Mom's Christmas present

Here I am petting the weasel that passes by our house in Sopron twice an hour. It's the commuter train to Vienna, 35 miles away.

We got permission to take it to Vienna for a special Christmas present for Mom.

When we got there, we found Santa practicing his Jingle Bells karaoke with an angel dressed in black checking the naughty and nice list. Mom was on the nice list, of course.

Of course, you'll never guess what she asked for...a horse. But Santa seems to have gotten the order a bit mixed up.

So we went to the Hofburg, the downtown palace of the Habsburgs, the rulers of Austria and Hungary until the end of World War I. Can you believe that the left side has a stable housing 72 horses, a magnificent riding arena and a horse training facility called the Spanish Riding School, all in the middle of town next to the most expensive stores and real estate? I guess the Emperor can bend the zoning laws.

When you go left around the corner, the performance arena is on the right, the stables on the left.

Here's a look inside the inner courtyard holding the stables for the horses in training. They muck the stalls once an hour 24 hours a day to keep their coats white. They say that is easier than washing the horses. On the right you can see the pit where they put the horse "droppings."

Mom insisted that we show this one.

We'll let you decide which of these was Mom's favorite during the performance.