Austria has been on my list of countries to visit ever since Conchita Wurst’s “Rise Like a Phoenix” won Eurovision. How could I not want to visit the place that gave birth to someone so fabulous?

Ok, Conchita isn’t the only reason I wanted to go to Austria. It was also going to be a chance to visit more little alpine towns, as well as fill up on all the delicious beer and food that we had in Germany.

Salzburg

This is the city where “The Sound of Music” was filmed. It only takes one watch through the movie to realize we had to stop here.

“The Sound of Music” isn’t Salzburg’s only claim to fame. It is also the birthplace of Mozart.

Overall, Salzburg was great for a few days of recovering from our busy time in Budapest. It’s not a huge place so it was easy for us to explore at a slow pace.

Hallstat/Obertraun

When we wanted to head to another beautiful alpine town, Hallstat was the natural choice. It is, after all, a place so beautiful that China decided to build their own replica.

One of the best things about Hallstat is that it has a bunch of tiny streets and staircases to wander. We had a really fun time exploring everywhere in and around the city.

We didn’t actually stay in Hallstat proper since lodging costs were a little bit out of our price range. Instead, we stayed in a very little town across the lake called Obertraun.

Like we usually do in these beautiful alpine settings, we spent most of our time hiking the various trails in the area.

This portion of our trip was also our chance to experience the Krampusnacht. You can read our newsletter post about the fun/scary/strange tradition here.

Vienna

After all of our hopping around, we decided to spend most of our time in Vienna taking it easy. When we did wander out, it was a blur of palaces, statues, churches, and street art.

By this point in our trip, we were starting to feel burnt out on museums, but we did make it a point to visit the Museum of Military History. The building alone is worth the visit.

But the main draw for me was the fact that they have the car that Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated in on display.

We also spent a significant amount of time at Christmas markets because, as I’ve said before, we love Christmas markets.

You can take a look at the rest of my Austria pictures here!