Viennese Christmas Markets

Evening temperatures cold enough to freeze your ears off and give the fingers a touch of frost bite, ok, this might be a tad of an exaggeration; but, it's cold enough to wrap up and partake of the Punsch and Mulled Wine to warm the 'cockles' as well as eat the vast amount of sausage, hot dogs, hamburgers, warm salted nuts, pizza's - oh, the list of food and drinks goes on. Visiting a Christmas Market is made a lot of fun with these. When you buy your first drink, you also purchase a refundable mug; these differ in style and size from market to market, and once you finish your last drink take it back to the vendor and receive your money back.

There are so many markets around the capital they are extremely hard to miss. Each market will have the stalls in different shapes and styles and a small amount of them may have a theme like - handcrafted items found at Karlplatz Market and unique items like we found at Spittelberg Market. But, the majority of markets are the same, selling the same types of wares. It's the additional extras that make them different from one another - Karlplatz had a petting zoo set up in the middle. Rathauspark had an ice-skating rink and a large fair ground. St. Stephens and Maria-Theresa Platz are the locations themselves, one around the cathedral and the other set between two 1880's museums - Art History and Natural History. Schloss Belvedere has a few small carousels for the children, with the backdrop of the palace the walk up to it is very picturesque. Other markets are just small; like, AM Hof, Hofburg and Altwiener Christkindlmarkt. 

The markets are a lot of fun and perusing the gifts for sale is quite nice. Make sure you rug up as the slow walking will not keep you warm; but, hey you do have plenty of Punsch and Mulled Wines to help keep you warm. If your time in Vienna is short then I would suggest you research markets that are different and go visit those.