TRAVEL TRAVEL ++ L E I S U R E / M AY 2 0 1 7 LEISURE / MAY 2017 5355
COURTESY OF ADVENTURES BY DISNEY
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Fa m i l y Tr i pF
ifteen minutes into our tour of Schönbrunn Palace, the Hapsburgs’ 1,000-plus-
room summer retreat in Vienna, my 17-year-old daughter, Hannah, disconnected
her Quietvox and, out of earshot of the tour guide, said, “They’re all just like
the Kardashians.”
The way she saw it, the social-climbing Napoleon married Austrian archduchess
Marie-Louise in 1810 not so much to consolidate peace between France and Austria,
but to bask in the rarefi ed atmosphere of the Hapsburg royal clan.
For her, it was the equivalent of Blac Chyna having a child with Rob Kardashian.
“Blac Chyna snuck her way into the family in order to get the Kardashian last
name,” she explained. “Like Napoleon marrying Marie-Louise, who hated the
French. He just wanted to get into an important family.”
I have to admit that there was an odd—even brilliant—logic to what she was
describing. We were on day fi ve of our week-long Adventures by Disney Danube
River cruise, which began in Vilshofen, Germany, and ended in Budapest—and Hannah
was having the time of her life. She had already climbed to the top of castle ruins in Austria’s
stunning Wachau Valley, sat in on a strudel-making course in Vienna, and attended a
Lipizzaner horse performance at the city’s exclusive Spanish Riding School.A Teachable
Moment
On a cruise down the Danube with
her teenage daughter, Isabel Vincent
discovers the power of travel to
open your mind—no matter your age.The AmaViola
docked in Passau,
Germany.