Vienna Markets, episode 5. In which I introduce you to my little friend.

Mari and I have been taking selfies (I've come to accept this tech term after much internal debate) for years, but every once in a while a selfie just won't do and we must ask for help.  I know, never hand your camera over to a stranger, right?  Well, yes and no.  We're (shopper-gatherer) travelers; we want to see (and shop) the world; we want to meet people and share our spirit of good will with them. And yes, we're not stupid.  When we see a couple or a family trying to take a photo we always ask if they'd like us to take their photo.  I usually stand back and hold Mari's shopping bags and purse (real men aren't afraid to hold a purse) and smile at everyone while they pose for her.  The favor is ALWAYS reciprocated.  No matter the city, the country, the language.  When there is a language barrier, smile, point at their camera, and ask, "Together?" (Hand gestures may also keep others from thinking you want to buy their camera.)  It always works.  Now, that being said, we don't usually ask single travelers if we can take their picture nor do we hand over our camera to someone who is not part of a couple or family.  I like to trust human nature as much as possible, but there's still a New Yorker buried deep inside these layers and years of experience I like to call wisdom.

Long story short (I know, too late!), we exchanged cameras with another couple for the above photo at an outdoor photo "booth" in front of Schonbrunn Palace.  We had just hopped off our hop-on-hop-off tour bus (which was nice and toasty warm) and found our seventh Christmas market unexpectedly at our scheduled sightseeing stop.  I'm not sure I've mentioned the weather, but we did our research (of course) and knew pretty much what to expect.  It was in the low 40s and upper 30s during our stay with a few gloriously dry and sunny shopping days.

One (of the many!) reasons we love to travel is to actually experience non-apocalyptic climate change (South Texas, remember?), so we were excited at the prospect of cool weather.  It was the only week this season I've been able to wear my winter coat and gloves save for a few days back in February.

Mari and I spent a sublimely chilly week touring the grand city of Vienna and soaking up its culture (and late fall drizzles) in addition to fleamarketing the festive and spirited Christmas markets.  

One of my trip highlights was a night at the State Opera House enjoying Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. No matter how efficient your travel guru skills are, nothing beats serendipitously good timing! Also a must was the eponymous post-opera indulgence (above) at the Hotel Sacher (almost too conveniently installed directly across the opera house).

On our agenda was a beautifully intimate concert at Mozarthaus (a location featured on a recent season of The Amazing Race). That's the performance room to the left.  In my planning stages, I discovered a Thanksgiving evening Mozart program.  Although non-traditional by our usual standards, our Mozarthaus Thanksgiving is an experience for which I will be forever thankful.

Our early bird, pre-performance, non-traditional Thanksgiving meal of baked trout with pea pancake and pea foam (but no actual peas!) was capped with locally traditional desserts:  apple streudel and apricot crepes.  My full review of the historic Cafe Central is on tripadvisor.com, but I'm happy to recommend the full service cafe for its aptly named location, tempting desserts, and bustling elegance.

Before I get too wrapped up in sugary-fruit sweetness myself, let me return to our collectibles.

When Mari and I Christmas-decorated our first home as a married couple (the one in which we still happily live), I bought my first nutcracker.  And so on and fast forward and we're about to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, so you get the (yes, it's another collection!) idea.  My pictured companion has joined the collection.  I could not find a collective noun for a collection of nutcrackers so I'm going to coin another term (feel free to spread it around), "tchaikovtchke" (a melodic marriage of Tchaikovsky and tchotchke).  A Tchaikovskian tchotchke?

Anyway...

Say hallo to my little friend.

It's hard for me to explain how giddy I was when we first met, but I'll try.  Our eyes met across a crowded Vienna Christmas Market...

I love clocks, especially watches (another collection for another time?) and I had been keeping an eye out for an appropriate souvenir clock, maybe a cuckoo clock, the entire week to no avail and that's when we arrived at Schonbrunn Palace (not even expecting to shop!) and that's when it found me, that mysteriously complex of all collectible treasures:  the hybrid collectible.  It's a nutcracker that fits nicely into the tchaikovtchke I keep (in bubble wrap!) stored in P-touch labeled boxes in the garage for ten months of the year AND it's also a clock, complete with winding key that I must ensure not to misplace until the completion of the next ten-month storage cycle.

Mari's elusive edelweiss pin and fleamarketing the Flohmarkt at the Naschmarkt (and one last Christmas Market!) next time.