Our last full day in Austria was spent shopping for more clothes and shoes for the girls while the boys stayed home and played soccer.
When we had bought all the cute stuff in the store, we came home, had lunch and then went as a family back out to Bad Ischl. We wanted to take a tour of the Kaiservilla, the home where Kaiser Franz Josef and Sissi spent every summer together with their family.
The entire building is surrounded by gorgeous green lawns and thick forests. The Kaiser was an avid huntsman, and Sissi spent hours on horses, so it would make sense that they would live somewhere that made that possible. Unfortunately, peon visitors are not allowed to enjoy it.
Franz and Sissi were given the house as a wedding present from Franz’ mother, Sophie. It was probably the only nice thing she ever did for Sissi! Anyway, at the time of their marriage, the house consisted of just the one main building.
Over time two more wings were added on, so that from the air the house forms an “E” for Elisabeth (Sissi’s real name). 
Remember how I said that Kaiser Franz loved to hunt? Well, he also loved to mount all his kills and label them with the date and area in which they were killed. Most of the walls were covered, and I mean completely covered, with the skulls and horns of dead animals. Sarah was not amused. Fortunately, it was just the entrance and the hallways that were decorated that way. So we would cover her eyes while we walked from room to room, and then let her know it was safe to look when we arrived.
We learned lots of new and interesting things about both royals. Franz was a very spartan individual, his private bedroom and bathroom reflect that in their austerity. He slept on a plain iron bed, with a simple mattress and covers, and arose very early every morning to begin working. So it struck everyone in the tour group as very amusing that the first two electronic gadgets installed in the home were an electric cigar lighter and a device to call the servants.
Sissi was wild. If she was alive today, she would be the top story on TMZ 3 days out of 5, I bet. She had a tattoo of an anchor on her shoulder, she smoked in public, and she wore pants. Sounds tame to us, but if she did that stuff back in 1860, what would she be up to in our day? Boggles the mind. She was also extremely beautiful and went to extreme measures to maintain that beauty and slimness. No new portraits or photographs were allowed to be made of her after the age of 40. If you see any that are dated later than that, they are actually “photoshopped” from earlier ones. They would change the background, paint on new clothes directly on the negative, etc. It is even rumored that her death mask was smoothed to remove wrinkles, as that is what she would have wanted.
To maintain that famous tiny waist, she basically starved herself. She said that the smell of food cooking made her ill, but I suspect it actually made her hungry which in turn made it that much harder to not eat. The kitchens were built away from the main building, with secret underground passages from them to the dining room. 
This way the food could be prepared elsewhere and delivered piping hot to those desiring to eat.
Anyway, the house was left to their youngest child, Marie Valerie, when Sissi died, and it remains in private family possession to this day. It is only open to visitors at certain times, when the family is not using it. They have kept Franz’s quarters the way they were when he lived there, the original wallpaper can be seen slowly peeling off the walls in certain spots, but the areas where Sissi had her private rooms were redecorated for Marie’s family.
They still use the little chapel in the house where Kaiser Franz worshiped privately to baptize and christen all newborns. Isn’t that lovely?
We could have stayed and wandered around the grounds, but no one was in the mood. Probably because it was a thousand degrees outside. The pond that was once Sissi’s private workout area, has been renovated into a public swimming pool, but we didn’t know that and didn’t have our swimming stuff with us. Would have been perfect.
All those chimneys belong to the royal kitchens. You can see them best from the bridge leading to the parking lot.
Just a little last minute silliness before we said goodbye.
I loved that these are the original gates that mark the entrance to the property. They are beautiful, but not too ornate.
After a bit of wandering around in search of a) a bathroom, b) an atm and c) a place that would give us small change in return for the large bills the atm gave us, we were able to pay for our parking and leave. 🙂