A Viennese gingerbread house

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More goodies from Vienna's Christkindl Christmas market -- a gingerbread house!
And if that is not beautiful enough for you, look at the lovely face of the young lady.

Even the sign is special.

A Pirker gingerbread house made from genuine Mariazeller gingerbread
with 50% bee honey in the gingerbread dough
handmade in more than 20 hours of work
Long-lasting and sweet as honey
Please don't nibble.

Happy holiday time to you!
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UPDATE!  Photoblogger Merisi Vienna kindly sent us links to the Pirker family's website.
It is filled with sugar and spice and everything nice and begins like this:

The sweet aroma of honey, spices and Lebkuchen gently infuses the air in Mariazell. The unique Marizell honey Lebkuchen have been baked here for more than 300 years. The blend of spices used is a closely guarded secret, and the recipe is passed on from generation to generation.
The Pirker family has kept the traditional handicraft of Lebkuchen baking alive to the present day.

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Rathausplatz Christkindl Christmas market

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Frohe Weihnachten -- merry Christmas

from Vienna's famous Christkindlmarkt!

The Christmas market in the park is so big you might need this map for the "30 years of Vienna Magic of Advent."

The Rathaus City Hall makes a spectacular backdrop.

Even the trees are lit with decorative lights, each tree a different theme.

Hop on the train with the kids.

His machine was melting cheese onto bread for Raclette. 

All kinds of crepes, aka Palatschinken.

All the happy holy Viennese, young and old, posed with angel wings.
My five days in Vienna were indeed heavenly.
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Every pork product imaginable

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By the time I had seen my 4th or 5th Christmas market in Vienna, I started taking pictures of only the REALLY unusual (to me) things.
Like this Speck Standl -- a booth for all things pork!
If you enlarge the photo you'll find Teufelswurst.  Devil's sausage??

For me, a "nice Jewish girl" in Israel who does not eat unkosher food, ALL the meats hanging there seemed to be "from the devil."  ; )
I felt guilty (and a bit sick) even just smelling them and gawking at them.

The chestnuts looked nice, though.

The yellow wheel of this steam engine (?) was turning, I guess helping to roast the Maroni, the chestnuts.

Everyone entering the Weihnachts Markt am Hof stopped to inspect the two fancy cars on display.
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Check the previous post to see a different Viennese Christmas market.
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(Linking to OurWorld Tuesday.)
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Like a fairyland . . .

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Vienna's Christmas markets were fun because I got to see all the things you never see in Israel.
Like gingerbread houses! 

And snow globes!
The Schneekugel was apparently invented in Vienna.

I had to laugh, though, at these thumbs-up lollipops.

Nice German names for the Christmas cupcakes.

This particular market, one of many in Vienna, was the Weihnachtsmarkt am Stephansplatz, right at the base of St. Stephen's Cathedral with its multi-colored tile roof.

Ah, I'd love to still be in peaceful Austria, especially tonight when the fighter jets keep roaring over my place, after rockets were fired from Lebanon into the Western Galilee and Israel responded with artillery fire, etc. etc.
It's a whole different world . . . . 
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(Linking to inSPIREd Sunday.)
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