Archive | December, 2017

The Third Day of Christmas

27 Dec

What a surprise it was to step onto the street today shortly after 8 a.m. for the first walk of the day and find people and cars and open shops and simply activity in general!

For many, my surprise will be incomprehensible. Was it really so quiet the last few days? Yup. Shops usually close in Vienna at midday on Christmas Eve and remain closed for Christmas Day and the Feast of Saint Stephen (known in the UK as Boxing Day). This year, however, Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday, when most shops are closed all day anyway, which meant that we have had three days of wonderful peace and quiet (and a most unusual abundance of free parking spaces) with the Viennese enjoying one of their favorite things–Ruhe (also known as peace and quiet).

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There’s a draft today

19 Dec

Somewhere in an earlier post I mentioned that a fellow dogwalker in the park taught me the expression “Es zieht” (which is what you say when there’s a draft in a room). She used it to describe a Viennese and Lower Austrian phenomenon, when there is no visible sign of wind outdoors but you can feel one anyway. Today we have beautiful weather and it is supposed to be 2°C (or about 36°F), but my hands got so cold I just had to step into Caffè Couture for a hot chocolate. There’s only one explanation: Es zieht.