December 24 – Vienna and Christmas Eve Dinner

We are on a walking tour of Vienna today.  It is a lovely, sunny day with lots of  Christmas decorations to admire.  The gigantic red balls were particularly eye catching.

There was a long plaza with chandeliers and monuments,

another long street with huge red balls,

old-fashioned store signs,

and lots of were interesting, old streets with interesting buildings.

We stopped for a while to enjoy St. Stephen’s Cathedral with its gothic/Romanesque exterior,

beautiful, tiled roof,

and lovely interior.

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More St Stephens Cathedral

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Right after this we headed off to another, smaller Christmas Market.

After lunch it was off to Schonbrunn Palace, summer palace of the Hapsburgs, for a look at the palace and gardens. 

As with so many memorable places we have been we saw a bride and groom on a photo shoot.

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More Schonbrunn Palace

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And there was another Christmas Market set up in the plaza in front of the palace. 

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More Vienna Christmas Markets

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And, to top it off, there was a rainbow.

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More Vienna

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Today is Christmas Eve and Tara arranged for a special treat for us a dinner on the boat.  The crew set up one long table so that all of us could sit together.  She brought in “crackers”, an English party favor that gives a pop when pulled on the ends.  We missed the drama of them all popping at the same time…since none of us were familiar with them there was a lot of fumbling and the pops happened pretty randomly.

She had also brought Sees candies (a little bit of home).

Later we adjourned to the ships salon for Christmas Carols and visiting.  There was a visit from Santa.

Claus was gifted with some Christmas glasses.

Choe did some singing for the group (after we had left).

What a fun way to end the day.