After a tiring two day journey by coach and ferry we arrived in the village of Niederau in the Austrian Tyrol late on Sunday the 22nd December.

There was snow on the hills around but not in the village and we were a little disappointed at first but we woke to an incredible view from our room and balcony. There was still no snow on the ground in the village but snow was forecast for Monday so we were optimistic of having a White Christmas.

Salzburg

Monday we were up early to go to Salzburg for the day. First we took the funicular to the Festung Hohensalzburg, the great fortress that has loomed over the town for 900 years or so. As you might expect it was icy cold and windy up there. Gluwein was offered but I couldn’t drink it. The strong spices burned and it tasted pretty awful anyway.  Jim and our new coach friends, Angie and John enjoyed it. There were a number of rooms with exhibits, from medieval arms and armour to The Sound of Music. It was too cold to stay for long.

The Christmas markets in Salzburg were romantic and beautiful in the gloomy light. Hundreds of people milling around the colourful stalls – most of them drinking gluwein of course. We had coffee and wonderful, tasty pretzels at the Salzburg Museum cafe. The giant pretzels are nothing like the hard pretzels we get in a packet in Australia.  They are light, flaky twists of pastry and come with many different toppings. We shared a delicious savoury pretzel followed by an even more delicious apple strudel one.

Wandering through the medieval streets with light rain falling and Christmas lights glowing in the middle of the day was a totally different experience to Christmas at home. Towering over the city, and visible from almost everywhere were the snow covered mountains of the Tyrol. It was magical.

Returning to Niederau we found that it had snowed in our absence and at last we could say that it would be a truly white Christmas. From our balcony there was snow all around us – sprinkling the trees and covering cars down below. It was so exciting.

Innsbruck

On Christmas Eve we visited Innsbruck, about an hour from our hotel. We had a quick look around the Christmas markets which were not as good as Salzburg and wandered around the streets with their pretty, highly decorated baroque buildings for an hour or so. Check out the giant fairytale characters adorning the streets and buildings..

The main event was Innsbruck’s Nordkettenbahnen cable cars that take you from the Old Town to the top of the mountain 7,400 feet above the city. First there was an ultra-modern funicular to the first station where we transferred to a cable car to the second. Many people stop here but these intrepid travellers then took another cable car to the top, only a couple of hundred metres from the summit. From down below it looked as if the mountain was in clouds but when we reached the top it was clear and the view was breathtaking. We had a great time throwing snowballs and admiring the skills of the skiers and snowboarders. Back at the second station we settled in the cosy restaurant for a schnitzel lunch. Suddenly the weather closed in, snow began falling and soon we couldn’t see the edge of the mountain slope twenty metres in front of us. Time to finish our lunch, take photos outside and return to the city.

 

Christmas Eve is more important than Christmas Day in many European countries including Austria. We enjoyed Christmas dinner followed by the lighting of candles on the decorated tree and a harp recital by the owner and his daughter. It was all beautiful but I’m afraid it was early to bed for me.

 

I felt a bit emotional when we awoke on Christmas morning to another layer of crisp white snow. You can’t control nature and I never quite believed that our Christmas dream would come true. We walked through the snow to the ski lift area and watched the amazing young skiers, some of them just babies, having a wonderful time on the kindergarten slopes. Others, some in Tyrolean costumes, were taking the lifts and skiing or snow boarding down from higher up. We even saw a couple of kite skiers flying down the mountain to land on the snow.

The rest of Christmas Day was very different from our usual summer fun; goulash soup for a much needed warm-up lunch, a sleigh ride – well, really a horse and cart ride – then Christmas carols at the pretty village church which was beautifully decorated for the occasion. We walked there through the snow. It was perfect. Delicious carvery dinner, glass of champagne and early to bed again on this unforgettable Austrian Christmas Day.

Kitzbuhel

On Boxing Day a picturesque drive through the mountains to the Alpine town of Kitzbuhel. We were warned by our guide that it is a chic and expensive town.  We window shopped but were too intimidated to go into the designer shops lining the streets. Elegant people draped in furs sipped coffee in the glass-enclosed lobbies of the high-end hotels and I kept expecting to see George and Amal around every corner. We had ordinary and over-priced coffee and delicious cake before wandering back to the coach. To be honest, I don’t think I would bother with this excursion again. Niederau was just as pretty and I wished we had spent the time taking a walk through the snow or swimming in the hotel’s indoor pool. As it was, we were so busy that I didn’t even see it!

So came to an end our stay at the Harmony Hotel Sonnschein in the Austrian Tyrol. The next morning, with a huge dump of snow overnight making the coach tyres slip we set off back to the UK. And the less said about that the better! More than eight hundred k’s to our overnight stay in Brussels then the best part of the next day back to Folkestone in Kent via Le Euroshuttle. That was an interesting experience. Sitting in the coach inside a container travelling at 99 mph under the sea and not feeling as if we were moving!

4-Star Fairy Tale Christmas in Austria

Now we need a holiday but with time on the run we are off again. This time we are going to Iceland to chase the Northern Lights. Can we be as lucky as we were in Austria? We hope so!

So look for us in Iceland soon.

Love Jim and Frankie