Wiener Christkindlmarkt!

So there does appear to be a bit of a difference between the German and the Austrian Christmas markets. The general idea is the same, the wooden huts and lights and Christmas trees, selling edible treats, gluhwein, heisse shokolade (hot chocolate) and Christmas trinkets. But then there are some differences as well - most notably the addition of a Christmas Punsch as well as the gluhwein. In a variety of flavours. Which we discovered varied from delicious warm orange and tropical flavours to something which tasted very reminiscent of liquid Ricola cough drops. (The last one ended up in the rubbish bin after a couple of sips!)

There were some new foods for us to try as well. Our favourites were the langos (large flat fried bread with garlic flavour), and the kartoffelpuffers which were basically big hash browns. Noise was also particularly enamoured with the hot dogs shoved down inside a baguette with a lid on them.

The market closest to our hotel was the big one at City Hall at Rathausplatz. It was from here that we got our souvenir mugs this year, a nice complement to our Gendarmenmarkt mugs from Berlin.

We arrived at Vienna airport and easily found our way to the S-bahn to get into the city. When we arrived at the platform there was a train waiting to go, so we rushed to the machine to buy tickets. Which was slower than you would expect since we were trying to use all the euro coins that the Singer and Serdic had left with us. The Viennese subway system was well laid-out and user-friendly. It's a nice 24 minute ride into the city centre from the airport.

Our first day we decided to get an overview of the city and followed Rick's walking tour. We saw all the major sights - the Hofburg Palace, New Palace, St Stephen's Cathedral, and the Vienna Opera House, as well as some smaller sights as well. Just beyond the Hofburg Palace there was a courtyard set back from the street and I wondered what some of the people were looking at - lo and behold it was the Lipizzaner stallions in their stables! Very exciting. We stopped into the Sacher Hotel to try out the famous Original Sacher Torte (chocolate cake layered with apricot jam and a dark chocolate coating... yummy!) We also had a look around inside St Stephen's Cathedral, a very gothic building and very dark on the inside. It is interesting because it has a north and south tower but the north tower is only half the height of the south because they ran out of money when building it. They say the cathedral helped put Vienna on the map as a major city in its time.

One of the nicest things about Vienna is its size - everything is easily reached on foot. The only time we needed public transport was to and from the airport and to visit Schonbrunn Palace. We went out there one afternoon to check out the Christmas market and discovered they had apfel gluhwein - like warm apple cider with dried apples floating in it. Sooooo yummy! I had two. :)

Probably the highlight of the trip for me was attending the performance of the Lipizzaner stallions at the Spanish Riding School. Dressage at its best! Growing up as a horse-lover it was always a dream for me to see these beautiful animals, and I was thrilled to get the chance. The show was about an hour and consisted of several parts - the first section was a showcase of four of the young stallions who are just starting out their training. They were all around 3-5 years old and it was cute to watch them. Of course any of them would ace a basic dressage test, but some of them were acting up a bit and it was just obvious that they weren't as polished as the older stallions. We then saw some of the older stallions through their paces, and then they did some work on the long reins and on the ground - the schools above the ground where they do the levante and the caprioles. This is probably the most exciting bit for the non-riders in the audience. Next the chief rider did a solo routine on his chief horse - one-handed - which was fabulous, and then they did an 8-horse exercise which was incredible. Even just being inside the building was a treat for me!

We also attended a concert by the famous Vienna Boys Choir, although to be honest we were a bit disappointed in this. It all just felt a bit amateurish, kind of like when I was in the church junior choir growing up. Not what we expected from a world famous boys' choir. But for 5 euros we couldn't really complain too much!

We had a restaurant dinner on our first night (and after that just ate at the markets) and chose to eat at Figlmuller, famous for its Wiener schnitzel. SO DELICIOUS! Ok, and the truth is we had Wiener schnitzel again on our last day for lunch. :) Because it's just that yummy. And who knows when we'll be in Wien again.

Those are the highlights! We did do a bit of shopping, and finally bought ourselves the creche we've been looking for for a couple of years. Now every year when we decorate for Christmas and set up our creche we will think of Vienna.

Now we need to plan the next trip - we're thinking skiing in France in February. But we'll see how it goes.