SUNDAY, APRIL 27
– ANOTHER TASTE OF VIENNA
The local tourist industry pushes what it calls “the Sisi Card,”
which gives you admission to the royal apartments at the Hofburg Palace and the Emperor's summer place (Schonbrunn) plus a museum of furniture. We bought ours yesterday, and since today was sunny and warm, we opted to take the underground to Schonbrunn, which is on the outskirts of the city and has a huge park that is open to the public.
The
palace tour came with a cassette narrative that was almost
word-for-word the same as the one for the Hofburg Palace—how Franz
Joseph put in 16-hour work days while his wife went off doing her
thing. (It didn't mention that she could be gone months or even years
at a time in Corfu, where she had a villa built for herself, or in
Venice, where she had her own apartment.) It hardly mattered what the
narrative said, however, since we were crushed into groups of tourist
and tours with jabbering guides that periodically blocked the flow of
traffic as successfully as a diet of Sacher Torte could block an
artery. (“And here on your left is the lavatory that the Emperor
used. Notice that blah, blah, blah.”) Only in the park, which was
large enough to accommodate thousands of people, did we have room to
breathe.
We had intended to check out the furniture museum, but after
Schonbrunn, we headed straight back to the hotel for a nap.
