Christmas Lights

The streets in Vienna give new meaning to my idea of "city sidewalks, busy sidewalks dressed in holiday style".  Nearly everywhere you look downtown there are tons and tons of Christmas lights in all shapes, colors and sizes.  I've tried to collect a sampling of them to give an idea of how they are, but of course photographs can only capture so much, and they miss a bit of the twinkling of the lights that definitely adds something...but it works for a general idea. 

Along the Ring by the Rathaus

The Christmas Tram...not all of them are like this...

The Advent "candles" in front of the Christmas Market at the Rathaus...this was from the first Sunday of Advent, there are now two, soon to be three of them lit.

Hotel Bristol with its snowflakes

 The lights along Kärntner Strasse blink between several different phases of lights

Trees in front of Hotel Sacher

Lights on a side street off the Graben

The chandeliers on the Graben

Curtain of lights on Kohlmarkt with the Hofburg in the background

On the way from Stephansplatz to Schwedenplatz...the whole street sort of glows this red color

And finally, the tree next to Stephansdom! 

When it isn't completely freezing cold, walking around downtown is definitely a very fun activity.  So many lights and decorations all over the place, it's impossible to forget that it's almost Christmas.  I've also been super busy with not only school work but so many other fun holiday things which I will hopefully get around to documenting as well!  

Christmas Markets

Vienna does not mess around when it comes to Christmas.  People had told me this before, and I'm sure I just sort of nodded and smiled...but no seriously...they do Christmas right.  The city completely transforms starting about mid-November into this winter wonderland of lights and outdoor Christmas markets.  The week that the major ones opened was the week that Ryan and Teresa were still in town, so we spent a lot of time at the markets, especially in the evenings.  Also while they were here the weather was still a bit warmer than it is now, so standing outside for hours was a little less painful.  Now that it's colder though, the markets are still just as crowded with people eating, drinking, shopping and hanging out all over town.  There are I think about 11 major markets, and I've been to eight of them so far...here are just a few highlights from some to help give a general idea...

The big one in front of the Rathaus

All sorts of stands selling things

And of course food and drink stands...lots of warm drinks to help keep from freezing

Käsekrainer and baked potatoes

We also have markets in front of Palaces...like this one at Belvedere

And one at the Prater...this is the view coming around the top of the Riesenrad

and from the ground...

Another in front of Schönbrunn

Enjoying some glühwein (mulled wine).  You drink out of proper mugs, and are charged a deposit of generally 2-3 Euros that is returned to you when you return the mug...or you can take the mug home and just forfeit your deposit...the mugs are also unique to the market where you are, so you can pick your favorites and collect them. 

The market at Am Hof, which is just a large square in the first district

see...different mugs

The market in Karlsplatz.  

This one also has a giant petting zoo type thing in the middle, and they have little pony rides for children.

Christmas markets are also a great place to meet friends!  This is a group of people from school...we all met up and did sort of a Christmas market crawl through town...

Looking forward to making more rounds to the markets before Christmas with my family once they get here next week!

A Little Sightseeing with Visitors

These weeks have been super crazy with all sorts of pre-Christmas deadlines for school, plus getting everything in order for my family to come next week, and now I feel really behind on finishing these last couple entries from when my last set of visitors were here!  Let's see...I think I left off with Thanksgiving...so the week that followed was all spent in Vienna, except for one day in Bratislava, and we crammed in as much sightseeing stuff as we wanted to, leaving plenty of time for Christmas markets and coffee houses.

The day after Thanksgiving we decided to hop on the train to Bratislava for the afternoon.  It's a super easy trip from Vienna, plus I still think it's really cool that you can just run over to another country for lunch and be back in time for dinner.  Also, the sun is setting really early here now...generally about 4pm...so almost all of my pictures of things make it look like it's getting really late...when in reality we were there mid-afternoon.

We also happened to be there during their Christmas tree lighting in the main square, so the place was packed with people, complete with live music and a big dramatic lighting reveal. 

While in Vienna I was a bit sporadic with my picture taking.  Ryan and Teresa have much more complete pictures I'm sure, but somehow I'd end up with one or two pictures from one outing, and then dozens of pictures of my coffee cup...oh well. 

The church at the central cemetery here in Vienna

Brunch at our favorite spot at the Naschmarkt

Watching the lights go up on the Graben...sadly Ryan and Teresa left the day before the switched these on for real, so they missed the full effect...but at least they got to see them hanging up there

A trip to the Prater to ride the Riesenrad

And Ryan and I rode Break Dance...which is basically just completely crazy spinning plus crazy lights and loud music...super fun.

Museums Quartier

This is a 20 ton life size mosaic of the Last Supper at a church in the first district...I'd been to this church before on the Lange Nacht der Kirchen, but i'd never gotten to see this with the lights on (coin operated lights actually...which took us a minute to figure out)

A relaxing late afternoon coffee at Cafe Central...just one of many such outings.

The fall weather in Vienna is pretty foggy, we went a couple weeks without seeing any real sunshine, and during the whole time my visitors were in town I think the sun came out for a couple hours over an entire week.  I'd tried to take them up to Kahlenberg to my school twice, and we could barely see anything, but on the last day they were here we walked outside and could see a lot of blue sky so we hurried up there and walked down through the vineyards which was well worth it.

definitely just as beautiful in the cold autumn

And finally...we decided to go this new attraction downtown called Time Travel Vienna...which is a "5-D experience".  I have no idea what exactly that means...but a couple of my friends here had been excited to go check it out, so we thought out of town guests being here would be a good time to go.  And it was awesome.  It's about an hour of walking around underground through Vienna's history...complete with talking wax figures, 3-D movies where your seat moves and wind blows through your hair...and waltzing.

Now it's on to all things Vienna at Christmas...markets...lights...and just the right amount of snow at all times.