We were in Baden Baden this New Years Eve and had a nice dinner at Rick's recommended Weinstube im Baldreit. It was nearly midnight when we finished dinner so we went to the casino to see the fireworks--it felt like a war zone with people shooting things every which way! A little frightening. Did anyone have a memorable New Years Eve experience that we could look forward to for a future visit?
Posted by
Toronto
69 posts
Hi Sharon. My husband and I have spent New Year's in the past in Brussels and Rome and your war zone experience was no different. It is definitely celebrated than in N.America. In Brussels, Grand Markt was all fenced on and the area surrounding secured by police in riot gear. Our walks home are always a death trap with broken glass all over the streets. Rome I thought was more dangerous because of the crazy crowds. We spent our first New Year's in Paris just last week with our 9-mth.old baby -- so a much quieter experience for the first time. But we did walk around after mid-night. The area we were in didn't seem too rowdy -- maybe because Paris is such a large metropolitan city with no town square where everyone squishes into. The Champs Elysees during the holidays is a must see. Definitely a breathtaking view to see all the trees lit up with thousands of lights (can't image it's very eco-friendly though).
Posted by
Anchorage
157 posts
New Years eve in Vienna (Silvester) is quite the experience. They set up a giant street party with many different stations (bandstands playing everything from waltz to hip hop) in eight different locations throughout the inner ring. This goes on for about a day. Seemingly hundreds of stands selling glugwine and hot dogs.
As the hour approaches, there are about 700,000 folks circulating and gathering to ring in the new year and watch fireworks.
Watching the fireworks over St Stephens cathedral is quite a sight.
Or for a bit more refined taste, there are over 100 balls during the holiday season.