I exited the foyer, passed back out the Michael Gate the way I had come, turned immediately right and crossed over the street named Reitschulestrasse.  There I found, as I knew I would, the stable block called the Stallburg.  This beautiful arcaded Renaissance bu...

      There was a small red and white sign pointing the way.  The doors were wide open.  In a matter of a few steps I was in the foyer of the Spanish Riding School, physically on the premises, the hallowed ground itself.  Here, much to my surprise, there was no histori...

          On my very first morning in Vienna I made a beeline for the Spanish Riding School, the home of the white Lipizzaner horses, those horses that had appeared unbidden in my dreams months ago and caused me to make this odyssey.  It was early and I wasn’t sure tha...

            It is impossible to overestimate the influence of childhood experiences.  I’ve come to realize that so many of the things I’ve done, so many of the choices I’ve made in my life were actually set in motion long ago.  My trip to Vienna was no exception....

I just got back from Vienna.  There I was, strolling along the cobblestone streets listening to the sound of carriage horses’ hooves echo off the ornate façades of baroque palaces – and then suddenly I was back home dragging my suitcase along the dock where the floatpl...

            At that time, so early in their history, motorcars were not sold with mascots mounted on the hood or bonnet.  Probably the reason was simply that nobody had had the chance to think of it yet.  But at some point someone got the bright idea to decorate the ra...

       Through her job at the automobile club Eleanor met a member named John Walter Edward Montagu-Douglas-Scott.  Eventually he would inherit a title and be Lord Montagu.  He was handsome, energetic and active in everything from sports to politics.  Yet for all thing...

      These days the Royal Automobile Club in London is one of the swankiest private clubs in the world with grand and luxurious premises on Pall Mall.  But in the beginning, in 1897, when Eleanor was hired as a secretary, the club made do with more cozy quarters in Wh...

            Eleanor’s golden opportunity was connected to the invention of a new mode of transportation: the motorcar.  These were very early days in its history.  For years to come, still experimental and still a rarity, a motorcar trying to navigate the cobbled stree...

       She turned her back on convention and made her big bid for a life less ordinary.  Gathering all her naïve courage and audacity, she went on the stage.  She changed her name to Eleanor, which was so much more sophisticated than Nelly, and added the name Velasco i...