We stayed for about 45 minutes before slipping out; we wanted time to ascend the Monchsburg Lift to the viewing platform. We spent about 30 minutes taking photos and then took the hilltop paths back to our apartment. From there it was time to take the bus to the train station and then a train on to Hallstatt.

I loved our time in Salzburg. I know that our visit was so brief that we really didn’t do justice to the city. While I now feel like I’ve “done” Vienna and don’t really have a desire to return, I’d be more than happy to return to Salzburg, ideally in the late spring or summer to explore the city and the surrounding lakes and hills.

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Thoroughly enjoying your report, memejs! We have visited Munich and Salzburg, and especially liked Salzburg. However, our experiences were in the fall, so minus the Christmas lights and markets. Thanks for including so many details. I'll stay tuned for more!

I'm enjoying your report as well, particularly as we just left Salzburg on Saturday and I have a few of the same photos. I'm working on my report as well, although it seems you had much better weather than we did!

tomarkot Thank you! Does Salzburg get at all colorful during the fall or is it just a gradual fading from green to brown? (Actually, I was surprised by how green things still were in the winter.)

Adelaidean and Melnq8 Yes, we really lucked out with weather for the entire trip. Salzburg covered in snow with blue skies would have made for amazing photos, but when it comes to an actual vacation and being out and about for hours on end, I'll take the warmer weather and no snow.

Melnq8 I'll keep an eye out for your report!

Thank you for this delightful and ongoing report.
We love Christmas markets and have yet to get to any in Salzburg so here's hoping we will make it one year.
I have just packed away our collection of Christmas decorated eggs purchased about 8 years ago from that store in Salzburg!
We love them and when we first purchased them they were carefully packed and shipped to us and all arrived unbroken! I tried to get a few more last year in February but the young attendant in the shop did not seem to understand the request - so having to look after these very carefully indeed.
Looking forward to reading more...
Thank you.

Hallstatt
We left Salzburg for Hallstatt by train on Sunday afternoon. Our journey included one transfer (at Attnang-Pucheim); we didn’t reserve specific seats and we didn’t need to, as the trains weren’t very crowded. It was a very scenic journey.

Once we arrived at the Hallstatt train stop it was just a short walk down the path to the waiting ferry. The fare was 12 euros for a return ticket and I believe it may be cash only, so be sure to have cash on hand.

We had booked a room at Weisses Lamm for $136 for the night, and we were very happy with our third floor (2nd European floor) room with a balcony and great view. Many of the reviews mentioned the rude woman who runs the hotel, but luckily we were checked in by someone else who was perfectly polite.

With only 30 minutes or so until sunset, we dropped our bags and headed out to the popular viewpoint that looks back at the city. Since it was winter and an overcast day at that, we didn’t get those sparkling, colorful views that you see when you do a Google search for Hallstatt, but it was beautiful all the same.

We meandered back through the city, stopping to peek in the shops. There were some cute items and lots of tacky, cheap souvenirs, but ultimately nothing I felt I had to bring back home with me. There were some people throwing bread to some swans, so of course we had to stop and take pictures. Such beautiful animals! We wandered around looking for a restaurant that fit the criteria of cozy and healthy-ish food on the menu (only a few days in and we were already looking for some variation from the meat and potatoes-heavy diet of the region). We settled on Braugasthof, which was a good choice. I had a roasted vegetables and potatoes skillet and M had trout and a simple but amazingly delicious apple cake. M said this meal was one of the best of the entire trip.

Because the sun sets around 4pm, it felt late even though it was probably only around 7pm. We happily went back to the hotel to rest, journal, and Facetime with our families. I actually loved that it got dark so early. I run myself ragged on my summer trips – getting up early to beat the crowds and staying out until the last ray of daylight and beyond – and I was hoping for a slower pace for this trip. The early sunsets allowed us to experience the Christmas markets at night and still be back in our hotel or apartment with plenty of time to unwind and relax.

The next morning we were up and out the door by about 8am. We wanted to go back to the viewpoint for some more pictures (although the weather hadn’t really changed so the view looked the same as it had the evening before). We also walked to the cemetery at the Catholic church. Along the way I stopped to pet a cat who was waiting outside what I presume is the front door to her house. Since her owners were probably fast asleep and she wasn’t getting inside anytime soon, she decided to follow us down the path to the church. I adore cats, so I settled myself on the ground in front of the church door (it wasn’t open yet) and the fierce-faced but sweetly-dispositioned cat crawled onto my lap for some more pets. I was just starting to take photos of the grave sites in front of the church when M came to tell me there were many more around the back. It may seem strange to seek out grave sites, but the style of these is so different to what I’ve seen before. They’re…friendly, like little garden plots. I’d love to have a grave site like this (not any time soon though)!

We made our way back to the hotel, where we ate the breakfast that was included with our booking fee. It was a nice spread of cereals, yogurt, breads, meats, and cheeses. And then it was back to the ferry for another boat ride across the lake, the train back to Attnang-Pucheim, and a train on to Vienna.

It was a short visit and one we had debated doing when planning the trip. I had put Hallstatt on my bucket list years ago, but we weren’t entirely sure if it would be worth visiting in the winter, if it would be overrun with crowds, etc. We arrived in the evening and left in the morning, so we missed what crowds might have been there during the middle of the day. Ultimately we were glad we visited. Hallstatt is a cute town that has a lot of charm, even if it’s super touristy these days.

Up until this point the trip had been fast-paced, in a new location each day, but now we were ready to settle down for a good long week in Vienna!


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I also have a thing for European cemeteries. I could probably fill a book with cemetery photos.

We visited Hallstatt last December - just a day trip from St Gilgen. I'd considered taking my niece while we were in Salzburg last week, but the incredibly long line for the bus, the miserable weather and the short days convinced me otherwise. There was just so much to see and do in Salzburg that I don't regret not trying harder to fit it in.

Glad you enjoyed your short visit though.

Thank you for posting!

I spent time in the same spots in December 2017. I also regretted not buying things I saw in Salzburg, but indulged in poppyseed pastries at every opportunity, as I grew up with them.

Adelaidean Wow, the cemetery is even more beautiful in the summer!

Melnq8 Yes, I think had we opted to skip Hallstatt and spend more time in Salzburg we would have been equally as happy. I'm enjoying your trip report.

elberko Thanks for reading!

Your night pictures came out so well. I deleted most of mine, just blurry. Did you use a camera or your phone? I love the chicken at the Hofbrau, so crispy but still juicy. We stayed very close to it via a passage way so ate there our first night. Packed and like you waited to grab a seat.

Macross My night pictures on my iPhone 8 were horrible, M's iPhone 11 did awesome at night. The night photos I'm posting are from my DSLR. I cranked up the ISO, kept it on a fast shutter speed so that they weren't totally blurry, and then lightened things up in Lightroom.

Vienna
We arrived in Vienna via train from Hallstatt in the early afternoon. Since we were arriving on a Monday afternoon and would be leaving the following Sunday morning, we bought the Monday-Monday weekly public transit pass for about 17 euros. This was so nice to have! I love walking, but it was also really nice to just be able to jump on a bus or a tram if we were tired or cold and wanted to get somewhere as quickly as possible.

We were able to check in early to what would be our favorite accommodation of the trip – an AirBnB called Emperor Sissi’s (sic) Center Jewel. It’s an apartment with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, living space, and a washer and dryer. The furnishings echo the style of some of what you see in the Imperial Apartments in the Hofburg Palace. It’s located just outside the Ringstrasse in the 3rd district, which I found to be kind of a boring residential neighborhood, in the best possible way – i.e. it was quiet and safe.

After getting settled we made our way into the city center. Our first destination was Café Central for some lunch, but on the way we came upon the Christmas market in the courtyard of the Spanish Riding School stables. It’s so cute to see the horses looking out of their stables, just a few feet away from the market stalls.

We arrived at Café Central to find a line. Oh how things have changed since my previous visit to Vienna in 2010! Fortunately, the line went fairly quickly, and we were soon seated at a small table. I wanted to get “real food” from the Christmas market, so I just ordered dessert: a chocolate raspberry cake, which was very good. M got goulash (which she liked) and a chocolate and cream cake.

By now it was dark, so we made our way over to the Rathausplatz Christkindlmarkt. Our first impression was WOW! There’s a grand arch at the entrance and what seems like thousands of lights and dozens of booths. We wandered around to get an idea of how things were set up – the big tree with the hearts on the right, market stalls in the center, ice skating paths on the left. In planning this trip I thought that ice skating on a path would be easier and less intimidating than trying to dodge people on a rink, but one look at all of the people whizzing by and I quickly took ice skating off my to-do list. I wandered the market looking for a stand that sold spatzle, and after a while of not seeing any, I settled on buying a pizza cone for dinner, which was very good (but of course we came across a spatzle stand not soon after). I also got a kinderpunsch, which was my least favorite of all the hot drinks I bought on the trip – it was just…thin. The stalls selling non-edible goods were kind of disappointing, but I’d read enough about the markets in Vienna to know that I was more likely to find unique, handcrafted goods at other markets. I did find one stall with some nice German Christmas pyramids, which is a souvenir I was really hoping to bring home. I made note of the location of the stall so that I could come back on another day, after I’d had the chance to look around a bit more.

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Wow! That photo of Hallstatt—so beautiful! Amazing photos! Makes me wish I was there! Thank you for sharing!

Vienna (continued)
The next morning we had breakfast at Demel. We fully embraced Viennese culture by having cake for breakfast. M had the sacher torte (dry, as expected) and I had something with layers of apple, plum, poppyseed, and chestnut puree. We also had some of the best, richest hot chocolate of the trip. After our meal we stayed a little longer to poke around the beautiful store.

Next it was on to the Hofburg so see the Imperial Silver Collection, Sisi Museum, and Imperial Apartments. I enjoyed the silver collection but wouldn’t say that it’s a must-see. I’m sure most people visit because it’s included in the Sisi ticket. The Sisi Museum and Imperial Apartments were really interesting, although I’m not sure if I feel bad for Sisi or exasperated with her. Because of the pairing of the museum with the apartments, I learned a lot more here (with an audioguide) than I did from the tour at Schonbrunn. Both palaces are worth visiting, but I think I slightly prefer Hofburg - as least in the winter when Schonbrunn’s gardens aren’t a huge attraction.

Our next visit was to the Austrian National Library. I love books and reading and libraries, so I try to get to as many libraries as possible. In addition to the gorgeous Baroque library, there was a really interesting exhibit about Beethoven and his life in Vienna, which M and I both really enjoyed.

We weren’t starving, but we had a long list of cafes we wanted to visit while in Vienna, so at this point we headed to Gerstner for lunch. It’s a chocolate shop on the ground floor, a bar/café on the next floor, and a restaurant a floor above that. We were seated on the cafe level; I'm still curious about the top-level restaurant, but we didn't have time to return for another meal. We had grilled cheese sandwiches (they’re not called that on the menu but that’s essentially what they were) and, of course, more cake. I really liked Gerstner; the furnishings are beautiful, and it was just a lovely place to have a leisurely lunch.

After lunch M and I split up. She wanted to visit the Kunsthistoriches Museum (which I’d seen on my previous trip), and I wanted to do the Rick Steves audio walking tour around the city. I paused the tour a lot because there were just so many beautiful scenes to photograph. Vienna does Christmas lights so, so well!

After a few hours M and I met back up again at the Christmas market on Maria-Theresien-Platz. I liked this market; it’s small but has a festive feeling to it. I also found a stall selling beautiful ceramic ornaments, so a bought one for myself and one as a gift.

We ended the night grocery shopping – first at Julius Meinl and then at a more affordably-priced Billa. Americans take note: our 24/7 culture doesn’t really carry over to Europe. We often had to go out of our way to find a grocery store that was open as late as 8pm.

Tomorrow: More cafes, more palaces, more Christmas markets!

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You scored on the Vienna apartment! Enjoying your reporting style. Thanks for including photos.

Vienna (continued)
The plan for our second full day in Vienna was to spend the morning at Schonbrunn palace. We took the train out to the stop just beyond Shonbrunn so that we could have breakfast at the Oberlaa Doymmeyer Cafe. I was surprised at how full the cafe was at 9am on a Wednesday morning. We weren't really in a tourist neighborhood, so who were all of these people who had time for a leisurely cafe breakfast?! I had chosen this cafe because of a comment I'd read somewhere about Oberlaa having the best pastries. I was kind of disappointed that my only choice of pastries was brioche or croissant, but my simple breakfast of chamomile tea and brioche was good enough.

Grateful to have a clear, sunny (though still chilly) day, we walked from the cafe to the palace through the palace gardens. My previous trip to Vienna was in October, so who knows if I'll ever get to see the palace grounds in full bloom. Still, the grounds are impressive.

We had purchased the Sisi Ticket online before the trip, so luckily we didn't have to stand in any lines to gain entrance to the palace. The tour comes with an audioguide, which focuses partially on Franz Josef and Sisi and partially on Maria Theresa. It was quite crowded, plus I' d been through Schonbrunn before, so I wasn't quite as impressed with this palace as I had been the day before with Hofburg. That being said, I still enjoyed it and it's definitely worth a visit for anyone visiting Vienna.

After our tour inside the palace was finished we set about making our way around the Christmas market in front of the palace. I finally got the spatzle I had been looking for - potato dumplings with cheese, crispy onions, and bacon. It's basically a grown up mac and cheese and so incredibly good! I also found a couple of wooden Christmas ornaments I liked as well as a modern graphic-style map of the world.

Next up was the Naschmarkt. Either Google maps lead us astray or I read the directions wrong because we got off the metro much sooner than we needed to. I didn't mind the long walk though, and I hope M didn't either. The Naschmarkt is a bunch of stalls selling produce, dried fruits, candies, etc. with vendors enthusiastically or aggressively (depending on your perspective) trying to get you to sample and buy their goods. It would have been great had we been in need of a meal or doing more cooking in our apartment, but since neither applied, we breezed through fairly quickly.

M wanted to have a good schnitzel while in Austria, and I'd read about Figlmueller as a poplar schnitzel spot, so we got in one line only to be told that without a reservation we needed to go around the corner to another Figlmueller restaurant (or is it just another entrance?). Anyway, the line there moved pretty quickly, and we were soon seated. Here's where we had our first encounter with a rude waiter. I know Viennese waiters are known for being gruff, but up until this point the waiters had been either friendly or politely distant. Things were going well here until I asked for tap water and got the response, "Madam, this is a restaurant. We do not serve tap water." I just looked at him and eventually he sighed and brought me a glass of tap water. This is not the last time or place we'd come up against this, and I'm not sure how to think about it. In a place like India or Egypt I'm all about paying for bottled water for obvious health reasons. But in a place like Austria where (as multiple people told us with pride) the tap water is better than bottled water, I get annoyed with being asked to pay for water. I'm on vacation, eating out for every meal, usually ordering multiple courses. I'm spending a good amount of money, and I'd like to be able to save a euro or two by not having to pay for water to accompany my meal.

Anyway, despite that little interaction, we really enjoyed our meal. The side salad with it's slightly sweet mustardy dressing was one of the best things I ate on the trip. I'm not a schnitzel connoisseur, so I don't have much to compare it to, but the main course was quite good as well.

One of my objectives on this trip was to visit as many cafes as possible, so when, on our walk back to the apartment, we passed Cafe Pruckel, I suggested we stop in for dessert. The decor is more mid-century than 19th century elegant; the selection of cakes was surprisingly small. I ordered apfelstrudel and it was disappointingly soggy. All in all I'd say this cafe is skippable.

It was still fairly early but already dark, so we were more than happy to head back to the apartment. We watched A Christmas Prince: Royal Wedding, which was just as delightfully cheesy and cliché as expected! It was really nice to have some down time.

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Still reading and enjoying. Thanks!

elberko Thanks for following along! I got super busy last week and wasn't able to continue the report, but I'm back and ready to finish this thing up!

Wow, that library!
Vienna looks fabulous.

Though we left Vienna this summer after seven years, it is, and likely will always be a treat to read about our former adopted hometown.

For future planning, the second level of Gerstner near Opera is splendid. The rooms are wonderfully decorated; and if you are fortunate enough to secure a table near the open windows in pleasant weather, the view of Opera makes for a delightful lunch companion. (Oh, and the Tartare is exceptional...)

In all of our time in Vienna we never dined at Figlmüller. Dinner-sized Schnitzel never appealed to us, and it seems that they may have gone the "charge the tourists for tap water" route, along with the likes of Cafe Landtmann and a couple of others. For shame.

And I agree that the "Dish Room" at Hofburg can be a little tedious. :)

Adelaidean As a child watching Beauty and the Beast I thought that incredible library was just something someone had dreamed up for the movie. Fast forward 20 years and I've seen numerous "Beauty and the Beast libraries" in my travels throughout Europe!

fourfortravel So I'm not just being cheap by being annoyed by the charge-for-tap-water situation? We had an even ruder waiter at Cafe Central that wouldn't serve us tap water. I had wonderful memories of Cafe Central from my 2010 trip, those feelings were dimmed somewhat at seeing how crowded and touristy it's become now, and then after the waiter situation my feelings about Central turned totally negative. At Cafe Landtmann they charged us, but at least they didn't make a big deal about it.

Vienna (continued)

Although we'd be staying in Vienna for a few more days, the Sisi Apartment wasn't available for our entire stay, so we had to say a reluctant goodbye to this beautiful, comfortable apartment. We headed across town to the Neubau neighborhood to check into our new lodging, a cottage that was much smaller and a bit shabbier, though well thought out in its design. The neighborhood had a totally different vibe than the neighborhood in which we had been staying - lots of Indian and Vietnamese restaurants, a bookshop that seemed to focus on spiritual enlightenment, maybe less wealth but more energy. Both neighborhoods were great in terms of proximity to the city center and public transit.

Once settled into the new apartment, we pulled up an Art Nouveau walk I had found online and navigated our way to the Anker clock. It was just before 1pm, so we waited until the clock struck the hour...pretty anticlimatic. On another day M went back to see the clock strike 12, which she said is much more impressive. We saw the famous Engle Apotheke shop and then paused our walk at Cafe Schwarzenburg for lunch. I'd say the style of this cafe is masculine and refined. I got goulash soup and chocolate mousse cake, both of which I really liked. This was my second-favorite cafe in Vienna.

We continued on with our Art Nouveau walk, seeing a building on the Graben, the Karlsplatz metro station, and the impressive Secession building. We weren't sure about going back to the Naschmarkt, but I wanted to get better photos of the Otto Wagner buildings across the street, so I convinced M that we should go. We had no idea how close it was! Although we'd been looking at maps every day, we were finally starting to understand how things relate to one another and fit together.

The sunset was brilliant this night - the sky all lit up in pinks and purples. Once it was dark we walked a few blocks back to Karlskirche and the Art Advent Christmas market. I loved this market; it had such a fun, festive feeling to it! In the middle of the market there's a big area with hay for kids to play in as well as pens for goats and piglets. This ended up being my favorite Christmas market in Vienna.

For dinner we had reservations at Motto. Or at least I though we had reservations. They couldn't find us on their list and when I pulled up the emails I'd received from the restaurant, I realized they weren't confirmations but messages telling me the time I'd requested wasn't available. They were very kind and told us that if we could be finished in an hour they would seat us. This is a newish restaurant, and it seems to be the hip place for locals to meet up for a meal with friends. I really liked the decor; unfortunately my yellow curry wasn't all that great. I didn't note down what M ordered, but I remember that she liked it.

Our last stop of the day was the Spittelberg Christmas market. I was really excited for this market because I'd read that it sells unique, handcrafted items. This is true, but the items were things like hats and soaps, not the Christmas ornaments I was looking for. Still, it had a young, energetic vibe to it. We ended up finding a pop-up shop that sold paper goods and Christmas items that had an all white, minimalist aesthetic. I found a lot that I liked but nothing that I loved and had to take home with me. M bought quite a few gifts here.

Regarding the Christmas markets in Vienna, while there was a lot that I really liked about them, I was a bit disappointed in the shopping. I guess I was expecting there to be tons of unique, handcrafted ornaments, nativities, and other Christmas decorations. While there certainly were those things, they were like gems you had to find amidst the many mass-market items you'd see at every market. I started enjoying the markets a lot more midway through the trip - once I had bought enough souvenirs and gifts and could enjoy the markets more for the food and atmosphere than for the shopping opportunities.

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Secession Building

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Piglets at the Art Advent market

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Motto

"So I'm not just being cheap by being annoyed by the charge-for-tap-water situation? We had an even ruder waiter at Cafe Central that wouldn't serve us tap water. I had wonderful memories of Cafe Central from my 2010 trip, those feelings were dimmed somewhat at seeing how crowded and touristy it's become now, and then after the waiter situation my feelings about Central turned totally negative."

You were not being cheap, and you were right to be annoyed. My eyes rolled with your comments about Cafe Central; I dropped in once early in our arrival to Austria in 2012 for some sort of meet-and-greet and was turned off by the chocolate cafe logo atop each torte. I thought it terribly pretentious and never went back. Cafe Schwarzenberg and Burg Ring 1 were my go-to whenever I found myself in the Inner Stadt.

I tend to agree with you about the Vienna markets with respect to the gift selections. We tended to prefer the small village, one-weekend-only markets well outside of the city for handmade and artisanal items. But for sparkle, it is hard to beat Vienna at Christmas time.

Vienna (continued)

Continuing on with the longest trip report ever...I'll try to be more brief, but I just love recording alllllll of the details.

We had breakfast at Cafe Diglas. Nice interior but my brioche and hot chocolate were nothing to write home about.

M and I split up for the morning after that. She wanted to see the morning exercises of the Spanish Riding School. I had done that on my previous visit to Vienna and had been extremely underwhelmed. I guess I was expecting jumps and horses in formation and something probably more akin to the performance, not the morning exercises. When M said she wanted to see the Lipizzaner stallions I tried to give her enough info to set realistic expectations while not raining on her parade. She went and enjoyed it.

In the meantime I hopped on the tram and listened to the Rick Steves ringstrasse audio tour. It's definitely not a must-do, but it was a nice way to spend an hour. Once I got off at the opera house, I walked back to the Rathaus Christmas market to buy the German Christmas pyramid I had seen a few days ago.

M and I met up again for lunch at the Palmenhaus, where we'd made advance reservations. Eating inside a giant greenhouse was just as beautiful as I had imagined it would be. My salad and spinach/feta strudel was very good. I think it was here that M got the traditional Austrian beef in cream sauce with potato dumplings. She felt it was a bit bland.

Next we made a return trip to the Art Advent Christmas market. Yesterday M had seen a handmade ceramic nativity mobile that she had decided she wanted to buy, and we also wanted to go inside Karlskirche and take the elevator up to look out the window in the dome. The inside of Karlskirche was not what I was expecting! Yes, it has the ornate Baroque altarpieces and colored marble, but there were also huge spheres that looked like giant Christmas ornaments suspended from the ceiling. At first I was annoyed that whatever these things were interrupted the view of the church, but then M read something that explained that the spheres are a commissioned artwork, continuing the tradition of the Catholic church as a patron of the arts. Okay, that makes sense to me.

Also impeding the view is a giant elevator, but this is temporary and is being used in restoration work that is happening in the church. With your entrance fee (6 euros I think), you can go up the elevator to a window that looks out across the city and down on the Christmas market. I'm afraid of heights, so being that high up in the church was terrifying, but the view out the window was worth it. (Vienna really doesn't have an impressive skyline, but I liked being able to look down on the market below.)

On our way out of the Karlskirche area, I bought the Art Advent market mug. I knew I only wanted to take home one mug from a Christmas market, so I was being choosy about which one I kept. I got a non-alcoholic punch with berries, and it was so good!

We made our way to the Graben and into Peterskirche for the daily 3pm organ concert. It was packed but after each song a few people would get up and leave, so we were able to get seats pretty quickly. In between organ numbers, what looked like a high school choir group from America was performing. It was kind of odd to hear the Mr. Grinch song being sung in an 18th-century church, but they also sung a beautiful version of Silent Night in both English and German.

After that it was on to St. Stephen's where we each tried to listen to the Rick Steves audiotour of the cathedral. We didn't pay to go into the fee area of the church, plus it was kind of a zoo inside with so many people, so this wasn't the most enjoyable experience. I think it's sad that what is meant to be a holy place was so....chaotic.

I have to mention the Manner store. I'd read that Manner wafer cookies were kind of a thing in Vienna, but I really didn't think anything of it because a wafer cookie is not something I would normally seek out. I only went into the store the first time because M wanted to. I bought a small package of the Snack cookies and I was immediately hooked! I don't know what it is about these cookies, but they are way better than your typical pink, yellow, and brown cheap grocery store wafer cookies. Although Manner is a brand you can find in all of the grocery stores in Vienna, we must have stopped into the Manner flagship store next to St. Stephen's three or four times. We each stocked up on packages of cookies to take home for ourselves and as gifts.

Finally, we ended the night at the Belvedere Christmas market. We entered from the Lower Belvedere side, which is farther from the market itself but provides a great view of the museum all lit up. We really didn't see anything at the market that we hadn't seen before, but we stayed long enough to order sausages and mustard for dinner.

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Karlskirche

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Interior of Karlskirche with sphere art installation and elevator

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Looking down on the Art Advent market from high up in the interior of Karlskirche

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Art Advent souvenir mug

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Peterskirche

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Belvedere Palace/Museum

I really enjoyed reading your Trip Report memejs. I have wanted to visit Germany and Vienna at Christmas time for the Christmas markets too! Thank you for taking the time to do such a wonderful report :)

jagirl2 You're welcome. Thanks for reading!

Vienna (continued)

I was really excited to have breakfast at Vollpension, the cafe with food cooked by grandmas. I'd looked up pictures online and it looked really cute! Unfortunately when we arrived at around 9am on Saturday morning they told us they were booked for the day. They take reservations seriously in Vienna! We hadn't really had a problem up until now, but we had been noticing that many cafes had reserved signs on a number of tables, even on weekday mornings.

We decided to go to the Shokocompany store at the nearby Naschmarkt, where they make hot chocolate by melting a little chocolate bar of your choice in hot milk. We followed that up with some not-amazing pastries from a nearby shop.

Next up was a museum visit - we had purchased tickets to the Upper Belvedere to see the Klimts and other paintings. The building itself is beautiful - it used to be a palace. In each room there's a sign with some explanation of what the room used to be used for and how it was decorated. I really enjoyed the collection, though I wish I'd gotten the audioguide. I debated about whether or not to get it, and looking back I wish I had.

After the museum we decided to make a second visit to Cafe Central for lunch. Once again there was a line and it was starting to drizzle. While M waited in line, I ran to a nearby Christmas market to buy a small wooden nativity I had seen at several of the markets we'd visited. It was expensive and mass produced, but I loved the abstract style of the figures and I knew I'd regret it if I didn't make the purchase.

Once seated in the cafe we had another run-in with a rude waiter who refused to serve us tap water. When M took a sip from the water bottle she keeps in her purse he told her to put it away. It was only at the really touristy places that we were charged for tap water or given a hard time about it. At most places they just brought it to us without a word. This is what makes me angry about the whole situation - if drinking tap water is a thing that's just not done in a country, that's one thing, but when it's only an issue at super touristy places then it's taking advantage of tourists. I'm not usually one to shy away from popular places (they're popular for a reason, right?), but I think Central may have gotten too popular for its own good. Anyway, I forgot what I got to eat for the entree, but for dessert I got a chocolate hazelnut cake that looked beautiful but only tasted mediocre. The waiter had pretty much soured me on Cafe Central anyway.

It was rainy and cold so we headed back to the apartment to rest for a couple of hours. In the evening we got dressed up and took a tram down to the Staatsoper, where we had tickets for a performance of the ballet Le Corsaire. It was amazing! The dancers were incredible, the costumes and sets were colorful, and music was great. It was a really fun experience. Although we could have gotten standing tickets for 1/10 of what we paid, I'm really glad that we spent the money to have reserved seats. We paid around $50 and had great seats on the front row in one of the high, middle-ish sections.

By the time the ballet ended the rain had stopped. We took the tram to the Rathaus stop and crossed our fingers that we wouldn't need a reservation to be seated at Cafe Landtmann. There was a short wait, but luckily we got a table. M ordered the cheese plate and I ordered the Viennese torn pancake, which is served with apple sauce and plum sauce and is so SO good! This was one of my very favorite desserts of the trip, and Cafe Landtmann was my favorite cafe in Vienna.

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Belvedere Gardens

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Vienna Operahouse

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Viennese pancake

Vienna (continued)

Sunday was our final day in Vienna. We went to a mid-morning church service and then took our bags to the train station to be stored in a locker for a couple of hours before our train to Prague.

We had time for one final lunch at a Viennese cafe, and I was really glad when M suggested that we go back to Cafe Landtmann. I said we had time, but I didn't really factor in the time it would take us to get around the city. It took us about 25 minutes to get to the cafe, and then there was a short line to be seated. As we waited I started thinking that this probably wasn't going to work out well. Anyway, to make a long story short, I ended up having to practically inhale what was an exquisite apfelstrudel and vanilla cream sauce. It was absolutely delicious and I wish I could have really taken the time to savor it.

One note about cafes. When I first traveled to Vienna in 2010 I hadn't known about Viennese cafe culture. We visited a few cafes, but with only three days in the city, our time was limited. I'd always thought that if I ever returned to Vienna, all I'd want to do is visit cafe after cafe. So that's what I planned to do this time around. Now that I've done it, I can say that some of the cafes are really beautiful, but many times those scrumptious-looking cakes look better than they taste. For all of the money that we spent eating meals in cafes, we really didn't have too many stand-out dishes. I'm glad I got to have the experience I wanted of seeing a bunch of Viennese cafes, but if I were to advise others, I'd suggest eating at a few of the best cafes and also mixing in a variety of other cuisines and restaurants. Here are my favorite Viennese cafes:

- Cafe Landtmann - great food, classic interior
- Cafe Schwarzenburg - very good food, nice interior
- Gerstner - beautiful interior, nice selection of cakes

I feel like we had a good, thorough experience in Vienna. Of course we didn't see everything - the city has so much to do - but we were able to do and see a lot without feeling rushed or tired out. I actually loved that we had enough time to return early to the apartment on a rainy afternoon or evening for some down time. Vienna is beautiful and elegant and does some of the best Christmas lights I've seen anywhere, but that being said, it doesn't get a place among my very favorite cities. I would never discourage someone from visiting, I just don't think it's a place I need to return to when there are so many other places I'd love to see.

On to Prague!

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Prague
The RailJet train to Prague was much older and more Soviet-feeling than the OBB trains we'd taken inside of Austria. The train was made up of private compartments though, which was nice. We had to transfer at a small town just over the Czech border, and it's a good thing I checked my watch and the schedule of stops when I did, because there was no announcement for the stop. We got off and made a quick transfer to another train that looked even older. It seemed like there were reservations/names on all of the compartments, but we just entered one and hoped for the best. Luckily no one came to tell us that we had taken their seats.

We arrived at the train station, withdrew a bit of cash in Czech korunas from the ATM, and bought tram tickets. We checked into our home for the next few days - a beautiful apartment in the Mala Strana, just up the street from the American embassy.

We weren't really looking to go out and do much - just get a bite to eat - but we ended up wandering across the Charles Bridge and then we just kept going until we got to Old Town Square. Now I won't say that we were exactly over Christmas markets by this point, but we'd seen a lot of the markets in Vienna and they had started to feel the same. The market at Old Town Square totally revitalized our enthusiasm for Christmas markets! The food was different, the goods being sold were different, and there was that giant Christmas tree all lit up at the front of the market. By this point we'd been traveling for just about two weeks, but arriving in Prague totally re-energized us!

The next morning we had a reservation for breakfast at Cafe Savoy. My scrambled eggs were runny, but M ordered the French breakfast and really liked it. After breakfast we took our time walking up to the Prague castle complex. Prague is just so beautiful! We stopped to take pictures at just about every turn.

The city hadn't felt too busy thus far, but once we got to the castle we found the crowds! I'm not sure why tickets for the castle sites aren't sold online; we had to squeeze ourselves into the ticket office to buy our pass, but that was much better than the super long line we saw just about an hour later.

We first visited St. Vitus cathedral. You can go into the cathedral without buying a ticket, but in order to walk the interior perimeter you have to scan your ticket. My favorite part was the St. Wenceslas chapel, which is a jewel of a room that you can peek into.

Next we went to the castle itself, which sounds more grand and impressive than it really is. I read all of the placards and tried to piece together an understanding of Czech history, but for some reason it eludes me. We also saw St. George's chapel and the Golden Lane, the latter being very crowded. I know Prague Castle is one of the big "must dos" of the city, and I'm not necessarily saying skip it, but I also don't think you're missing anything amazing if you have a free peek inside the cathedral and then skip the rest. The best thing about castle hill are the views, which are totally free.

There was a cute little market behind St. Vitus. Although I had already bought a Christmas market mug, I liked the one here well enough that I decided I needed one to take home. The mug is small and perfect for when I want a portion of hot chocolate that won't make me feel like I've ingested a sugar bomb. At the market itself I drank a really delicious pear apple cider. We also got a giant potato pancake for lunch.

At this point M wanted to go to the Loreto church. I considered going to the Strahov monastery to see the library there, but I had been before and had the pictures and memories to prove it, so I just took my time wandering around castle hill taking photographs for an hour or so. After M and I met back up we sought out a specific street in the neighborhood that M had read about. I couldn't tell you what it's called, but yes it was quaint and not at all crowded.

M wanted to rest before dinner, so she went back to the apartment and I wandered down through the Mala Strana into Old Town popping into shops and seeing what unique gifts and souvenirs I could find. I ended up buying a nativity set made out of corn husks at Manufaktura and some Christmas decorations made from straw at the Old Town Square market.

Our plan for dinner was to get goulash at Lokal. It was 5pm on a Tuesday and the restaurant is not at all fancy, and yet they told us that they were booked through until January 2. I'm not sure how important reservations are at other times of the year, but at Christmas they were essential. Had I known that Lokal was a chain, we probably would have searched out another location farther from Old Town, but when I put the restaurant name into Google maps, I just got the one location. We wandered a bit and found a little Italian restaurant where we had pretty good pizza for dinner.

We'd also been looking for a grocery store where we could stock up on some snacks, but everything we'd found so far had been mini marts with just alcohol and chips. We asked the waiter at the restaurant and he let us know about a Tesco that wasn't too far away. Of course, after visiting Tesco we saw grocery stores everywhere! Two popular chains are Billa and Albert, for anyone who might find that info useful. There was also a produce shop near our apartment that sold very good, very cheap produce.


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Prague (continued)

This was Christmas Eve day, and we weren't sure what would be open this day and the following one. For breakfast we set out for a bakery that I had read sells kolaches. We have a very popular little store in the town where I live that sells these Czech pastries, so I was eager to compare them to the real thing. When I asked in the bakery for kolaches the girl pointed me over to a selection of breakfast cakes that didn't look anything like what I was expecting. I'm not sure if kolache is just a general term for pastry (from what I can tell I don't think that's the case) or if the girl didn't understand what I wanted and just pointed me to her best guess, but I never did get to compare real Czech kolaches to the ones we have here. Instead we ended up having breakfast at the Municipal House Cafe, which is another of the gorgeous art nouveau cafes that was, surprisingly, not crowded.

We arrived at the Mucha Museum just 20 minutes after it opened and were surprised to find a line to the ticket counter. I'm not sure why I kept being surprised that other people wanted to do the same things I wanted to do :). The museum is small, but I really enjoyed it. Mucha first came to fame by painting advertisements in Paris for Sarah Bernhardt's productions and later focused his efforts on works that depicted Czech history and culture.

Next we wandered over to Wenceslas Square. While there a large group of motorcyclists rolled in. A few of the riders were dressed up in Christmasy gear and one bike even had a small Christmas tree on the back! I heard one guy say that he was from Italy! They were good natured about letting people take pictures of their bikes and with them.

We didn't get anything at the Wenceslas Square market because we were still full from breakfast, but the food options there looked especially good, so we made a note to come back.

It was a beautiful clear, sunny day. We really lucked out with weather on this trip! We wandered our way back to Old Town Square to take pictures during the daylight. It was packed! My previous trip to Prague had been in October, and while it was busy then the crowds were nowhere near what they were like now. I'm curious, is Prague even more congested in the summer, or does Christmas rival the summer crowds?

We walked - shoulder to shoulder - with the crowds back across Charles Bridge and then back to our apartment, where we got a little more dressed up for our Christmas Eve festivities.

For Christmas Eve dinner we had made late lunch/early dinner reservations at Cafe Imperial, which I consider to be the most beautiful cafe of the entire trip. I had endive salad, pumpkin tortellini (which was especially good), and chocolate mousse cake. Thoroughly filled, we found our way to the Mirror Chapel at the Clementinum for a Christmas Eve concert.

The program was a mix of Christmas carols and classical favorites played by a string quartet from the Dvorak symphony orchestra. There was also a soprano soloist, which I wasn't expecting, but really enjoyed. You could tell that she really put her heart into the performance. We chose this particular performance for the setting, and the Mirror Chapel did not disappoint. It's a fairly small venue with an organ once played by Mozart.

A 5pm performance meant that we were finished before 7pm, but we were perfectly happy to head back to the apartment to drink tea and watch Christmas movies. It was a fantastic Christmas Eve!

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Cafe Imperial

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Mirror Chapel

Really loving your report, your writing is fun and entertaining and informative. :)

Adelaidean Thank you! I'm no maitaitom but we can all aspire to write trip reports that entertaining!