Christkindlmarkt in Wien

Rathaus by night

Christmas markets are seriously popular in Europe - just about every major city puts some on during December.  After some reasonably thorough research on the interweb and a glowing recommendation from a colleague, we decided to go to Vienna to check them out.

Pretty baubles

Basically all we did was wander around, eating various incarnations of carby delights and drinking mug after mug of steamy hot gluhwein (mulled wine) or apfel punsch while pretending to look at Christmas decorations and the other market stalls.

Vienna boasts a bunch of about five different sets of markets, each supposedly with its own character.  I’m pretty sure we hit most of them…

One was located in the grounds of the Belvedere Palace, which was very beautiful.  We didn’t go inside the palace itself; we just wandered the grounds, which were very well manicured, even in winter.  We were slightly alarmed by the Christmas lights springing forth from the ponds, however…  It didn’t seem all that safe!  

We could live there...  at a push

Another had a more modest setting…  Located in a University Campus that had previously been a hospital, this one had nice food, lovely things to buy and the BEST plum punsch you will ever have.  Two mugs of that and we were feeling very filled with the Christmas “spirit”…

Ah, Gluhwein... 

The best markets were situated by the Rathaus, which was right near our hotel (convenient).  There were activities for the kids and many a gluhwein shack for the thirsty patrons.  This was also the largest market by far, after two days we still managed to find areas we hadn’t previously explored.  Carols were played over loud speakers, there were lights and decorations strung up everywhere and in the centre was a huge tree with large red heart-shaped lights suspended from the branches.  Needless to say, it was hard not to feel festive in there.  

We had our first ever batch of roast chestnuts, fried, garlicky, potato goodness known as katoffelpoffel, the biggest baked potato I've ever seen - it was stuffed so full we barely were able to lift off the counter, and waffles – which taste quite good when scoffed off the front of a tractor…

The only way to down a waffle...  when a table just won't do!

Gees, this blog is as much about food as it is about going places…  oh well!

On Sunday, having spent the previous two days filling up on mulled wine and carbs at the markets, we decided to go for a bit of a wander through town, just cos we could! Eventually we made it to the not-so-blue-Danube; much like the Thames, I’m sure it looks beautiful at night and further upstream…

As we were leaving, we found out that an old friend from Uni lives there now...  So we’ll just have to go back at some point to visit her and to actually see the city itself properly.  Oh dear, how sad, never mind!