The building above housed stalls from many countries selling wares and specialties of said countries.
This building was like a giant international food court. for lunch that day i sampled guacamole and nachos from mexico, a variation of moussaka, pita, tzatziki and delicious cheese from Cyprus, perogies from poland, samosas from india, and tiramisu from italy...
RAchel....
The Danube tower in Donaupark near the UN complex, it was just a short walk from the bazaar. The tower is 252m tall at the tip and the tallest freestanding structure in austria. It was built for a horticulture show in 1964, i thought this was excessive but it must have been a very important one......
The tower s viewing platform stands at 150m and is complete with a bungee jumping platform which we did NOT try out....
I'm not sure what this is but i thought it was intriguing...
The Viennese skyline from the Danube Tower viewing platform.
And again...
Nadia and Bianca, excited and startled respectively....
bestest friends!
Rachel
Feet!
St. Stephen's Cathedral at dusk. After leaving the Danube tower we headed downtown and cruises around Stephensplatz for a couple hours then stopped at a cafe and tried the famous Sachertorte. Sachertorte is described as a dry chocolate cake with apricot jam by wikipedia and was quite tasty.
St. Stephens again.
This is the Vienna Rathaus or city hall...
They don't limit their decorating to coniferous trees only!
Rathaus again, all dolled up for christmas.
Vienna is famous for it's christmas markets. They open in late november and run until chirstmas day. This christmas market is vienna's most elaborate and is located directly in front of the Rathaus.
Giganto-wreath.
The Parliament Buildings
Again,
and again
Me and parliament!!
A pigeon!
This is the corner of the natural history museum located in the Museum quarter of the city. This was also the location of the second Christmas Market that we visited.
This elephant was standing guard at the doors of the Natural History Museum.
Nadia
Another shot of the second christmas market.
As we were strolling through the Museum Quarter possibly on the way to or from trying out Weiner Schnitzel. We chose a really strange place and the waiter was strangely pushy, but schnitzel is not to bad!
We waited in line for a coupl hours on Sunday afternoon to get standing tickets to an opera. At the very economical price of 4 Euros we could see and hear everything and even had our own translators so we could keep up with the story!
I
nside the beautiful Vienna Operahouse
Outside Schönbrunn Palace on some grass that we clearly should not have been treading upon. The third Christmas market that we visited was located here in front of the palace.
This is the Gloriette which sits atop a 60m hill behind the palace overlooking the intricate grounds.
The Great Parterre (the lower portion of the garden)
The Neptune Well located between the Gloriette and the palace.
The Gloriette
Nadia
Bianca
Rachel
After strolling the primary shopping avenue, Mariahilferstrasse, and not finding to much Rachel and I needed to kill some time before heading back to the airport so we stopped at a little cafe that truthfully had the biggest menus i have ever seen anywhere, no question. Pictured above.
I got a special ham and cheese sandwich and they charged me an extra euro for the package of ketchup they put on my plate...... charming.
