Written by Ivonne of Creampuffs in Venice.

The other day, I was working away at the computer when a coworker popped in and asked me if I was going away for Christmas.

I responded that I wasn’t and then she continued by saying, “Didn’t you go to Austria or something one year?”

That one question instantly transported me back to December 2006 when I went on a tour of Berlin, Prague and Vienna. While I loved both Berlin and Prague, the last few days of my trip were spent joyously wandering around the Austrian capital.

I experienced such a sense of nostalgia that for the rest of the day, I found myself thinking back to those amazing days, over and over.

Besides being among the most beautiful cities in the world, what captured my fancy most about those three cities were the Christmas festivities. I visited each city about two weeks before Christmas and each one was in the midst of pre-Christmas festivities that put our own celebrations here in North America to shame.