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This year for Thanksgiving, Deb, Jane, and I rose very early, almost as if we were going to make a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner, but instead we hopped on a flight to Munich and trained down to Salzburg before lunch time to partake in a wonderful Advent/Christmas tradition: outdoor Christmas Markets. Once we had dumped our bags at the hotel, we headed towards the old city of Salzburg, below the looming fortress and surrounded by churches. In between the Residence and the Dom (the main church/cathedral) were the main Salzburg Christmas markets. Thus began our shopping tour. Luckily for us, if not the Austrian economy, we are not really impulse shoppers - the only thing I bought as soon as I saw it was the candied almonds. After meandering around the markets for a while, we got lunch/dinner at the Golden Duck, which was wonderful to say the least. Once we were warm and full, we headed back out to pursue the markets some more. If you have never been to a Christmas market, you should know that you can find almost anything at them: ornaments, candles, candleholders, clothing, stuffed animals, bath products, and, of course, food. Some of my favorites were painted eggs with 3-D Edelweiss attached, felt and wool hats, and candleholders in all the colors of the rainbow painted with winter scenes. Exhausted after a long day of travel and shopping, we walked back to our hotel to have a relaxing snack-dinner in our room while watching BBC (it is so nice to get tv in English sometimes!)



Friday morning, Deb and Jane headed out for the Sound of Music tour while I, having done the tour once before, ventured to the Mozart houses. While in Salzburg, Mozart lived in two different houses with his family - the Mozart Geburtshaus (Birthplace) and the Mozart Whonhaus (Residence). On display were original instruments, portraits, letters, music, and, my personal favorite, shoot targets that had been custom-made making fun of or honoring people that Mozart knew. I also learned some very interesting/surprising things, like the fact that Mozart toured Europe for three years before he was ten - I knew he had played for Emperors and Kings, but three years does seem like a very long time to be traveling before you are even ten years old. After completing the Mozart houses, I wondered around the markets, went into a few churches, and ate more candied nuts while waiting for Deb and Jane to return. When we reunited, we finished our shopping, ate another great meal, listened to the choir that was singing on the steps of the Dom, and then went on to the finale of the evening: a piano recital in the Romanesque Hall of St. Peter's Abbey. There were only about twelve of us there to listen to a simply wonderful pianist play three Mozart sonatas - Sonata a-moll, KV 310; Sonata C-Dur, KV 545; and Sonata A-Dur, KV 331. It was so beautiful and intimate with so few people there. The pianist was excellent and played most of the pieces with her eyes closed, her fingers dancing gracefully across the keys, and Mozart's beautiful music surrounding us.



Saturday morning found us training back to Munich for more Christmas Markets. We met Michelle - cousin studying in Germany - at the train station. It was so good to see her! Once again, we dumped our stuff, and with our own personal translator, set off to explore Munich's markets. After weaving our way through the crowds browsing the markets on their first weekend open, we found the Medieval Market. It was like the Renaissance Festival in miniature - without the jousting and a lot of shopping. My favorite part was the people in the Elizabethan costumes who, when they left the Medieval Market, went, in costume, to the other Christmas Markets!! Aside from the markets, we went into St. Kajetan's (Theatinerkirche). By the altar was a unique display of the four gospel writers. Usually, at least in the large churches and cathedrals that I have been in, the gospel writers are pictured under the dome, one on the arch of each pillar. In St. Kajetan's, there were four statues, two on either side of the altar. Unfortunately, the statues were basically destroyed when Munich was bombed but are in the process of being reconstructed. More markets followed. That evening, as we were winding our way through the main market in front of the Rathaus, live music, a brass band and choir, began to the sing from one of the Rathaus balconies. I found myself humming along when I realized they were playing Thine Is The Glory, which is, the last time I checked, an Easter song - slightly confused - but the music was great.



Sunday found us - you guessed it - exploring more Christmas Markets and another church, which, though it is really St. Paul's Church, I have named the dragon church because there were dragons everywhere. It seemed that dragons topped every column and were being crushed by all the saints - one of which was, of course, St. George. My favorite part of Sunday came when we were standing in the Rathaus courtyard area and I was looking up at the gargoyles and screaming people. A man came up beside me and said something in German. When I explained that I didn't speak German, he quickly switched to English. Pointing up at the person/gargoyle directly above me he said, "I think that's my mother-in-law."



After finishing with our purchases, we headed back to the hotel for an early night, followed by an early flight out of Munich and back to Prishtina.

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