Our hotel is one of Vienna’s landmarks. Even the glass-walled café inside it is a landmark in its own right. There’s always a line of people wanting to try a real Sachertorte there (to my taste it’s too sweet — Prague cake is better). Those who aren’t trying to force their way inside just take pictures in front of it. I caught myself thinking that the people posing for photos give me a mild fit of xenophobia — they’ve all come flooding in, crowding around our hotel and taking pictures. Guests can barely get through in peace. The guidebook tells a lot of amusing stories about the Sacher. For example, Archduke Otto — the younger brother of Archduke Ferdinand — once shocked the ladies by appearing in the lobby completely naked, wearing only a sword at his belt and the jeweled Order of the Golden Fleece around his neck. And this funny lady with the bulldogs — Anna Sacher single-handedly stopped a crowd of Viennese workers who came to the Sacher after already trashing three other hotels. The guidebook does not say what exactly she told them, but it does note separately that, as usual, Anna did not remove the cigar from between her teeth while delivering her speech.
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