Sunday, January 1, 2012

KAISERBALL - Happy New Year!!

Finally - Vienna - or Wien (veen) as is said here.  'Everything going right' continued as we arrived at our 'home' in Wien - the Marriott.  After unloading our many bags from our new Land Rover - our room proved to be 'roomy' (not always true here in Europe) - BUT, more important, our box with ball gown and tux was waiting, as were our tickets for 'THE BALL'.   With our minds at ease, dinner must be around the corner.  Leave it to us to find one of the best Italian restaurants in Wien - La Norma.  A tiny place with only 9 tables and one of the BEST gorgonzola sauces (rivaled only by the gorgonzola sauce on our barge trip in France!) on their fresh gnocchi.  This was definitely worth a picture - 


 DELICIOUS!!


All that VERY rich gorgonzola sauce needed to be walked off - so we checked out the happening areas of Wien.  The decorations were wonderful and preparations for New Year's Eve were everywhere -

 The many pedestrian only areas were already jammed - but stunning!


 Every street had its own theme of lights.


 Can you guess... this is the street that leads to the Palace?


 The backside of one part of the Palace with the moon shining brightly over it.



After almost a full year of planning - New Year's Eve Day is finally here and we had waltz lessons at 2PM -  


The waltz lesson classroom!!

After the lesson, there was just enough time to have a wonderful true Austrian dinner of Tafelspitz (delicious boiled beef) and then get all gussied up for THE event.

When we arrived, we were admitted to the Foyer of the Palace to await our admission to the Festsaal.  A string quartet and a glass of champagne entertained - 

 Pure royalty - don't you think??

PROMPTLY at 10PM we ascended the stairs with much pomp and circumstance -





And here was the Festsaal - the main room (of the many in use) for the night's festivities.  Our table was the third from the front on the lower section of the right side!!  VERY close to the front stage AND right on the dance floor.  What more could we ask?!?!




HAPPY NEW YEAR - THE FAIRY TALE!

Perhaps you can get a little better 'flavor' of the evening with the following video.  Our entry in the foyer, the presentation of the 'debs' at the ball and the final countdown to 2012 are presented  -


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