Schloss Grafenegg Adventmarkt, a Rare Return Visit

Call us holiday market connoisseurs. When the Niederösterreich newsletter arrived in my inbox, listing the "most beautiful markets," of the season  I pored over it like I once did the Toys R Us catalog as a I child. And why not?  So many palaces and castles that rarely open to the public fill their rooms with holiday greenery and handcrafted, locally produced goods for just one weekend, making visit feel like a mini-holiday. Add in a spectacular setting, and we are happy daytrippers. With so many markets to choose from, though, we have only made rare return visits in our soon-to-be four Christmases in Vienna.

During the holiday season our first year in Vienna, 2012, we visited the Advent market at Schloss Grafenegg. In one of the beautiful rooms I spied nativity pieces of handmade felted wool, and brought home the Holy Family.  In the three years since I have not found any felted wool nativities at any of the markets we've visited, though I had been looking to add pieces to the collection.  So, back to Grafenegg Anna Grace and I went with the hope of adding to the collection.

The castle is a treat for the eyes, one of just two in the romantic historicism style in Austria. Its lineage is a tangled web, though never passing into Hapsburg hands. Russians used the castle as HQ in the post-war years, promptly looting and destroying parts of the structure, which has since been restored.

Room after decorated room we walked, remarking on the caliber of the craftsmanship, selecting a couple of decorative items for the home, and sampling any and everything that looked delicious.

Beautiful craftsmanship. Beautiful price tag of €2.250 on this Christmas pyramid. We did not observe anyone making a purchase.

The outside market offered many epicurean wares from some of my favorite Niederösterreich vendors.

 The Best of the Pig.  Indeed, we'll sample.

 Poppy seed likor? Thank you, but we'll pass.

Our return visit was a success; the Shepherd, an Angel, and the Three Wise Men came home with us.  The next project will be to find a suitable creche...

Christmas Market-ing in the Salzkammergut: Wolfgangseer Advent

St. Gilgen, St. Wolfgang, and Strobl are the three villages trimming Lake Wolfgang, about an hour east of Salzburg. We spent a magical day between the villages, cheerily dressed for the holidays and with their glittering Advent markets offering something for everyone. The day was easily the highlight of our Salzkammergut holiday. Enjoy.

Clayton Theodore meets a Llama.

Why, yes. That is a "bum" cookie cutter.

Cozy huts made for a perfect snack break.

Deer Bratwurst. Delicious.

One of the small nativity scenes in Strobl.

The young buck and Clayton Theodore did not exactly become the best of friends.

Christmas Market-ing in the Salzkammergut: Salzburg

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Last year we spent the long Thanksgiving weekend in Innsbruck, and fell in love with Tirol. This year we chose the Salzkammergut for our getaway, hoping to be equally as enchanted by the Bavarian-style villages and their Advent markets. (Spoiler: we were enchanted!)

At the last minute we decided to have a family Thanksgiving on the night before, which worked beautifully because it meant we had leftovers to enjoy in Salzburg!  After settling Clayton Theodore on Thursday at the rental apartment, we set out for the markets. The forecast snow had not quite arrived and the skies were gray and gloomy, but the hot chocolates from the first market perked our spirits.

 "Fleischkrapfen" (literal translation, Meat Doughnut) can understandably seem unappealing. This Salzburger specialty is more related to a handpie or similar, though, and is altogether delicious.

An entrance to Mirabell Gardens, shimmering somehow in spite of the gray skies.

Hohensalzburg. Of course.

Our favorite market of those within Salzburg's AltStadt was the enchanting SternAdvent at the Stern Brau. Everything from the setting to the decorations to the wares made it feel like Christmas.

Remember the "Tobi Reiser Quintet" from the Sound of Music?  Now it's the Tobi Reiser Ensemble performing classic Austrian folk music.

Soon enough the snow began to fall, and Salzburg began to twinkle.

On our final morning we headed to Oberndorf bei Salzburg, the village where "Silent Night" was sung for the first time on Christmas Eve, 1818. All was certainly bright, but all was not entirely calm. A tour bus had disgorged moments before we arrived, and rather quickly a queue formed to visit the tiny chapel.

Schloss Hellbrunn, the former villa of the Archbishop of Salzburg was hosting its Adventmarket, and was our final stop before heading home.  By this time light snow had begun to fall.

Lush. Romantic. Enchanting. Take your pick.  Holiday music was playing along the palace grounds and Clayton Theodore decided to sing along, to the amusement of those around us. Funny puppy, he is.

On the palace grounds resides the gazebo from The Sound of Music.  It was moved here for protection, perhaps from overzealous fans of the movie? Regardless, the setting is perfect a photo.

This was not our first visit to all things Sound of Music. We took a family spring break holiday to Bavaria and Salzburg in 2009. 

The Salzburg markets, especially the market at Schloss Hellbrunn, were a seasonally perfect opener for the Wolfgangseer Adventmarkt...