"It was hard for him to accept this level of opulence".
But the overall impression is of a new level of opulence bridging Central Europe and the Far East.
As I step outside the Kunsthistorisches Museum, the same level of opulence and eccentricity seems to envelop the rest of the historic city centre.
"I believe prosperity is a beautiful thing, but then it goes into another level of opulence," said Mr. Roy, who may have the rumpled aura of a soulful teddy bear but still wears Oliver Peoples sunglasses and Versace slacks.
As Europeans and Americans fell in love with Hollywood heroes and leading ladies, real royals needed to sustain a level of opulence to realise the fairy-tale fantasies of their people.
"It comes down to a day-to-day penny-pinching that you wouldn't necessarily expect from a restaurant that shows a certain level of opulence," Julian Brizzi, the general manager and co-owner of Rucola, a high-end Italian restaurant in Brooklyn, says.
These airborne hotels carried the likes of Bogart, Hemingway and Roosevelt at a level of opulence that makes today's first-class seats look like steerage.
This raises the question of how far the resources we need to live a minimally decent life are affected by the general level of opulence of the society in which we live.
