Vienna Christmas Market

Posted on December 14, 2010 by Ben Bricco

This weekend we were in Budapest for the opera and decided to drive over to Vienna on Saturday to experience the renowned Christmas market there. It wasn’t the most ideal day to make the two hour trip. As Wallace Stevens wrote: It was evening all afternoon. And as soon as we passed over the border into Austria, the atmosphere let loose its blizzard on us. We were never so thankful for our Audi Quattro’s 4-wheel drive as this weekend (or was it last year when we were in another snow emergency near Shtulek-Semmering and a spiteful, malfunctioning GPS nearly sent us up a no-car, rangers-only mountain pass?).

The weather did not deter the crowd, however, and after waiting for 20 minutes in line at the Starbucks to use the women’s restroom, we walked around Volksgarten (built over the city walls destroyed by Napoleon) and made our way to the main Christmas market.

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Nearly too crowded to enjoy, we still tried to snap a few pictures of the place. Like all Christmas markets, the delicious aroma of mulled wine wafted through the air, mixing with sweets, roasting chestnuts, and the alluring spice of grilled sausages. Györgyi and I shared one that was wrapped in a sweet batter. Note that I said we SHARED one. And that is the real Christmas miracle of the market trip, because I could have slammed like twenty of those babies.

If you are in the area during the holidays, the Vienna Christmas markets are a must, if only for the sake of tradition and to get yourself into the holiday spirit. Though I must say, staunch biases aside, that the Budapest Christmas market is better. Hoppá!

Salzburg

Posted on October 29, 2010 by Jessica Jewell

The final trip of our European vacation odyssey was to the fantastic city of Salzburg, Austria. By this time we were used to rain and cool weather, and despite being pretty tired we had an absolutely stellar time. After the 5 hour drive into the mountains of Bavaria, we checked into our hotel downtown and then walked through the Mirabell Gardens (where they filmed the Sound of Music, Do, Re, Mi fountain scene!). After, we headed across the river to Old Town. In pretty typical European style there were festivals going on all weekend: craft fairs, beer tastings, folk music performers. If you’ve never seen an Austrian man in lederhosen playing a tuba while pausing every few bars to sip on his liter stein of beer, you really haven’t lived.

The following day we did a few tours: Bavarian Mountains, Salt Mine and the Sound of Music Tour. We slid down the miner’s slide in the dark on the Salt Mine Tour, went up to where Hitler had a house and lookout, ate a lunch of white sausages and wheat beer in Germany, and then headed back to Salzburg for the really fun and silly Sound of Music Tour where we saw all of the important movie sites, in addition to eating a terribly sinful strudel with warm vanilla sauce.

And of course, we didn’t shy away from the beer and schnitzel with cranberry sauce (or as my dad calls it, snitzel). Seriously, God bless Austria.

Click on the picture below to start the Flickr slideshow of our Austrian adventure!

The Visitor

Posted on June 16, 2010 by Jessica Jewell

As I mentioned in my last post, my brother, Brian, came to Budapest to visit me for two weeks. He just went back to Colorado Springs yesterday, and I finally had a little bit of time to take a look at the pictures we took. It was a fully-packed two weeks and we all had a great time. We spent the first part of the time exploring Budapest. And since he is a History teacher, we made sure to see the relics and museums of the various conflicts, occupations and revolutions. We did some touristy things and some non. By the end of the trip, he knew his way around the market, how to order a cappuccino and scones, and the value of sausage and palinka. We had a wonderful party with friends in Szeged, and at the weekend he was even able to eat a shnitzel in Vienna. We ended our trip with a four day adventure in Bovec, Slovenia, which is by far the most beautiful place I’ve seen. He went mountain biking, while Györgyi and I went on a white water trip. The next day we all went on ATVs in the mountain passes. I know I could drag out a blog post all week long and the next, probably, just to tell every detail of his trip. But I think the pictures will do a better job with the story. To see the set from the last two weeks, just click on the picture below.

Stuhleck

Posted on February 15, 2010 by Jessica Jewell

We drove into Semmering at night after a late departure from Budapest. Stuhleck at Spital am Semmering is the highest summit of the Eastern Alps and is the largest ski resort in East Austria. It’s also a very easy three-hour drive from Budapest. That is if your Garmin GPS is working correctly and doesn’t have any trouble guiding you around a closed mountain tunnel pass. And doesn’t take you up the entire opposite face of the mountain where there are no lights and suspiciously no cars. And then doesn’t suggest that you try to drive up a utility road with about 2 feet of snow on it. And then doesn’t suggest you drive all the way down the mountain weaving through hair-pin steep turns, turn around, and then drive up again as the Alps blizzard is doing everything it can to test out those new Audi back-wheel drive quattro power system…

But we eventually made it. And we didn’t end up in a ditch at the summit of the Eastern Alps. And the moon was so beautiful glowing behind the mountains we were almost able block out the quite perilous situation we were in. After all, we were going snowboarding in the morning. So it was worth it.

The hotel was snow-covered and pretty much exactly how you would imagine a guest house on the slopes. Outside there was a small pub where on Saturday a brass band was playing as people sipped Austrian wheat beer at the tables and on the sun chairs, and rotisserie chickens sizzled on the open-air spit.

The weather on Friday was amazing. Sun so bright you almost couldn’t feel the freezing temperatures because your skin was too busy filling itself with rays. From the lifts, the trees looked exactly how I would imagine them in ancient, northern forests. These evergreens look hardy, for sure, survivors in temperatures and altitudes where other plant life just can’t make it.

At full speed it would take maybe 30 minutes to get down the mountain from the very top. Though I can’t be sure. We weren’t going full speed, and we often pulled over to the side to just sit down and admire the view. The light was so bright that my point-and-shoot camera couldn’t discern the sparse cloud-cover for distant snow-covered ranges. But trust me, it’s magnificent.

At almost the top there was a great restaurant where people would stop to eat lunch and have a drink. On Friday we had the daily offer, which I think every single person in that huge venue was also eating:

To our credit we didn’t drink any beer until we made it all the way down. If you are at nice grocer you may be able to get Edelweiss, which is an excellent wheat beer. I’m not a big fan of fancy beers myself, but it was really good. And for Györgyi who is typically Hungarian, therefore a wine-drinker, she said she really enjoyed the Edelweiss. (Though last year when she had it she said it tasted like banana bread, so maybe you shouldn’t take her advice.)

The more I go snowboarding, the more I can understand those people who abandon their office jobs, move to a little ski town, and become a ski or snowboarding bum. Amid the pines and peaks it almost seems reasonable, especially mid-February when the sun feels like a warm, velvet blanket. But for now I’m going to have to be a weekend snowboarder, and try to enjoy any time and peace I do have on the mountain.

Boots & Alps

Posted on February 11, 2010 by Jessica Jewell

In a few hours we’re leaving for Austria’s Eastern Alps. I’ve been hearing amazing things about the resort and I can’t wait to snowboard above the cloud line. [And dutifully write about it as well--ahh the difficulties we traveling travel writers face].

Györgyi bought me an early early birthday present. I just adore Burton’s preppy line.

Now of course I’m going to have to accessorize with a new jacket and board. It wouldn’t be fair to the shoes to mismatch.

We will be staying mid-mountain, so I’m not sure if they will have internet access. If so, I’ll post a slope report. Otherwise, pics and stories when we return.

Salzburg, Day 3

Posted on November 3, 2009 by Jessica Jewell

Sunday morning we were set to leave Salzburg early, so we woke up around 6 and got ready to leave. Then we saw the mountains in the distance from our hotel room window and decided that we would have to go back into Old Town for some final pictures. We hadn’t gotten many sunny pictures, nor pictures without too many people, so it was a good decision that we went. We ended up leaving around noon, after another round of chestnuts, cappuccino and an absolutely wonderful silent stroll around town. Oh yeah, and this hat:

I’m putting the Sunday pictures into the following slideshow because there were just too many pictures I wanted to include. It’s been fun looking back on this trip. It was one of the most charming places I’ve been to in Europe and I hope anyone traveling in the region will consider visiting. And I can’t wait to go back with my parents this summer. Sound of music with my mom and abbey beer with my dad! Definitely something to look forward to.

Salzburg, Day 2

Posted on October 28, 2009 by Jessica Jewell

The Sound of Music Tour

Saturday started early with the much anticipated Sound of Music Tour. I heard a lot of great things about it online and it seems like a lot of other people did too, as our 9:30am bus was completely full, even on a kind of dreary day. There were even some gals from UGA sitting behind us (music majors spending the semester abroad), were not not shy at all to sing each and EVERY song our guide mentioned!

Sound of Music tour bus

Salzburg was the main filming location of The Sound of Music in 1965, but even if you didn’t see it or hated the musical, the tour was amazing because it basically was an extended tour of Salzburg, the countryside, and a neighboring town, Mondsee.

Our guide, Peter, was the best. He showed off the sites, told jokes with the driver, gave great Salzburg tips, and had a lot of really interesting trivia.

Like, for example, The Sound of Music (which runs non-stop on a loop on one of the television stations in Salzburg) was translated into German only ELEVEN years ago, so basically no one in Salzburg has seen it, or really cares about it! Though our bus was filled to the rafters with American and British tourists who were singing the songs as we drove through the hills. I honestly felt like I was going to some kind of adult show choir camp (personal fantasy!!) or convention for musicals nerds. It was great!

We saw the Von Trapp Family house, and the pavilion where Liesl and Rolf (the bad Nazi boy) sing, “I am sixteen going on seventeen”. You used to be able to go into the pavilion, but a tourist (80 years old according to Peter) broke her hip trying to dance around the seats like Liesl did. We saw the hills in the opening scene, the road where Maria rides her bike to the house, the convent and of course the church where Maria and the Captain get married at the end.

The wedding scene was filmed in a nearby town called Mondsee. It is about 30 minutes from Salzburg and if you have a car, it is definitely worth visiting. Very quaint and cute. The church was kind of severe, as medieval Catholic churches tend to be. And we were kind of hungry by that point, especially after Peter had put the little seed into everyone’s head about one of the town’s specialties…

So we headed over to the café, where most of the rest of our tour bus was sitting, and ordered.

And we feasted on apple strudel with vanilla sauce. The café was strangely quiet, as everyone was eating the same thing. I can’t describe it. Is it bad to say that maybe the highlight of a tour is apple strudel? But don’t worry Internet, I had my medicheck yesterday in Szeged and my cholesterol, blood pressure, ekg, and ultrasounds are all quite good, according to the docs. So all of you long-time readers out there, you can rest your concerned hearts for me for right now.

After the tour was over, we walked through the Mirabell Gardens. This is where almost the whole Do Re Mi song was filmed, and it’s a really beautiful part of Salzburg.

Mozart

We didn’t linger long in the gardens because we had a really packed day planned. So we went back into old town, and straight to Mozart’s birthplace on Getreidegasse 9. You weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, so unlike our usual covert pictures, we decided to just enjoy the museum and not try to sneak around. But it was a cool museum (which has been open since 1880, by the way). They have his small child’s violin, his clavichord, pianoforte, some of his clothes, letters, original sheet music, etc. All pretty neat stuff. And the third floor of the house, which is where the family lived, was surprisingly big for that time period. Probably three times the size of my apartment in Budapest!

The Fortress

Since we hadn’t really eaten anything except the apple strudel, we got a famous pretzel and headed up to the fortress via funicular. If you’re afraid of heights, it might not be the best thing to do in Salzburg, but even though the ride up was steep and high, the funicular basically sling shot up mountain at a break-neck pace so by the time you had a chance to have a panic attack you were already at the top.

Unfortunately the clouds blocked the view of the Alps and Untersberg Mountain, but the sites of the town was still beautiful.

Inside of the fortress there is a museum, look out points, and a small cobblestone courtyard where the government of Austria pays for artists to live and work (kind of like Yaddo, only government-granted and in a fortress in Austria).

After the fortress, we walked across town to have a beer at Augustiner Abbey & Müllner Bräu Brewery. Hermits founded the abbey in 1605 and it is the oldest (and most famous) beer garden in Austria.

I adore these traditional Austrian steins.

And since we were exhausted, hungry, a little cold, and at a loss for somewhere else to go, we decided to head back to our (now) favorite restaurant in Salzburg, Die Weisse, to warm up and have an amazingly delicious pork and potato soup.

As we walked from the restaurant back to Old Town to catch a cab back to the hotel, we marveled at how old and charmed the city looks at night. It wasn’t majestic like (for example, um,) Budapest at night, but it was quiet and peaceful. And even though it was a long day packed with activities, it was certainly one of my best days of traveling yet.

Salzburg, Day 1

Posted on October 26, 2009 by Jessica Jewell

I’m sitting here staring at a blank document just trying to find good words to describe Salzburg, and honestly I keep coming back to fairy tale. I mean how many thousands and thousands of dollars went into that MFA, and “fairy tale” is the best I can come up with? But it’s either that or blank page. And blank page won’t suffice either because I want to express clearly how incredible our weekend was in Salzburg. So it will have to do: Salzburg was a fairy tale.

We left on Friday morning. It was a little cloudy in Budapest, and remained so for the majority of the trip. And you have to understand that cloud cover really does make you a little unsure of the place, especially since an hour after crossing the Hungarian boarder into Austria, you should start to see some mountains. If you haven’t been, trust me, you’ll know the Alps when you see them. The Alps (latin cognate, Alex, “albus”—white!) are very very. Not that you can see the Alps that far across the boarder, but the terrain and the elevation begins to change drastically. Unfortunately we couldn’t really tell because of the weather. I did however spend a little time explain advection fog to Györgyi and was surprisingly perplexed when she fell asleep in the passenger seat.

But despite fog and construction and Germans driving 200 mph, we got into Salzburg without much fuss about five hours after we left.

We stayed at the Castellani Park Hotel, which I booked partly because of our IPrefer membership and partly because we really love this group of hotels. They are not paying me to write this, but we have always had good experiences, in Poland, Czech Republic and now Austria with these hotels so I really recommend them. Also, sigh up for the IPrefer membership rewards number and you get all sorts of extras. They gave us free cakes, fruit, wine, and a free upgrade to a Junior Suite on this particular trip. And even though the hotel was about five minutes outside of Old Town (5 Euro cab ride if you don’t have a car), the view was beautiful, the neighborhood was quiet, and the hotel and its staff were lovely, gracious and helpful.

Salzburg is on the banks of the Salzach river and on the northern boundary of the Alps. And it is not a big city (only a little over 100,000 residents). But it is clear to me now why it is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe. We set out from the hotel around 4pm so it was already getting dark.

So while I want to show only the sunniest, Alps(iest), greenest pictures, I’m going to post in order of what we did. And when we were in the old city at 4, it was dark, a little cold, though not raining. These facts did not seem to deter anyone though from their evening strolls through the medieval part of the city.

One of the first things that we saw was the huge crowd swarming in and out of the chocolate store. So even though we have been trying to watch our chocolate intake of late, we didn’t think it would be right not to go in for a few morsels. I mean I didn’t want to personally insult Salzburg on my first visit.

And because her hands were cold (and only because), Györgyi got a cup of hot chocolate. Just imagine taking the most delicious chocolate bar you have ever had, melting it, warming it up so it steams, and then putting it in a cup to drink. That’s what it was. Swoooon.

We strolled around the old town for a while, just looking at the beautiful buildings and taking in the town. Even with the fog and gray, the sites were lovely. And there were so many people outside walking around, eating chestnuts, sipping cappuccinos at outdoor cafes and practicing their German phrases.

I don’t know why, but I’ve never had a roasted chestnut before. So finally I tried some because there were many street vendors selling them. One bag, 3 Euros. So delicious. Nutty, soft and sweet. It’s not really that much of a tradition in America, and it’s a shame because they seem like the perfect fall/winter street food.

As we were walking, we heard “Hey, Kent State!” We happened to stumble upon some Ohioans enjoying a cake outside at one of the sidestreet café. They were a young couple who went to Ohio State and now live in Belgrade with their four small children. We chatted with them for a while, and when I walked away I was just smiling really big and wide. Not only was it nice to meet up with some Americans, but the more time I’m away, the more I realize how wonderful the Midwestern attitude for friendliness is. I said to Györgyi, “that’s Ohio,” and now that’s she’s been home with me, I think she knew exactly what I meant.

So we bought the chestnuts outside of Mozart’s house. Though because it was late, the house and tour was closing, so we had to save it for Saturday. Which gave us the perfect excuse to head back across the river, to the restaurant I had picked out for us for the night.

Before I travel anywhere, I check tripadvisor for restaurant recommendations. If you’ve never used it, I really give it high marks, and seem to always find a local place with good food and drink.

Sometimes this means having to get out of the touristy city-center, but in my experience it is always worth it.

So based on the recommendation of travelers around the world, we headed to Die Weisse (website in German only). Rupertgasse 10, +43 662 8722460 Reservations recommended for sure, especially during high season. The reviews said it was the best beer garden in Salzburg and they had good food to boot. And honestly it was a total blast. The waiters wore these leather Austrian shorts and were very friendly. And their homemade light and dark wheat beer was so delicious. Even Györgyi, a real non-beer drinker, kept wanting to go back for more.

Györgyi ordered what was essentially Austrian mac & cheese. So it was dumplings, cheese, bacon, and herbs baked in a little pot and served hot. Where the cheesy dumplings met the sides of the pot, they were a little crispy. Oh there was also a salad, but I think it was just there to ease the conscious a little bit. And I’ll have to check with her, but I’m pretty sure this is her death row meal now. I ordered an equally incredibly delicious meal, which was the Wiener Schnitzel and a side salad that included cucumbers and cabbage. I highly highly recommend this restaurant. Yes, that was two highlyies. The next night we met an Irish couple in Old Town and practically forced them to go there after they asked where we had eaten and if we had any recommendations.

So as it had already been a long day, we headed back to the hotel for a nightcap (i.e—Steigel beer) at the cute hotel bar. After our beer, we went back to the room and had a few chocolates while watching The Sound of Music. Why, do you ask, did we watch the Sound of Music? (As if it being the best movie musical ever isn’t enough of a reason.) Because…the next day…we had to be up bright and early for the Sound of Music tour of Salzburg.

Mountains, Sun, Snow

Posted on March 2, 2009 by Jessica Jewell

Departure and arrival of mountain gondolas

Since I have lived here, I almost always have done my writing while sitting at a nice, solid and simple Ikea wooden desk, which allows me to gaze out my balcony window and over the thirteenth district’s old European rooftops. But today I am writing from the couch. Why? Because my arms are so sore from snowboarding that I can’t lift them high enough to reach the computer keys on the desk. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

At least we felt 100% prepared

Györgyi and I had everything planned for our long weekend at Kreischberg resort in Murau, Austria. We had our cute snowboarding outfits bought, our helmets, pads, braces, goggles, snowboards, boots and bindings rented, and we had satisfactorily read the prep book and watched the videos on idiot’s guide for learning how to snowboard. For those of you who have never snowboarded…You. Cannot. Imagine. how difficult the first day is. Nor the amount and kinds of muscles you can strain and pull allll at the same time.

small Austrian village

We left Budapest early on Thursday morning with Zsolt, Györgyi’s boss, and his fiancé Szilvi. The trip was really great actually. After we passed west of Vienna, the landscape started changing dramatically. Suddenly there were MOUNTAINS and old castles on remarkably sharp ridges. And tunnel after tunnel after tunnel as we drove through the mountains.

When we finally made it to the hotel, we found that our room looked right over the lower slopes. It seemed high and steep from our view, but we learned that what we could see from our balcony was only about 10 percent of the height. The rest was hidden by the ridge where the gondolas disappear. In fact, even though we didn’t go to the very top of the mountains that can be snowboarded and skied down (just the part for beginners) it still took us over 10 minutes to ride up the mountain on the gondola.

dscn68051

The hotel, Relax Resort, is Hungarian owned, and it seemed like the majority of the people there were Hungarians, like in our group. The Austrian presence was felt, though most strongly when the waiters brought us exactly measured glasses of wine (1/4 or 1/8 liters) and then mistakenly tried to serve some of the guys in our group a single short shot of Jägermeister instead of the more generous, let’s say, Hungarian pour. The food at breakfast and dinner was all buffet style and for the most part quite delicious. There was a mixture of Austrian and Hungarian classics, and a wide variety to give plenty of energy for the long day of snowboarding, or as we knew it on the first day, falling down the mountain.

Szilvi and Andrew with much needed Beer

Now, we didn’t go snowboarding unaided. We had a really amazing guide, Andrew, who is a snowboard enthusiast and adventure store owner who at times, while you were lying on your back face covered in snow and ice, leaned over you and waxed poetic about his snowboard-as-life philosophy that was quite touching and actually quite motivating.

Andrew discussing fundamentals

The four women I was in a group with were all beginners like me, and Andrew would hold our hands about 25 meters down the mountain and then run back up and get the next person, waiting on their stomach or backs after falling.

Here, Andrew is holding both me (just fell) and Brigi

He did this all day long. I really don’t know how. And while it only takes him about six minutes to get down the whole lower part of the mountain, it took us over three hours to get just HALF WAY. Luckily, at the half way point, there is a cute little mountain lodge where you can buy drinks and food and simply rest on a picnic bench, take off your jacket, and relax in the sun before taking the gondola back up for another run.

Györgyi and mountains

It was much as you would expect the first day to go. We learned how to stop on our toes and on our heals, which is more about feel than anything else. After you’ve fallen about a hundred times, I suppose your body just doesn’t want to get hurt anymore and you learn how to stop yourself. And we eventually did.

I smile and wonder if I will be able to get up again

The next day the storms of the first day had subsided and the skies opened in a magnificent burst of sunshine. Though we could barely walk, lift our arms, lift our legs, or move our necks from side to side, we got back up the mountain and finally learned how to do the S turns. Once I finally figured it out, Andrew, who was finally able to be on his own snowboard, met me toward the end of the first slope, and held my hands all the way as we zigzagged down to the lodge. He spoke English well enough for me to understand his instructions, though I especially adored his gleeful shouting go, go, go, go, go, and he pointed me down the mountain in a kind of tandem dance. Suddenly all of my fear about falling and correcting and perfecting left me. I’ve always considered myself to be kind of a beach girl. I love to swim. I love the ocean. I love water sports. But after this weekend, I definitely have a new-found passion for snowboarding and I really hope that I will be able to go again soon. Once I can lift my arms over my head again, of course.

treetopmountain

Regardless of how well or quickly people caught on, or if they did at all, the experience was absolutely beautiful. As I stopped every fifty meters or so and sat down on the snow to look out at the panorama, I was astonished by the beauty, exhilarated by the view. Snow-capped mountains. Ancient pines. The modest, almost sleepy town hugging the snow-dusted valley.

The skiers and snowboarders on the mountain in their swaying forms, those just resting in the lodge, others collecting sun on the chairs, and even the guests they brought with them to enjoy the winter rays at the top of the mountain:

This dog had a seriously awesome hat

It all made me realize how fortune I am to be here and having these experiences right now. Not only was I dazzled by the resort and the region, but I feel overwhelming gratitude to Györgyi for inviting me, for the incredible generosity of her company, and for the kindness of her colleagues.

Hovi, Zsolt, me, Györgyi and Andrew

It was truly one of my most favorite winter adventures.

b u d a j e s t

Category Archives: Austria