December 1

Our Christmas tour season kicks off with our first ever Budapest-Vienna tour with guides Andrew and Gabor. The city is amazing at night. We strolled Andrássy Avenue to the Opera House, took the metro to Heroes’ Square and then explored the Christmas market around St. Stephen’s Basilica, drank mulled wine, saw the Parliament building all gorgeously lit up and then capped our first evening with a wonderful meal of duck, roasted chestnuts and loads of great Hungarian wines in a private tasting cellar. Not too shabby. Wonder what we’ll do on day two to top this…

December 2

If you love rich cakes, opulent settings, a place to spend a few hours just sipping on your latte and you love that art nouveau early 20th century vibe, then Central Europe is the place for you. Former Habsburg cities like Krakow, Prague, Vienna and this city, Budapest, have these cafes in spades. The Cafe Astoria in Budapest’s oldest hotel, Hotel Astoria, is a must while visiting here. After a food walk, we ended our afternoon here with local guide Anna to not only taste delicious cakes but to get a bit of 20th century history as well.

Budapest is one of my favourites cities to see lit up at night. We arranged our own boat to take us up and down the Danube to fully appreciate it.

December 3

Join in our cooking party at Gabor’s Tasting Table cellar in Budapest. We’re enjoying our last dinner here on the first AWS Budapest-Vienna tour. Tonight is a private dinner and wine tasting but first we need to learn how to make a classic Hungarian dish, chicken paprikash

December 4

As we left Budapest and Hungary, we stopped at a small town close to the Austrian border for one more Hungarian wine experience. We toured the 200 year old cellars and narrow tunnels of the Gangl winery, which used to belong to a nunnery. The winemaker told us that these tunnels once connected to tunnels under a Dominican monastery 8km away. So after exploring the ‘hook up’ tunnels we enjoyed an amazing home cooked lunch to go along with our wine tasting. All the guests agreed this stop needs to be on next year’s tour. We whole heartedly agree.

December 5

We have ourselves a sunny but chilly day to explore Vienna. Let’s check out Stephen’s Cathedral and one of the many Christmas markets here in the centre of Vienna with our amazing guide Allie.

December 6

So I (Andrew) have hit three Christmas markets in Vienna. The first was at St. Stephen’s Cathedral where our local guide Allie introduced us to some local delicacies. That one was definitely the best for food. Second one was as at the Schönbrunn Palace today which was less inspiring although plenty of mulled wine there. My favorite is the one just around the corner from our hotel, the Spittelberg market. The most unique of them all with regards to hand crafted gifts. Let’s take a quick stroll around.

For the record, I got honey, much needed fingertip-less gloves and some beautiful brass jewellery (seen at the very end of this video).