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Published: December 18th 2009
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Can you believe this is my 40th blog! What a great place to blog about as well. It's been a fabulous weekend in Vienna. Not really a fan of the 4am rise to catch the plane but it was well worth it. This time there was 7 of us. Clare, Emma, Jenny, Stephanie, Sharaneya, Tina and Me. As soon as we landed we dropped our stuff at the hotel and headed straight to the christmas markets, or should I say 'Christkindlmärkte'. On nearly every corner of the city. Small huts provide you with potential Christmas presents, food and most important hot punch and "Glühwein", heated sweetened wine. The biggest ones are the Christkindlmarkt at the Vienna City Hall, which is where we headed first and it did not disappoint. Sausage was the first order of the day. At first we all got so mesmorised that we lost each other but that was enough for us to realise that communication was the key. The stalls are filled with christmas decorations, gingerbread, mulled wine and the smell of celebrations in the air. I finally have come to the realisation that chrissy is around the corner.
We all contributed to a kitty which gave
us the opportunity to try lots of everything without getting the guilts, well at least to attempt not to get the guilts. Chocolate coated strawberries, chestnuts, baked potato and largos, which is a deep fried round bread smothered in garlic,salt, oil and a hint of vinegar. All was delicious..... all was just the beginning. Already taken by the spirit of christmas we wandered to the stalls in the museum quater where we found a great advent calender abd a christmas bauble with Vienna written on it. I ate a deep fried donut covered in icing sugar and jam, DEL-IC-IOSO! Thank goodness we were walking and when I say walking boy! did we walk. After a busy week and early start to the day I hit a wall at 4pm and so did everyone else. We headed back to the hotel for a siesta. I was completely zonked and crashed to awake at 6.30pm. We had dinner reservations and Viennas most famous snitzchel house so the rush was on.
Figlmüller is a family business, now in the fourth generation, the brothers Hans and Thomas take care that the tried and tested are preserved. That means that the quality of the dishes
and the cosy atmosphere have hardly changed - but the address has: The original restaurant on Wollzeile could not cope with the number of guests and so a second Figlmüller restaurant was opened in Grinzing in Viennas 19th district in 1971. We, of course. with thanks to Jenny had reservations at the original but when we turned up 15 minutes late they had already given our table away and the line was the length of the alley way that it was in. Luckily, they allowed us to come back 45 minutes later so we spent some time wondering the streets around St Stephens Church. It is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Vienna and its romanesque and Gothic form is a breathtaking site. The extra bonus of christmas lights and the centre tree made it even more magical than any other church I have observed. (oh besides the basilica in rome). Before we knew it was time for a second go at Figlmüller. We were finally seated and there was no need to look over the menu. They are famous for their snitzchel and potato salad and it was well worth the wait. It was the size of a
pizza, very thin but had the perfect combination of crumbing and meat to make me eat the whole thing. Yes! I finished it all and still did not feel full. I didn't tell the girls that by the way. Been the only one to finish it made me consider the thought of entering a snitzchel eating competition lol. Not sure that my body could take it because within 1 hour I was ready to explode. The girls headed for Sacha torte and apple strudel but I just could not do it.
After a day of feasting some of us headed to the Bermuda Triangle district for some night life. The biggest turn off was the smoking going on. I really appreciate any country that has banned smoking in their venues it really makes a difference. Interestingly, when we walked into the bar everyone was sitting at tables and no-one mingled. Didn't really make for an opportunity to meet locals so we headed home and I absolutely crashed.
Sunday morning allowed time for a sleep-in and then it was up and out. WHAT A FANTASTICAL DAY! We headed just out of the city to the festively illuminated Schoenbrunn Palace, the former
summer residence of the Austrian Emperors, this was by far my favourite place of the weekend. We went on a tour through the gorgeous palace first. I tried to take some snaps but was doing it on the sneek and they turned out pretty crooked ha ha ha ha. SCHÖNBRUNN CASTLE has unique gardens and beautiful decor. It is full of nearly all it's original fittings and the palace gardens were huge. In the main square they had the most amazing christmas markets. Crafts and gifts, christmas decorations, carol singers and FOOD FOOD FOOD. This time I ate home-made crisps, salty pork and potatoes and the biggest custard filled donut I have ever seen. Delicious! Oh..... and of course mulled wine. After stuffing our faces we took a walk through the gardens which hopefully burned a few calories. Then it was on the train to meet Darren who had arrived in Vienna that day for work. We did a quick walk around the markets with Darren and he's mate and then it was off to the airport to head back to london. I'm so excited..... christmas is in the air!
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