This year we decided we would spend Christmas abroad. Salzburg was the destination of choice. I had heard from so many people that Austria was beautiful and the fact that they have christmas markets was a major drawcard. We spent three nights here before continuing on to explore more of Austria.

Normally I prefer to stay in Air Bnb’s but there weren’t many available that were in walking distance to the old town so we stayed at Hotel Hofwirt. It was modern, had breakfast included and was a 5-10 min walk to the Old Town.

Day One / Christmas day:

We spent the morning down at the Christmas Markets (Christkindlmarkt). We sampled many dishes including a bosnia (a sausage in a bun with curry powder, mustard, onion) and kaiserschmarrn (strips of pancake with nuts, raisins & choc sauce). We filled up with mulled wine to keep us warm and tried other hot alcoholic drinks like hot white russians.

After the markets we headed up to the famous Fortress (Hohensalzburg Fortress) which is the largest completely preserved castle in Central Europe. There are great views of Salzburg from the Fortress. We spent most of the afternoon here exploring. Once we had finished we caught the funicular down.

For our Christmas dinner we went to a traditional Austrian restaurant, s’Herzl. The waitresses wore traditional attire (dirndls). For dinner we dined on Schnitzel, boiled beef and apple strudel.

Day Two:

Hamish let me drag him along on the Sound of Music Tour! The bus took us to many of the locations that were in the movie including the lake, the palace, the gazebo, the fountain where they sung Do Ri Me, the church they got married in and many others. I loved it when our tour guide Christine went down the bus getting everyone to sing along to the soundtrack. As you can imagine Hamish loved it.

In the afternoon we went to Mozart‘s home which has now been turned into a museum. While you are in Austria you must try a Mozart ball (Mozartkugel) – it’s made of  pistachio, marzipan and nougat and covered with dark chocolate.

We had dinner at Sternbrau, a traditional beer inn. We had more Austrian food; a roast beef joint in onion sauce with spaetzle noodles and beef goulash with pork sausage, pickle and bread dumpling. We also tried the ‘Salzburger Nockerl’  for dessert which is an egg souffle with raspberry sauce. It kinda tasted like a warm pav.

After two days we felt we had seen all that Salzburg had to offer. Our next stop is Lake Hallstatt.