It's that time of year!

Grabenstrasse, Vienna

Hallelujah!

Christmas Markets!

On our way to Vienna, we stopped in Steyr to stretch our legs. We saw the town's bus with a fantastically melodious horn. Right out of the Sound of Music, "Genau?" (Translation - exactly.) Genau!

Once in Vienna, we visited the heart of the city around StephansDom. Like the spokes of a wheel, long streets each lit up their neighborhood differently. Grabenstrasse (our pic at the top) has a lot of high end shopping so the chandelier theme was very fitting.

The first Weinachtsmarkt we visited was between the beautiful Rathaus and Bergtheatre. When we visited Vienna in August with the kids, this area was one of favorites because of the music and food festival they host each June through September. YUM! With the buildings all lit up, it had such a great festive ambiance as we endured shivering through the snow/rain mix.

We love seeing each of the huts' wares, but it is most accurate to say Ryan is there for the food! Did you see those monsterous canoli looking things? The creme center is meringue filling.

And if you like marzipan (almond flavored paste, filling, fondant, candy . . .), Europe is the place for you! It comes in all types of varieties! Ryan loves marzipan as do many in his family.

The stick he's holding is what tasted like a pepperoni stick cooked/wrapped in a langos. Langos are elephant ear-like fried bread only it's heavily seasoned with garlic. It was delicious!

When eating at a fair of any type, Ryan likes to differentiate his eating by what he calls his sweet and salty cycles. He's always on the hunt for the next cycle's eats! For instance, here's some of his choices at the Schonbrunn Palace Weinachtsmarkt on Saturday.

Potato soup bread bowl = Salty cycle

Miners' burger sized (Yakima burger joint reference for us Bares) freshly fried donut, sprinkled with powdered sugar and filled with either vanilla, chocolate, or marmelade. YUM!!! Definitely the sweet cycle! Eat'cho heart out, or in spite of it!

On a previous salt cycle, Ryan stood in the longest line to get some of these babies!

Fresh cut and fried spiral potato chips. So good!

Not all the food was fried deliciousness, here's some of the other tasty stuffs!

Many kinds of hot alcoholic and non beverages at one hut. When you order your hot beverage, you pay extra for the festive mug. You carry the mug around with you until you either take it home with you as a souveneir or return it for a couple euros back in your pocket. We love hot chocolate and these huts did pretty good, just not as good as Starbucks. I'll have you know there's enough of those all over Europe too!

The gluhwein hut's other side, some tempting loaded potatoes!

And the gingerbread, their infamous lebkuchen that takes all sorts of forms! These were the most intricately decorated we've seen.

The Schonbrunn market was the creme of the crop! High quality artisans, unique huts and amazing food choices! Now time to hit the gym so we can keep up the pace with local markets!