Feb. 18, 2006
Some more places I visited in Vienna.. Sacher torte was something I had to eat there. More than ten years ago, one morning in winter, a friend who stayed over night at my place and I saw Sacher torte in the magazine. It looked so nice and we couldn’t help thinking we have to go to eat it! We went to a cafe in Shinjuku and ate something similar. Maybe it was just a chocolate cake. Anyway, at that time I thought Sacher torte is just a name of a kind of chocolate cake. But it’s not! It’s the chocolate torte you can eat only at Hotel Sacher in Vienna. According to the hotel web page, it has been the world most famous cake since 1832.
The torte was served with a lot of cream. The cream wasn’t much sweet. To be honest, the taste of the torte was good but I didn’t think it was that special. I brought the one to a friend in Tokyo. She told me she didn’t think it was that special either. But she said it must have been very very special when it was first baked. I agreed with her. And I’m glad that I had a chance to taste the torte with the long history. I took a picture of the torte by my mobile. Though I had PowerShot with me, I didn’t dare to do it 😉
Apart from the two main things I wanted to do, The Butterfly House and The Imperial House were very interesting. The Butterfly House was a green house and looked so attractive when it was so cold outside. Once I got inside, I saw more than I expected. Some beautiful butterflies were there. I followed them by camera but they were so quick and it was very difficult to take their pictures!
There were three different museum sections, Collection of Ancient Musical Instrument, Collection of Arms and Armours, Ephesos-Museum in the Imperial House. All the collections were fascinating. I could play the cembalo and loved the sound! about armours, it was interesting to know what kind of amours were fashionable at which time… And I got more interested in Roman and Greek history after I looked at the excellent architecture.
Everywhere in the town, I saw fascinating architecture and didn’t have enough time to take as many pictures as I wanted. I’d love to visit Vienna again : )
(Japanese)
ウィーンの話の続き・・・ウィーンで絶対食べたかったものはザッハートルテ。10年以上前の冬の朝、前日から私の家に泊まっていた友達と雑誌を見ているとそこにザッハートルテが。あまりにおいしそうだったのでどうしても食べたくなって2人で新宿に出かけた。どこかのカフェでチョコレートケーキを食べて満足した思い出が・・・当時はザッハートルテはチョコレートケーキの種類のネーミングかと思っていたけれどもちろんそれは間違え。ザッハートルテウィーンのザッハーホテルでしか食べられないものだった。ホテルのウェブページによるとそれは1832年以来世界でもっとも有名なケーキだとのこと・・・
ザッハートルテは大量の甘くないクリームと一緒に出てきた。食べてみると正直言ってそんなに特別な味だとは思わなかった。お土産にもできたので東京の友達に持って帰ると彼女も同じ感想。彼女いわく今はそれよりもっとおいしいものがたくさんあるけど当時はきっとすごい贅沢なものだったに違いないとのこと。私もまったく同感。歴史あるザッハートルテは世界で一番おいしいケーキじゃないけど歴史ある特別なものだと思う。歴史あるホテルのカフェで大きいカメラを出すのは気が引けたので携帯で撮影してみた。
さてさてどうしても行きたかった2つの場所以外では Butterfly House と Imperial House が思い出に残っている。 Butterfly House は温室で蝶々が見られる。外が寒かったので温室は魅力的、っていうだけの理由で入ってみたもののきれいな蝶々に惹かれて写真撮影に夢中になる。でも蝶々の動きは思いのほか速くてあまりいい写真は撮れなかった。Imperial House には昔の楽器の展示、鎧や武器展示、それからローマやギリシャの建築や彫刻の展示があってそれぞれほんとにおもしろかった。楽器のところでは実際にチェンバロを弾くことができてその音に魅了された。鎧には実はいろんな流行があったということを読んでへぇーっと思ったり、ローマやギリシャの建築・彫刻を見てそのすごさにびっくり、ちょっと歴史を学んでみたくなった。
されにウィーンの街のいたるところにすばらしい彫刻や建築が・・・もっともっと見て写真を撮りたかったけれどそれには時間が足りなかった。ということでもちろんまた行かなくちゃ。
It happened to be a gourmet day today. At lunch time, a friend who left the company visited us and had lunch together at Arcachon near the office. Arcachon is a French restaurant and has been introduced in the popular gourmet cartoon. It’s a bit more expensive than our usual lunch but good for special occasions like welcome, farewell and Christmas. The roasted duck is my favorite but I chose fish cos I knew I’d eat a lot of meat in the evening. Fish (I don’t know which one?) was also good today. We enjoyed chatting! Lovely to have good food and a lot of laugh : )
