Going from an Australian summer to
winter in Europe seemed madness to many, however we bought all the suitable
cold weather gear and we assured ourselves we would be able to manage the cold
climate. This proved to be true.
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| Christmas Decorations Vienna |
Vienna is one of our favourite cities
and it certainly was magical around Christmas time. We booked the hotel we’d
staid at a few times before not far from Stephansplatz, it’s a small family run
hotel. Prior to leaving home I’d booked dinner for both Christmas Eve and
Christmas Day.
We were tired when we arrived early
in the morning and were lucky to be able to access our rooms straightaway so we
able to shower and go out. We hadn’t gone far when we came across some stalls
serving mulled wine, so we had to indulge then went off for a real morning tea
of ‘café and kuchen’ one of the best things about Vienna. We wandered some more
but then decided to go back to our hotel for a rest then have dinner at the
hotel restaurant, which has a really tasty menu.
The next day we were more
adventurous, found the Shakespeare & Co bookshop had a coffee at the
Herrier café then wandered the back streets to Karlsplatz and a Christmas
market lunch of a ‘potato pancake’ and of course a mulled wine. There are many
Christmas markets dotted around Vienna and we frequented most of them. There
was an interesting Exhibition of the paintings of Monet, Chagall, Picasso &
Munch. That night we went to a delightful trumpet and organ concert at the
Maltese Church.
We decided to do a side trip to
Bratislava the capital of Slovakia as it was about an hour away by train. Being
a Sunday I assume it was a little quieter than usual. I would would describe it
a mini Vienna, as it has some of the Baroque buildings and churches like Vienna
but much of it seemed run down, which is understandable after being under
Communist rule for such a long time and nothing was done to upkeep the old
buildings. As it was such a quick trip, we didn’t have time to visit the
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| Bratislava |
The next day was Christmas Eve and
we went to the Kunsthistorisches Museum the magnificent art gallery, there was
a special Brueghel exhibition but unfortunately it was booked out for over a
week. We still ventured inside and strolled around the various galleries and
had morning tea in the grand surroundings of the café with their grand prices
to match. Just outside another Christmas market, there were a range of local
products and of course mulled wine and we also indulged in a Viennese hotdog a
waffle and later some chestnuts. We then returned to base then ventured out for
dinner at Café Morris before going to midnight mass at St. Stephan’s Cathedral.
We’re not particularly religious but it was a very moving mass with the
pageantry which fitted the location and beautiful choir and organ music. The
down side being a number of people near us at the back who don’t know how to
behave in a church especially during a service. It doesn’t matter what
religious building one enters, be it temple, mosque or synagogue surely a bit
of respect for surroundings shouldn’t be that difficult.
Christmas Day, we got up late but
most places were closed today and it was raining quite heavily but fruitlessly
meandered around and had a hotdog, mulled wine then scurried back to base due
to the rain. Later we ventured out again tracked down the Jewish quarter and
memorial, as well as the museum close by it.
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| Christmas decorations |
We eventually found the restaurant
we were going to during our morning walk and it was very close to our hotel. It
is a traditional restaurant when we arrived for dinner that night as we walked in
the entrance, I realised we’d been there before(twice) on previous visits to
Vienna. We had a very enjoyable dinner that night.
The next day was our last here and
we always like to just stroll around, we love the Hofburg area and always visit
the magnificent National Library and they had another interesting display of
their historical collections over the 650 years of its establishment.
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| Restaurant where we had Christmas dinner |
We then had lunch and walked in the
direction of the Rathaus, and there again was another exceptionally good
Christmas market, we had our usual and I bought some Christmas decorations and
presents. The had coffee close by and on our way back there was a really long
line outside the famous Café Central, I certainly wouldn’t be doing that.
Dinner again at our hotel that night
as we were leaving early the next day for Helsinki.
