Dewey Defeats Truman!

That Chicago newpaper headline is well known to us former Missourians. In 1948 Tom Dewey was so far ahead of Harry Truman in all the presidential polls that Gallup (the top research company of the time) stopped polling about two weeks before the election. The Chicago paper was up against their deadline, so they printed their first edition with the “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline. Of course, as the day went on, it became clear that Truman had defeated Dewey.

So it was in Vienna as we awoke this morning, to learn that during the night Trump had defeated Clinton.  When we went to bed, it was merely a formality that Mrs. Clinton would be the winner. All the polls had her winning handily. The only US channel we get on our hotel TV is CNN. The after election commentators were setting their hair on fire to explain their poor performance the day before. You don’t have to read German to understand this Viennese tabloid paper. 

Susan and I took the early train to Breclav in the Czech Republic. Our friends Richard and Ria Belohoubek picked us up and we drove to their new home in Skalica, Slovakia. Ria whipped up a strudel and we enjoyed seeing their new home. We walked around Skalica, a small medieval village that still has remnants of the surrounding wall although it sports all the modern conveniences. Our friends have purchased a downtown building that is over 200 years old and plan to make it their home after a major remodeling project.

We watched as bakers prepared a pastry roll that is rolled on a stick and covered in chopped nuts and cooked over a wood fire. This delicacy is unique to Skalica and famous all over the region. The two rolls Richard bought for us are still in the boot of Ria’s car. We will retrieve them in Bratislava on Saturday.

I blame our forgetting the rolls on the food coma we suffered after consuming our lunch that consisted of a whole roasted goose, potato pancakes, red cabbage and foie gras. Richard over ordered for us, but it was a magnificent traditional Czech/Slovakian meal. We dozed on the train back to Vienna.

Strong coffee fortified us enough to attend a concert at Wiener Staatsoper (another barouche music hall) built in the late 1800’s. Normally this is the home of the Vienna Opera, but tonight a tenor, soprano and pianist performed a selection of operatic pieces, some solos, some duets. The unamplified acoustics of this ancient theater are absolutely perfect. Thanks Mark Jacobson for arranging. 

Now we go home to bed at the Stefanie Hotel after an eventful day with election news from the Colonies and travels to three countries in Europe.