Vienna:
Today we started with a walking Metro tour. We walked from our ship to the Metro station and rode the metro to the Opera House. Walking past the Opera House to the Royal Lipizzaner Horse Stables. We were lucky enough to see a few of the horses as they stuck their heads out of their stalls. Walking past palaces and alleyways, taking note of the many places Mozart lived, performed, and composed his many works, we found our way to the Jewish Quarter and viewed the Holocaust Memorial. We then walked through the shopping area where we ended at St Stephan’s Cathedral.
We ducked into the Metro station and purchased a one day metro pass. This was so we could visit several of the Christmas Markets. From the Metro station we visited the Cathedral, classic Gothic style in that the spire reached toward Heaven.
As there is a Christmas Market which surrounds the Cathedral we started here on our Christmas Market Tour de Force. The Christmas Markets are best described as a group of small booths selling many different types of wares and food. Our first purchase was a cream filled doughnut like pastry. We made our way around the Cathedral looking at the various offerings. We then came to the booth where mulled wine and other punch is served. These warm drinks came in a small boot shaped mug. Each Christmas Market has a mug specific to the market. We ended up with several mugs as our day and night progressed.
We proceeded along a pedestrian walkway to the Cafe Sacher. This is one of the original traditional Vienna Coffee Houses. Here we enjoyed a Sacher Torte and coffee. The traditional coffee house is very relaxing and one should sit and watch he world go by and simply enjoy ones coffee. The Sacher Torte is best described as a dense rich chocolate layer cake, The layers are filled with an apricot jam and the cake is iced with a dark rich chocolate. Simply wonderful. All this in an elegant atmosphere, 4000 % or more better than any Starbucks. Yes they have free WIFI.
From our coffee break we made our way to a Christmas Market located a bit further afield at Karlsplatz. This was more of a local market which themed local hand made items. Pens like I make were selling for 38 euro. I need to sell pens here.
From this market we took a trolley to the Maria Theresein Platz, our next market. Here we purchased another mug. While there we found a vendor making Trdelnik. This a pastry wrapped around a 4 foot long wooded dowel. The pastry is baked in a rotisserie and the covered in a cinnamon sugar. Very good.
We again jump on a trolley to the Rathaus Christmas market. This is a rather large market and seems a bit commercial to us. Here we purchase two different mugs and some roasted potatoes.
As it is not dark we make our way to the Cafe Einstein where we have a drink waiting for darkness to fall and the lights of the market.
We return to the market to take pictures, and the make our way to the Old Viennese Christmas Market Freyung, Yes we got another mug.
Then we made our way to the Weihnachtmarkt Am Hof Christmas Market and yes an other mug was procured.
Our thoughts on the Christmas markets is the smaller markets seemed to have higher quality merchandise and had a more local cozy feeling.
While about these areas during the day we noticed many many lights and thought how spectacular the lights will look at night. With great anticipation we made our way back to these areas of lights only to learn they will not be illuminated until December 1.
With this bit of sad news we circled the market at St. Stephan’s Cathedral one more time and took the metro back to the water front. As we arrived at our ship it pulled away from the dock. It was kinda funny to us, as they were simply repositioning the ship as there were two other Viking ships sharing the same mooring. So in a few minutes all three ships were docked and our ship was in the middle of the three. When this happens the lobby of the ships becomes a passageway to the other ships.
Back on board we stow our bags and have a light dinner as we are a bit tired. Our fitbits are saying over 22,000 steps for the day.
All in all a great day and we very much enjoyed the Christmas Markets.
No comments:
Post a Comment