Photostream- December 2012

Some random photos from December.

First snow in the first week of December

Always fun to wake up to a snow covered street

Amsterdam Turn On The Lights event in Dam Square

Chocolade Letters- complete with Zwarte Piet

Still some sun, even in the middle of winter

Christmas lights on Damrak

New Years in London

Despite my English heritage and even having a British passport, I had not yet been to the UK.  When we flew from Vienna to London, it was a rough introduction- we arrived at 10pm on Boxing Day to find a public transport strike.  Heathrow airport is quite some distance from London, and the apartment where we were staying at Canary Wharf was another 10km east from the city centre. We had it all figured out before we arrived but what should have been a 45 min journey on public transport ended up taking almost four hours and included two trains, two buses, a 30 minute wait outside in the freezing cold wind and finally a taxi.  It seemed that the staff at the stations were being deliberately misleading with multiple people telling us conflicting information.  It was not a nice start to our time in London but we did finally get to our apartment, with the bonus of having used the famous red double decker buses and black-top taxis.

London was an incredible city.  After having lived a year in the Netherlands where English is not the native language, it was surprisingly a big relief to be able to understand the conversations of people on the train, to easily understand the descriptions of items on groceries, to not have to apologise to the shop assistant for only speaking English when they greet me in Dutch.  It also felt very familiar compared to Sydney, with some parts of London having a similar look and feel to inner parts of Sydney.  That being said, London is on a completely different scale and it really felt like being in one of the hubs of the world.

While we were there it was my birthday and we celebrated it in very British style.  We had a royal start to the day at the changing of the guards ceremony at Buckingham Palace.  We weren't the only people with the same plan though and despite arriving 30 minutes early we were lucky to find a place to stand.  On the way back from the Palace we walked through the park where we saw many squirrels- these might be considered a pest to the locals but this was the first time I had ever seen a squirrel in real life.

Later in the day we went on the London Eye.  It was great to have been on such a famous landmark and the views over the city (particularly Westminster) were nice, but for me the best part of the London Eye is the interest that it adds to the skyline.  Particularly at night, the blue neon lights reflect beautifully on the Thames to make a view which we were lucky enough to see as we walked along the Hungerford pedestrian bridge.  We ended the day on a spooky note as we went on a Jack the Ripper walking tour through the Eastern suburbs of London.  Our entertaining guide mixed historical information about the area with tales of the grusome events that happened on those exact spots in the late 19th century.

The London Tower was a highlight of the time in London.  We easily spent the most part of a day there and there was still areas which we did not have time to see.  The continual queuing, particularly for initial entry and then for entry to the Crown Jewels display, ate up a lot of time, but it was worth it.  The Beefeater-guided tour was particularly entertaining. The Crown Jewels display had recently been refurbished for the queen's diamond jubilee to great effect, including a spine tingling waiting room with videos and paintings which helped convey the history and importance of the emblems we were about to see.

The British Museum was also a highlight where we saw many famous artifacts including the Easter Island statues and the Rosetta Stone, which I remember learning about and even building a model of in primary school.  The Churchill War Rooms was another entertaining display we visited.  Built in a bunker below Whitehall, the headquarters of the agents who orchestrated the Allied efforts in WWII were basically frozen in time at the moment that the war ended.  The National Gallery, whose Roman facade frames one side of Trafalgar Square, was also good for a visit to see the best of British art.

As if this was not enough culture packed into a short time,  we also went to London's famous West End to see the musical Stomp! which was not the traditional kind of musical but a very entertaining physical percussion display.  The also spent time shopping at places like Covent Gardens and Oxford St, and enjoying delicious (but pretty unhealthy) food at some traditional British Pubs, including the Lord Moon of the Mall Wetherspoon's near Trafalgar Square, the Dog & Duck in Soho and the Sherlock Holmes pub which was much better and less touristy than expected.

Our final day in London was New Year's Eve.  Traditionally we stay away from large crowds and prefer hanging out with a small group of friends, but this time we decided to venture into the city to see the fireworks.  Armed with a subway and some strongbow, we went early into the city and found a spot in a viewing area near Waterloo Station with a great view of the London Eye.  The atmosphere was lively and friendly, with people chatting to each other and even taking photos with the police officers.  Unfortunately there were a few people who went too far, which kept both the police and ambulance officers busy.

The fireworks display was incredible.  Unfortunately as soon as it was finished, everyone immediately tried to go to the train station.  For some reason they had closed off the nearby Waterloo station and were channeling everyone to a different nearby station.  People were tired and frustrated and it resulted in a bit of a stampede- there was actually a few moments there where we were actually scared that we would be injured in the cruc of the crowd.  Eventually though we made it home safe and sound, with lots of memories from our final night in London.

Christmas in Vienna

Vienna was full of Christmas cheer, starting the minute we walked up the stairs from the metro station onto Stephansplatz to see the big Christmas tree standing nearby the cathedral.  By this time it was past 1am in the morning.  Our flight was supposed to leave from Rotterdam at 8pm, but after an hour of delays it was cancelled and everyone was put on a bus back to Amsterdam where the flight finally left from Schiphol at around 10:30pm.  That's the risk you take though when flying with a budget airline.

Christmas at Stephansplatz

We were lucky enough to be staying in an apartment just a few minutes walk from Stepheansplatz so it was easy to access most of the city by foot.  So after a few hours sleep, it was off to visit some markets. We visited a few, enjoying some local nibblies and looking at the Christmas decorations,  before stopping for a luxurious morning tea at a French tea house called Teesalon Sussi.  I am normally against paying money for tea in a cafe, but here it was an essential part of the experience and it was very relaxing to enjoy some hot tea and delicious pastries while escaping from the chilling wind outside.

Chestnuts roasting at the the markets

Sussi Teesalon

From there, we walked along Operngasse to the Resselpark where there was another large Christmas market set up in front of the beautiful Karlskirche (St Charles' Church).  We browsed the markets and stopped for some food and gluhwein.  By this time it was early afternoon, and the sun was already going down, so we wandered back home for a bit of a rest.

Markets at Karslskirche

Sweet potato noodles with basil, apple and cranberry

Heading out for dinner that night, we found it quite difficult to find a restaurant that could seat our group of 6 without a reservation on a weekend just before Christmas. We booked at a popular schnitzel house for the following night, and eventually found a middle eastern restaurant and although we were a bit dubious at first, it was very delicious and friendly and we had a great night.

Delicious falafel

Kartnerstrasse lit up at night

The next morning we woke to light snowfall- exactly what you want to see just a few days before Christmas.  We had a lot of fun playing around in the snow and taking photos before catching the metro to Schonbrunn Palace, a few stops out from Stephansplatz.  The palace gardens were covered in snow, and the big Christmas tree in front of the luxurious yellow-walled mansion set the scene perfectly.  The inside of the palace was just as luxurious as the outside.  After the tour, we looked through the markets and enjoyed some lunch- bratwurst with fresh bread, mustard and horse radish- and of course, gluhwein.  It was so incredibly cold- the snow had turned to rain, and the chilling wind cut straight through clothing.  Even though it might not have been the coldest temperature I've been in, I think it is the coldest I have ever felt.

Schonbrunn Palace gardens

For dinner we went to the schnitzel house that we had booked the previous night- a wiener schnitzel restaurant called Figlmueller.  It was very busy and slightly touristy but not at all a tourist trap.  I had a very large delicious schnitzel that came with a surprisingly tasty salad.  On the way home, we popped into the Stephansdom, there was a choir singing and it was beautifully lit up with colourful lights.  

Amazing lighting display inside the Stephansdom

On Christmas Eve Monday we took a leisurely walk through the streets of Vienna towards Hofburg.  Along the way, we stopped to look at the christmas tree markets set up in the middle of the main street, Demel (the pastry shop which was was contracted to the royal family) and the Roman ruins which were found beneath the streets near Michaelerplatz.  The whole area near the imperial palace was extravagant- high archways, marble pillars, regal equestrian statues, sculptures of Roman figures tangled in battle.  There were a few museums and galleries nearby but we spent our time browsing the Christmas markets again.

Delicious cakes at Demel

It started to get dark quite early in the afternoon, and we took the scenic route home on the tram.  At one stop spotted some bright Christmas decorations and crowds so we quickly jumped off the tram and found ourselves at the Rathausplatz Christmas markets.  The beautifully lit up city hall and trees full of brightly coloured lights made this one of the prettiest markets we visited.  We had about an hour here before it closed for the night, by which time we had well and truly had our fill of Christmas markets for the year.

Vienna Rathaus

The main event for Christmas day was the Nutcracker performed at the Vienna Opera House.  For each show there are a limited number of last minute standing room only tickets, so were were there at 10:30am very close to the front of the line to ensure our place.  Fortunately the start of the queue was inside so we were able to stay out of the cold and wind.  It was around midday by the time we were finally allowed into the opera house, where we were able to choose our place in the stalls.  It was still an hour or so before the performance started, so we joined the tradition of securing our spot by tying a scarf onto the railing, and then we were able to leave and come back again just before it started.  When we arrived back, there were a few instances of people not respecting the reservations made by others- there was some girls behind us who were trying to take the spot of an American couple who were rightfully quite annoyed.  Voices were raised and it was quite awkward but eventually the girls left.  The performance itself was quite entertaining, and although ballet is not at all my thing and I would probably not do it again, I was glad to have this experience.

Waiting for the Nutcracker to begin at the Vienna Opera House

After the ballet we stopped at a cafe to enjoy a coffee and some delicious chocolate Mozart tort, a delicious chocolate cake with a chocolate ganache and pistachio filling.  We cobbled together as much as we could from the corner store to make our best attempt at a traditional Christmas dinner.

On our last day in Vienna, we spent some time in the Stadtpark, a quiet and serene escape from the surrounding city.  The park has quite a few statues and sculptures, including a memorial to Johann Strauss which Sam was quite excited to see.  We continued the musical theme by visiting the nearby Beethoven memorial.  We had lunch at a little restaurant near our hotel called Kleines Cafe, an atmospheric, smoke filled cafe which served different types of bratwurst and delicious beer, served with fresh bread and mustard.  It was the perfect way to spend our last hour in Vienna before heading to the airport for the next leg of our Christmas holiday- London.

Strauss monument at the Vienna Stadtpark

Beethoven memorial

Lunch at Kleines Cafe