Sopron in the Daylight

Sopron's signature building, the Fire Watch Tower

Let's take in Sopron by day.

That is the Hotel Pannonia, where I am staying these two nights in Sopron.  Pannonia means?  Yes?  That's right.  Pannonia was a Roman province that ended to the north at the Danube River.

There are only so many ways into the old city.  Today I took a different route and walked by Maria-kut.  Mary's court, maybe?

All paths in the old city lead to the Fire Watch Tower.

And, since this is the Advent season, Judaism being Christ's religion by birth, this is the old Synagogue.

Reindeer and sleigh, this time in the daylight.

I somehow missed this Gingerbread Man and his Ginger-daughter last night at the Holy Trinity statue.

Not sure how I managed that.  And speaking of being drunk, these pieces from the "Santa's railroad" under construction at the Holy Trinity Statue:

In the daylight, doesn't it look like drunk Santa crashed his sleigh into this Christmas railroad engine?

Oh that Santa.

Let's refocus religiously and step inside the Catholic Church on Fő tér:

No mass.

The Virgin Mary blessed this massage parlor:

I don't know if this is a hair salon, or a wig store, or what, but I love the metal sculpture over the door:

And here's another church:

This fooled me.  It wasn't a Catholic Church.  It's Lutheran.

Usually you don't see the Lutherans being this ornate.

They're usually more austere.  Wasn't Catholic extravagance one of the big reasons for Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg?  Isn't that why he went on his Diet of Worms?

It's time now for the Fire Watch Tower.

Cue the music.

Well, of course that would be the music.  Abandon all hope ye who enter here.

Abandon all hope of an easy walk that avoids inducing claustrophobia with an acrophobic chaser.

I don't understand the definition of "acrophobia" as an "irrational fear of heights."  I say, all fears of heights are quite rational.

Actually, the climb was not too bad.  It was occasionally interrupted by historic scenes of Sopron's past.

And the view was nice.

The observation deck is not quite the top of the tower, but it was high enough for me.

This is not a fire pole that you can use to shimmy down to the bottom.

Soon I was out in the daylight where there was an Advent Market happening.

Carousels!  More fun to photograph than they ever would be to ride.

We end with the sausage seller at the Sopron Advent Market.

You don't usually see piles and piles of fresh sausage sitting out on tables, using nature as the refrigerator.