Tauck | European Christmas

A day by day bit from our Travel Advisor, Marian Blessing currently enjoying a Tauck River Cruise!

It's beautiful. Went to the Christmas Market in Nuremberg tonight.

This self photo of Albrech Dürer has an incredible amount of detail. This portrait was painted in the 1500s. Really captured my attention. We visited his house. Nothing like Tauck to give you the best experiences.

Nuremberg Castle and the old city are well preserved and give you a glimpse into life of past times. The Christmas market was wonderful with lots of options for food and drink, wine and wonderful gifts!

Regensburg, known to be Europe's best preserved medieval city. In the afternoon we went to the palace of St. Emmeram, which has approximately 500 bedrooms and is beautiful. It hosts its own private Christmas market and had crafts that were homemade and unusual. To date this has been one of the most unique Christmas markets we visited. And yes, we did have some of those long sausages and they were delicious.

We visited the German city of Passau, which was a very pleasant surprise. This quaint but sophisticated city's streets are immaculate and lined with locally owned shops and restaurants. Very few tourist shops can be found. We attended a gingerbread making demonstration by owners of Simon's cafe and a fabulous organ concert at St. Stephens cathedral. The Christmas market was full of local, unique crafts. Fabulous day!!

Our ship docked in Lintz, Austria. Lintz is an industrial town with vibrant shopping and city life. We chose to take a tour to Salzburg. The magical hometown of Mozart and backdrop for the classic movie, Sound of Music, Salzburg's Baroque town center is dressed in its holiday best. The passageways are fully decorated with gifts, food and spirits for all. We shopped the Christmas Markets, dined at Stiftskeller St. Peter and took the funicular to the top of the Hohensalzburg Fortress. The panoramic views of Salzburg from the fortress are beautiful. The photos just don't do it justice!

Via - Marian Blessing | Odyssey Travel Advisor