Schönbrunn market

The Schönbrunn Palace, where the ruling family the Habsburgs used to spend their summers, had a big Christmas market, too. I didn't get to this Palace on my earlier visit, so I took the U4 subway line to its location southwest of central Vienna. The subway was jammed and almost everybody got off at the Palace stop. (I used to spell that "Hapsburgs," but upon checking, that's an Anglicized spelling of the name.)

Tour buses jammed the streets and parking lots around the Palace. I didn't notice any obvious American tour groups. People seemed to be visiting from all over central Europe. This is at the huge parking lot outside the Palace.

Here's the main palace, with the bazaar stalls on the north side.

This bazaar had much smaller, more inviting, less commercial stalls than I saw at the Rathaus in the morning. One nice touch were the white ceramic Schönbrunn mugs that all the stalls used for their mulled wine and other beverages. No need for pony rides here -- that Palace is attraction enough.

This stall had rarely-seen bilingual signs to help English-speaking visitors. Those prices are in Euros. Multiply by 1.5 and you have the approximate cost in dollars. Ouch! English has become the common language in the EU, so it still surprises me that Vienna so rarely uses bilingual signs to help other Europeans (never mind U.S. visitors).

With the balmy weather, visitors could sit outside at this self-service cafe just inside the main entrance. I had my usual cappuccino for 2.3 Euros -- about what I paid for a latte at Starbucks in the morning.

On the walk out, I saw this Santa on a tractor advertising a flea market ("flohmarkt"). So many of us were trying to take his picture, we kept getting into each other's shots, so he kindly pulled off the main road and waved on cue whenever he spotted a camera.

I saw several of these green "no camping" signs in central Vienna in October, the only all-English sign you see here. This one is outside the Palace parking lot, a warning to those pesky English-speaking Winnebago drivers.

NOTE: Click on any image in this blog to see it full-size.