Innsbruck, Austria- Christmas Market

About a month ago I signed up to go on a ITT trip through base to Innsbruck’s Christmas Market.  I went with a gal (Lindsay) who is also an EOD wife.  We had such a great time, I can’t get enough of Austria.

I had a hard time getting to sleep on Friday night because I was pretty excited about going. I remember looking at the clock at midnight and I still wasn’t asleep, but I must have fallen asleep soon after that.  I had my alarm set for 2:30 a.m. because I had to be on base at 4am and I remember I kept waking up and looking at the clock because I was nervous my alarm wasn’t going to go off. Thankfully it did go off and I made it to the base safe and sound.

We left at 0430 and were on our way!  It started snowing about an hour or so into the drive but the roads weren’t too bad at that point. After about an hour driving in the snow we saw all these semi trucks stopped (I think because they were stuck and trying to get their chains on) but all of a sudden the truck in front of us puts his brakes on and we see the trailer sliding to the side a bit. We thought it was because there was stopped traffic, but it wasn’t..not sure why he braked, but when he did he got stuck and there was a truck next to him that was stuck as well blocking both lanes of traffic. We were stuck there for about 40 minutes until the truck got the chains on and got out of the way. The road at this point was going uphill slightly, so when we started to go the tires didn’t catch very well at first, but then we got on our way.

Here is a picture of when we were first stopped. You can see that the trailer on the truck is not lined up very well.

This is when we first got going and got past the semi, since we were stuck there for 40 minutes and no one could pass, there was about 6 inches of snow on the ground.

Finally got to roads that cars were on

These pictures look like Austria, but we were still in Italy at the time :)

We only arrived about 30 minutes behind schedule because they put a little extra time in there on the itinerary. We got there and met with a tour guide, he took us around the city a little bit and gave us some information on a church in town and about the Golden roof. We were only with him for about an hour, then we were off on our own to shop the Christmas Markets. 

First we went to a church, he had us count all the windows on the front of the church. Everyone agreed that there were 12 windows.  He then told us that 2 of the windows were paintings, so there really were only 10 windows.  Here is a picture close up. The circular windows on the top, the only real window is the center one, the others are painted on.

This is inside the church- The ceiling. Another illusion. The ceilings are flat, the paintings make the ceiling look dome shaped. Amazing.

After the tour we had with our tour guide we walked around and explored for ourselves. This picture is the Palace.

Streets of Innsbruck

Christmas Tree by the Golden Roof

The Golden Roof- The first Christmas Market was here in the square

Guy and Gal earning moolah

Here is a view looking towards the Golden roof where the first Christmas Market was

Lunch- Usually I'm not a sausage kind of gal, but when we went to Austria and Germany before Dan got sausage and I really like it, so I tried it on my own. Potatoes underneath and sausage and a dab of mustard on the top. So good! Nice and hot to warm you up!

This picture was taken from the bridge by the third Christmas Market

Drinking some kind of apple and spiced drink. It was Ah-mazing! So good!

Entrance to 2nd Christmas market

These pictures were taken in the Swarvoski Store

This was where the 3rd Christmas market was- the newer side of town

It was PACKED, mainly with Italians. Our tour guide told us that “Italians love the Christmas markets.” It’s amazing because the vendors speak German, Italian and English….VERY convenient!

Too bad they didn’t have all the Christmas lights lit up, it would have been even more beautiful!

It was cold all day. It was around 30 degrees, which isn’t too bad, unless you are out in it for 5 hours straight like we were. It was so cold. This picture below was taken I the gardens before we left. The sun was going down and it was very, very cold. When we got back on the bus it took about 2 hours just to get warm and thaw out. It was nuts. We had layers on too!

This is Lindsay. She bought a hat with a beaver on it which was wearing a hat.  People were laughing at her on the streets because of this hat. It was great. An older gentleman, probably in his 70’s passed us as we were walking and looked at her and started laughing. When him and his wife were in front of us, he told her to turn around and look, which she did and started laughing.

All in all, it was a great time. Yeah we were cold, but we drank hot cider and ate warm food to keep ourselves warm.  Just being in that environment was interesting. We had a great time, it was a great experience for my very first Christmas market.  In a few weeks Dan and I are going to Germany about 9 hours away for a guys NCO Graduation, then Dan and I are going to head over to Salzburg and stay there a few days for their Christmas Market.  Lindsay went to Salzburg’s Christmas market last weekend and said it was bigger and had more Christmas stuff, so I’m REALLY excited!