Christmas in Vienna

Vienna wasn’t supposed to be anything special. After some of the great Christmas markets we’d already been to, I had no great expectations about this large, but pretty city.

Then, on the first night, we visited the Christmas market at the Schonbrunn Palace and I fell in love with Vienna.

Set in front of the grand palace, this Christmas market had everything I’d been looking for so far. Great food (and plenty of variety), a brass band playing Christmas songs, many different types of hot drinks and gluhwein and a stunning setting. It was a perfect introduction to the city.

As we were staying in an apartment close to the centre of the city (our new favourite way to travel), we found that it was much simpler and quicker to get around the city using public transport than it had been in Berlin (where it sometimes took an hour to get to one side of the city with changes to different metro lines). On our second day, after making a tasty breakfast in our cute little kitchen and enjoying a coffee while looking out at some of the beautiful architecture on our street, we strolled the streets of the city and admired the decorations. Like Berlin, there are lots of Christmas markets dotted around the city, all differing in size and all selling their own unique collectible mugs.

We also ordered some wiener schnitzel for lunch, which we didn’t realise would be a huge portion served on its own (having been used to eating it in Germany where it comes with potatoes and sometimes vegetables). To say we were over-faced and sick of breaded meat by the end of it is an understatement, but it was definitely tasty.

Despite the copious amount of schnitzel, we still managed to squeeze in some sachertorte for dessert. I found it quite dry, which can sometimes be a downside with sachertorte, but eating it in a traditional old-style Austrian coffee where we were served by waiters in black tie was definitely part of the experience.

A quick trip to the Christmas market outside the Rathaus (the biggest one in the city, and also the most popular) made me realise that I definitely prefer smaller, more intimate markets, and so we headed across to the organic one nearby and indulged in some schnapps and punch.

For me, the best part of Christmas in Vienna is the decorations all around the city and adorning the Christmas markets and city squares. It was definitely one of the most festive cities we visited during the #christmasmarketcrawl. I can’t wait to re-visit the city when the temperatures are a bit higher.

Big thanks to the Austrian Tourism Board and Flipkey for helping us plan this amazing trip!