We just got back to the room from Sud, the "modern" restaurant near our hotel. After we asked, our big blonde waiter (with earring in right ear, which seems to work the same way here as in the USA), told us that it was his restaurant, open since December. It's good, updated food, with a few classic German/Austrian dishes on the menu. The crowd was cool -- a lot of young people, plus people travelling through the area. The kitchen had an electric eye-activated slidind door, through which we could see the chefs cleaning everything with cloths and spray bottles at the end of the evening.

I liked the fact that, when we were looking at an Austrian magazine, the waiter asked whether he could "translate anything for us". The building was once a salt-processing building -- this area has been rich from the existence of salt since the Iron Age. During World War II, artworks in the area were protected from Hitler, plus Allied bombing, in the salt caves in this area.

We had an amazing sort-of-dessert-wine called Isabella that is local to this area. Isabella seems to be the grape.

One of the things I like about the German-speaking world, by which I really mean Germany and Austria, is the sociability of restaurants. It is common practice to greet others upon entering a room in a restaurant, and to say "Auf wiedersehen" upon leaving the room for good.

One of the things I noticed today, that I didn't mention in my earlier post, is that historical museums in this area often put contemporary art on display as well. The photo museum at Sissi's Teehaus mixed historical photographs with a display of contemporary works. The Bad Ischl Stadt Museum had sculpture by an Italian artists. I've seen this in other towns as well. I can't really imagine that in a small town museum in America.

I just saw a few minutes of Bush on CNN talking about the economy. I can't believe he has any support in America, where the "common man" watches much more TV than I do. He's a complete idiot, incapable of forming a decent sentence or explaining a simple concept. I feel horrified as an American when I watch him. Here in Europe, I search for some graceful way to let people know that not all Americans are warmongers, and that it's OK to tell us that our President is an idiot. As I read the coverage of the Germany election, all I can think is that they're just being polite. I'm sure that most European governments would love to say, "it's scary that the man with his finger on the nuclear button is such an idiot with no advisers with any historical knowledge".