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!