Last of the Vienna Christmas Markets on to the River Cruise

A few stops left on our last day in Vienna and on our walk to St Charles Church we pass by an ice rink, which to me is perfect for the whole Christmas Market theme we are on. I’m not sure why I have a thing for ice rinks and Christmas other than I love the movie Serendipity and if you know the movie you will understand.

St Charles is undergoing some work as was St Stephen’s and a few other places in town. The scaffolding does not do well for great pictures but I am glad to see it done,the years of pollution that darken the stone so much, are removed and you can see the glory of these buildings that were built with such intecracy so many many years ago. As we walked around the church we found another building right next to it with a beautiful facade and ornate gold and iron crucifix.

The Christmas market at St Charles is more an Arts and Craft Market like I would find at home, what we call a Saturday market. There were a few fun and interesting things here.

There is a big area filled with hay that the kids used to make caves, tunnels and just plain burry themselves in. Kinda like we did as kids with sand or snow.

There was also a gentleman strolling through the market with his music box that he cranked to make the beautiful old time music sound (sorry I cannot remember what they are called right now.) And at this market plenty of hot spiced wine and beer to complete your senses.

Then we were off to the market (more of a traditional christmas market) at St Stephen’s Cathedral. St Stephen’s was built in the 1300’s on the grounds of a former church built in 1147. You can see in the picture below how filthy the church is around the entrance. How it’s almost completely black. St Stephen’s although in much need of a good cleaning is beautiful inside and out. It is also in the city center area.

This was our last stop in Vienna for the day, now it was time to head off to our Avalon Waterways River Cruise. One of the great things with Avalon is that they have mostly suites. Of the three floors of rooms they have almost 2 full floors of suites. Their suites are unique in that the entire outside wall is sliding glass doors and your bed faces the doors, so you can look out and enjoy the view right from your own room with no one walking in front of your view. There is also a seating area for a couple of people right by the doors. Open the doors wide and smell the smells….well not today, it’s 30 degrees and windy so we only opened the doors for a minute to cool off the room.

Better yet is an upgraded suite. We found out the ship was not full and there was a room available so we jumped on it. It is our anniversary today, so it’s our present to each other and thank you Bucket List Travel Tours. This room is about 100 sf larger, with a bigger sitting area, 2 tv’s, a separate room for the toilet from the double sinked bathroom with a shower that has a sitting area in it. Now this is what I would call luxury cruising and we are going to enjoy the space. Monday is going to be windy and rainy so we will be staying on the ship until evening when we head out to a concert.