Tove & Roberto:

Tove (Simonsen) was in Denmark, late March, with Marianne, her expecting mother daughter, shopping for a perambulator: Tove from Saratoga, Calif., Marianne from Seattle, Wash. Even before Tove had left the US for Denmark Dines had persuaded her to not return, as planned, on April 2 to Roberto in Calif., but to have him meet her in Vienna that day. They booked the Bristol. Dines ``fixed'' Staatsoper ticket for them: La Boheme with Anna Netrepko, great success, Monday 5th of April. We dined and lunched with them Friday through Tuesday, walked around Vienna half of Saturday and Monday.

All of Easter Sunday 4 April we motored down to Burgenland, to Mörbish and Rust. Visited Elisabeth and Karl Leitgeb's winery, chatted, bought wines; had a delightful lunch at Wirtschaft im Hofgassl on the Hauptplatz, and ended the day in Rust by buying more wines at the Gabriel winery.

Lovely couple: Tove and Roberto. Dines can never tire of retelling how he toured Japan with Tove in April 1998 (and Kari with Tove, China in May 1998), and of how they first met: Roberto and Tove.