Thursday 20th November 2025

St. Stephen’s Cathedral : Hofburg Palace : Burggarten : Christkindlmarkt  

Our bus journey to Vienna was for the most part the reverse journey of when we arrived. The bus’s terminus is situated close to the main railway station Hauptbahnof, which also has a metro station.

Therefore, we used the metro to Stephensplatz which is a square at the centre of Austria’s beautiful capital city.  The square is home to St. Stephen’s Cathedral, an impressive Romanesque and Gothic building.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Roman Catholic Church has a majestic interior, including a soaring gothic vaulted ceiling and an intricately carved relief pulpit with staircase. The stone reliefs on the pulpit are of the four original ‘Doctors of the Church’ (teachers).

Circumnavigating the exterior of the building, we saw the square’s popular Christmas Market, many of the small outlets were open and already doing a roaring trade.

 

 

 

 

 

The cathedral’s roof has mosaic designs. One is a double headed eagle which was the symbol of the Habsburg Dynasty that ruled the Austro Hungarian Empire from 1282 to 1918.

There are also two more eagles, one has the coat of arms of Vienna inside it, the other has the coat of arms of Austria.

It was cold and there was definitely a Christmas atmosphere; coach and horses were standing waiting to take tourists on a tour of the city.

All the horses had their ears covered to protect them from the near freezing temperatures.

 

Heading down the pedestrianised thoroughfare named Graben, we saw many Christmas lights. No doubt the street known for its high end designer shops and expensive jewellers will look stunning illuminated.

Passing the imposing Plague Column we stopped and stared.  This statue was erected as a memorial for the thousands of  victims who lost their lives in the 1679 plaque.

 

The city of Vienna is an architectural enthusiast’s dream. As you walk into the square named Michaelerplatz at the centre of the historic city, you are greeted with the grand former home of the Habsburgs, the Hofburg Palace.

Main arteries of the city branch out from this central square.  Horse drawn carriages that circle the area and then disappear into the archway of the palace add to the ambience of a time gone by.

The roof and grand doorways of the palace are adorned with statues and sculptures including ‘Hercules & the Cretan Bull’  (one of the Labours of Hercules), Atlas holding the celestial globe and many more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the horse drawn carriages are covered. All of the coachmen dress traditionally in bowler hats and coaching coats with detachable capes; another sign of a forgotten era.

Just a few minutes walk from the Hofburg is the Burggarten. Once an imperial garden; it is now a public park.

An extension of the Hofburg Palace is on the perimeter of the park. Originally an underground passage from the palace to the oasis of greenery was used by the Hapsburg dynasty.

In the park, there were children playing happily on the grassed area, their two young carers stood chatting and shivering while watching them.

Autumnal colours enhance the park and incredible architecture surrounds it. A stunning piece of art nouveau architecture also exists inside the park.

 

Today, the Palm House is a popular meeting place for locals and on the ‘must do’ list of many visitors to the city.  It serves coffee and snacks; cocktails are added to it’s menu on an evening.

 

Originally it was built as an exotic  greenhouse for Emperor Franz I.  He was a keen gardener and soon filled the glasshouse with exotic plants from around the world.

 

 

 

 

 

Originally erected in Albertinaplatz, the statue of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was moved to the Burggarten in 1953.

After we had retraced our steps to the Hofburg, we wandered some more. After passing through an archway, we saw a steeple in the distance.  Guessing that it was the tower at the Rathaus, we walked towards it.

We were correct, and the steeple did belong to the Neo Gothic Town Hall (Rathaus). Rathauzplatz is the square in the front of the town hall; a number of festivities take place here.  At this time of year, it is the time for the famous Rathausplatz Christmas Market known as Christkindlmarkt.

The city’s tallest Christmas Tree (over 30 metres) is erected here.

 

 

 

 

 

The market had many food and drink stalls.  Traditional foods were available from various countries.  Our first choice was arancinis, (a Sicilian Dish) we both selected ragu, they are a rice ball with different ingredients added, coated in breadcrumbs and deep fried. This was followed by a hot rum and orange punch for me and a local beer for Dave.

The food was served either in paper or on porcelain plates, there was a complete ban on plastic.  Various collection points were dotted around to return plates and forks.  Drinks were served in Christmas decorated mugs with a 5 euro deposit, you could either keep the mug as a souvenir or return it for your deposit.  The system appeared to work well.

 

 

 

 

 

Apart from the street food and drink, there were of course many Christmas Stands selling an assortment of different items. There were the typical sparkling Christmas trinkets and ornaments, wooden toys, sweets, chocolate and delicious looking cake stalls. Some of the Christmas trinkets were quite exquisite and detailed, these of course were fairly expensive.

One stall was extremely busy selling pastry cutters, there was a huge array of different shapes which mainly had a Christmas theme.  These included snowflakes, Christmas trees, snowmen and angels, they were all reasonably priced.

One stall was selling handcrafted wooden products. There were lots of figures of angels; on one side the wood had been planed, on the other side, the bark remained.  A heart shape had been cut out in the angel’s chest and a bead or crystal hung in the void. They were quite appealing.

From when we decided to leave, it took almost 3 hours to return to our hotel. Of course, we had to navigate the metro to begin with.  The train journey was completely in the dark and took a little over an hour.  Bratislava police boarded the train at the border.  The other way we knew that we had left Austria was the messages we received on our mobiles which read ‘Welcome to Slovakia’.

On the tram back to the hotel, an inspector boarded and checked our tickets.  It took me a while to find mine on the app on the phone.  While Dave travels free he still had to register on the app too.

Close to our hotel, we picked up a few snacks for our supper later.

 

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