things i'm grateful for: christmas 2011

"vienna manages to retain the feel of an advent calendar, complete with a dusting of glitter.the christmas markets, of which half are dotted around the city, are heavy with the fragrance of freshly cut pine trees and freshly baked ginger biscuits." - observer.co.uk, nigel slater

this day was definitely a christmas market day. we started off with a simple breakfast

and trekked to the mother of all christmas markets.i mean, this must be the biggest christmas market ever!


this is located on the large square town between rathaus (town hall) and burgtheater.it is the best known christmas market in vienna.

magnificent town hall which was modelled on flemish city halls.

grand burgtheater.

the mothership.

just some of the stalls! you can imagine me now groggy with christmas delight.and it was just our second christmas market! baby was still ambivalent at this point, but the christmas magic was slowly gathering force...





i have tons of photos of these charming stalls, but i don't want to bore you...

it was just...so beautiful there...

we were famished around this time so we had this vienesse staple,which we could not remember the name anymore! haha. it was cheesy, garlicky and very filling.yum! baby tried it as well, and we guessed she liked it as she did not spit it out! hee.

of course we had gluhwein again while i devoured a candied apple.it was my first time to try that sweet delight.

we walked towards the rathauspark, which sadly looked so gloomy.it just rained and the place looked so...sad as compared to the bustling christmas market just opposite the road.

just imagine it during summer and spring, though! lovely, methinks.

next...hofburg and more christmas markets!