Heisse Maroni

Our hotel was perfect. It could not have been better situated. It was half a block from the Naschmarkt (where Jason and I ate dripping donner kebobs (gyros) while standing at the end of the block before the concert the night before) and no more than 5 minutes from most everything in downtown Vienna.



Today we went to the Schoenbrunn Schloss the winter palace of the Hapsburgs.


In the courtyard we sampled the most traditional Christkindlmarkt in Vienna but by no means the largest. I am almost embarassed to say that the entire time we were in Austria we never sampled the punsch. We aren't really big drinkers but given Jasons love of Manishevitz I think he might have really enjoyed a mug or two.

Later that afternoon, both in order to defrost a little and to learn a thing or two, we took a tour of the Opera House.

The stage is only dark two nights during the season: Christmas Eve and March 26 (something to do with Mahler- neither the anniversary of his birth or death though. I should have been listening more closely during the tour). They produce a different opera or ballet every single night. Jason and I decided to buy standing room tickets, the best deal in Europe by the way, later that night. They were doing Romeo and Juliet and we thought it was worth 2.50 Euro.

We stayed close and went only a block or two to the Albertina because our guide said that people start lining up for standing room seats at least an hour before the show. There was a Warhol exhibit and a strange Picasso exhibit of, what I can only describe as, his pubic hair and asshole period.