For a few weeks a year, we head out of our ordinary lives to take a Field Trip. Like any decent Field Trip, we don’t go alone and offer up the opportunity to join us to you, Dear Listeners! This June we headed to Austria with 50 people who would become friends in a very short time. We toured Vienna, Salzburg, Hallstatt, and several locations in between with an accent on history and this week we opened up our mics to let those traveling with us tell their stories.
Empress Sisi at 28 by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, dress by Charles Frederick Worth (of course it was) 1865
Empress Sisi’s story often reads like a fairytale … usually because it’s fiction. The basics of her life do parallel those tales: a vivacious, beautiful young woman is chosen from all the lands as the love of the Austrian emperor. As a beloved Empress, she added a fresh energy to Viennese court while riding horses, maintaining her youthful glow, being a fashion icon, mingling with her people, and raising a family.
But the reality behind that lovely facade is s a little darker, a little sadder, and did not end in a “happily ever after.” (more…)
The History Chicks Podcast
Beckett Graham and Susan Vollenweider: Two women. Half the population. Several thousand years of history. About an hour.
