When we first arrived in Vienna and checked into our hotel, the lady next to me at the front desk was not happy. She was an American who had come to Vienna to SHOP. We were checking in on a Friday evening and shops were closed for the day. Not only that, but shops close early on Saturdays and are closed on Sundays. She was not at all happy about that. I got the feeling she would not be here very long. She was not here for the Christmas Markets, she was here to buy jewels–Swarovski crystals.
When we went out walking that evening, we saw the Swarovski store (actually several of them) along the Kärntner Straße, a main shopping boulevard. And overhead, in the glittering Christmas decorations, we saw sparkling crystals! It was magical.
The next morning, the same decorations were glittering in the sunlight. We’re told that around 550,000 LEDs and 48 kg of crystals create the hanging chains of light that stay up from mid-November to mid-January.
It really is magical!
Our Frankfurt Germany Mission 