Austria Christmas Markets - Day 7 Salzburg

  It was a pretty short, uneventful day today.  I got up super late and puttered about getting ready.  I had already decided that I was going to do laundry today, so I packed my laundry into my backpack and set out.  The laundromat was on the other side of the Salzach river in the Neustadt.  The name means "new city" but it's still pretty old.  I guess it's relative to where I'm staying in Altstadt. Got a bit turned around finding the laundromat as the cloudy weather was giving Google maps fits, but I got to see the nifty pedestrian shoping district.

Finally found the place, got my laundry done and was on my way.  I was thinking of going back to the hotel to drop off my clean laundry before going to the last market on my list.  Got part of the way to the river before realizing that was dumb because the laundromat was just a few blocks from the market.  So, I turned around, got Google Maps Lost again for a bit, but followed the sound of Christmas music.  When you see the big tree, you know you're there.

This market was pretty small, but had a great neighborhood vibe.  I did spot a few tourists like me, but most people there seemed to know each other.

This one, Mirabellplatz, was less a "platz" and more a bit of street in front of a palace.  Still, it was charming and had gluwein stalls at either end.  

The slight flurries that had been going on all day decided to briefly become actual snow.

I decided that this was as good of an excuse as anything to get something to warm me up. 

Hello Gluwein!

When I finished my wine, I wandered back across the river, with some very scenic views, to my hotel.  I was again soaked, so I took some time to dry out before heading out for dinner.

This guy was promoting one of the places I passed, but who can peruse a menu with Krampus in your face?

I ended up down the street and another place and got what they described as Wiener Schnitzel made of chicken.  What it actually is Hähnchenschnitzel  

Time for bed...Innsbruk tomorrow

Austria Christmas Markets - Day 6 Salzburg

Austria Christmas Markets - Day 5 Salzburg

I rushed this morning to get to the train station on time.  Not that I overslept, but I was worried that I had not given myself enough time to walk the almost 1 mile to the station.  I shouldn't have worried, not only did I make it on time for the originally scheduled departure, but the train was running 20 minutes late.

The train was half empty, so I had the row to myself and got to watch the scenery, what there was of it.  We did get further delayed by technical issues at a station up ahead, and I was stuck looking at a wall for about a half hour.  

We finally made it to Salzburg, where it was pouring rain. I decided not to make the LONG walk to the hotel, downloaded the app for public transportation,  bought a ticket and hopped on a tram.  Yes, the right tram, thank you Google Maps.

The hotel I'm staying at is part of an old monastary.  Another single room, this one with no balcony, but the room is awesome and I love the pocket bed. Bathroom is long and narrow, so requires some interesting maneuvering. It *is* a very old building. 

I hung out in my room a while, did some laundry, and rested.  The main market is very close and I wanted to experience it at night.  I actually hadn't done that yet.  So I puttered about waiting for it to get dark.  I walked out the front door to find that the rain had changed to snow.

From the direction of my hotel, I come up on Mozart Platz first.  This is where there is an outdoor beer garden and skating rink (hence the purple lights).  There are actually 3 squares connecting to each other and this is the first.  The other two are where the market is.

Go around the corner, and there it is.  The snow was really starting to pick up at this point.  I headed in and started to check out the stalls.

They had a choir singing Christmas carols in front ot the Cathedral, which was lovely.

This is the third square (not sure of the name) with an odd glass tree?  Just as many stalls as the other square (Cathedral square).

And back again to the main square, where I decided to have a "pizza" crepe (tomatoes and shreaded mozzarella that did not melt as it was so cold..LOL).  And my one cup of gluwein.

It was just snowy and pretty, but super cold and wet.  

It made everything look very festive

I decided that I had plenty of fun for one night and I get two more full days...I headed back and will get some rest.  

Austria Christmas Markets- Day 4 Linz

Hey all I'm super tired and need to pack up to go to Salzburg tomorrow.   Two out of four anticipated markets today. One was not really a Christmas market, but a holiday themed food truck park, the other was closed on Mondays.  However I saw an awesome cathedral as a consolidation prize. Also stumbled upon a cool beer garden with bonus Krampus.   Lots of cool architecture in Linz too.