I’ve been pretty busy over the last few weeks in Giessen with all my Christmas shopping (done in two days) and finishing my thesis (not done, but will be in two weeks yikes). The time has just flown by! Now that they have the Christmas lights up in Giessen I’m getting more and more excited about the holidays (and also really starting my jobsearch once I finish my thesis – eeek). In the build up to Christmas I had planned a trip with the twin to Vienna to visit the Christmas markets and in the name of research find out which one had the best Gluhwein…
Our flights landed minutes apart, we hopped on the train to the city center and zipped along the underground to our air bnb apartment. Every time we’ve used air bnb we stayed in great places and we seriously won with this one which had the most comfortable bed, was located in the busy area of town a stones throw away from the museum district, within walking distance of everything – although this depends on what your idea of “walking distance” is.
Having dropped off the bags we set out on a stroll under grey skies, happened across most the the main sights in the city and scouted out some of the Christmas markets. In day-time it all looks quite nice – but at night the little wooden huts turn into a winter wonderland with all of the sparkling lights.
On the way to a concert we had booked tickets for that evening (after a looong walk and a decent nap – I could almost have stolen the pillow it was beyond dreamy to sleep on) we happened across a market in Karlsplatz which had lights draped overhead and contained the most gorgeous vintage-esque stands along with a bicycle powered carousel. Cue the first Gluhwein of the holiday surrounded by the most decadent smells (at least in my opinion) of acres of melted cheese (for the raclette and spatzle), mounds of sweet sugar toasted almonds, oil roasted potatoes and garlic and the spicy heady scent of the mulled wine. Indulgence completed we continued on to the concert, which in hindsight was probably one of the most touristic things you could probably do, particularly since it offered a mix of Mozart music along with singing and ballet, (I had hoped for something like what we happened across in Riga) but it was enjoyable nonetheless (with a couple of well thought out laughs during the hunting & train themed pieces) and in a reaaally beautiful building.
By the time the concert plus encores were finished the market where we had planned to grab some food was closed (always at 22:00) so we had to resort to a take-away (the shame – especially in Vienna) as the restaurant kitchens were simmering down for the night. Something to be noted, and with dreams of what the other Christmas markets would be like tomorrow evening we drifted into sleep.
