„I’m dreaming of a white christmas“ - Holiday in Austria

In order to have a guaranteed white Christmas, we decided to celebrate in the mountains this year. We booked ourselves into a holiday house on a farm near the village of Uttendorf in the Hohe Tauern National Park in Austria.

As always when we go on holiday with Yana, we had a lot of luggage – three suitcases (the small one for Lindsay, the medium one for Kerstin and the large one for Yana), pram with off-road tyres, nappies, nappy-changing mat, Christmas presents, decoration, food for five days (since the shops would be closed over the weekend and Christmas holidays), Christmas cookies, etc. We had to lug all these things down the lift into the basement, through four doors and down some steps into the underground garage and then stuff them into our station wagon, which we always used to think of as big (until Yana came along).

The farm we were staying on was a couple of kilometers away from the village, up on a hill which got a lot of sun. There were cows and pigs on the farm. The owners are very nice and have three children, the youngest being four months old. The other guests were all dutch people (the dutch temporarily being the second largest ethnic group in this area).

The snow wasn’t that deep, but there was enough to call it a white Christmas and cover the valley and hills on the opposite side, as well as parts of the side we were on. We had nice sunny weather every single day, with a bright blue sky and the snow glittering in the sunlight.

We spent the first day checking out the area – Uttendorf, Kaprun (where we went out for lunch) and Zell am See (where we went to a Christmas market and shared a mulled wine). In the evening we lit the last candle of our advent wreath and played one of the board games we had borrowed from the library before we left.

On Christmas eve we went for a nice walk through the snow in the morning and to the little church in Uttendorf in the afternoon. The children of the village were performing a nativity play. Yana was very good, one of the quieter children in the audience. After church we went back into our apartment and cooked a nice meal with fish. After dinner we opened our presents in the traditional German way and then played another game, while Yana went to sleep.

On Christmas day we wanted to hire a sled, but unfortunately the place we went to didn’t hire them because there wasn’t quite enough snow on the path. We went for a walk instead and then warmed ourselves up with mulled wine (Lindsay), hot chocolate (Kerstin) and milk (Yana) inside a cozy pub. When it got dark at around 4:30, we went to the lake and watched the traditional Christmas tree diving. The men and women of the water rescue team went into the freezing cold water with torches and a lit-up Christmas tree, while Christmas carols were played on trumpets and the spectators drank mulled wine. The event was completed by fireworks.

We had a nice roast chicken for lunch on Boxing Day and then headed over the mountains of the Hohe Tauern National Park into East Tyrol. The tunnel going through some of the mountains cost €10 each way, which was probably a bit steep for the few hours we spent on the other side, but at least we are aware of the costs of this route now for the future.

The 27^th of December was Yana’s 5-month-birthday. We spent most of the day in an indoor swimming pool, playing with Yana in the baby pool, taking turns swimming laps and having something to eat at the restaurant while Yana had a nap. She really enjoyed herself, loved playing in the water with us and her little plastic duck and playing with her feet while lying on her towel in the 33 degree heat. She just got a bit grumpy when we tried to shower her and then had a really long sleep while we went shopping.

Our last full day in Austria was spent going for another couple of walks, along the Zeller Lake and around the farm we were staying at. On Saturday we headed back home, in time to celebrate New Year’s eve with friends in Munich.