Yesterday we buzzed up to Wels to do a little city shopping. I ordered my new specs and we dropped in to an attractive old apoteke to pick up some more of an excellent homeopathic goop for muscle and joint injuries. We had kaffee and kuchen under crystal chandeliers at the Cafe Hoffman. Then we walked around the old part of the city, eyeing the architecture. Wels is pretty and baroque, though we didn’t enjoy quite it as much as we could have had it not been positively dumping snow. We did have a nice time, though, and as always when we travel, we learned a little history.
Kaiser Maximillian I died in Wels. You may or may not remember that I have a bone to pick with Kaiser Max. He sold out the Jews and had them thrown out of Graz – and probably a whole lot of other places – in 1497. Kaiserin Marie Therese, who’s quite popular in Austrian history for having created the public school system, also threw out the Jews. She had to eat crow, however, and ask them to come back again, because their loss was devastating to the Austrian economy. (I can’t say for sure, but I’ll bet crow is not kosher.) Karl was the last Kaiser and quite a controversial one in recent times since he came up for beatification. Some folks said he tried to broker peace for Austria, others say he was weak and not all that bright.
Never mind all those Kaisers. I’m a Franz-Josef gal. Franz-Josef wasn’t too stuck up or anti-semitic to hang out with the Jews, they were an important part of his society. He married the glamorous Sissi von Bayern and after she was assasinated, swore he’d never marry again. Under my man Franz-Josef, he of the spectacular mutton chops, bakeries flourished – he was a man who liked a good piece of cake, bless him. Franz-Josef liked to hang out in Bad Ischl, and hey, so do I! Things were mighty grand under Franz-Josef and his home, Vienna, was the cultural capital of the world.
I’m sure my history is full of errors and that my gilded vision of KFJ is far from accurate. That’s to be expected. What troubles me a lot more than my paltry understanding of Austrian history is this: I have a favorite Kaiser. Surely, I’ve been in Austria too long.
There are a few snaps of Wels here.
Franz Joseph is one of my favourite places back home in New Zealand … you may have heard of it. It’s glacier land, backing onto the magnificent Southern Alps … the mountainous chain that runs for most of the 600kms of the South Island.
This might give you an idea if you haven’t heard of it http://www.nzguides.com/
Kiwis like me live with the illusion that NZ is a small island/continent … therefore I imagine everyone knows all about my tiny country 😉
Just goes to show you… If politicians today were more in love with their wives, ate mutton chops and enjoyed a piece of mozart torte now and then, the world would be at piece. Servus Franz Joseph!
Permanente? (Never mind.) I don’t even know what a Kaiser IS.
I AM Eurotrash! Kaiser = Emperor.