Sunday, December 13, 2009

Christmas Time in Vienna

We are flying Swiss Air from Vienna to Zurich, Zurich to Nairobi. Our habit when flying out of Vienna is to go the day before, stay over and taxi to the airport. This time, we especially needed to do it as our flight is at 7:00 am, meaning an airport arrival at 5:00 am is necessary.

Pension Hotel Wild is our place of choice for location, convenience, and cost. Being the season for holiday merriment, we are able to "do" the Christmas markets. We have long given up on the City Hall market. It is filled with commercial products, mostly imported from Asian countries, nothing typically Austrian. It is worth seeing for the decorations, but from afar is just as lovely. The mobs of people make it joyless trying to get anywhere near the booths.

The one thing I do hate about this one night in Vienna at this time of year is the cold. It is about 20 degrees colder here than when we left Budapest. Winter time is hibernation time for me. I despise cold weather and think bears have the right idea. If I could avoid ever going out in this unseemly weather, I would do so at all costs. It is beyond my imagination how people can enjoy winter sports.

So,  after checking into the hotel, we set off to troll around the Christmas market closest to the hotel. Just as crowded, we quickly succumbed to the hot mulled wine to warm our freezing hands. Within minutes, the wine was as cold as we were.

With a day pass for transportation, it made sense to ride the trams to see the holiday lights and displays. The trams have heated seats! Yahoo!! Our tradition to have dinner at the Willendorf, a delightfully relaxed restaurant where we never seem to dislike a meal and the service is always excellent. It was an early night for 3:30 am comes around very early and the taxi will do so at 4:30.
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Pin It Now!