Magical Horse-Drawn Carriage Ride through Vienna

What a magnificent day! Slept in, then rugged up (it was minus 1 outside and lightly snowing), walked literally 3 minutes past the opera house where I stepped into a horse-drawn carriage and rode around Vienna for an hour, had a magnificent lunch, strolled home via a stop in a very cute clothing and accessories shop (hmmmm, pretend I didn’t say that! – and the bags (yes, plural) full of goodies I brought home from the store are a figment of your imagination – note to self: may need bigger suitcase!), did about seven or eight hours of work that I love, and now am curled up posting this! Magical day! and another thing checked off my bucket list!

(below) Fashion, cafe, lingerie, jewellery, Lindt chocolate, all within the magnificent Hotel Bristol building… and Coca Cola (I am a Coke Zero fan)! What more could a girl want!

I showed immense intestinal fortitude today – I walked past this beautiful bookstore without going inside…

This (below) is just one of the many bump in-out doors in the Vienna Opera House. It is fun to imagine all the stories they could tell…

…and literally about three minutes after I left home, here is my ride…

…der Fiaker!

“The term “fiaker” originates from the French and refers to the hackney carriage stand in the Parisian Rue de Saint Fiacre. In 1720, the carriages – which had previously been referred to as “Janschky” coaches in Vienna – were renamed “fiakers” (and numbered).

Then the carriage trade really began to boom: more than 1,000 fiakers were on the road in Vienna between 1860 and 1900. The carriage drivers were often characters that were known throughout the city and also sometimes performed as singers. They were appreciated for their discretion, especially when one or the other fine gentleman was amusing himself in the fiaker with his paramour. Probably most famous among them was Josef Bratfisch, the royal coachman of Crown Prince Rudolf, who brought the prince’s lover Mary Vetsera to Mayerling in 1889, where both lives found a tragic end.” [from the wien.info site]

…and in case you are not up on your history, Crown Prince Rudolf was the only son and heir to Franz Josef I (who was Kaiser of Austria when the opera house was opened and whose name I read in gold every day as I look at the beautiful building). When Prince Rudolf died (how he died is a whole other story), the next in line to the throne when Franz Josef passed away was Archduke Franz Ferdinand – and if that name rings a bell, the assassination of he and his wife lead to WWI.

This little white four-legged fluffy wanted to eat the big white four-legged ones!

You will have heard of a schmuck, yes? Well this is where you buy old (antique) ones!

I love amazing doors – and Vienna is full of them!

…and I love reflections…

Even the patterns in the cobblestones are beautiful…

Coming around the edge of this building… this is what heaven looks like to me! You could transplant me back to anywhere from around 1840 to 1910 (when King Edward VII died and the world ended) and I would be a very happy pixie… To a large extent, I live elements of a Victorian/Edwardian life – long skirts, silk handkerchiefs, fountain pens, wax sealed notes and letters, my outlook, values… and as much as I adore my convertibles, give me a horse-drawn carriage any day…

Although, I am the first to admit, I could not live the amazing life I do without my technology…

Yes – this (below) is definitely what the world of my own creation looks like… Not a modernly-dressed person in sight.

Is it just me, or does this guy on horseback appear to be looking backward over his shoulder for something?

These girls must have a headache by now…

Re Pinocchio (below), did you know that the town in which it was set, of the village of San Miniato Basso, was originally named Pinocchio? …and that the inhabitants of San Miniato were called Pinocchi or Pinocchini? It’s amazing the useless information that is stored in my brain… 🙂 But then again, I guess I need to give the Hamsters that live in my head something with which to play every now and again…