Satellite
  • Day 9

    Christmas

    December 24, 2019 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    We discovered that Christmas for the Rosenberger family (and most Europeans) is celebrated on the 24th. The day started with a beautiful breakfast of breads, jams, cheese, spreads and coffee with the family. This was a leisurely meal in the sunshine coming in the windows. We caught the underground train with Elisabeth and Ashleigh to the city centre to buy some tea and then got back on the train to the Schoenbrunn palace. There would have been a long wait for tickets to go inside so we met up with Jakob and just walked through some of the gardens and up a steep hill to the summer house for a nice view of the palace. The weather was nice and sunny so we looked around the Christmas market for a bit and had some hot food for lunch. Not long after returning back to the flat, the family had plans to meet up with friends at the Prater which is the big amusement park across the road. We went up on the Ferris wheel just as the sun was setting.
    The Christmas dinner was delicious - salmon and rice with a pavlova dessert made by Ashleigh. The three boys followed this with a quick concert of carols on their instruments - recorder (Jakob), bassoon (Flo) and french horn (Lucas). We then opened the presents while enjoying some champagne.
    We accompanied the family to midnight mass at their local Catholic church. This was a very different experience to see the ceremony and tradition of their service.
    We finally got to bed close to 2 AM.
    Read more