Christkindlmarkts 2025...Day 3: St. Gilgen and St. Wolfgang

We woke up so happy to be in Salzburg! I went for a run around the river so I could see one of my favorite views in Salzburg. I was sad to be leaving Salzburg so soon, but I was also excited about our next stop! 

Beautiful Salzburg

Running views in Salzburg. It was only around 0930 in the morning, but already getting so busy!

We checked out of our hotel and walked to the train station to catch the 150 bus to St. Gilgen, with our ultimate destination being St. Wolfgang. We visited both of these villages back in 2016, and I was dying to visit them again at Christmas time.  St. Wolfgang and St. Gilgen are located on Wolfgangsee, along with Strobl. All three villages have Christkindlmarkts.

The bus ride from Salzburg to St. Gilgen is about 40-45 minutes on the 150 bus. During our bus ride, I was able to understand different conversations mainly involving the temperature of the bus. It felt so nice to see my German improving!

We arrived in St. Gilgen and had a little time before catching the ferry to St. Wolfgang, so we decided to enjoy the Christkindlmarkt. 

St. Gilgen Christkindlmarkt

Overall, this tiny market is very charming. The stahls are placed all around town amongst the darling buildings.

St. Gilgen Christkindlmarkt

Our first order of business was Gluhwein! One thing that was different about this market, St. Wolfgang and Strobl, is that you buy the gluhwein mug with your first gluhwein and the refills are less expensive. If I remember correctly, the refill price of gluhwein was 5.60 Euros. Another thing that was different about the gluhwein is that the mugs are .25L instead of .2L. Score!

Enjoying our first gluhwein in St. Gilgen. 

It was a sleepy early Thursday afternoon in St. Gilgen.

St. Gilgen Christkindlmarkt

We finished our gluhwein and a snack, and walked toward the lake to buy tickets for the ferry. Lucky for us, there was a gluhwein stahl right by the ferry. We refilled our mugs and boarded the ferry to St. Wolfgang!

St. Gilgen from the ferry

St. Gilgen

All aboard and on our way to St. Wolfgang!

While we were on the ferry, the sun came out! That has been a rarity during our time visiting Christkindlmarkts.

Crusing to St. Wolfgang

Enjoying my gluhwein and the need for my sunglasses!

The sun provided extra warmth for us to remain outside during the entire ferry ride.

St. Wolfgang from the ferry

We arrived in St. Wolfgang and walked to our hotel. I was so excited about our hotel. We booked the White Horse Inn, which is known as the Romantik Hotel Im Weissen Rossl in German. It is a very charming old-world hotel with a pool and a hot tub that are floating in the lake. 

We checked into our hotel and enjoyed some welcome champagne before heading out to enjoy the market. 

The St. Wolfgang Christkindlmarkt is known for having a floating lantern in the lake. Our hotel was in the perfect location with this right outside the door.

St. Wolfgang Christkindlmarkt

We enjoyed a little gluhwein and walked all around the village. We stumbled upon the cutest drink spot on the deck of Hotel Peter. The sun was out, music was playing, and everyone was enjoying the day. It felt like a crime to not stop!

The view from Hotel Peter. For reference for a video below, this was taken at 15:13.

Ken enjoying a beer and the sunshine

I was so excited about my hot Aperol!

We were enjoying the sunshine and then boom, the sun went behind one of the mountains, and the warmth disappeared!

This video was taken at 15:32. It was crazy how quickly the sun disappeared behind one of the mountains.

Pretty much everyone but us left Hotel Peter. We stayed. We enjoyed our drinks and the beautiful view. 

After Hotel Peter, we walked back toward our hotel to enjoy the market and find a little dinner. 

St. Wolfgang Christkindlmarkt

The market had fires all around town to help keep everyone warm.

St. Wolfgang Christkindlmarkt

Our darling hotel

We decided to walk down by the lake so we could see the lantern as it got dark. It did not disappoint!

Gluhwein and the beautiful lantern? Does it get any better?

St. Wolfgang Christkindlmarkt

The beautiful St. Wolfgangsee lantern

The beautiful St. Wolfgangsee lantern

Loving our time in St. Wolfgang

St. Wolfgang Christkindlmarkt

Fighting off the chill in the air with gluhwein!

We were pretty chilly and decided we would go back to our hotel to enjoy some of our hotel amenities.

One last photo of the beautiful lantern

 A little Austrian music before heading inside for the night.

We changed into our swimsuits and went outside to enjoy the hot tub. It was so cold and the hot tub made it perfect!

Loving ending the night in the hot tub at our hotel. Please ignore our gluhwein-stained teeth! It is a right of passage while at the Christkindlmarkts!

We had such an amazing day in St. Wolfgang. I loved getting to revisit such a beautiful place during my favorite time of the year!

Christkindlmarkts 2025...Days 1 and 2: Traveling and Salzburg

We are back from another amazing Christmas market trip! While I am super behind on vacation posts, I am going to go ahead and post about this trip and will post about the other trips later. I want to get this posted while it is fresh on my mind. It was such a wonderful trip! 

Ready for our long-haul flight from Denver to Munich!

We typically try to fly United, especially to Europe, since we both have a decent status and earn reward miles for free flights. 

Ken says that I eat my ice cream sundae with the precision of a surgeon!

My favorite part about United might be the ice cream sundae cart. Although it is not as good as it used to be before Covid. That being said, United started serving my favorite rose, Whispering Angel, so it is a win-win!

We both slept for quite a while before waking up in Germany! We arrived in Munich and had to enroll in the new EU entry requirements with fingerprints and facial recognition. 

We had a little extra time before catching the S-bahn and decided to stop for our first official gluhwein of the season at the airport market!

So much happiness!!!

A peek at the airport Christmas Market

We decided to mix things up a little this year. Instead of spending the entire trip based in Munich, we decided to go to Austria for a few nights. We got off the S-Bahn at the Munich Ost station and boarded the train to Salzburg!

Travel tip: Don't forget to travel from Munich to Salzburg on the Bayern Ticket!

We arrived in Salzburg, dropped off our stuff at our hotel, and headed to the Salzburg Christkindlmarkt! We have been here a few times, and it never disappoints. 

Salzburger Christkindlmarkt under the Salzburg Cathedral

The Salzburger market is absolutely beautiful under the cathedral.

More beautiful Salzburg stahls

Loving the Salzburger Market!

We left the market and walked to one of Ken's favorite places, Augustiner Brau! Of all the breweries we have visited, this is definitely Ken's favorite. It is even better in the summer under the chestnut trees!

Visiting the Augustiner

Ken is in his happy place and recognizing that he is wearing a huge competitor football sweatshirt!

We enjoyed a few drinks at the brewery before walking back to our hotel. We grabbed our welcome glasses of wine and enjoyed the snacks the hotel left for us before calling it a night. We were quite tired from our long travel day.

Salzburg Hotel: Mercure Hotel Salzburg City

Europe 2024...Days 1 & 2: Traveling to Europe & Costa Brava, Spain

We were fortunate enough to get to go back to Europe for a Summer trip and add a new country to our list!  We had an early flight from Kansas City to Chicago before flying across the pond.

Early morning flight refreshments

Cheers!

We arrived in Munich and hopped on a quick flight to Barcelona. Once in Barcelona, we met our driver who was driving us to Costa Brava. I researched several different options to determine how to get to Costa Brava from Barcelona and hiring a private car is what we decided was the best option for us. Sure, renting a car would have been less expensive, but we did not want to deal with driving after a long flight. We also could have taken the bus up the coast but it would have taken us twice as long, so a private car it was! 

It ended up being a nice 90 minute car ride and I slept during most of it, shocker I know.

Once we arrived in Calella de Palafrugell, we checked into our hotel and went out for a nice walk around the town. Calella de Palafrugell is a small beach town and it did not take us long to get from one end to the other. Once we got to the end of town, we decided to stop to enjoy the view and enjoy a drink or two. 

Nothing says beach town quite like an Aperol Spritz!

We were both pretty tired from traveling and on our walk back toward our hotel, we found a bench with a gorgeous view. We decided to stop by the Co-op and get a bottle of wine and some snacks and enjoy the weather and the view. 

The view from the bench. We ended up enjoying this spot every evening.

It was a beautiful beach day!

The view from our hotel balcony at Hotel Sant Roc

We were a little indecisive for dinner and did not have a reservation anywhere and with Calella de Palfrugell being a smaller town, we were having difficulty finding an opening. We ended up walking around and enjoying the scenery and settled on ordering take away pizza.

More beautiful Calella de Palafrugell scenery

The white building on the left is Hotel Sant Roc, where we stayed.

A handsome guy waiting on his take away pizza

These small boats scattered the coast

Calella de Palafrugell is very charming and very walkable

The beaches were so busy during the day and became very sleepy at sunset.

We had a very lovely and lowkey first day in Spain. We enjoyed our pizza in our hotel room with a glass of wine while watching the Olympics...in Spanish. It was honestly a lovely first day in a new country. I am pretty sure we were asleep before it was completely dark. 

More Pool Time

 With Summer being in full swing, we have been taking advantage of pool time as much as possible! Tulli still has no interest in swimming but she loves to spend time with us around the pool.

Princess Lotti on her throne

Loving time in the sun

Happy Tulli girl

Post swim Lotti, laying on her pool towel. I am not sure she could be any more spoiled!

Pool Girls

Summer is a time to hang out by the pool. Of course, Lotti and Tulli both love to lounge around the pool and enjoy the sunshine! 

Tulli living her best life, poolside!

Just a girl, waiting for drink service at the pool

Tulli was so proud to pose by our new flowers!

Lotti and me relaxing after a swim

My blue-eyed beauty

I feel like this photo would be their album cover!

Proudly wearing their Pride scarves! Friends to all!