Starting with a search for cold medicine 🙂 We went to the nearest pharmacy, but it was closed. However, they had a nice display on the door showing nearby open pharmacies! So, we drove to the first one, and it was open! Now we’re all set.
We walked to the main squares and along the streets. It’s all very beautiful and magical, lit up with lights everywhere. People are outstanding, walking, and having a great time! Fireworks are not allowed, but once in a while, everyone would jump because someone fired off a single firework close by. We stopped at a sausage stall and had the awesome cheese sausage with mustard, then walked some more!
We ended up in the main square in front of the city hall, where they were having a water, light, and fire show for midnight. Lothar was quickly running out of steam, but fortunately, they were doing a show every hour! So we just waited 12 minutes and enjoyed the event. It was really well done! We stood near the front, but once we started getting too wet, we backed off. LOL
We ended with going back to the apartment, and doing our own quick little Happy New Year cheer, and off to sleep!
The night before leaving Vienna, Lothar went out with Chri and rented a car from Eloop. This is a great service! They have a fleet of Teslas, and you use an app to easily check out a car that’s parked near your location. It’s meant for people to use around the city so they don’t need to own their own car. You can rent for minutes hours, and even days, which is what we did. Charging and parking around Vienna are included, as is all charging at Tesla chargers! Imagine renting a car without the long line-ups and rental agreement forms, and the lengthy check-in process that costs less than any other rental car, and you don’t pay for gas on top of that!
So on the 26th, we headed out of Vienna and down towards Leibniz. On the way, we stopped by Lothar’s brother Wolfie’s place! We spent some time with Wolfie and Suzie, and their son Logan. They had just experienced a lot of flooding in the basement, which turned into a huge project to fix. However, it also provided the opportunity for him to upgrade his ‘man cave.’ He now has a really nice setup for gaming and streaming, including a pull-down green screen!
We then drove on to Gunther’s place for the night. We exchanged a few little gifts, but I also received my prize for winning the family Guess F1 game this season!
In the morning (Dec 27th), Wolfie and Suzie dropped off Logan, and everyone started their day.
We headed out into town on our own and had a really nice lunch at a fancy hotel restaurant – Alte Post. The duck liver two ways was out of this world!
Then we checked into our spa hotel, ‘Staribacher,’ where we had several nights booked. It’s a place Gunther’s family loves to visit, and they reserved a room for us.
Later in the day, we went for a nice drive around the countryside and ended up back in Leibniz in the evening.
Before returning to our room, we explored the area around the hotel and spa, then returned to our room to enjoy the champagne we received. 🙂 Actually, we only took pictures of it. LOL. We drank it another time. We also had a lovely dinner at the hotel restaurant – truly fine dining! And we were joined by Lothar’s friend Archie and his wife Viktoria (Vika).
In the morning (Dec 28th), our garden view was all frosty and foggy. Neat!
We spent a whole day in Graz with Hardy and Helga. We had to take it easy because we caught a cold from Gunther, so we walked very slowly. We had lunch at a great open sandwich deli and walked up to Schlossberg – the castle on the hill. The weather was really lovely for all of it!
For dinner, we all went back to our hotel restaurant – Staribacher. And as a surprise, Hardy invited 2 more of Lothar’s friends!! So we had a full house – us, Hardy and Helga, Andreas and Marlene, and Igor. The conversation was great – everyone made an effort to use English a lot of the time, and the rest of the time, I was able to follow a little bit with the words I recognized. Of course, dinner was amazing again.
The next morning (Dec 29th), we got a massage and enjoyed the spa. The massage was with hot stones – it was really gentle, but it actually helped my shoulder a lot! The spa time wasn’t so great because there was a film crew filming something, and they kept singing ‘Happy Birthday’ very loudly over and over again. There were also several children running all around the various waterfall features, letting out shrill screams. LOL. We planned to come back another time.
Lunch was out in the country at a place that came highly recommended. And it sure was nice! Wow, we’ve had several days of very high-end gourmet food now! Then we had a wonderful drive around the countryside, and of course, ended up back at our hotel.
The next day, we headed out to visit Lothar’s step-mom, Anne-Marie, and Ian. We stopped to visit his sister, Moira, on the way, and she came with us. We all chatted for a while over tea, then walked over to Slovenia to have lunch. I had a lovely deli board appetizer with various dried meats and cheeses that were much like those in Serbia. Yum! Later, Moira picked up her boys, William and James, from the train, and we had a great visit all together.
Then on the last day of the year (Dec 31st), we met up with Lothar’s friend Eva for a very pleasant lunch. The restaurant was large and decorated splendidly. It sits right on a reservoir lake, so the view was nice too!
We went for a walk in the morning. It stopped raining, and although it was chilly, it was very nice. We just wanted to get out for a while.
The rest of the day was spent having Christmas dinner and opening Christmas Eve gifts with Helen’s family! During dinner, everyone shared what they were thankful for during the year. We enjoyed all kinds of delicious little vegan sandwiches, and for dessert, there was homemade apple strudel served with ice cream.
We took some nice pics on the rooftop…
…Then it was present-opening time! The gift opening was crazy—they don’t take turns; they just all open stuff at the same time.
And afterward, everyone simply enjoyed checking out and using their new things. Clara put together her cyber hand, and Philip used his new microscope and played with his magic tricks. We also all played Philip’s new game, Mysterium, together, and that was really fun.
On Christmas Day, we went back to their place for a lovely Christmas lunch. Even though it was restricted to being vegan, it was really spectacular. Highlights included dishes such as lentil moussaka, red cabbage, Brussels sprouts, sweet potato mash, imitation pigs in a blanket, and a truly amazing garlic bread.
The rest of the day, we all just did different activities—some played games, and some went for walks. It was a really nice day with family.
We got together with Lothar’s sister Helen and her family. Their building has an old-fashioned elevator! On their rooftop, they have a splended view over Vienna!
We mostly hung around their apartment and had some fun with the kids after walking out to pick each one up from their respective schools. For dinner, we ordered vegan and vegetarian Curry and all of it was very delicious.
On one of the days when the weather was not so nice, we went out to the big mall called Shopping City South, which is unsurprisingly South of Vienna.
We took Helen’s Mini! It was interesting getting used to the fact that every time you lift your foot off the gas the car would essentially start breaking. I took pictures of some of the lovely Christmas trees we saw around the mall.
We had lunch at the food court. I had a healthy tuna bowl, while Lothar chose McDonald’s which he loves to do once a trip. We didn’t buy too much and it was mostly about the atmosphere and just looking at everything in the shops.
In the evening we went out with Lothar’s friend Yorgen and his wife Pietra. We had a wonderful steak dinner and my dessert was potato dumplings with poppy seeds. Very interesting to try!
We had a great time with them and we all went home very late period when we walked outside it was pouring rain so Lothar and I ran back to our apartment covering ourselves as best as we could.
We accidentally slept in WAY too late one day. Almost noon! The weather still wasn’t nice, so we headed to the Albertine Art Gallery. It was a really nice mix of modern and classic artists, as well as some Vienna state home décor.
Some more shopping one one of Vienna’s many pedestrian-only shopping streets.
We stopped at a place with Donairs and Kebabs that’s what’s called “Oriental” here. Interesting!
On my long run day, I played Beat Saber for 45 minutes as intensely as I could. LOL It was ok because I was able to close the door and open a window once I got hot. I think it was a workout on par with a long run in the end.
Getting close to Christmas now, we did some last minute shopping. Then we just spent as little time outside as possible because it first snowed, then quickly turned to rain for the rest of the day. Afterward, we wrapped all the Christmas presents!
In the evening we went back to Helen’s and had dessert for dinner – Germknodel (a yummy steamed/baked bun filled with rose hip jam and topped with sugar and poppy seeds).
Clara showed us the book that she wrote. Holy smokes! as an 11-year-old, she has written a multi-chapter book. And it’s no ordinary book, it’s the beginnings of a fantasy epic! She has a fleshed-out main character (Derp the Pineapple Duck), a world, a map, and plans for all kinds of other characters that he will meet in the future and worlds that he will travel to… it’s a complex fantasy universe just like Harry Potter.
She’s also already created merch like a button, a keychain, a puzzle, collectibles, little cushions, and not only for the main character but most of his friends as well. There are illustrations of all the places and characters in the book. This is absolutely brilliant and I am amazed.
We had a nice time with the kids – they played the First Encounters game in VR and we watched a movie later.
Our flight got delayed by an hour and a half, which was ok, it gave me some time to relex before leaving, because I has been packing right up to the taxi time!
The Christmas tree at the airport was absolutely gorgeous and there was no one at security so we went straight through. In the lounge, we ran into two people we know so we had some nice conversations while waiting. And for the long flight, we sat right across from each other.
We flew British Airways and even though the seat reclined fully for sleeping, it was not as flat as our last experience on Air Serbia. It was a contoured seat so it was weirdly bumpy around your hips when trying to sleep. Our sleep was also cut short because of how much we were delayed but then the pilot tried to make time in the air so it meant a shorter sleeping window. But still, WAY better getting some sleep than trying to sit sitting up!
At the London airport, we had three and a half hours to until the Vienna flight. We were able to still use the BA lounge. I realized it’s our anniversary today. Happy anniversary sweetie! LOL
Once we arrived, we headed to the grocery store and got some goodies to have for snacks and breakfast.
Then we went out to the big Christmas market near City Hall. It really is as magical as everyone said it would be! We had mulled wine, sausages, roast chestnuts, and some desserts, and just enjoyed the booths and festive atmosphere! We were really cold by the end though, and took an Uber back to the apartment.
I visited the toilets and was amazed to see the sign inside the stall read in English. German, and … Serbian! How strange! Our Uber driver was from Yugoslavia too. We found out later, aparently Vienna has the largest population of Serbs outside of Serbia. Who would have thought!
We organized a whole family Skype call for Dad’s Birthday! First, of course, we resolved a few issues with sound settings. LOL It wansn’t me this time, it was Dad. 🙂
We took some great “pictures” with everyone, and even brought out a little birthday cake. 🙂
Then of course we all had to get pics with our kitties. Meow!
The rugby classic is once again in Bermuda and we got tickets courtesy of Lothar’s work. We watched the game some but mostly we enjoyed the hospitality tents and atmosphere.
At the end, all the players lined up and stood for a minute of silence for a player who had died this past year.
Every year the Austrian consulate puts on the Austria Day event. There’s yummy Austrian food like schnitzel, and lots of now-familiar folks to socialize with.
The hosts share their fabulous house with infinity pool and ocean view and it’s always at a time of year when the doors are completely open and we’re half in and half outside.
Of course, at the end there are speeches and the singing of the F1 song – oops I mean the Austrian national anthem (I call it the F1 song because Max and Red Bull keep winning races and at every podium, we hear the Dutch and then the Austrian national anthem LOL).
Another lovely Latin dance social at Cocoa Reef. We showed up early for dinner but we were actually the only ones in the whole restaurant they served us dinner anyway! LOL.
