Christmas is my favorite time of the year- and in Vienna they do it up right! We hit about 4 Christmas markets while we were there and we loved them all. The main market (Christkindlmarkt) is in front of Rathaus, the town hall, which is one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen. This market is the largest and oldest in Vienna- it’s been around since the 13th century. There are tons of stalls set up selling all sorts of Christmas fun including crafts, decorations, food (bratwursts, apple cinnamon pretzels, waffles with roasted plums or strawberry sauce, and homemade caramels are just some of the delicious things we had) and thousands of ornaments. They have a huge tree and lights everywhere, it was really amazing.
Rathaus
We also went to the Christmas market at the Schonbrunn Palace, which is the former summer residence of the Austrian Emperors. It was really nice, the stalls were set up in a circle in front of the palace so people could easily shop or hang out in the center where there was a Christmas tree, hot wine, snacks and carolers. Hot wine can be found all throughout Europe during the holidays. It’s delicious! Definitely not as simple as heated red wine; they add a lot of sugar and several spices so it almost has a cider taste to it.
The Schonbrunn Palace
Vienna was a great birthday trip! Even though it was insanely cold. The drive was really easy- it only took us a little over 4 hours, and time flies when you’re listening to Christmas music (If you haven’t heard Diana Krall’s Christmas CD, check it out, it’s great). The city was really lovely. We plan to make it back sometime to take in more, like some world-class museums and maybe a little music (it’s the home of Mozart, among many other famous musicians!).
Next on our travel list: Slovenia next month for a couple weeks (Brian will be working there), London in Feb for Brian’s birthday, and PARIS in April!
We are spending Christmas day in Zagreb- it’s a good place to be. The city is beautiful right now with Christmas trees and lights, and there is a huge stage in the main square where they have been having concerts pretty much every night. We finally found a little Christmas tree for our apartment, so we are all set for tomorrow. I’ve been told that it is a Croatian tradition to put the tree up on Christmas Eve, so they didn’t start selling tress on the street until this past weekend. In fact, we’ve both seen people carrying trees home today!
I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!
sounds wonderful!!! I am so glad you guys are having this experience :) love you
Comment by Mary — January 1, 2010 @ 12:41 pm
~:. that seems to be a great topic, i really love it ,.”
Comment by NLP Techniques — February 6, 2011 @ 6:54 pm