A bit of Christmas in Austria

In Britain, St Nicholas is one ingredient in the Santa Claus / Father Christmas / Coca Cola conglomerate figure, firmly associated with the 24th/25th December. In Austria, the saint leaves presents (typically nuts and oranges) in children's shoes on the 6th December. Here are some little chocolate-bearing Nikolos we found in our shoe drawer.

I was actually in Bratislava on the 6th, but nevertheless caught a glimpse of Nikolo himself, with his ever-present companion Krampus (the one with the chain and horns):

In some places you have to watch out as herds of Krampuses run around hitting people with sticks or throwing them into their sacks. This one was quite well-behaved.

A more palatable pre-Christmas tradition is mass biscuit baking. If you're not a great baker you might limit yourself to only four different types... P and friends have made two beautiful batches:

From bottom left, clockwise: Rumkugeln, Kokosbusserl, Zimtsterne, Vanillekipferl, Schokonuss-etwas?. And Linzeraugen in the middle. This was about one third of the overall output.

And of course there are the famous Christmas markets, which are lovely, (more or less) varied and absolutely everywhere.

Hidden treasure - the Türkenschanzpark

Up in Vienna's (relatively) leafy 18th district, right next to the university where I work, the Türkenschanzpark is a beautiful oasis of trees and grass, looped through by meandering paths. It is big enough to get lost in, and is landscaped in a more natural way than the geometric flowerbed approach seen in the more formal Viennese parks.

The "Turkish fort" of the park's name refers to a fortification located there during the second Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683. The park itself was opened in 1888. In 1991 a fountain dedicated to the Turkish poet and mystic Yunus Emre was added as a sign of Turkish-Austrian friendship.

A lake complete with ducks, overhanging trees...remind you of anywhere?

August.

Beginning of autumn.

Glorious colours.

My Paraguayan friend Susi...

...and her adorable son in one of my favourite trees.

Winter sunset. You can see the silhouette of the Turkish fountain.

By way of contrast - the Belvedere gardens, exemplifying the geometric flowerbed type.

As well as the park being a bit of a hidden gem itself, there is also treasure to be found - some friends and I found a geocache there.    https://www.geocaching.com/

Advent, Advent, ein Lichtlein brennt / Christmas is coming, the goose...

(...has probably already met its end on St Martin's Day in November).

Advent is a proper season in Austria. Advent wreaths and Advent calendars have a strong presence even among those not involved in church activities. P, C and I followed their WG tradition of making "calendars" for one another - here is mine:

and this is P's:

At any rate, it feels much more acceptable to have lights in the street, decorations and mulled wine appearing from mid-November when you are celebrating Advent a little prematurely, rather than Christmas a whole month and a half in advance!

Given the conspicuous absence of the forecast snow, we made some  of our own:

And thanks to the Advent/Christmas/Seasonal party for the international students which we organised at work this week, we also have a Christmas tree (branch) as well as our Advent wreath!

Some post-Oxmas carol singing is in the works for the bank holiday on Monday. I have been loaned a Clavinova while I am here, Ianthe has brought Carols for Choirs and I think we have all voice parts among the Oxford-in-Vienna cohort - a little consolation for missing the Worcester carol service.

Clavinova!!!

"Is this a waltz?"

The Viennese ball season has begun.

Vienna has no shortage of spectacular venues (this is in the town hall):

Unlike at Oxford balls, the main point of the thing is dancing - as pictured here, the ball is opened by waltzing débutantes dressed in white, after which couples of all ages take to the floor and the orchestra continues all night. Viennese waltzes feature heavily, of course.

BOKU, the university where I work, has its own ball in January in the Hofburg ballroom. This is not generally open to the public, but I saw it recently during an art and antiques show which C gave me a free ticket to:

I look forward to dancing there!

Guest post: Muddy comes to visit

Mum came to visit me just over a week ago, the weekend doubling as a well-deserved break for her from the small triumvirate at home. As there has been a dearth of activity here recently (sorry, more posts are in progress) I prevailed upon her to write a guest entry. Enjoy.

“I’m going to Vienna for the weekend .”
“Oh is it for music or opera? “
Being very truthful, I had to reply “Well, actually it’s for maternal monitoring and sachertorte.”
Both these purposes were admirably fulfilled.

I saw Sarah’s place of work and met some of her colleagues; saw her flat and met both her
flatmates, Petra and Christina. In contrast to our house which is full of coloured plastic, small
people and treasured pieces of string, their flat, although full, feels very cultured and civilised.

I worshipped in two different churches, the Rupertskirche, where Sarah goes to Taize services midweek, which is an ancient building, and a Lutheran church, recently and beautifully restored. We sang Wachet Auf. It was encouraging to feel a bond despite my lack of German.

We went to the Albertina, an art gallery; to the Karlskirche where you can ascend inside the dome; on the famous Ferris wheel; and to a Christmas market on the outskirts, where we could view the twinkling lights of the city by night. 3 days worth of clean, fast, efficient public transport was 16 euros – amazing value.

We walked miles through the gracious and spacious streets of central Vienna (although I did get off the bus in a seedy back street by the railway sidings, which was very reminiscent of Glasgow or Belfast). Although it was not very cold, in the interests of keeping warm, I drank mulled wine and ate hearty Austrian food, goulash, lentil stew with dumplings, pumpkin soup and walnut bread. And we did take refuge in some coffee houses...

Dorothy Peyton Jones 29.11.14