The Traveling Professor's inaugural small group Christmas Market tour to Vienna, Salzburg, and Bavaria was a great success. Here are the highlights of our tour:
Vienna: We started our tour on Sunday evening, November 27 with a "Culinary DNA of Austria" event with well-known food entertainer Bianca Gusenbauer. It was just our private group at an intimate Vienna restaurant sampling foods and wines of Austria. It was a great way to get to know each other and start off the tour. The highlight was a strudel making (from scratch) presentation. The final product was gobbled up in no time. In between visits to the Spanish Riding School, a professionally guided tour of the city of Vienna, and some great meals, the traditional Christmas Markets of Vienna gave all of us memories of how Christmas used to be for us when we were younger. We spent a total of 3 nights in Vienna on our small group tour.
Steyr: On our way to Salzburg, we stopped at the quaint village of Steyr, famous for its traditional nativity scenes, the famous Christkindl Post Office and warming Christmas atmosphere.
Salzburg: For me, 3 nights in Salzburg was the highlight of our Christmas Market tour. Again, we had a professionally guided tour to introduce us to the city. The Christmas Markets here are the most intimate and beautiful ones. The squares are lit up at night, the gluwhein is everywhere, horses clip-clop through the streets. We had a special presentation an viewpoint of the rare "Salzburg Tower Trumpets" that reassured me that the Christmas season is still celebrated the way it should be. Travelers also got a dose of "The Sound of Music" in Salzburg too.
Munich: Our last stop was in Munich. It is larger than the other places we visited and on this trip a bit chillier too. I think our travelers found the Bavarian Christmas markets to offer a slightly different take on the Christmas markets we had seen on the trip thus far. However, they were enjoyed as much as the others.
We'll be bringing another small group tour to the Christmas Markets of Austria and Bavaria in 2017. Get on my mailing list to be the first to know of the dates.