Before we went skiing we did a lot of fun stuff. We’re going to go back in time and re-live it now.
January 6th, 2000 is a day that will live in infamy. It’s the day we got married. It’s been 10 short years. We decided to celebrate our anniversary in the usual way like most people do, with a trip to a palace. The Belvedere. No, not that Belvedere.
This Belvedere palace was built by Prince Eugene of Savoy. He was a warrior general for the Hapsburgs who defeated the Turks many times over several decades. He built two palaces on the grounds to rival the Schonbrunn palace, which is also in Vienna not far from our house and we’ve blogged about many times. He built the second palace after he built the first and decided it wasn’t good enough.
Now the Belvedere Palace is privately owned and houses an art gallery. Since the gallery was private we weren’t allowed to take any pictures of the artwork, and the one time we tried, we got caught. We borrowed our babysitters camera and we didn’t feel it was worth the risk of it getting confiscated… However, in the above photo you can not only see a very beautiful woman, but in the background you can also see a rather famous painting of Napoleon on his favorite horse.
The inside of the palace was very grand and classically styled.
After a couple hours touring the gallery, we went to Palatschinkenpfandl (try saying that 1 time fast). It’s one of those little side-street restaurants recommended to us by some friends. Palatschinken is a crepe pancake. And they have dozens of pancake-style recipes on the menu. But not the way you’d normally think of them. There were crepes stuffed with beef or cheese or spinach or just about anything imaginable. Karen ordered the potato pancakes with spinach and cheese with a side of schnitzel (thin pork chop).
Chris got one that was rolled and deep fried with ham and chese, another with ground beef, and another with sauerkraut. It was all pretty tasty.
What a happy couple.
For dessert, Karen’s favorite. Kaiserschmarren, with a twist. Kaiserschmarren is like chopped up pancakes, but these pancakes have more eggs in them. With lots of powdered sugar and raisons. This Kaiserschmarren had been made with Topfen in the mix, which is like a combination of cream cheese and ricota cheese.
And to top it off, some marilla (apricot) sauce.
After we rolled ourselves out of the restaurent, we decided to walk around and enjoy the lights of downtown Vienna around St. Stephans cathedral. It was a great night, and it’s been a great 10 years!
