Hello, again, Blogonauts! Today we had a taste of how the 1%... or the 0.01%... lived during the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Even today we all sense the subtle pressure to match or surpass the standards set by our neighbors. Our garden must be equally lush, our cars similarly snazzy, our stories even more entertaining. But imagine that your last name is Habsburg, and your centuries-long competitive cohort includes the kings and queens of England, Prussia, and (good God!) France. In truth, in spite of (or often because of) wars and territorial incursions, the Habsburgs were able to manage the pressure to keep up with the Europe's other royalty quite well. While not so massive as Versailles, Schönbrunn palace, the Habsburgs' summer residence (and now a short subway ride from the Innere Stadt), is in many ways equally grand and imposing. (Side note: just to help cement the foundation of equality between the Habsburgs and the French royalty, in the mid-18th century the reigning Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa sent her youngest daughter Marie Antoinette to marry the French king, Louis XVI. Unfortunately, they lost favor with their subjects, and so both were guillotined during the French Revolution.) Today, Schönbrunn feels quite different from Versailles. Because it remained fully occupied for more than a century after the last Louis lost his corporeal upper story, there remains a sense of daily life still within Schönbrunn's walls. Versailles, in contrast, was ransacked during the French Revolution, leaving barely a stick of Louis and Marie Antoinette's furniture in the main house. Although several later Habsburgs were assassinated by random anarchists, and a long and costly war ended the rule of Emperor Franz Joseph, no angry mob attacked the palace when he ceded power and Austria became a republic. The Habsburgs' departure was thus comparatively more peaceful, and gobs of their artifacts are on full display today. No photos were allowed while touring the palace, but we could snap lots of pictures in the surrounding grounds. A "Gloriette" stands atop the facing hill, and serves as a sort of steroid stoked, statuary-stocked garden gazebo. We were enticed to return that evening to hear a Viennese orchestral concert, complete with pairs of opera singers and ballet dancers. It was familiar music, but very well performed. Schönbrunn is a beautiful place. But from a 21st century perspective, it probably was not worth the lives that it cost to maintain the power it housed. Eventually keeping up with the French Louis's also means losing both the power and the Gloriette. Up next, the capital next door.