It's Christmas Time in Vienna - Nov 2024

Beautiful Vienna... We had heard so many lovely things about Austria, so we decided to journey there for some Christmas cheer and musical charm.

Our hotel was lovely, with a gentleman at the front desk with plenty of great recommendations, including for our first dinner - a traditional Austrian feast at Pfudl. We were treated to delicious wine and tasty dumplings and schnitzel. We stopped by the local Gin bar on our way home for a quick sip of Austrian Gin before calling it a night.

After enjoying breakfast at the hotel (and saying hi to some fellow Americans we met the previous evening), we headed out for a walk in the sunny yet chilly Viennese day. A lovely park walk by the river led us incidentally to the finish line for a Saturday morning run. The metro efficiently transported us to the impressive Schönbrunn Palace, complete with a bustling Christmas market to greet us. After finding and happily purchasing several cat-themed decorations, we learned the way of the land: warms drinks are served in real mugs, for which you put down a deposit. Hot chocolates in hand, we settled onto a bench with a view of the ice skating rink, full of enterprising albeit not terribly talented skaters. We eventually toured the palace, taking in the finery of the Hapsburg Empire at its peak. There was much finery to behold, include the Millions room, which had art-mosaic style walls. After the tour, we shared a comically large pretzel before taking the metro back to the old town.

The main drag was (not surprisingly) rather busy, so we were able to admire some lovely architecture and enjoy some people watching during our stroll. Christmas market number two was by the Cathedral. Smaller and very crowded, we browsed the stalls briefly before deciding our next goal would be to grab a snack at a cafe. Alas, the cafes were also crowded, so it took us three tries to find a place with space for us, but there we were rewarded with cake - a slice of sacre torte for me, a pistachio-soaked cheesecake for Jacob. Yum!

Next up was a tour of the opera house. With its original foyer and main theater that was rebuilt in the 50s (yet another casualty of WWII), the opera house is gorgeous. The tour let us experience some of the best seats of the house, as well as the grand stairwell and classy intermission rooms. At this point, we were ready for a meal, so we stopped at Restaurant Vienna for more delicious Austrian food - Jacob had some fancy boiled beef that was dished out at the table side!

For a final encore to the day, we attended a private piano concert. The concert pianist was amazing, and her partner prepared homemade apple strudel for us. Our cozy evening included, in addition to some truly impressive piano-playing, interesting conversation around learning musical pieces and how it compares to learning languages. Post-concert, we walked back towards the hotel, stopping at yet another Christmas market - at the Hofburg Palace! A quick mug of glühwein was in order before finishing the stroll back to the hotel. Jacob's favorite feature of the walk: a public cupola.

For our final day, the main activity was a cake and gossip tour. We were served coffee and cake in a cafe within the Hofburg Palace, and our host regaled us with stories of Austrian scandal - from the spy of the century to the chocolate cake wars, from the Ibiza affair to a more personal tour where some Florida oyster "sommeliers" who dined and dashed. The lemon tart was the true star of the show, and a great time was had by all!

After enjoying a glass of Austrian wine at yet another Christmas market, we walked to Cafe Sperl to get the true Vienna cafe experience - wood-paneled and quaint, with a table full of newspapers for patrons to read. It was time for our final stroll, this time with the goal of checking out city hall. Surprise - we encountered the biggest Christmas market of all there! Suffice it to say, we more than met our goal of enjoying the Christmas spirit of Vienna.