"Austria - The Best Of ......" by timtrina

I had been so excited to visit Salzburg - the home of Mozart (at least until he was in his 20's). It was such a beautiful little town, and we discovered what we believe is Europe's best best beer - Stiegl!!! It took quite a few hours to drive from Lucerne to Salzburg - it was dark when we arrived. The place was totally crowded with cars and people everywhere. It was festival time - perfect timing for us - just before Christmas! Our hotel was well within walking distance of the old town / Fortress, and we were always lucky enough to get a carpark outside our hotel each day after our sightseeing. 1 week was probably enough to see all we wanted to see - at least we didn't feel rushed to try to cram in too much.

The parks in Salzburg were beautiful - very, very clean and totally relaxing to walk through (apart from the icy wind that seemed to just rip through your jeans) Brrrrr!

This statue was incredible - it was just that massive, we had to get a photo of Imogen standing in front of it to show it's actual size. She was quite scared, and once we took the photo, she ran over to us.

This photo was taken of the ice-skating rink they were setting up a couple of days into our stay in Salzburg. The Christmas markets were booming, everyone was happy drinking Punsch (takes a while to get used to), and the children were skating around laughing. It was a truly 'CHRISTMAS' atmosphere.

During our stay in Salzburg, we visited Germany (Bavaria) - which is a separate "Best Of" album.

This photo was taken the day we drove to Vienna from Salzburg. The fog was absolutely shocking - we could hardly see anything in front of us.

One of the worst trips ever.....

We found Vienna very cold and miserable. The plan was for a Vienna Christmas - and yes it did snow, but it was foggy all day, everyday. It wasn't as great as we thought it would be.

Hofburg Palace is situated right in the centre of town. We stayed very close to Schonbrunn Palace, which is probably 10 minutes by car to the city centre.

We visited the Christmas markets located at Town Hall, and the Christmas lights were truly beautiful. It was a wonderland for Imogen - she had a terrific time.

Only a couple of minutes walk away, Schonbrunn Palace was magnificent. The Christmas markets there were lovely, and "Last Christmas" by Wham! was playing over the loud speaker - very festive indeed! All of the fountains were totally iced up - something we'd never seen before!

I took this photo of the Polar Bears in the Schonbrunn Palace Zoo - Tiergarten. It is my favourite animal photo I've taken to date. They were certainly 'at home' in this environment - that's for sure!