dripping with passion

last weekend we popped down to the austrian alps to do a bit of skiing/snowboarding. ian and i have been wanting to have a ski day together for a long time (and we had our eyes set on kitzbuhel because our friends went there and it looked amazing ), but pregnancy and a new baby put it off … and then as moses grew we weren’t sure how to make it work because obviously we’d need an all-day babysitter. when my cousin aubrey moved to england to study at oxford, we realized it would work perfect to bring her with us to be our babysitter for a ski weekend – especially because she is a really big skier! we flew to munich on thursday night, aubrey skiied on friday, and we skiied (me) / snowboarded (ian) on saturday. i spent the month leading up to our ski trip hoping, hoping, hoping for fresh snow at kitzbuhel. i hoped so hard for powder that i forgot to hope for some visibility! and we ended up skiing through a blizzard – haha! the weather and lack of scenery (which was the principle reaso...

we stayed at the most perfect spot during our time in vienna on our christmas markets roadtrip – the mercure vienna first boutique hotel. the location is superb, the service was impecable, the decor was so stylish, and our room was fabulous. vienna is magical, and the mercure first is the ideal place to start and end exploration of the city. ^^ our welcome note paired with delectible chocolates was such a lovely bonus! ^^     ^^ the bistro where we had breakfast was so fashionably decorated and the food was delicious! apparently the lunch and dinner here is amazing, but the bistro is closed on mondays, the one full day we were in vienna. we’ll just have to come back to the mercure vienna first sometime soon! :) look no further for the perfect place to stay in magical vienna! {this post is written in partnership with the hotel. all opinions are our own!}

we decided to take the scenic route from vienna to nuremburg. good move. somehow (we missed a turn-off somewhere) we ended up on some tiny backroads through spectacular landscape on our way to the little fairytale village of hallstatt. hallstatt was just as charming and lovely as can be, perched on its mountain lake. sooo quiet and peaceful and crisp in the cold winter air. there was a little bit of snow on the ground outside the main village, which delighted us. and more frosty roads with mountain views at sunset on our way up to germany were a perfect kiss goodnight. we got to the epic nuremburg christkindlesmarkt about 7:30…pictures of that magic and more coming next!       love you, austria!