On The Twelfth Day Of Christmas

Celebrating Con Brio
And An Elegant Twinkle:
Vienna at Christmastime











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Images and Text
© by Merisi 2010

On The Twelfth Day Of Christmas

Looking For An Escape?
Grab your coat

and a hat,
and off we go!

What are streetcars for
but to take you to
the nearest coffee house?

Coffee, Anyone?
Wiener Melange,
served at
Café Markusplatz
Tuchlauben

Enjoy the coffee break,
but don't forget:
The journey through
Vienna at Christmas
continues right after!


© by Merisi 2010

:

On The Twelfth Day Of Christmas

The Joys Of Christmastime
Schokolade König
Freisingergasse

Golden Bows
Schokolade König
Freisingergasse

Gingerbread Christmas Trees
Demel
Kohlmarkt

Christmas Books
wrapped in creative ways
Buchhandlung Berger
Kohlmarkt

White Meringue Kisses
turned into snowflakes
Demel

Twelfth Night Dinner
Dolce & Gabbana
Wallnerstrasse

Christmas Review
Going on all day -
come back for more
later in the day!

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All images are
© by Merisi 2010

Down By The Wien River

The Wien River
Looking down from high above the right bank,
onto the sun-gilded riparian band of the left shore,
nestled in a white-dusted wintry landscape
after the night's snowfall
Stadtpark

The Fawn-In-Residence
looking up, shielding his eyes
from the bright morning sun
Fawn by M. Karlik
Restaurant Steirereck
Stadtpark

Winter Sky
White clouds sailing past
red and gold Christmas baubles
shining among potted reeds
Restaurant Steirereck
Stadtpark

Breakfast
A table in this pristine glassed-in
dining room affords a view
of the same stretch of the River Wien
as pictured in the first image above
Restaurant Meierei
Stadtpark

Photographed
4 January 2010
© by Merisi 2010

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Click on the images
to enlarge them!

For more views
of this immensely beautiful part
of the city, click on the Labels "Stadtpark",
"Meierei" and/or "Steirereck"
Enjoy!

Frühlingsahnen: A Light That Sings Of Spring

Café Prückel
early this morning,
where "I heard a thousand
blended notes ..."

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Credits:
"I heard a thousand blended notes" -
is the first line of William Wordsworth's poem
"Lines Written in Early Spring"
"A Light Exists In Spring" by Emily Dickinson
inspired the title of this post

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© by Merisi 2010

A Bit Of Red

Chanel Boutique
Kohlmarkt

Baubles and Reflections
Shop Window
Drahtgasse

Griechenbeisl
Restaurant entrance
Fleischmarkt

Xocolat
Palais Ferstel
Freyung

Chanel Boutique
Kohlmarkt

Fliegenpilz
Red Fly Agaric
Greeting customers
of a store at
Wollzeile


© by Merisi

On The Last Day Of The Year

Once Upon A Time
In The Wild West
A first for me:
A Fiaker passing another
fiaker at breakneck speed!
The large Christmas tree in the background
stands at the entrance of Café Central
in Palais Ferstel
Herrengasse

Michaelerplatz
St. Michael's Square
seen from where Herrengasse
empties into this large circular square.
St. Michael's Church to the left,
the Imperial Winter Palace emerging to the right -
the Hofburg or "Burg" to the Einheimische -
while the verdigris dome over St. Michael's Gate
is still hidden from view.
I'd like to point out that to the right
Cafe Griensteidl in Palais Herberstein
offers you yet another opportunity
to savour a cup of coffee,
to rest up for the last few hundred feet
you will have to conquer
before finally reaching Demel at Kohlmarkt
to your left, just beyond the Loos-Haus.
There would be other coffee places,
almost within sight,
but we do want to continue our walk
at some point, don't we?
I shall keep myself from gossiping
about the Herbersteins and the Loos-Haus scandals,
but will point out that, if you continue
straight ahead, the Lipizzan Stallions
are waiting for you in the Imperial Stables.

The Last
Little Shopping Opportunity
is to your left,
at Demel,
the Royal and Imperial Confectioners.
All other shops
are closed by now.
Viennese shopkeepers
are subject to large fines
if they keep open beyond the
official store hours.

Coffee Mugs?
You bet!
Not.
More like
hot mulled wine!

Four Persons,
a dozen Champagne glasses -
you do the math!

One Friendly Gentleman,
two Bratwürstl,
99 4 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer.
Take one down and pass it around,
98 bottles of beer on the wall -
by now it is 4pm on
New Year's Eve, after all!

What Would The French Do?
Drinking Champagne in the street,
eating Hot Dogs hidden in woolly socks?
Or would they rather nibble daintily
on a single tiny macaroon
with a diameter
of exactly 1 1/4" across!!!? *
Ah, the French!

FYI:
By now we are at Graben -
no one knows if this is
a wide street or a long narrow square -
and listening to Italian songs
from the Seventies:
The Italians, ever the far-sighted folks,
after Napoleon won the Battle of Solferino,
humiliated the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph
into signing a document that henceforth -
from 1859 onward -
the place known in Vienna as "Graben"
shall be made Italian territory
during the period from Christmas Day on
until La Befana descends,
welcoming any italian citizen
who desires to take up residence there.
Italians ever since, when Christmas Day rolls around,
enthusiastically cross the border
and head north. **

Il Danubio Blu
By now, most everybody
is dancing: Alles Walzer!
Dance lessons are being offered
at various point along the streets,
the Viennese Dancing Authority
wants everybody to whirl along to the
"Blue Danube" waltz at midnight,
anche gli Italiani!

Everybody Dance!
Faster and faster,
I am getting dizzy here!

Babe
dances along too!

I have reached
the end of Graben,
this gentleman is heading
towards it.
Any guesses as to
the chair on his back?

The Last Christmas Chandelier
where Graben meets
St. Stephen's Square

I make my way
towards Singerstrasse,
leaving the cathedral square
to the revelers and TV and radio stations,
who will party on until way past midnight,
into the New Year

At Franziskanerplatz
all is calm, light falls from
the windows of the quaint
little coffeehouse, the "Kleines Café".
I begin to walk a little faster,
I have promises to keep,
friends waiting down the lane,
worried about me being "out there"
on an evening where proper Viennese
stay in, preferring the comfort of their home.
Or so I am told.

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Photographed
in the late afternoon
of the last day of 2009

Images and Text
© by Merisi

* Click on the link
**) Se non è vero,
è ben trovato! ;-)

Atmosphère de Vienne -Une déclaration d'amour

Morning
of a New Year
Dome over
the Imperial Palace's
St. Michael's Gate

Goldener Saal
Golden Hall
Wiener Musikverein

Imperial Palace
Verdigris Dome,
White Parapet Figures
Christmas lights
Michaelerplatz

Vienna
Philharmonic Orchestra
New Year’s Concert
1 January 2010
Das Neujahrskonzert
der Wiener Philharmoniker

Christmas Chandeliers
over Graben on
New Year's Eve

Georges Prêtre
Conducts this year's concert

Broadcast for the first time
in high-definition (HDTV)
and on the Internet!

Vienna
on the Blue Danube

Wiener Bonbons
During the concert,
sweet scenes from Demel's:
Watch the making
of the famous Annatorte

Enjoy!

Happy New Year
from Vienna!
Happiness deep down within,
Serenity with each sunrise,
Health and Joy
throughout the Year!

All Photographs
are Merisi's own
© 2009-2010

New Year's Eve

“New Year's eve is like every other night;
there is no pause in the march of the universe,

no breathless moment of silence among created things
that the passage of another twelve months may be noted;

and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights”
Hamilton Wright Mabie

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Sunset Over Vienna
Photographed
high over Parkring
31 December 2009
© by Merisi 2009

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As Time Goes By

"Whether we wake or we sleep,
Whether we carol or weep,
The Sun with his Planets in chime,
Marketh the going of Time."
Edward Fitzgerald

K.u.K. Mil.-Geographic Institute
Friedrich-Schmidt-Platz

Michaelerkirche
St. Michael's Church

City Hall
and Votive Church

Rathausuhr
City Hall Clock

Haas Haus
St. Stephen's Square

Photographed
31 December 2009
© by Merisi2009

"Why won't they let a year die without bringing in a new one on the instant, can't they use birth control on time? I want an interregnum. The stupid years patter on with unrelenting feet, never stopping - rising to little monotonous peaks in our imaginations at festivals like New Year's and Easter and Christmas - But, goodness, why need they do it? "
John Dos Passos, 1917