Weihnachtsmarkt

The christmas season is in full swing in Vienna (and it is only the 22nd!). That means a few thing. Most promiently are these little Weihnachtsmarkten. They are pretty much little christmas shopping villiages that spring up in town squares across Vienna where you can buy a lot of cool (and not so cool) things. Oh and Punsch, but more on that later. They are quite festive and make for an interesting time, have a look:

This is from a markt at the Vienna Rathaus, people told me that it was a little too "corprate" and "touristy" but to be honest that is all I want.

This is a pretty typical stand. A surly looking woman with stuff that would make a lot of our grandmothers faint from sheer knick-knack awe.

While all this is great, the real treat is the traditional holiday drinks Punsch and glühwein. These are both awesome drinks that are beloved around Christmas time. I cant

really describe them, but I'll give it my best shot: it is like hot wein with nutmeg on top.

I dunno, it isn't my favorite thing in the world, but I don't get a fuzzy nostalgic feeling

when I drink it, so who am I to judge.

Top 5 Habsburg Moustaches

The House of Habsburg ruled over Austria for 6 centuries, as well as being Holy Roman Emporers from 1452 to 1740. More importantly however, these dudes had some AWESOME facial hair. Here is my personal top 5. Feel free to argue.

5. Albrecht II
Seen here sporting the 1970's baseball star. Albrecht II was king of Germany untill 1483.

4.Ferdinand IIIFerdinand III looks dignified in his Fu Manchu variation that helped him become Holy Roman Emporer in 1637

3.Rudolph II
Rudolf's unkempt moustache/beard combo (plus his lazy and ineffective ruling) led straight to the 30 years war.

2.Franz Joseph
The man himself, for me, there is nothing else to call his moustache other than the "Franz Joseph".

1. Maximilian I

The first (and only) Habsburg Emporer of Mexico. The Mexicans were somehow not charmed by his enormous facial hair. He was executed in 1867.

BMW Museum

This may sound like an odd choice for me to go, but Dad said I should check out the plant, so I thought it could be cool. And IT. WAS. AWESOME. As far as Museum presentation and layout goes this Museum definitely deserves to have the BMW brand. The best way to describe this place is by saying that it feels like you are in an ipod. Straight up. The Germans know modern design and this place is about the pinnacle of modern museum magic. They pulled out every stop to make sure every room was interactive and fun. Plus, I saw some really really really nice cars. Like ridiculously nice.

The Museum also gives a good overview of the history of the company with some classics.





This is one of the concept cars at the end of the tour.



This is the very first thing you see in the museum, it can only be described as the weird ball thingy.

OK more notes from Munich

Seeing as I have now seen Munich twice (and loved it both times) I am going to give the blog over to Hailey to get her first impressions.

This is the Glockenspiel in Marienplatz. It is super famous.

Alright everybody, Munich is wonderful. I loved it. It probably helped that the weather was perfect for me and Kellen, only crisp beautiful fall days. We took the early train in on Friday with a few friends. We managed to get horribly horribly lost going one stop on the "Schnellbahn" to get to our hostel, oh well. Our first day was spent just walking around the main area, waiting to go to the Hofbrauhaus, it was really awesome, but I'm not sure if sharing the pictures with the world wide web would be a great idea. The next day we went to BMW World and the BMW Museum, see the next post. We wandered around again for a while and ended up at another beer hall, more delicious food and a fun time.

Our last day (today) before we left Kellen and I headed over to the art museum district. We went to the Alte Pinakothek which houses all of the art pre-1800. There were some beautiful paintings and we didn't take a picture of a single one... sorry. Then we made our way over to the Pinakothek der Moderne which is the modern art museum of Munich. It was super super wacky, everything you want in a modern art museum including really weird video installations. And I'm talking really weird here.

All in all Munich was great, I really enjoyed it and I would love to go back again. There is so much there, we only scratched the surface.

Munich

This pretty much sums it up