We travelled by train via London St Pancras, Paris and an overnight stay in Zurich. The train from Zurich to Salzburg the next morning took us through the snowy Alps - just beautiful!
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| view from the train Zurich to Salzburg |
Arriving at Salzburg, we met up with our daughter, who had been studying German in Freiburg for a couple of months, for our Christmas holiday.
Salzburg was lovely! We could see the snowy mountains surrounding the city everywhere we looked, although there wasn't much snow on the pavements, so we could get around really easily!
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| Salzburg spire, with the surrounding mountains |
Nowadays we do have a few Christmas Markets in the UK - nothing to compare with Austria though! Salzburg had several different markets, and the one by the Cathedral was enormous! It was quite emotional to hear 'Silent Night' being sung on the steps of the Cathedral, in German of course...
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| Christmas Market by the Cathedral |
So we wandered around Salzburg, visiting various places, churches, museum, art gallery ... It was strange being a tourist on Christmas Day itself though (In Austria, and in much of Europe, I believe, they have their main Christmas celebrations on Christmas Eve). So Christmas Day saw us up at the Fortress, which dominates the city, looking out at the mountains around, covered with snow. And then went back to the hotel for a lovely evening meal.
On the last day of our trip, we decided to get out of the city, and we took the bus to St Gilgen, a small village on the lake Wolfgangsee. Lots of snow there!
The boats were running on the lake for Christmas week, so we took the boat to St Wolfgang, a larger village on the lakeside.
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| Wolfgangsee from St Wolfgang |
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| St Wolfgang - nativity scene |
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| St Wolfgang - nativity scene |
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| Back to St Gilgen |
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| St Gilgen street, candles on the lamp-posts |
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| Candle lights and stained glass on the street in St Gilgen |
An inspiring trip! Loved how the city and villages were decorated - timeless and 'classy'...
- fir trees or fir boughs - simple & plainly decorated, cream & splashes of red
- lights - mainly white and not flashing
- not much holly - and not many Father Christmases!
Just hope I remember this inspiration for my crafting for Christmas 2013!
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