Sunday, December 20, 2009

The Beauty of Vienna at Christmas

Austria, Germany and Switzerland are magical during the Christmas holiday season. This is a photo of a portion of the Imperial Palace in Vienna that we took after enjoying a Christmas Eve concert in the palace
This is the Christmas tree in front of the Belvedere Palace in Vienna. The palace is now an art museum, featuring an excellent collection of Klimt paintings.
The Vienna town hall is turned into a giant advent calendar each Christmas season, with a Chriskindle Market in the square in front of the town hall. Each day a new window is uncovered on the town hall to reveal the decoration behind it. We took this photo on Christmas Eve, so all of the windows, including the large one at the top, were uncovered.
The Chriskindle Markets are popular in town squares in Austria and Germany. They feature food, crafts, gifts, and beverages, particularly gluwein, which is a heated wine drink that is enjoyed like hot apple cider. It is served in a small mug a little larger than a tea cup. The mugs make nice souvenirs, as they are decorated with a holiday motif and the name or a scene of the particular Chriskindle market.
Street musicians add to the festive atmosphere of Christmas in Vienna. These musicians are Russian, with their balalaikas.
We don't think that there are any artificial Christmas decorations in all of Austria or Germany. Here is real mistletoe for sale in one of the booths in a Chriskindle Market.
A holiday street scene in downtown Vienna. By complete coincidence, two of our very good friends from Scottsdale, Rita and Tim, also decided to go to Vienna for Christmas, and we met them there. It doubled our fun for the holiday. Tim is a talented architect and artist. His work can be seen on Leafdog Art Gallery.
The altar of St. Stephen's Cathedral in the old town district of Vienna.

13 comments:

brattcat said...

These are magical. A truly enchanting journey through Vienna at Christmas time.

Phivos Nicolaides said...

This is a super extra beautiful post! Congratulations.

Sharon said...

These photos will put you in the holiday spirit for sure.

Memphis MOJO said...

Nice series, thanks for sharing.

glenda said...

Very appropriate travel photos for this time of year. I really like the advent calanders so the church that opened widows each day was pretty cool.

Unknown said...

Beautiful post! I especially like the first two night shots.

Anonymous said...

Thank you very much for this small journey towards home, well, close as Germany is next to it - luckily they sell Glühwein also over here in Greece, yet with a temperature of above 50F during midday it is just not the same...
Please have a wonderful Tuesday.

BlossomFlowerGirl said...

Such beautiful photos such an amazing place. Vienna at Christmas - wonderful.
Have a very merry Christmas.
Cheers.
Melbourne Daily Photo

Lachezar said...

Please accept my warmest wishes for this Festive Season and a Happy, Healthy and Successful New Year for you and your loved ones!

villa said...

Una maravilla de ciudad. Mi deseo es que pases una feliz Navidad con tu familia.

JESUS said...

A very interesting blog.
Grettings.
Jesús.

Gerald (SK14) said...

O what a lovely time you must have had - hope next year is as good

PAK said...

The photos are beautiful!
In Upper Silesia (I thnik, not only in Upper Silesia, probably in the whole southern Poland) is is popular (not very popular, but...) to go to Vienna for christmas shopping.

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