Schloss Hellbrunn Christmas Market

Our plan had been to stay at Kaiserhof all weekend last weekend, so I could get some work done via the wifi and we could play the PlayStation. Sadly for us they had a massive group booking, so we could only get a room for the Friday night. We hung around a bit for the Saturday morning, but then had to make a different plan for the day.

We settled upon the 3km walk from Niederalm to Schloss Hellbrunn to see the Christmas Market there. Claire had discovered a shortcut to Hellbrunn once you reach Anif, which takes you through the zoo - and without paying you get to see the lion, lynx and camel enclosures as you go through a fenced off pathway between them.

Schloss Hellbrunn Christmas market is based on the roadway up to the grand main house itself, and had a whole variety of stalls selling food, presents, crafts and Christmas fayre. Plus we got to see a group of three guys playing their large Alpine horns (stop snickering at the back), and had free access into the house to see the stalls set up there. This included people making amazingly detailed hand painted tree decorations, and a guy making really intricate glass etchings with incredible skill.

On the way out we bought a treat for ourselves from one of the stalls. I don't know what the correct word in German is for them, but I can only describe them as choco-fruit-kebabs. Essentially some small pieces of fruit like apples, banana, pineapple or grapes are skewered on a stick, and then dipped in chocolate. We picked up a €2 stick of chocolate covered grapes, and as you can see, Claire was very pleased with herself.

Schloss Hellbrunn is also now the resting place of the gazebo used in "The Sound Of Music" for the 'Sixteen going on seventeen' song. Although it is not in the original location used for filming, it has been restored and situated in the Hellbrunn gardens since the early 1990s.