Thursday, December 22 - Sunday, December 25 2011
For our third and final Christmas destination, we chose one of the most grandiose cities in all of Europe – Vienna! Why Vienna? Well, in our research for best European Christmas markets, Cologne and Vienna tied as most highly rated – and as it turns out, having visited Cologne in early December, we had the fortunate duty to do the comparison ourselves. :)
We experienced yet another
first in our lives on this trip – our first sleeper train. Travel a long distance and sleep all at the
same time - what could be better?
Besides the cramped space (Dave was literally as long as the bed
itself), a noisy door (that rattled pretty much the entire night), a hard
mattress and an airplane-sized pillow, it was a delight! :) Actually, it wasn’t as bad as we make it sound, even sharing it with two strangers -
a train just doesn’t provide the most conducive atmosphere for sleeping. But at least we were woken up in the morning
with breakfast delivered to our sleeper car!
The journey from Geneva to
Vienna lasted about 12 hours - we left Thursday evening and we arrived Friday at around 8 in the morning, ready
for action before most of Vienna was even awake. We dropped our bags at our hotel and set off
to try and find something that was actually open. Luckily most churches are open early so our
first stop was to St. Stephen’s Cathedral, in the center of Vienna.
St. Stephen’s Cathedral is
appropriately in the center of Vienna and is an icon to both the people of
Vienna and Austria as a whole (the €0.10 coins that are minted in Austria
feature the large south tower on the back).
So much, in fact, that after the Cathedral was heavily damaged in WWII,
citizens of the war torn country poured out financial support to have it
rebuilt in less than 10 years. You can
see the immaculate tiled roof in the photo below – the locals who donate money
each had a chance to “own” one tile, helping raise funds.
Later in the trip we climbed the 343 stairs to
the top of the south tower for some fantastic views of Vienna and St. Stephens
Square below.
Buying more time, we
followed St. Stephens with a quick tour of St. Peters, which follows suit with
the elaborate architecture of the rest of Vienna.
Having delayed long enough
(the markets don’t open early), we were eager to tackle the first of many
Christmas markets in Vienna. Over the
course of our two-day visit we hit 10 out of the total 12 markets. As far as comparisons with Cologne, Vienna
was equally festive and, as you can see in the photos below, had just as many treats
to enjoy. Perhaps our favorite part
about Vienna’s markets were the unique settings that each market was in –
almost as if they had their own personalities.
Here are some highlights:
The Adventmarkt Am Hof Christmas market was the first to open and we
were lured into a second breakfast after smelling the amazing bratwursts and
this potato / bacon / sauerkraut dish.
Yum!
The Weihnachtsdorf market is located at the base of the exquisite Belvedere
Palace. Unfortunately the gardens
and fountains, which we imagine are spectacular in the spring and summer,
looked a little bleak in the winter.
The Adventmarkt vor der Karlskirche, located in front of Karlskirche (St. Charles’ Church, described
later) had an array of animals for the kids to ride. This is also where we experienced the magic
of raclette cheese…
As a side note, we thought
it was strange that the trunks of most Christmas trees in Europe are nailed to
a stand instead of left bare so it can be placed in a water stand later. A friend of ours at Expedia bought a tree
last year in early December and had to throw it out and get a new one a couple
weeks later because it dried out completely.
The Weihnachtsmarkt am Spittelberg was located in the winding streets
of the Spittelberg neighborhood. It’s here that we were introduced to Wasabi-flavored
cheese – very green and very delicious.
Oh, and what would Ang do without her giant pretzel?
One of our favorite markets
was the one located outside the Schönbrunn Palace
(more on the palace later). The lighting
and atmosphere with the giant Christmas tree was amazing… and the crepes were
pretty amazing, too.
The largest market in Vienna
was the Wiener Christkindlmarkt – so
big we had to conquer it in two separate visits. It’s located right at the base of the
immaculate Rathaus (Vienna’s Town
Hall), which adds to the charm. It took
two days of searching but we finally happened upon our favorite European treat,
the ‘turtle neck’ (see reference in the London blog entry)! A huge win for the Vissers. :)
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| Our delicious trdelnik, aka 'turtle neck'! |
A quick story – in the
Vienna markets we kept on seeing signs for different types of hot punches and
drinks. Up to the last night we pretty
much stuck to the usual glass of mulled wine (AKA Gluhwein) here and there, but
we decided we should probably try another concoction. We were intrigued by the “Beerenpunsch” – we
like beer, how do they make a punch out of it?
So we asked the guy serving – ‘what is the Beerenpunsch?’, and he
explains in broken English how it’s made from natural ‘beer’ from the forest. Kind of weird, but ok, beer in a forest,
rustic and awesome. Slightly confused we
agreed to try one and once we got it we realized the difference in language –
‘beer’ (actually, ‘beeren’ as he was probably saying) in German means, “berries”.
We looked into our glass and saw those
natural ‘beeren’ staring right back up at us.
It was good, but a little strong – good thing we ordered a virgin hot
chocolate, too… :)
One thing that Vienna beats
Cologne at was the fancy lighting of the main streets (and the fancy streets in general) – chandeliers hanging
from the sky and oversized snowflakes complement the stately building facades
nicely.
Vienna has many other sites
besides Christmas markets, especially if you are an art lover. Considering we are not, we made due with the
more non-art attractions. :) Walking the city was fun in itself as well
with all the dramatic architecture and artsy flares (see the stairs Ang is
walking on – a full-blown Monet advertisement).
St. Charles’ Church was
particularly fascinating. They are currently
doing some renovation work on the interior of the church and because there’s
scaffolding everywhere anyway, they decided to sell it as an experience. For a small fee visitors can take a lift 200+
feet up to get an unusual look up close and personal with ceiling art. It was really interesting to have such a
unique experience after all the different churches we’ve seen from the ‘less-exciting’
ground view. :) Look at how some of the
character’s features are distorted and how the “marble” is actually quite fake
– features that go unnoticed from far enough away.
 |
| From 100 feet below, this does look like real marble! |
While walking between
markets we stumbled upon this curious monument, which was built to commemorate
the Russian soldiers that died liberating Vienna from the Nazis. As we learned in Budapest last year, you
don’t see a lot of monuments these days with the hammer and sickle because
unfortunately the transition from Nazi rule to communist wasn’t always a
pleasant one. Nevertheless the monument
stands proud in the middle of Vienna, whether or not the local Viennese are
proud of it.
We got a little bit of a history
lesson when visiting Schloss Schönbrunn (Schönbrunn
Palace) – rivaling Versailles Palace
in Paris as one of the finest remaining in Europe. If the name “Habsburg” means anything to you,
then you are an excellent student of European history. The Habsburg dynasty was one of the most
prominent in the history of Europe, if not the entire world. Maria Theresa was the mother of 14
children, and this allowed her to marry her children off into surrounding royal
families, resulting in avoiding invasions and ensuring great alliances. Of course not everything went right (there
was a room called the Napoleon Room, where he resided both times he overtook
Vienna, in 1805 and 1809) but the dynasty
was sustained as long as possible before a more democratic wave took over
Europe in the 20th century.
The palace itself was quite stunning inside (sorry weren't allowed to take photos) and out, however one of the
highlights (the gardens) were feeling the cold December weather. Perhaps when we return in April with Ang’s
mom we will see some rejuvenated plants, trees, and working fountains. 
As much fun as Vienna was,
it got a little lonely on Saturday evening (Christmas Eve), as our train back
to Geneva didn’t leave until after 10:00pm.
Most restaurants and markets were closed by the evening and while we
searched our hardest we were unable to find a church with a Christmas Eve
service prior to midnight. But when we
finally boarded our train, we were pleasantly surprised to be greeted by two
little Christmas chocolates in our sleeper car. :)
We took our night train back home and had a
wonderful two days of Christmas relaxation in Geneva. We made homemade fondue, roasted a mini-ham,
watched classic Christmas movies (The Christmas Story, It’s a Wonderful Life
and Christmas Vacation) and did a (fairly challenging!) globe puzzle. We were also able to Skype with our families
and it almost felt like we were back home with everyone. :) While this blog is coming out a little late
for the holidays, we hope you all had a wonderful Christmas time and wish you a
happy new year in 2012!
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