It was our last night in Austria and it was a sad time as we were at the end of our whirlwind trip to the land of The Sound of Music, Mozart and Christmas Markets. To toast our final night we start the evening with some cake and a liqueur beverage. The kuchen at The Grand, sister hotel of The Ring where we are staying, is well known and I eagerly try a piece. It’s lovely and moist and not at all with a dusting of icing sugar on top.

I also try one of their drinks which is generous with booze and warming. I was too overwhelmed with trying to take photos in the dark room to write down what it was called though-oops!

We then move onto the place of our last meal in Vienna, Kulinarium 7 which is an example of modern Austrian food. It’s headed by two young chefs, one of them being Max Aichinger born in Barcelona of Japanese parentage and Richard Leitner. Its a modern wine bar and shop as well as restaurant and there are large share tables. A man nurses a glass of wine facing the window and types on his laptop while other small groups share meals and wines.

Operator Philipp Prodinger shows us the wines in the cellar

Amuse bouche: Cream of cauliflower soup in a test tube

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Vienna lights-powered by environmentally friendly LED

After a three hour First Class train ride  from Salzburg, we arrived at Vienna station. Gone was the village style charm of Salzburg and in it’s place was the glamorous, brightly lit Vienna. We checked into our hotel called “The Ring” in the centre of Vienna and I set about checking out the room.

I’ve often wanted to have the job of hotel reviewer (is there even such a job or it just one of those fantasy jobs?) and I was pleased to see that it was a spacious room with a walk in wardrobe (so nice), sensor lights for the closet (me likey!), a very good music selection on the television, temperature controlled bathwater, nice slippers and my own coffee machine. Apart from that there was a donut in a box (a “Ring” get it? ) and a personalised note which was nice. I am lucky to score a non smoking room as my other travelling companions all get smoking rooms (and request to be moved). We spot Barbara Becker in the lobby and the list of celebrity guests is long.

On the way to the Christmas Markets we have a quick tour of Vienna. We walk past the Opera House where there is a production on every single night of the year. They have a total of 60 productions and each one is never repeated for more than 4 days in a row. A ticket can cost as little as E3 although this is a standing seat which is only sold a few hours before the event and prices range from E20 to several hundred Euros. Vienna is awash with tiny lights each resembling dazzling crystals and these are powered by environmentally friendly LED.

“We’re going to start off tomorrow with some Sacher Torte, I hope that is ok?” our guide tells us and I grin broadly. How does “Hell yeah!” sound? Those that know me know that my schedule in Australia is strictly 9am-midnight. I get up at 8:45am and walk across the apartment and get started on the blog. So getting up early as I do here is harder for me but it’s something that I happily do because I know that I have such fabulous things waiting for me.

Weiner Melange E4.70

The next morning we find ourselves seated in the famous Sacher Hotel, Vienna sitting at a table with a newspaper style menu. Of course we’re here for the Sacher Torte but we start with the coffee. There is a popular coffee called a Weiner Melange which is an espresso coffee with foamed milk and cream.

Eispanner E4.70

I order something else to try another item and I order the Einspanner which is named after the horse carriage drivers of the same name. These are the drinks that they used to give them to keep them warm and is made of black coffee with whipped cream. The coffee is excellent indeed.

Sacher Torte E4.90

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Today started with a hijacking. I’ve never been hijakced before and never did i think that it would be by an Italian women’s travel group. We were on our way to Oberndorf to see the Silent Night Holy Night chapel when a talkative bunch of women boarded the train. We got off and proceeded to our waiting horses and carriage only to find them piling on board after us. Not wanting to deny fellow tourists a ride we let them on and thus our short lived hijacking saga began.

We took the scenic five minute horse ride through the narrow streets and past the river-literally on the other side of the river was Bavaria, Germany. We’re trying to avoid being lumped together with the other tour groups so we move quickly and visit the Silent Night Holy Night chapel where the famous Christmas Carol was composed.

On December 24th 1818 at this site Silent Night was performed for the very first time. The lyrics were written by Joseph Mohr who served a a parish priest. Christmas meant something different back then. It meant that people would gather and it would also mean that they would eat better food but this year their organ had broken so they needed to find different music to play.

Mohr had written a poem which was the words of Silent Night and he gave this to Franz Xaver Gruber who was a teacher and organist and that afternoon on the 24th of December he write the music for it. 1000 people first heard them singing it and in 1839 it was brought over to America where it became popular very quickly and it is now estimated that it is sun in 400 different languages. In 1906 the original St Nicola church was burnt down and in 1937 this memorial chapel was built instead.We’ve arrived just in time as two singers playing Mohr and gruber sing us Silent Night. With this cue, two singers enter and sing us Silent Night.

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