A Viennese Christmas

Hi Everyone! Hope you're all having fun during this holiday season. Has everyone bought all their presents? Any special Christmas plans? I know that I can't wait to be home to spend the holidays with my family and friends! But Ben and I have certainly been making the most of our time here. I feel like I never have a spare second, especially this past week. Anyways, we made the quick trip to Vienna (it's less than 2 hours) this Saturday and spent the full day there. We arrived in Vienna at 9:30am and left at 10:30pm. And there is no doubt that we made the most of our day. When I woke up Sunday morning my legs felt like jello from all the walking. It was well worth it though, the city was absolutely beautiful and everyone spoke ENGLISH! Here our some pics from the trip :)

The mountains in the distance on our train ride into Vienna.

Schonebrunn Palace view from the gardens. They were absolutely extraordinary. 

A view down one of the paths in the garden. There were sculptures at the end of each path. You could have spent an entire day just enjoying the gardens.

The "Roman Ruins" in the garden. They aren't actually Roman Ruins, but they are made to look like them. The architect designed everything to be falling down and decaying.

Ben and I in front of Schonebrunn Palace.

The view of the Great Parterre on the Glorriet.

The front of the Schonebrunn Palace with Christmas markets.

Russian monument in the center of Vienna that the older Viennese aren't too fond of (for obvious reasons). It was interesting the day we were there though because there were some people there that were supporting the thousands that were protesting in Moscow that same day.

Ben Donahue: opera star

Private room in the Vienna State Opera.

Grand Foyer of the Opera House.

Interior of the Opera House. Everything in the building is very grand. It looks like an old palace on the inside. But the building is relatively new (for Europe). The building was completed in 1869 and until it was almost completely destroyed during WWII no one even like it. However, when it was destroyed the people of Vienna were devastated and upon it's redesign after the war it was an Austrian icon.

Mozart statue. Mozart's Don Giovanni was the premier show at the opera house when it opened.

Backstage

The interior of the Staatsoper

The outside of the Opera House.

Statue in the Center of the Museum Quarter. It was very crowded because 1 of the 5 Christmas markets in Vienna was located there. We were able to visit 4 out of 5 Christmas markets during our trip.

Enjoying the Christmas festivities in Vienna.

Austrian Parliament Building

The Rathaus in Vienna. The backdrop of the biggest and best Christmas Market in Vienna. 

Rathaus and Christmas Market

Enjoying our punch at the Rathaus Market

The Hofburg Palace housed the Habsburg dynasty of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and currently is the official residence of the President of Austria.

The Vienna (Wiener) Riesernad is one of the world's first Ferris wheels. It's the the famous post-noir film The Third Man and the James Bond movie The Living Daylights.

View from the Ferris wheel

Hello Everyone! The end of a very long day, but we were still happy tourists :)

The last stop of our trip, St. Stephen's Cathedral. We were there too late to go inside, but it's the seat of the Archbishop of Vienna, and was absolutely beautiful.

Merry Christmas everyone!