We took a red-eye flight from Dubai to Vienna (via Doha) on the night of December 22nd, and landed in Vienna bright and early on the morning of the 23rd at 6am. We were exhausted and it was still dark outside, so we did the only thing we could think of, which was to take a taxi to our hotel to at least leave our luggage (we knew that we couldn't check in until afternoon, but figured if we were going to explore Vienna in the wee hours of the morning in the dark, at least we could be less suitcases). We were pleasantly surprised when our hotel, the Le Meridian, in the spirit of the holidays, let us check into our room early. Usually it costs 70 euros, so it was a huge treat to be able to actually veg out in our room for a couple hours and take a shower while we waited for the sun to rise (which coincidentally didn't occur until 8:30am. I had forgotten the joys of Europe in the winter... You reap the benefit in the summer though when the sun doesn't set until 9:30 or 10pm). So after freshening up and enjoying some tea and coffee in our room, we headed out to explore, with no real agenda other than hitting the various Christmas Markets around the city.
View of Maria-Theresien Platz (Square), just down the street from our hotel and the first place we passed as we headed out to explore.Our hotel was in a phenomenal location right on the Ringstrasse (Ring Road) that goes around the Central/Historical part of Vienna. We literally walked everywhere with no real need for transportation (other than on Christmas Day when we headed out to our last Christmas Market at the Schonbrunn Palace). Because everything was so convenient and seemed to be so close we actually ended up doing a ton of walking, especially on the first day when we kept getting lost trying to get our bearings. It just felt so great to be in a walking city again!
Another view of Maria-Theresien Platz. It was home to one of the smaller Christmas Markets we visited, but where we did the most shopping. Central Vienna has something like 60 museums within an area the size of Central Park in NYC (as Lonely Planet so conveniently informed me). It was a bit overwhelming to try and decide which ones to visit, especially in such a short time. Maria-Theresian Platz is completely surrounded by museums and the Museum Quartier actually borders the far side of the square. With such limited time, we only ended up making it to two museums.
As we continued on we came to the completely over-the-top (complete with Greek Gods aplenty) Parliament Building. It reminded me a lot of the Victor Emmanuel Monument (aka The Wedding Cake) in Rome, and really Vienna as a whole, with all the history and elaborate Baroque architecture reminded me of a cross between Rome and Paris. Oh how I love Europe!
The Christmas Tree at the Parliament Building. Absolutely everything in Vienna was decorated for Christmas and all using real trees and garland. It was hands-down the most Christmasy place I have ever been.
Minoritenkirche (Minorite Church). We also stumbled upon this church in our explorations. It was interesting because it was originally a 13th century Gothic church that later received a baroque facelift (and the tower was shortened by the Turks in 1529). So much history everywhere we turned! When we went inside, I was excited to discover that there is a mosaic copy of Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper" that was commissioned by Napoleon. I've always wanted to visit the original in Italy (especially when I was all hyped up by "The Da Vinci Code," which I read the first week I was living in Rome), so this was a nice substitution for the time being.
The Hofburg. The monumental palace that was home to the Habsburg Dynasty that ruled Austria for six centuries. Today it houses a magnificent ensemble of architecture, state offices, and museums, all set around historic squares. It was fun to wonder around and pretend to be royalty... (The statue is a Monument to Archduke Karl).
A royal crest at the Hofburg.
In one of the squares at the Hofburg, and the monument to Emperor Franz.
After we left the Hofburg, we continued to wander around historic central Vienna. Absolutely everything was decorated, and I was delighted to see that there was even a stand selling live Christmas trees in the middle of the city - a very "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" scene (and they were doing it right, sawing off the bottom of the trees for a fresh cut and putting them through the wrapping machine for easy carrying - Much unlike the Filipino gentleman who sold us our live tree in Dubai this year and refused to cut the bottom of the trunk for me because "Madame, it's already cut." Yes, I know it is a cut down tree, but it won't drink any water without a fresh cut... Grr.. But I digress)...
And they had little baby trees! I was begging Jared to get one for our room, but he convinced me that the hotel probably wouldn't be thrilled if we did that.
By this time we were absolutely starving for lunch (you know, since we'd been up since 6am and wandering around in the rain). So we headed to Figlmuller, a restaurant recommended by our German friend Dom as having the best schnitzel in Vienna (coming from a German, that's a very high recommendation indeed). I am not particularly versed in breaded fried veal, but it certainly was by far the best schnitzel I had ever had! Served with a delicious potato salad, it was bigger than the plate (and sadly too big for me to even finish). We washed it down with a glass of the house white wine, which apparently comes from the owner's own vineyard. A fantastic first meal in Austria!Full of fried veal goodness and sweet Austrian wine, we decided to head to the nearby Mozarthaus (Mozart House) Museum, to embrace some of Vienna's musical history. We were both getting a little groggy at this point, but still managed to learn that despite his musical genius, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a degenerate gambler who very frequently had to borrow money from friends to pay his gambling debts.
Approaching Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral). A fairly quintessential Vienna view.When we left the Mozarthaus, we were both pretty out of it, but were revitalized when we came to the Stephansdom Cathedral.
Artsy view looking up at the facade of Stephansdom.
Another attempt at an artistic shot, this time of Stephansdom's Sudturm (South Tower).
Inside of Stephansdom. A church has stood at this site since the 12th century, but it was in 1359 that Stephansdom began receiving a Gothic makeover. It was lovely visiting at Christmas time because it was decorated with about 30 live Christmas trees. I got the feeling it would be very un-European to have a fake tree...Then, once we had fully explored the inside, we decided to visit the Nord Turm (North Tower) to see the views from above.
View down into Stephansplatz (St. Stephen's Square).
Carriage Rides!
One of the most memorable and unique parts of Stephansdom is the beautiful tile roof, complete with the Austrian eagle on this side.
Another view of the rooftops of Vienna.
Jared on the Nordturm.
More Vienna rooftops. Originally the Nordturm was planned to be as high as the Sudturm, but in 1579 with Gothic style losing its allure, a Renaissance cupola was added and construction ended on the tower which was only half complete at the time. In 1952, Austria's largest bell (weighing 21 tons) was installed on the Nordturm. It is a very big bell (Pummerin). Thank goodness it didn't ring while we were up there...
Yet another view. I maybe got a little carried away...
Self-take at the top.
After we left Stephansdom we really were knackered, so decided to head back to our hotel for a little siesta before heading back out to check out the Christmas Markets. On the way back we passed the Christmas Train! The picture doesn't really do it justice, but my camera battery had died and Jared didn't seem quite as excited by it as I was...On the way back to the hotel though, we decided we would make one last little stop at the 1516 Brewery so Jared could sample the microbrewery scene in Vienna. I was elated because they had Aspall's Cider, which we discovered in the summer of 2010 when we were in London, but have never been able to find it since. A little booze was just the right thing before a long winter's nap at the hotel.
Once the sun went down, we decided to venture back out to explore the Rathausplatz Christmas Market. It is the biggest Christmas Market in Vienna and held on the square in front of the Rathaus (Town Hall). As we got closer a tree of snowmen beckoned us.
Rathausplatz Christkindlmarkte (Christmas Market), view from across the street at the Burgtheater Opera House.
Rathaus, all lit up.
Another shot of Rathaus. It is much prettier than most town halls I've seen...
Another view of the market. It was very lively, which I think the Gluhwein played a large role in..
Weiner Christkindlmarkt = Vienna Christmas Market
Ornaments!
Ornaments and little Christmasy crafty items were what the majority of stalls were selling.
Mmmm. Mulled Wine and kartoffelpuffer (hot fried potato patties). I think I ate more potatoes in my first 24 hours in Austria than I have in the last 3 months combined...And the best part about the mulled wine (while also being delicious and phenomenal at keeping you warm) was that you got to keep the mugs! You paid two extra euro for your mulled wine and then if you wanted to keep the mug you could, but if you wanted to return it they would give your 2 euro back. How great is that? We accumulated quite the collection while we were there...
The beautiful tree at Rathausplatz.
Gingerbread! Gingerbread is a very Austian/German thing and lots of stands at the market were dedicated to it. 
And the best part was, of course, the Gluhwein and Punsch.
Self-take at the Rathausplatz Christkindlmarkt (in the rain).
Cheers to Gluhwein and Christmas Markets!
Random pretty Vienna Church.
After we left the Rathausplatz Christmas Market we decided to look for another one that was supposed to be the most authentic and quaint of all the Christmas Markets called Heiligenkreuzerhof. Unfortunately, after searching for about half an hour, we discovered that it had already ended. We decided to come to Vienna over some of other popular Christmas Market hubs in Europe because the majority of the markets actually did stay open until Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.Once we realized the market was closed, we decided to head toward Gmoakeller, the restaurant where were having dinner, at a leisurely pace and enjoy all the lights and sights on the way there.
And beautiful lights were everywhere...
Another random beautiful shot. It just looked so very Austrian to me.
More lights..
A random alley with a famous Beer Hall, although Jared said it was much too touristy for us to eat there... A pretty typical Viennese scene...
More Gingerbread Houses! This was a shop window that we passed along the way.We made our way to Gmoakeller for our 7pm dinner booking and had a yummy traditional Austrian meal for our first dinner in Vienna. Gmoakeller is a very charming Viennese Beer Hall, but to us seemed to be more of a cozy restaurant than actual beer hall (at least not in the sense you'd expect when thinking about a German beer hall, with long tables, etc.). It was very rustic with all wooden furniture. We enjoyed some local beer and Jared had the boiled beef with hash brown potatoes (super yummy) and I tried the Hungarian Goulash (basically a beef stew with boiled potatoes). Full of beer and delicious Austrian comfort food, we headed back to the hotel to hit the hay early after our early morning and hours of walking and exploring.
We got up bright and early on Christmas Eve and after showering and getting caffeinated on tea and coffee in our room, decided to head back to the Rathausplatz Christmas Market to have breakfast by sampling all the yummy food stalls.
Ornaments by Day.
Another view of a Punsch Stall. I loved that all the stalls were decorated with real garland with twinkle lights.
Self-take at Rathausplatz Christmas Market, during the day.
Rathausplatz.
Another Rathausplatz Christmas Market View. Definitely got a bit carried away here too... I think I needed to capture every single possible angle, so bear with me.
Rathausplatz Tree by day.
View of the Opera House from the Rathausplatz.
An attempt at an artsy shot of Rathaus.
Nibbles. We started with delicious fried dough followed by sausage shoved inside a hallowed out hoagie roll. The breakfast of champions, all washed down with gluhwein (when in Vienna, boozing at 10am seemed perfectly acceptable. Everyone was doing it and it did wonders in terms of keeping us warm and motivated...).
Another random market view. I told you that I literally felt compelled to capture every angle.
Weiner Christkindlmarkt by day.
More Gluhwein. It just kept flowing...
And as we were about the head out, we came upon the life-size Nativity Scene. Finally, the real meaning of Christmas...
Close-up of the tree at Parliament.
We headed by the Parliament Building on the way to our next Christmas Market and managed to get some great views of the Hofburg on the way...
Another view toward the Hofburg from the Parliament Building, trying to capture some of the grandiosity of the sculptures out front.
Approaching Weihnachtsdorfer Christmas Market at Maria-Theresian Platz.
Another view of the beautifully landscaped square.
Sausage! This Christmas Market was a little more upscale than the one at Rathausplatz and so we actually did the majority of our shopping here, buying three ornaments and a beautiful wooden cheese board (that was part of my Christmas gifts).
View of Weihnachtsdorfer. This market was much smaller, so after our shopping frenzy and a mug of mulled wine we were ready to move on.
Jared at Naschmarkt.Vienna is very well known for having various outdoor farmer's markets throughout the city, so we decided that we simply had to explore the most famous, the Naschmarkt (Munch Market), which has been in existence since the 18th century.
Christmas Turkeys! I think I can safely say that those are some of the biggest turkeys I have ever seen, even when compared to the hormone-injected Butterballs I am used to seeing back home.
Naschmarkt flower market. They had absolutely beautiful tulips, which I never really considered a winter flower before (spring in Holland, yes, but also apparently December in Austria).After leaving Naschmarkt, I wanted to go on a carriage ride, because I figured if we were spending our Christmas Eve in Vienna, than a carriage ride was essential to the experience. We did a bit more exploring as we headed back toward the Hofburg for our ride.
Just behind the Hofburg, we came to a beautiful park with a little tribute to Mozart.
A G Clef was carved into the ground in front of the statue. Very original!
Backside of the Hofburg.
Angel statues in the same park as Mozart. I was a bit of a shutterbug on this trip...
Carriage Ride! Jared was appalled by the price (40 euros for 20 minutes), but I figured it would be a lovely and quaint way to enjoy the city on Christmas Eve, so it was my little treat.
On the ride. Our driver was trying to point things out to us on the ride, but for once I was really just more interesting and sitting back and enjoying the ride (plus, I had a hard time hearing her over the sound of the carriage on cobblestone and her thick German accent). Oh well.
View of one of the squares in the Hofburg from our ride.
On the carriage.
Yet another one on the carriage.
With the horses after...After our ride we decided to check out another museum, close-by in the Hofburg, the Kaiserappartements (Imperial Apartments) that were once the living quarters of Franz Josef I and Empress Elisabeth (also known as Sisi). The museum includes the Imperial Silver Collection, which we actually really enjoyed (and especially Jared) because it includes all sorts of information regarding the Imperial Kitchen and the different menus served to the royal family (Jared eats like royalty on a regular basis, so he was really interested in what actual royalty eats). The museum also included the Sisi Museum, which is dedicated to Empress Elisabeth and includes a lot of her dresses and jewelry (and in which Jared had no interest, so we zipped through it) and the Imperial Apartments where Sisi and Franz Josef lived. It was really quite interesting, and I always just enjoy the opportunity to be in a museum and experience culture since Dubai is so devoid in this area.
After our visit to the Kaiserappartements we decided to head back to the hotel for a little rest before heading out to our Christmas Eve dinner at the Osterreicher Im MAK, located inside the Museum of Applied Arts. Since it was Christmas Eve, a lot of restaurants were closed or already fully booked when we tried to get reservations, so in a way in kind of 'settled' when we decided to go here (we don't even know what applied arts are, and figured a restaurant at a modern art museum wouldn't really give the warm Christmasy feeling we were going for). When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised, however, and the restaurant was much warmer and more inviting than we'd anticipated. We opted not to do the 3-course tasting menu and instead ordered a la carte. I started with an amazing beetroot soup and Jared had the beef consomme with liver dumpling. We both had the venison (which you can just order on the menu of restaurants in Germany and Austria - my dad would be delighted), which was a roasted loin sliced and perfectly pink on the inside, served with homemade gnocchi-like noodles and red cabbage sauerkraut. I was perfectly stuffed after (in combination with all the yummy Austrian beer we had with dinner), but Jared insisted on ordering the chestnut pancakes with rum ice cream for dessert. It was delicious, especially when combined with the ice cream. Although, earlier in the day we had gotten some roasted chestnuts (maroni) from one of the Christmas Markets and Jared promptly decided he was not a fan. Neither of us had ever had the traditional "chestnuts roasting on an open fire" before and they certainly are different. Kind of like a chewy nut.
Christmas Day we slept in and then leisurely opened presents and watched Christmas Vacation on my computer (I had brought a cache of Christmas dvds and scented candles with me to make staying in a hotel for Christmas seem a little bit homier). We had Christmas Brunch at the hotel's restaurant called Shambala which included all the mulled wine and Prosecco we could drink, and all the Christmas goose and duck, along with pork we could eat. Incredibly European and delicious! Completely stuffed and more than a little buzzed, we headed back to our room to skype with our families for Christmas.
The Christmas Market at Schloss Schonbrunn was the only one open on Christmas Day, so we saved visiting as our big Christmas Day excursion. After getting all of our skyping in, we took our first transportation other than walking, and hopped on the U-Bahn underground subway (there is also a tram system that runs along the Ring Road around the historic center of Vienna that reminded us a lot of the Green Line T in Boston because it's an above ground trolley). What would have been a 45 minute walk, was only about a 15-20 minute U-Bahn ride that dropped us right at Schloss Schonbrunn Palace and its beautiful Christmas Market.
Approaching Schloss Schonbrunn, another Imperial Palace of the Habsburg Dynasty. The Habsburgs certainly knew how to live.
View of the front of Schonbrunn Palace and it beautiful tree.
Pretzels! This market was also quite upscale with nicer items available for purchase than just kitschy Christmas decorations. Jared got an etched glass Schnapps set and I got a beautiful ceramic platter.
And, of course, we had more mulled wine. It was really quite addictive.
Another view of the front of the palace and cluster of little trees they had underneath the big tree. So pretty.
Self-take in front of Schloss Schonbrunn
Market View. All of the Christmas Markets were fairly similar, but each had their own personality and flair.
One of the stalls selling beautiful star luminaries.Since it was getting dark by the time we left the market, and Jared was getting a little cold (clearly he had not had enough Gluhwein, because I was fine), we took the U-Bahn back to our hotel to change for our fancy Christmas dinner at the famous Hotel Sacher.
The beautiful tree at Hotel Sacher and coincidentally the biggest live tree I have ever seen inside in my life.Hotel Sacher was conveniently only a 5 minute walk from our hotel and is a beautiful grand historic hotel with lots of baroque detailing and dark wood paneling and giant gold chandeliers. Just lovely. We were still pretty stuffed from brunch, so opted for the three course tasting menu (you could choose either the 3, 4, or 5 course). We both started with the lobster, which the waiter recommended as a traditional dish, and then I had the veal and Jared the duck. Delicious with free flowing red and white wine (included in the cost of the prix fixe). We both had the gingerbread parfait for dessert and then a shot of pear schnapps (or rather I should say, Jared had 1.5 shots because I could not drink anymore after taking a sip. It had to be 100 proof alcohol and tasted like gasoline). After his first sip, Jared seemed to enjoy it more and more (or maybe he was trying to psychologically convince himself of his love for it because he was the proud owner of a new schnapps set). Either way, it was a truly wonderful and relaxing Christmas dinner.
Sadly, we had to head back to Dubai on the 26th, so woke up early and got all packed up. We had a little time before we needed to head to the airport, so went for a little walk to get Starbuck's (it does seem a little criminal to do that in Austria, but I wanted to get my Starbuck's chai fix before heading back to the chai-free desert). We breathed in our last breath of cold winter air and then headed to the airport to say goodbye to Austria. It really was a truly relaxing and leisurely Christmas. Now, onto New Years, Dubai-style.
