O Tannenbaum - A tour of German Christmas Markets and other spots

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After about 30 minutes at the top we were getting really cold so first we had some goulash and hot sausage. We then had some Glühwein inside the old carriage they had turned into a sort of bar/diner



The view was not bad



This is apparently permanently closed







The Three Wise Men were not smart enough to go indoors



The train coming back uphill

We were quite happy to go downhill after about 90 minutes up their as we were becoming a bit chilled. We grabbed the right side seats for the downhill trip but it was still hard to get a good photo as the windows were frosty for a fair part of the trip down





The setting sun also caused problems

 

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This form of transport looked appropriate





The voyage back




You can see the path of the rail line angled across the hills







Some one was flying a large model plane onshore. I was pretty proud of myself for getting a photo of it from the boat a km or two away.



There were definitely some magnificent views from the lake.

 

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The ferry's arrival back at St Gingen was carefully timed to ensure that despite us running uphill we still missed the bus by 3 minutes. We then had to hang around in the increasingly cold air for another 30 minutes.

The cable car station was close to the bus stop. But we were also entertained by a hang glider








You can see that the temperature was 0 C. This was just after we got on the bus. It got down to at least - 2 C crossing the hills back to Salzburg



One of the few sunsets we saw



As you can see this was at 4:15pm.





Salzburg

 

[Seat0B]

These photos and the scenery are magnificent!

 

[OZDUCK]

These photos and the scenery are magnificent!

Thanks for the kind words. The photos come from three sources so I am having plenty of selecting shots to do. We had two Oppo Android phones and a Panasonic TZ90 Digital Camera - especially for the 'zoom' shots.

 

[OZDUCK]

Back in Salzburg and a change from the sublime to the monstrous.

We were in Salzburg for the annual Krampus Run. Certainly a more graphic evocation of the search for children who have been naughty or nice than I am used to in Australia.

Krampus and Perchten : Advent in Salzburg : salzburg.info

The beginning of December is the kick-off for traditional Krampus and Perchten parades in Salzburg. Overview of all Perchten and Krampus events.

www.salzburg.info

We had seen posters advertising the run in a street near to our apartment so we took our place in the crowd awaiting the arrival of St Nicholas, Krampus and the various beastly hangers on. We could hear them coming for about 10 minutes before they arrived. The noise the parade made was surprising. What also surprised me is the players like to 'whip' the sightseers - not painful but a bit surprising the first time it happened to me. Less surprising was that it was the pretty young woman who mainly attracted their attention. Most people seem to enjoy it all with plenty of giggling and happy screaming by onlookers being chased by the monsters. However, in Munich I saw one young boy be really scared by the Krampus and have to be comforted by his father.

We saw this run and thought that was the end of it. However the next night we visited the Christmas Markets at the Dom and Residenzplatz. when we were leaving down a back alleyway a number of different groups of performers passed by.

This video is from the second night and gives you an idea of the noise the run makes.

First night sightings















St Nicholas. Our German friends gently reminded us that it is St Nicholas and not Santa Claus who is their icon.



This run attracted a large crowd.





Being Austria, the Chocolatiers do not miss out.

 

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As I said we were at the Christmas markets watching the stage at the Domplatz when St Nicholas and Krampus arrived. They presented some gifts to a child 'who had been good'. We then left and were taking a back alley when we came across groups of the monsters. It appeared that the various city district groups were taking it in turn to run through the markets. Each group had to wait about 5 minutes before their turn.

On stage



The first group coming down the alley.



Some groups had to wait a fair while and it was obviously hot in the costumes



The kids were intrigued by it all









A lot of work obviously goes into the costumes



And a couple more videos to finish off. Auto focus on the camera is great except when objects, like other peoples cameras, suddenly appear in front of you. A lot of our photos didn't come out very well as because of the poor lighting we had the phone cameras set to 'night' and the movement caused blurring.

 

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Ok after a little break back to Salzburg.

One of the 'free entrances' on our Salzburg Card was to Hellbrunn Palace. This a large baroque villa on the outskirts of Salzburg famous for its trick fountains. Unfortunately this visit could have been mentioned as a travel mistake. I didn't read up thoroughly enough about it because it actually shuts for winter. There was a Christmas Market there but it was too early for it to be open.





The windows of the palace are used as a type of Advent Calendar





Children's market area



Our old friend - Krampus

 

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There was so much snow around that the Schloss Grounds were temporarily closed. I was surprised as I thought that snow was someting they would simply treat as a normal part of life.



It didn't look particularly perilous to me.



This is the Gazebo featured in "The Sound of Music". It is the genuine structure but has been moved to here from its original location at Schloss Leopoldskron.





We only stayed their for a short time but it was long enough to witness the visit of a "Sound of Music" tour bus. They were run through the grounds like a prison detail. Harassed and hurried to keep on schedule. We then caught another bus to a Local shopping area to buy some lunch and saw these in the supermarket.



Currently $17.99 at our local Dan Murphy's so pretty similar prices.



If you were a bit less discriminating you could buy one of these instead for €2.49

 

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Back in Salzburg itself. With plenty of snow and ice still around.



A nice view down the street



The clouds were still pretty low. The Winterfest sign seemed pretty appropriate





The castle is visible from much of Salzburg

 

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Most of the food seemed similar, very unsurprisingly I guess, to what we had been eating in Germany.

Good filling food for the winter





But we did branch out on a couple of occasions.

On our first night there we had a small meal at a little 'Persian' Restaurant just down from the HBF. Nothing special but perfectly fine and it was nice to taste a little bit of spice.





Another was at a South American (Peruvian) Restaurant

Start | Lazarte - Latin American Food

www.lazarte.at

A nice Peruvian beer



They have changed their on-line menu and I can't recall what most of the food actually was. But it all tasted lovely.



Ceviche

 

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Deserts.

You may notice the gooseberries on the plates. These seem surprisingly popular in Southern Germany/Austria. They call them Stachelbeere.





We had some very indulgent pastries at what is ort of my image of an Austriane café. It was on the same street that hosted the Krampus Run.









My wife had some Sachertorte



While I went wild and had a Salzburger Nockerl. It is served hot - it was about a 20 minute wait for it. Lovely and soft and sweet but very filling. My wife had to help me finish it off.

Recipe for Salzburger Nockerl ➢ How to make it

Recipe: Learn how to make light and fluffy Salzburger Nockerl. ✓ Ingredients ✓ Directions on how to make it yourself at home

www.austria.info

 

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Some more around Salzburg

A couple of shots of the fortress at night.






St Peters Abbey - plus a bit of contrail action for AFF





There were some arched alcoves/basements with a restaurant





The Goldene Kugel (Golden Ball)



Streets around the Dom Platz and Residenz Platz





Archways leading from the DomPlatz to the Residenz Platz

 

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Christmas Market in the ResidenzPlatz







The sort of stalls you can find at most of the markets



For those who have a sweet tooth


You could indulge in a bit of ice skating as well

 

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Our fun with the German rail system was about to be raised to an even higher level. On Friday 8 December we were booked to take a morning train from Salzburg to Munich and spend two nights there. About 18:00 we got a WhatsApp from a German friend who we were going to catch up with in Munich. She told us that the German train drivers had just called a 24 hour strike. Shortly afterwards we were officially notified of the train cancellation by D Bahn. We were actually booked on an Austrian train, via the D Bahn site as it was cheaper, but during strike action they will not cross the border. We had to cancel our stay in Munich which happily I had booked using a refundable rate. We could not stay in our apartment so had to desperately hunt around for one nights accommodation. It was pretty hard to find anything for a reasonable rate because of the strike and of course it also being a Friday night. Several places that I were looking at were booked out during screen refreshes of the booking page. Eventually I booked a place for about twice the normal rate but at least it meant we had a bed for that night.

This meant that we were at a loss for what to do on Friday. In the end I suggested we go to Berchtesgaden. Getting out of Salzburg turned out to be a very good idea as the entire city was virtually completely shut down for a public holiday - The Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Being a heathen I had no idea that this occurred on that date.

After packing up and moving out of room we deposited our bags in a locker at the HBF. I was amazed at the size of some of these lockers. There were the 'normal' ones, other lockers obviously meant for snow gear including skis and some huge ones. We were able to put a large suitcase, a medium suitcase and a large backpack into one locker with room to spare. It only cost 5 or 6 Euro.



We caught a 'Post" bus just around the corner from the HBF. This was our first chance to use our €49 Monthly Ticket for public transport in Germany. We had to pay €3.50 each for the part of the trip to the Austrian border, about halfway to Berchtesgaden, and then the rest of the trip was covered by the monthly pass.

The bus - luckily it was pretty empty for the entire trip. Our return trip from another town in Germany was jam packed.



In Salzburg the snow was beginning to disappear. This changed the closer we got to our destination.



It was a pretty grey day most of the time but we still got some great views on the trip of about an hour.



It would be a bit chilly waiting at some of these bus stops. Something we actually experienced on the return trip.









The road ran alongside quite a few streams and rivers.

 

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The bus terminated at the bus port alongside the Bahnhof. It was pretty deserted because of the rail strike. A local train was running every couple of hours.



There were some nice decorations inside the Bahnhof





The centre of Berchtesgaden was uphill from the main road.



Luckily Bavaria did not shut down for this holiday so we were able to pick up supplies from a big REWE store.

For those interested in price comparisons.



There was a large traffic roundabout with several bridges over a river.


Looking this way it was called the Ramsauer Ache.



While looking this way it becomes the Berchtesgadener Ache.

 

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The town sits in a valley surrounded by picturesque mountains








As I wrote earlier this was a completely unplanned excursion - very much different to my normal approach. I saw that there was an hourly bus to the Königssee Lake so we hopped on board with no real idea of what we would see or where the bus actually went. As you will see there was still plenty of snow up here.

The bus was just like a normal suburban Perth bus



However the views outside were a little different from what I would see on a Perth bus trip.





We hopped off at the little village of Königssee. In retrospect it might have been better to stay on as I think that there might have been some good views further along the route but who knows?

I assume these might be prevalent in this area



A little museum dedicated to the German-French actress Romy Schneider who was bought up in this area. We had run across anothe rrecord of her when we walked around Grunewald in Berlin in 2022.

Romy Schneider - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The main street of Königssee.



Königssee sits on a sort of narrow neck of the lake and you can't see the full extent of it from there. There was nice little walk around this end of the lake.

We had a picnic on one of these benches with the food we had bought earlier at the REWE store. The conditions didn't exactly encourage us to linger over our meal but it was a pretty good view.

 

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This afternoon was about the chilliest I felt on our holiday. There was very little sun and the steep mountains seemed to keep the cold in.



There was a little historic dam











Looking back towards the town from the dam







My wife taking photos of the horses



And one of the photos she took

 

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More of our walk

The town and its jetties







The main part of the lake is around the right hand bend in the distance









Snowy mountains were wherever you looked



The local tour boat heading out. We did not have time to take this trip. It was about 2 hours long and all the other visitors in town had either come by private car or on bus tours. We were reliant on the very infrequent local bus it did not seem sensible to risk being stuck. The light was also beginning to fade very early in the afternoon.

 

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Unlike this warm weather duck my local cousins seemed quite happy in the freezing cold water.





There were a fair number of people having a wander around



This place seemed closed for wintger.



I guess this sign makes sense at certain times of the year.



We decided to catch the return bus. But instead of retracing our steps we headed down a side road to loop around to the main road. It was a bit slippery on the ice and snow so we walked very carefully.



We passed a little stream



This is an old mill building dating back to 1610. It seemed set up to hold events in the summer months.





Not an uncommon sighting in staunchly catholic Bavaria.