The Christmas Markets

We thought it would be worth while to make a visit to one of the many Christmas Markets that pop up around this time of year in Vienna.

Now,  you have to understand that I’m not a huge fan of being in the midst of crowds,  but I try to be a good sport when it comes to these things.  I drive.  I park.  I go along.  Simple.  Oh,  and I keep my mouth shut.

So you have to understand that,  when the first words out of Travelling Companion’s mouth were, “There’s too many people here!”,   I wasn’t really all that upset?   Mind you,  it’s still not a terribly good idea to jump on that particular band wagon right away with a suggestion that you head back to the car.   That’s just not prudent.  It’s best to let the situation just play itself out.  Show some restraint.  Go along.  Be patient. You’re reprieve will come soon enough.

The last time we were at this particular place in Vienna,  there was a circus in town.  I think I made some snide reference to the circus being somehow in close proximity to city hall as some sort of natural association,  even though that may not have been entirely fair.  I’m still a foreigner here and probably shouldn’t offer any sort of disparaging opinions as relates to the political goings on in these parts.  I can easily make fun of Canadian politics if it comes right down to it,  so there’s no need to go all “international” or anything.

So there’s city hall in the background,  along with half the population of the city in front…

I only took something like four pictures,  and I’m putting them all in here dammit.

 

I could have gone to each and every hut and taken pictures of all the junk,  wonderful little things they were selling. 

Oh my.

Of course,  there were some items that were more tempting than others, but I’m pretty sure I’ve had my quota of sweets in the first half century of my life to last me well into the second half. 

Just best not to go there.

 

Besides,  I don’t even think I could even eat ONE of those huge things, whatever they were.  (just click the picture,  you can figure it out for yourselves)

 

It didn’t take us long to get far away from the Christmas market,  but we weren’t quite done for the day.  The time allotment mostly has to do with how much more time Travelling Companion has left on here “knee-o-meter”,  since all festivities must cease when her knees get to be too painful for her to bear.   I suppose it’s more like a “pain-in-the-knee-o-meter” if I wanted to be a little more accurate.

 

Next stop was the parking garage outside the Opera.  Sometimes we’ll take public transit.  More often than not,  we don’t.   It can be a bit of a gamble when it comes to how much we end up paying for parking,  but at the first stop it was €4,00,  and in the second garage it was only €1,90.   You have to pay more than that for a bag of dirt,  so I figure that’s a pretty good deal.  Plus,  down and back by subway would have been €7,20.  Some times it works out.  Plus,  I like my “own space”,  even if it means I have to steer.

 

I didn’t have any huge desire to take pictures at our second stop either,  since it was mostly just a slightly thinner hoard on Kärtner Straße.  This is another huge shopping area,  much like Mariahilferstraße,  only in the first district.  A lot of shops are closed for Sunday, but it doesn’t seem to matter.   People are still out there!

I was somewhat taken by the honkin’ big bow on the side of this building however.  I thought that was photo worthy.

Where the hell do you store something like that for the rest of the year?

 

We had this fleeting idea to get some “Sacher Torte”  at the Sacher Hotel,  but just about every time we go by that place there’s a line up out the door.  There’s no way I’m lining up to shove something in my pie hole.  Even if it’s pie.  Well,  it’s “Torte”,  so it’s not exactly pie, but certainly not something I need in order to sustain life or anything.  We opted instead for coffee at Starbucks.   That place was slightly mobbed as well,   but at least there wasn’t a line up out the door.  

About half way through the wait to get my coffee I always have these thoughts that I really have no business being there,  and that I really don’t NEED a coffee,  and whose idea was this anyway? 

Then of course we had to take our coffees to go,  since there were no seats (and they have a huge upstairs seating area) which was just as well anyway,  since I was getting warm as it was,  and had no desire to start peeling off clothes to be comfortable. 

We decided on one more stop,  which was going to be the “Kaisergruft” since it was just over on the next street.

In the whole time that T.C. and I have been here,  we’ve never been to the Kaisergruft,  and even though we had been to the church,  we somehow completely missed the entrance to the crypt.  Such intrepid tourists!   Rather than get into some great long explanation about this crypt,  I’ll simply direct you to the Google search page here.  That’s much simpler.  You can read as much or as little as you’d like.   You could spend a considerable amount of time reading it all though,  so just be warned.

What I notice that seems to be missing from the photos on line is any mention of Otto,  who was entombed there this past summer.  He was the “Last of the Habsburgs”.  I did a little synopsis back in July.

Don’t you just love all these links?

 

Anyway,   here’s his sarcophagus.  

 

 

He’s in there,  but his heart is in Hungary. 

Isn’t there a song title in there? 

Never mind.

 

Just about at that point, the time had run out on T.C.’s knees,  and my coffee was due to ‘find and outlet’ so to speak,  so we opted to head for home. 

 

That was our “big outing”.  

Fascinating,  I know.

 

My suspicion is that tomorrow there will be some baking going on (I baked banana bread today, but that’s kind of old hat)  and then Tuesday morning we’re heading off to Slovenia for the rest of the week.   I haven’t decided if I’ll take the laptop or not,  but probably will.   I mean,  no blog for four days?   The horror!

 

I certainly hope everyone has had a fine weekend.  Ours wasn’t too shabby.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

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