Happy Birthday to David!  He woke up in Vienna and he's about to go to sleep in Moscow.  

We were up bright and early this morning because we had reserved a taxi at 7:00 to take us to the airport.  We hated leaving Vienna but were looking forward to meeting up with our friends, Mark and Jim, in Moscow.  Jim lived in St. Petersburg, Russia years ago and speaks Russian, so when he offered to plan this trip for the four of us we got onboard immediately.  

The flight from Vienna was about two hours and 15 minutes.  We got through Passport Control and Customs with no delay and when we walked out of customs Jim and Mark were waiting for us. 

We took a train from the airport to the Metro station and then took the Metro to a station very close to our hotel.  In the picture below, that is Jim with David.  

When we first glimpsed the hotel I could not believe how beautiful it is!  And it is enormous.  Unfortunately I did not take a picture of the outside of the hotel, but maybe I'll get one before we leave.

We are staying at the Hotel Metropol which is a stately, traditional hotel, built in 1905.  It is known for it's impeccable service and I cannot say enough about how well we are being treated.  All of the hotel staff speaks English which makes things very easy for us.  Here are a few pictures of the lobby decorated for Christmas.  Let me say that I would love to live in this hotel!

We were checked in quickly and easily, and another employee showed us to our room and when we got there, our luggage was already in the room.  Also, when we checked in, the clerk noted that it was David's birthday.  The manager who was standing nearby asked if we would mind if she sent a gift for him up to our room.  Of course we said no!  A few minutes later there was a knock on the door and this was delivered along with a very nice note.

Of course we immediately invited Jim and Mark to our room to share it and we had to pose!

After that we headed out to see Red Square at night!  The weather was cloudy and rainy but it was still an unbelievable thing to do.  We saw the Kremlin, Saint Basil's Cathedral, the Alexander Garden and Gum's Department Store.  

This is the diplomatic entrance to the Kremlin. 

Gum's Department Store was known as the State Company Store during Soviet Times.  The store extends 794 sq. ft. along the eastern side of Red Square.  The entire building is lined in white lights and it looks enormous and grand.  Sorry, again I did not get a picture.

When we were walking around Red Square, there were people dressed in beautiful costumes who would have their pictures taken with you.  For money, of course.  But it was fun.  That is Mark below.

After a few hours of walking around Red Square we decided we were cold and needed to eat and go back to our hotel.  We ate at a nice Italian restaurant.  I had caesar salad and David had mushroom soup and then we shared a pizza.  Excellent dinner!

We then walked back to our hotel and parted ways with Jim and Mark after making plans to meet them at 7:30 the next morning for breakfast.

We have a guide tomorrow so we should see some very interesting sites!

Today is Sunday, our last full day in Vienna.  David actually set the alarm clock so we would not sleep too late today because we had a lot of things we wanted to see.  Even the weather cooperated and we woke up to a cold, clear morning with very blue skies!

Yesterday we decided we were tired of eating breakfast out so we bought some good rolls, butter and cheese to eat this morning and it was great!  Almost breakfast in bed.  It took a lot less time than going to a restaurant and it gave us a headstart to the day.

I really wanted to go to downtown Vienna today and walk around gawking at the buildings, museums, churches, etc.  David studied the subway map, found a subway entrance less than three blocks from our hotel and off we went.  The Vienna subway is very nice and clean and safe.  We only got to ride it three stops but I do love good mass transit.

When we exited the subway this was the first building we saw.  Interesting building decoration, don't you think?

Our first stop was a coffee shop because I hadn't had any coffee yet.  I just could not wait any longer.  We found a nice cafe, sat in front of a big window and people watched for a little while.  Then we headed out to see what we could see.  Below is Mozart Park with his statute and a clef carved into the lawn in front of it.  Right next door to the park is this statute of a big pink rabbit.  Not sure why but it is cute.  

We have seen other buildings decorated like this (in Paris, I think), but we like the way it looks so here's a picture.

This "drape" of ornaments was displayed in a window we walked by and the next picture of the church I took because those zig-zag lines are all small mosiac tiles.  What intricate work!

All that walking and site seeing is exhausting so it was time for a break.  On our guided tour, Christian showed us the Imperial Hotel.  It was built as a palace in 1863.  The royals sold it five years later and it was converted into a hotel for the 1873 Vienna World's Fair.   He told us many famous people had stayed there like Queen Elizabeth II and Charlie Chaplan.  Adolph Hitler worked there as a day laborer as a young man and returned as an honored guest in 1938.  We walked by the hotel today and, of course, I decided I needed to see it so in we walked.  I must confess the lobby is very modest but the accoutrements are fabulous!  We used the rest rooms and they were the coolest ones I've ever seen.  The toilets are each in their own, fairly large rooms.  The hand soap is luxurious as are the hand towels.  And the hand lotion provided was incredible.  I could have spent a lot more time in there but I heard a fancy dessert calling my name.  These chocolate desserts were very decadent! 

 This chocolate house was on display.  It was very intricate.

Just as an aside, when we got back to our hotel I looked up the room rates for the Imperial Hotel.  For next week, as an example, you can reserve a twin room at a special rate of around $450.00 per night.  From there the rates increase to $518.00 for a king room and $636.00 per night for a junior suite.  The Imperial Suite is $3,222.00 per night and they don't even list the price of the three top suites.  David wonders why we didn't stay there!!!

When David was finally able to drag me away from this pretentious palace, I mean hotel, we decided there was one more thing we wanted to see/do in Vienna before we left.  We wanted to ride the Wiener Risenrad, the giant ferris wheel.  He was able to get us there on the subway which was very convenient.  The ferris wheel was erected in 1897 and has been featured in a few Hollywood movies.  There are eight large cars (rooms) which hold about 12 people.  There are also fancy cars which can be rented for private dinners, parties, and even weddings.  The ride costs about $12.00 per person and only lasts one turn around the wheel.  The views are amazing and we think it would be gorgeous at night too.

It was a fun ride and we are happy we did it.  By then it had been a long day and we were ready for a rest.  We took the subway back to our hotel and relaxed for awhile before dinner.  There was a moment when I thought I lost my glasses but thankfully someone turned them into the front desk at the hotel so I got them back!  

We didn't know where we wanted to have dinner so we asked one of the hotel clerks and she recommended a place called Cafe Landtmann.  We had heard of it, but had also heard that you have to wait forever to get in.  We decided to give it a try and walked over and got seated immediately.  Go figure!  

This was without a doubt the best meal of our trip so far.  David ordered pumpkin risotto which he loved.

I ordered wiener schnitzel (yes, again), and just look at it!  It was by the far the best I've ever eaten.  I didn't even eat half of it but it was delicious.  

For dessert I had chocolate souffle covered with warm milk chocolate and cream (just imagine it!) and David had some kind of yeast rolls filled with vanilla cream served on a bed of vanilla sauce.  Really?

On the walk back to the hotel we came across yet one more tree for me to take a picture of David standing in front of.  That's all for Vienna!

We have to get up early tomorrow because we have a 10:00 flight to Moscow.  It will be David's birthday and he will spend the morning in Vienna and the rest of the day in Moscow.  How international is he???

More from Russia soon!

We are still suffering from jet lag!  I guess the older you are the harder it is to adjust.  I say that to justify the fact that we slept in late again this morning!  Tonight we have reservations to attend a concert at the Palais Niederösterreich.  David saw on the map that we could walk there so first thing this morning we headed out to find it.  No problem.  And right around it was another, small Christmas Market.  Also some very, very nice stores like Chanel, Hermes, Tiffany and many more.  

Our plan for after that was to have coffee and breakfast at a famous coffee/pastry shop not far from here.  We were warned that there would be a long que but it turned out not to be too bad, AND, we got to wait inside.  A lot of the famous coffee houses have long ques outside waiting to get in.  The first coffee house in Vienna opened in 1685 as a result of the Turkish siege when coffee was first introduced to Vienna.  And apparently coffee only became popular when someone had the idea to add milk and sugar to it.  Since then coffee has become part of the Vienna culture and there are over 1,000 coffee houses here today.  The name of the one we went to is Demel Coffee House, recommended to us by our tour guide yesterday.  It is in an 1888 salon.  The downstairs has sweets for sale and bakery takeout; also a viewing room where you can watch the pastries being decorated.  There are a few small rooms for dining downstairs but most of them are on the upper two floors.  There are many individual rooms so it feels like a very intimate setting.  Just look at the chandelier in the room where we ate.  

I am always more interested in sweets so again I just ordered a roll and butter for breakfast. David had scrambled eggs with brown bread.  

After you eat your meal, you are directed to a confectionery buffet where you select your dessert and then the server brings it to you.  Their website claims "Viennese Confectionery Art since 1786."  Let me just say that they have certainly perfected the art!  Of course I had the chocolate torte and David had carrot cake.  

After brunch we visited the Christmas Market close to us again but as our tour guide mentioned yesterday, thousands of tourists poured into the city today and you could not even see the stalls selling ornaments and things.  We heard so many different languages being spoken that we could not keep track of how many.  It was a very cold day and we actually saw some snow flurries which just added to the atmosphere!  Then on top of the cold temperature, the wind picked up!  So we headed back to our hotel to shower and get ready for the concert.  

Because there are so many visitors in the area, we knew it would be difficult to find a restaurant we could get into for dinner.  There was a pizza place very close to the hotel so we just ate dinner there.  I'm sorry I did not take pictures of our pizzas.  

We walked by the Chrismas Market again and I took a couple pictures of some light displays.  They are spectacular!  Also there is a small ferris wheel at this market.

Here are a few more pictures I took on our walk to the palace for the concert.  It all looked prettier at night.  This rug, below, is really just a picture beamed onto the sidewalk.  Very cool.  And we loved this Christmas dress in one of the shop windows.  

The main streets in the shopping areas each have a row of very large lighted decorations hung in the middle of the street.  The merchants on each street pick their decoration and pay to have them displayed during the season.  Below is one example.  My favorite was a street of lighted chandeliers.  I didn't get a picture of those but I'll try again tonight.  Another street had gigantic red ornaments hung down the middle of the street.  It is definitely all about Christmas here.  

When we arrived at the palace for the concert we walked through a main door into a courtyard.  The tree below was beside the entrance door.  The lights on the door were gorgeous!

The concert hall was very beautiful as you can see by the picture of the ceiling below.  Again I loved all of the chandeliers!

David and I enjoyed the concert even more than we expected to.  There were 10 orchestra members performing including the conducter who also played the violin.  The music was all by Mozart and Strauss.  There were also two opera singers (1 male and 1 female) who performed and two ballet dancers (also 1 male and 1 female).  The orchestra injected some humor too so it was a very fun event.  After it ended, while we were waiting for people to leave, David convinced me to go onstage, sit at the piano and pretend to play so he could take my picture.  Luckily he was quick because shortly after the below picture was taken, we were scolded and told that was not allowed!

And, yes, on the walk back to our hotel I saw yet another Christmas tree to make David stand in front of and have his picture taken.  

After the cold, windy walk back to the hotel we could hardly wait to jump into our warm beds!  Looking forward to tomorrow -- our last full day in Vienna!