selenak: (Default)

Re: Update on Vienna Joe

[personal profile] selenak 2021-06-06 06:48 am (UTC)(link)
I found myself on almost every page going, "Wow, no, they would never have worked as a couple. Oh, god, this would have been a nightmare. Ommmgggg, no, they're too much alike. And their politics are just opposite enough in enough places that they would have spent the entire time at each other's throats."

Hard same. It's worse than the similarities between Fritz and Voltaire, eben, because at least Voltaire is king in another domain, i.e. literature. Fritz/Joseph would have been like SD/FW in marital harmony. Alas Joseph never had a Fredersdorf. Or a Franz Stephan. (Of course, as far as Joseph knew he had been happily married to Isabella for those few years, but alas that was because she never told him how she truly felt.) However:

Meeting in Neisse for a couple days was def the way to go. :)

The travel book naturally includes this and mentions the 16 hours marathon. (Just for politics' sake, Mom, honest!) Also, when Fritz & Co. wore the white Austrian uniform, which this book says was on the second meeting (at Neustadt), not the first at Neissse, fate offered a hilarious comment in the form of heavy rainfall on the second summit day which because Fritz didn't have enough alternate clothing along meant he was drenched (and muddy).