BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Sunday, July 18, 1824

Nephew Karl is with his Uncle Ludwig in Baden bei Wien, probably at a restaurant. He makes a list of various sizes of Seidel, a Viennese term for a small glass of beer (about 1/3 of a liter). Instead of the side dish, Karl will have a pickled chicken and Gugelhupf.

Uncle Ludwig suggests a place to bathe [perhaps the Frauenbad, which he had noted down yesterday] but Karl points out that children bathe there.

Karl mentions that he will have to go to the administrator of the poorhouse for old people to get another extension on the housekeeper Barbara Holzmann’s leave. If he doesn’t, she would be placed under house arrest.

Ludwig inquires about Karl’s class schedule. He has an English lesson from 12 to 1 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Karl observes that the meat is better here in Baden than in Vienna. He asks whether the Emperor is still there. [Emperor Franz I spent most of July 2nd through 28th there.]

There are a number of options for travel to Vienna. A carriage can be taken directly for 5 florins. The postal coach is only 1 florin per person. Uncle Ludwig thinks he will hire some porters to come from Vienna and bring some of his things. Karl suggests it would be better to hire two porters in Baden.

Karl discusses an unidentified woman. “After what she wrote in the Winter, she must indeed be somewhere in the country now. She speaks of little Neudorf sausages, which she finds so good.”

Karl still keeps the sheet of paper with him. It has not yet been picked up. [What the sheet of paper is, and who was to pick it up is unclear from the context.]

Conversation Book 73, 19r-20v. Ludwig and Karl return to Vienna on the 4 o’clock wagon to Vienna, the last one of the day.