Hairgrove's in Hungary: Christmas in Vienna

Christmas was a little sad since it was the first time we were not with family for the holidays. However, we did Skype with everyone so it made it easier. That aside, we did enjoy what Vienna had to offer on Christmas day. We were glad that we were in Vienna as opposed to Salzburg or somewhere smaller because those cities were virtually shutdown for Christmas. We started the day with "Merry Christmas" followed by a kiss. We didn't buy each other a gift for Christmas because we were going to pick something out for ourselves on the trip. We will reveal choices at the conclusion of our postings about the trip.

We first visited the art museum because it had a great collection of art from Raphael, Hans Holbein, Pieter Brueghel, Paul Rubens, and others. It was an impressive place with Egyptian artifacts, portraits of the Habsburg rulers, and a really cool coin collection. We were very impressed and thought it was well worth visiting. We had a nice lunch in the museum and then headed back out into the cold.

Our next stop was the Belvedere, summer palace of the Habsburg's. It was very pretty but a little hard to enjoy with the cold wind blowing.

After that we went back to the hotel to warm up. We got a reservation at a traditional Viennese restaurant for dinner. Dana had also booked us a couple of tickets for a Mozart concert with traditional dancing and dress.

We went to the restaurant and really enjoyed it. We then went out in the bitter cold and made our way toward the concert. When we arrived we sat in a room with about 50 seats and a little stage in front. Some musicians came out in period costume and played some of Mozart's best. Some ballet dancers performed to the music and then we had intermission. They came back out and played Strauss with accompanied dancing again. It really was a neat intimate experience and was well worth it. When it was done our first Christmas away from home was concluded. --- by Ben