Schloss Hof Christmas Market

Hello everyone! I told you before about the Christmas market in Vienna, and today I bring you the Christmas market in Schloss Hof, an Austrian palace, found just after crossing the border into Austria from Slovakia.

How to get there

I live in the centre of Bratislava, so what I did twice was to take the bus number 29 from the MOST SNP stop and got off in Uhrovecká, one of the last stops. After that, you can cross the border on foot, crossing the Morava River. It takes a bit of time but it is definitely a very pleasant journey as you will pass through various Slovakian towns and a lot of farmland.

The palace

This palace can be visited throughout the year, although the entrance fee is quite expensive. We had already been once, without thoroughly visiting, so visiting during the Christmas market seemed to be the perfect excuse not only to see a little more of the palace, but to also see it in a different light. The construction of the palace isn't very eye-catching, but the real surprise is the surroundings. We didn't really know what to expect from the palace, we didn't go with high expectations, but the truth is that is made a good impression on us.

Walking towards the entrance of the palace you get one of the best views, as you can see in the previous photo. There is a long path that runs through the gardens of the palace, guarded by several black gates. If you want to see the inside of the palace or its Christmas market, you can buy your entrance tickets here. During the Christmas season, there are two types of entrance. You can buy one to only see the palace market, which is six euros, or to also see the gardens and the interior of the palace, which is thirteen euros in total. We only bought the ticket to see the market. It seems sufficient for that day.

The Christmas market

The truth is that we were not sure if it would be worth spending six euros to see a Christmas market, but we decided to take a risk because we had to have made the journey to reach Schlosshof for something. We started the route through the different parts of the exterior of the palace and in each “square” there were different Christmas stands. They all had the same colour and the same shape and were decorated with Christmas lights. It was noted that all these shelves were much more prepared than those of other markets (such as Bratislava) and there were really original objects for sale and not at all just for tourists, unlike in Vienna, for example.

In this way, we found stands that sold Christmas-themed objects and others where you could simply buy items that are normally sold at local shops. Therefore, there were shelves where we could buy ornaments for the Christmas tree, for the house and even the fir trees themselves could be purchased to decorate with the best Christmas motifs.

Changing the topic, one square was full with stalls selling food: sausages, every kind of cheese, mulled wine, punch, sweets... we couldn't resist trying them all, so it all became sickeningly sweet in the end.

We also found a very original stall where you could try different jams and sauces with a small slice of bread (for free! ).

Bit by bit the sun began to set and the place began to become more charming and the Christmas spirit became more palpable, more intense.

In another square there was a carousel that the little ones could go on and enjoy themselves. There was also a large nativity scene that was the main feature of the square. Furthermore, all of the plants in this area were decorated with stars and wreaths that gave off a lot of light, especially once the sun began to set.

The farm

That being the case, it seemed that we had already travelled all the parts of the outskirts of the Schlosshof palace, when in reality we still had yet to visit the most fun part. What we did not completely know is that Schlosshof, despite being a sophisticated Austrian palace, with every thoughtful decorative detail and perfectly pruned gardens, has a very rustic part to it, which is its farm. There are a lot of goats on this farm, and the most fun part being that you can go up to them, feed and pet them. The small children that were there enjoyed that a lot, they were always near them. Even so, you had to be careful because some of them were not as calm as they seemed and they could feel attacked and defended themselves with their little horns.

After seeing the goats, we were surprised to see llamas, alpacas and camels in the distance. It was very strange, since it was the first time we had seen these animals. We would never have imagined that we would see them in Austria, because normally these animals are not adapted to such cold climates. Obviously, we couldn't go up to the camels, alpacas and llamas, and there was a wooden fence that separated us from them. Furthermore, as you will already know, llamas spit and can be a little dangerous if their saliva gets into your eyes. Even so, we loved seeing these animals, so I will put in some photos. The Schlosshof Christmas market was worth going to simply for this reason, because it was different to all the others. Those six euros were worth it for us, at least to visit once in our lives. Living in Bratislava and having this market nearby, to not go would be to lose out on such a good opportunity.

When we returned it was already night time, so our return journey was done completely in the dark. When we crossed the border and were already in Slovakia, we saw a cafeteria that was so lovely that we decided to stop there and have something to drink. It was called Penny Coffea and it has every kind of tea, coffee and cake to accompany them.

Normally, we only travel around the centre of Bratislava and as in that moment we were in Devinska Nova Ves, a part of Bratislava that we didn't know, we liked the idea of staying there. Well, we had a long day ahead of us, even if it was already night.

And that is everything that I wanted to tell you about the Schlosshof Christmas market, without a doubt a wise decision to visit, if you do. It's very different to the markets near to it, like Vienna or Bratislava, but it is precisely for that reason that it is worth stopping by here. I hope that you have liked this post, and with it I end the Christmas period of this year. Goodbye and see you soon with more content.

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