...and a Happy New Year!

Greetings from the City of Johann Strauss,
where Franz Welser-Möst conducted this year's New Year's Concert,
featuring the legendary music of the Strauss family and of Franz Liszt!

And if you want to escape from the City of music for an afternoon,
take a trip through the romantic snow-covered Vienna Woods!

I wish you a happy New Year, dear friends!
I hope the next year will be as good as the last one!

Happy New Year 2010!

Little fuzzy pigs (Mangalica) at a petting zoo

waiting to be caressed

Dream catchers at last year's Christmas market near Karlskirche,

an odd stand with stunning headpieces and other handmade things.

Happy New Year 2010!
Hope you get enough shares of kindness and affection,
that your dreams will come true,
and life will be full of pleasant surprises!

Vienna after the big Silvester party!

650.000 came to celebrate the New Year in Vienna!

They followed the "Silvesterpath"
leading from St. Stephen's Square to the Riesenrad,
with lots of music, dancing, eating and drinking,
and , of course, fireworks everywhere.
When all the broken glasses and firecrackers had been removed from the streets,
the visitors returned next day to carry on with celebrating the New Year :)


Where Stephansplatz meets Graben,
thousands danced a midnight waltz!