Vienna - Home of Rex

The Riesenrad at the Prater - a site often featured in Kommissar Rex!

I visited Vienna over a couple of days before Christmas.

This was my second trip to Vienna, one of my favourite cities in Europe. Vienna is such a beautiful, cultural and cosmopolitan city... and also the home of one of my favourite TV shows, Inspector Rex (or Kommissar Rex) - I even have a personalised 'paw print' from one of the Rex dogs, and am responsible for getting my whole family into this show.

Left, Votivskirche and right, Stephansdom

I have many things that I love about Vienna... This time I met up with a friend who took me to one of the oldest restaurants in Vienna, where we had a lovely traditional Austrian meal. I was also lucky enough that my good friend Bindu, was travelling through Vienna with her husband, so I got to spend some time with them as well. I did quite a bit in my couple of days there - I went to the Schoenbrunn Zoo, wandered around the grounds of the Schoenbrunn palace, visited the Prater - one of Moser and Rex's hangouts (unfortunately I didn't run into them that day...). I also visited Stephansdom and Votivkirche, the cemetary with memorials to the likes of Beethoven, Mozart, Strauss, Brahms, and almost got blown into the Danube.

Bindu at the Danube, and Schoenbrunn Palace

Bindu and I also had fun roaming through the Christmas markets, and I also got to do a spot of shopping...

Bindu and I - rugged up for the snow and rain

Can't wait to go back again - Vienna is such a great place!

The Riesenrad of the Prater, and the Burgtheater

Hotel Sacher - home of the delicious and chocolatey Sacher Torte

Frohe Weihnachten!

I spent Christmas Day with Greg and Andrea in Munich, where we had collected a group of their friends to spend Christmas Day with. A great day/night was had by all.

Preparations: Here we can see Greg modelling our beverage preparation area. By the end of the day, this was fairly empty!

Presents: There were many presents well received by the recipient... Greg loved his copy of the 'Pool Room Edition' of The Castle, a great Australian film.

Culinary delights: The food prepared was one of the big successes of the day. There was so much, and it all tasted so good! Especially the flaming puddings. Yum!

Photography: It couldn't have been a Holmes sponsored event without cameras around. Greg and I did our best to keep up the tradition of the family Christmas photos throughout the evening.

Exercise: Here we are on the post eating and post drinking walk, posing at the Neue Pinakothek. We did a walk around the block and then headed back. It was quite cold outside after being indoors all day!

Frohe Weihnachten! (Merry Christmas!)

A trip cross-country

The downhill runs at Lenggries.

What better exercise on Christmas Eve when you are in the 'White Christmas' realms of the world is there, than a day's skiing. Greg and I took the BOB bahn from Munich down to Lenggries, not far from the Austrian border. We thought we'd have a go at some cross-country skiing.

I don't think I ended the day as a pro, but was certainly vastly improved. I felt like I was starting to get the hang of it, though it was very hard work... I think I fell asleep around 9pm that night, along with all of the good boys and girls waiting for Santa to come.

Proof that I did spend at least some of my time on skis standing up!



There was a lot of snow at Lenggries - a picnic was a little difficult, however it was very pretty. The world seemed a bit monochrome.

Here I am enjoying the snow, and Greg skiing along.

Greg up to mischief as we got back to town.

The hills are alive... in Salzburg!

On my trip through to Vienna, I dropped into Salzburg for a couple of hours. I have visited Salzburg once before, in the middle of summer, so it was great to see it covered in snow. There is no subtlety to the seasons in this part of the world.

The view over Salzburg old town from the Hohensalzburg fortress

During my time in this pretty little city, I took the walk to the Hohensalzburg fortress, as can be seen on the top of the hill in the photo below, wandered the Christmas markets, visited the Salzburg Dom, and wandered through the frozen Mirabel gardens (of Sound of Music fame...)

The tourism bureau of Salzburg seems to push two angles prominantly - the home of the Sound of Music, and the home of Mozart. The Mozart angle is particularly amusing, as he spent much of his life in Vienna, and was not really made "at home" in Salzburg. Still the city seems to love him now, right down to the shop windows full of Mozart kugeln (Mozart balls - a chocolate made with marzipan) to Mozartplatz, with a statue of the man himself in the centre, and decked out with an ice-rink for the winter. Whatever the reason, Salzburg is a great city, a beautiful setting, and charming gardens and shops.

The Mirabell gardens, at the moment completely frozen over with a heavy layer of snow. Probably not the best time to run around singing "The hills are alive..."

The Salzburger Dom roof, and the view from the pathway up to the fortress

Here I am climbing the hill to the Hohensalzburg fortress, and two others doing the same

The view along the Salzach river

Christkindlmarkt - Christmas Markets in Bavaria and Austria

I spent the week before Christmas between the three towns München (Munich) in Germany; and Salzburg and Wien (Vienna) in Austria. In this part of the world each town sets up many Christmas markets, or the Christkindlmarkt. I visited many of these during the week as can be seen in the photos below. In short, at these markets, you can buy all sorts of things, including cute Christmas decorations, embroidered linen, toys, hot nuts, other assorted foodstuffs including potato pancakes, lebkuchen (a German gingerbread type biscuit), chocolate covered fruits, winter clothing (I bought a funky beanie in Vienna) and other assorted items.

Most importantly are the hot drinks. There are a variety of different kinds, but the standard is Glühwein, a mulled hot red wine with cloves, cinnamon and other spices. Variants include Engelstrunken (Angel's Drink) and Feuerzanganbowle (for the more adventurous... My sister has done some research into it... See her page for the details!)

A Christmas tree sparkling at the Odeonsplatz markt in München, glittering streetlights for Christmas on am Graben in Wien, and Marienplatz in München lit up with its Christmas tree

The Rathaus markt - Frohe Weihnachten from Wien!

Frohe Weihnachten from Wien! and a glühwein with my brother Greg at the Chinese Tower markt in München, Feuerzangenbowle being made at the Rindermakt in München, and a sample of the wares in Salzburger Christkindl