Highlights included huge pretzels – if you’ve spent a lifetime looking for a rum-flavoured Pretzel, apparently this is where to find one. The real treat for me though (predictably) was the abundance of food stalls at the market. There is something for even the fussiest tree-dresser. And if you need goodies to adorn your tree, you’ll find glittering, spherical handmade baubles, large and small, glass and wood, matt and sheen. For me, the canary-yellow, bees wax candle stalls stood out and I developed a bizarre fascination with chopping boards after finding a fabulous, rustic stall in Munich allowing bespoke engraving on an array of handmade wooden boards. With countless stalls of traditional, hand-crafted items, this is an ideal place to buy gifts for those already-have-everything people. Make a shopping list – I wish I had brought mine with me – you need some structure in a place like this if you’re actually going to get anything done. With over 140 stalls, we meandered through a myriad of treats and gifts. The lights are so dazzling and yet seem classy and within limits. When we first arrived at The Magic of Advent Market, the lit up snowmen nestling in the trees at the entrance immediately caught my eye, whilst they kept their own beady eyes on the lit up violins in the neighbouring tree. It was this sense of awe I felt when I took my first step into my first European Christmas Market, here in Vienna. One of my favourite things about travel is that spine-tingling sense of awe you get when you see a sight that takes your breath away for the first time no matter how many photos you’ve already seen or how much reading you’ve done, showing us that no matter how much we try to second guess ourselves, our inate reactions are more malleable with an ever expanding ability to stretch (rather like my stomach when it comes to dessert). In fact, if you don’t like Christmas, don’t go to Vienna in the winter – it’s too magical and it’ll be wasted on you. We actually ended up going to at least three others inadvertently – the markets are everywhere. In our 3 days in Vienna, we intended to see two – (1) the Magic of Advent at the Rathausplatz, Vienna’s largest Christmas market, on the backdrop of the beautiful city hall and (2) the smaller market in front of the Schloss Schonbrunn (the Schonbrunn Palace). You could spend a whole season touring the European Christmas markets. I would willingly put on my Santa hat as soon as the last of the pollens have floated into the smoggy London skyline so when a few days of annual leave came up in December, 4 calling birds were calling me to Europe to sample how Austria and Germany do Christmas. Salute with advent anticipation the food, fun and frolics that the upcoming weeks will bring. Praise hallelujah that the season of festivities is upon us. There are the bah-humbug, moaning sorts that habitually whine at the first radio play of Wham’s Last Christmas, cursing its 6 week premature arrival in the world, lingering like an unwelcome odour. In the pre-Christmas period each year, there are 2 types of creature that emerge from the woodwork.
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