Auf Wiedersehen Austria

Our last day in Austria we visited the Albertina Museum which had a fabulous Michael Angelo and Picasso exhibit.  We ended up rushing through most of it because Harlow just wasn't in the mood, and who can blame her toddlers and stuffy museums don't often mix.

The rest of the day we spent just trying to soak all of Vienna before we had to jump on a plane to Berlin.  I really enjoyed this city!  I'm a huge Classical music fan so the fact that Mozart was born and raised in Austria was really cool to me.

Here a couple of photos I just snapped of whatever caught my eye.

 The St. Stephan's Cathedral, such an amazing site to turn the corner and see, I could take a million pictures and never capture what it feels like to stand in front of it.

"Awww Jay look at the building with the big red bow on it come on let me take a picture with you in front!"  Check out his face.

 Every single morning we'd wake up and talk about all the sights we hoped to visit that day and Jason would always and I mean always say "Oh yeah and I want to check out that one place called um Star...Star... Books?" He'd try to pronounce it so it sounded like an Austrian landmark.
Starbucks, oh Jason you're an addict.  Harlow now knows how to say Starbuck and can point out the logo.  Nice, nice thing to teach our child.

Harlow was super grouchy all day so things on the trolley eventually ended like this :(

But I forgot to mention the day started out with this!  The absolute best Stracciatella gelato I have ever tasted; like butter, oh so so good!

So I guess it all evens out right?

Schonbrunn Palace

There was so much to see at the Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna including one of the oldest zoos in the world.  We spent the entire day there and didn't even get through half.  It's a remarkable building with the most beautiful grounds, although snow covered much of it but I bet during the summer its extraordinary.  

The entrance courtyard had a Christmas market set up where we were able to enjoy homemade rum and hot chocolate, it tasted a bit like gasoline but it was cold outside so the burn in your throat when you swallowed was kind of nice.

We took one of the tours that walked you through 30 of the 1441 rooms in the palace.  They were all furnished and we had portable audio guides that provided the history of each section.  It was exquisite but unfortunately they didn't allow any cameras inside so I can't share it with you but if you're interested in royal history the stories are fascinating!  

Here's a brief history http://www.frommers.com/destinations/vienna/A7781.html

After the tour we walked the garden where a lot of the sculptures were covered to protect them from the elements.

Here are several photos

The way the sun was breaking through the fog and clouds made everything look very surreal, it was lovely.  I wish we would have taken more photos but we both get so caught up and well I'm a terrible photographer.

Hope you enjoyed.

xoxoxo

Wierner Christkindlemarkt

The Vienna christmas markets were the first thing we did when we arrived.  I had seen so many pictures online I couldn't wait to get to them.

First thing you see when you walk up

The town hall in the background is the type of gothic architecture you see all over Austria.  So beautiful and detailed you could gaze at for hours, and then they go and light it up, it's jaw dropping!

It's so hard to find a photo that captures it in person.

The little wooden booths were all decorated and sold food, toys and christmas decorations.  Most of the items we saw weren't really things we'd buy or they just wouldn't travel well.

The ornaments were mostly handmade, glass and extremely delicate.  I shouldn't have been allowed to stand next to them, ever.

We bought Harlow her wooden mice from this guy, I loved his booth.

This one lady made all types of puppets, Harlow thought she was hilarious...

until she saw this puppet on a mechanical rod that made it keep flipping upside down.

she was HORRIFIED!!!

It's all fun and games till they bring out the creepy puppets, she just kept saying "No, no, no" and pointing at it.  Even I was creeped out a little.

Some of the booths were bars where we saw tons of people crowed around with coffee cups.  Immediately I imagined hot chocolate with Kahlua and whipped cream, so I made Jason stand in line to buy one.  He had to put a deposit down for the ceramic coffee mugs, the name of the market is on them and a christmas picture so we kept them.  Pretty smart way to kept all the waste down I might add.  

   Anyway since he couldn't understand the German signs he just ordered two different types, and I  have to say I do not get it!  He came back with what seemed to be hot punch with alcohol.  Later we learned they even sell hot red bull and alcohol.  I mean I get it's freezing outside so hot beverages are nice, but the punch thing wasn't for us.  The whole night we kept saying mmmm did you finish your Theraflu yet?  That's pretty much what it tasted like.  Hot apple flavored Theraflu.

I really did love the markets though, the smell of all the baked good was intoxicating so many people roasting chestnuts too.  How do you not walk by chestnuts and not sing 

"Chestnuts roasting on an open fire?"  

I did.

Every single time.

xoxo

Merry Merry Mexican Christmas

Vienna sausages from the street vendors are to die for!!  That yellow stuff you see there is cheese a mixture of sausage and cheese goodness served with a bread roll and a side of pickles makes for a perfect Christmas breakfast. MMMMM

Never would have pictured myself eating pickles Christmas morning, but it works for me.

Harlow woke up to presents under the tree; she was thrilled!

Check out the little wooden mice that bob their heads when you pull them around the room.  Jason bought them from one of the Christmas markets (oh wait till I post those pictures.)

Harlow tore open those presents like a professional.
See me video taping in the background?  Ya well later when I tried to load those videos I deleted them all, and everything from Vienna.  How many times is that going to happen to me?  I found some program that cost wayyy too much money to retrieve most of them but none of the christmas ones.  Oh well.

Christmas day we hung out in the hotel room 90 percent of the day so Harlow could play with her new toys and really nothing was open.  Last minute we found a little Mexican restaurant open so we made reservations for dinner.  When we got there we were the only ones in the whole place.  But anyone who knows Jason and I knows we're obsessed with fajitas so it was pretty fitting.

When we asked for margaritas and they brought tequila straight up in a martini glass with a little lime juice.

Interesting...

It will always be a very memorable holiday :)
Christmas was so much more exciting with Harlow, I look forward to all the years to come.
She had the best day and just kept talking about Santa and the tree.

We love our Bug, hope Christmas was merry for all of you!!

xoxoxo

Austrian Christmas Eve

Well we did it, our vacation is over and we're safely back in Bucharest. .

Now I'll get busy and blog all the glorious details this week or however long it takes me.

Christmas Eve in Vienna.
We spent the whole week enamored with all the incredible gothic architecture, that we put off all our christmas shopping till Christmas eve.  I brought over all Harlow's presents from Romania because I wanted to buy her a specific baby doll line from France that matched the stuff she already had.

WELL  Christmas eve arrived and we headed out to buy gifts for one another. We had planned to split up for an hour and then meet up for lunch.  When we arrived at Mariahilfer Strass which is that long street with the lights hanging over it and shopping galore.

 The red balls are all lights at night

Every single store is closed till after the New Year.  WHAT??  No Santa?
Ok, ok let's just try to make the best of it and find a nice place to have lunch.

Heyyyy... notice something missing from the pictures?  Where did all the snow go?  Great all the snow has melted too.

We find one of the only places open on the strip for lunch, it's packed full of people and smoke.  Make the best of it right?  We sit down order crazy overpriced pasta and then Harlow proceeds to throw an all out monster tantrum.  Jason suggests we leave, go back to the hotel and research a good place for dinner.

Walking home we noticed this giant building with a lit up tye dye ceiling overlooking the entire city.  After closer observation we realized it was a restaurant, perfect! Sofitel Vienna Stephansdom and it's open on Christmas.

When I called to make reservations for Christmas night the woman on the phone giggled and said they didn't have any openings for dinner till January 16th.  Ugh I give up, Jason it's your turn.

After a couple hours of searching on the internet Jas finds a Chrsitmas market in an amusement park thats open till 9pm.  Grab your jackets and let's do this.  We hop on a trolley and head out to the other side of town, eager to turn this night around.  Ohhh I so just rhymed.

The trolley comes to the final stop which just so happens to be our stop and we lug the stroller out into complete darkness.  Um Jason where did everyone go?  Seriously we were in the middle of nowhere just a tree lined street with no one around at 8:30 at night.  Out in the distance we can see a huge ferris wheel so we just start running towards it full speed.  Our lungs started to ache after about 20 minutes of running from the cold air but I think we were both to scared to stop running.

Eventually we came upon a dark old amusement park, come to find out it's over a 100 years old.  It was humongous and there were creepy clown statues around every corner.  This picture may not look scary but just imagine darkness all around and not a soul in sight.

We walked through the entire park with just dim lighting.  The rides were like nothing I'd every seen before, tons of haunted houses and just attractions that looked like they belong on a record album.
Was this Christmas or Halloween?

Finally we made it to the market which was closed but we saw a couple people walking out of the ferris wheel ride so we figured ok it probably has an incredible view.  We were the last people there and without cash so they guy was about to turn us away but then said ok go ahead ride's on me. YES!  So we climb aboard the biggest ferris wheel I have ever seen the cars were each cable cars with dinning tables in them.  Of course they gave us the ghetto one with graffiti all over but hey beggars can't be choosers right?

So up we go, and higher and higher and holy wind storm!!!  I was clutching that bench so tight my knuckles were going to explode.  The windows were rattling and Harlow was wiggling out of my arms and we just kept going higher and wind got louder.  Then when we got to the very top and they turned off the light, OH GOD they forgot us up here!!! NOOOOO

Ok they didn't forget us but I thought they did and began freaking out.  But we realized that we were the last one up there and they had started closing each cable car down and turning off the lights.

After surviving the wheel of death we began hunting for a train home.  It was late everyone was grumpy and Christmas Eve felt like a bust.  It took us a while to figure out how to get home but once we found the right train we ran for it and missed it by a fraction of a second.  Mother @#$%!!  So we sat down on a bench and just started laughing.  We laughed so hard it made the whole day.

Guess it was just a Griswald day for us...