VIENNA, SISI & DINNER

FRIDAY, APRIL 25 – WELCOME TO AUSTRIA

Our first day in Vienna began with a walk in cold drizzle to the Hapsburg Palace, an enormous place with who knows how many rooms? The line of tourists eager to find out wasn't too long, but that was because most of them were in tour groups. Our goal was to visit the royal apartments of the next-to-last Austrian Emperor, Franz Joseph II and his wife, the Empress Elizabeth, commonly known as “Sissi.”

The Emperor, who reigned an astonishing 68 years, and apparently worked hard at doing his duty, died in 1916, as World War One raged around him. Our tour of the palace barely mentioned him, however. Almost everything was about his wife: how tiny her waist was, how long it took to wash and prepare her long hair (a full day), the dresses she wore (lots in display cases), and how tragic her life was (son committed suicide, she assassinated at 60).

What we saw on the tour was room after room after room of dishes and tableware, the room where Sissi slept, the room where her husband (remember him?) slept, the dining room they used for intimate dinners (about 30 people with 13 courses served in 45 minutes), and Sissi's bathtub. In between these sections of the tour were lugubrious narratives about Sissi's life. On the combo “Sissi ticket” are Sissi's summer palace (Who doesn't have one?) and a museum of imperial furniture.

Next, we went to the “Museum Cafe” (It's on the map!),

where I followed Karin's explicit instruction to have Sacha Torte “mit schlag” (with whipped cream, one euro extra), a famous chocolate cake invented in 1862 by a 16-year-old chef's assistant chef for Prince Wenzel von Metternich when his regular chef fell ill before an all-important dinner party. Sacher did all right for himself thereafter, as well he should have. The cake was delicious.

We ended the day's activities by wandering through Naschmarkt, a street market selling everything from kitsch to twenty-pound slabs of wonderful-looking cheeses. I wonder what Sissi or what's-his-name, her husband, would have thought of such a wonderfully common place.

For dinner we went back to our Italian place, Il Sestante. We went there last night and walked in without a reservation and a great waiter found us a table. That was a Friday. Tonight was Saturday, and who greeted us but the same waiter. He said, "Let me guess. A table for two, no reservation!" What followed was a lengthy conversation with another man and our waiter finally said, "We have a 'make-shift' table." We took it. It was not the usual wooden tale and chairs but a lawn table and chair set up. More comfortable than the usual. It was wonderful. We had a fabulous meal. Bruschetta, pesto pasta, lasagne and panna cotta. Oh yeah, a bottle of  Bodolino and then a 1/2 carafe of merlot. And an double espresso! Crowded, noisy and wonderful.