Last weekend I had the opportunity to visit one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. Together with my colleagues, we went to Vienna. Our visit was short, just for the weekend, but glad we had some time for exploring the Christmassy Vienna.
Before our trip, I did some Googling about the Christmas markets and saved the locations of nine of them. That was a lot and for sure we couldn’t visit them all. As I found out later, there were even more of them. It seemed like in every square a market was being held.
We visited two biggest markets – the one in Karlsplatz and the one in the Rathausplatz. Both of them were similar but at the same time quite different.
Obviously, mulled wine, or gluhwein, as they call it there, was in every market. And everywhere it was served in a red boot-shaped cup. And lovely handmade gifts were also part of the market, together with the Christmas tree decorations.
Well, what was different was the attractions. In the Karlsplatz, we found lots of hay and kids were literally building forts out of it. There also was a pretty cool carousel run by… parents on the bikes! And at the Rathaus market, everything was more ordinary, with proper carousels, but the decorations were completely next level. One of my personal favorites was the tree of hearts.
And the whole city looked marvelous, with the decorations on every corner and Christmas lights. I can only imagine how beautiful it all should look like together with the snow.