Vienna

Most of what I have been doing in Vienna (besides setting up this silly journal) is going to art museums, and appreciating architecture both being skills I have had little chance to exercise in the last year. Vienna is quite the place for museums. With the notable exception of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, which has all sorts of beautiful Renaissance Italians and Dutch paintings, almost all the art is from the 1890s - 1930s. It's quite a change from museum going in Italy, but I suppose that is when Vienna was at its artistic peak. Most famous are the Klimts.

I had forgotten how interesting looking at art can be, though it's been a little overwhelming. I've been looking in particular at how different artists paint the lines between things. The Renaissance portraits, for example, are all very soft, while Klimt and Kokoschka favor thicker lines highlighting the outer shape of a subject. And in between looking at art and making pretentious amateur observations, I've been out eating cake and taking pictures of Vienna:

The Belvedere, and its gardens.

A statue in front of St. Carl's, which features two imitations of Trajan's Column.

The other side of the Belvedere.

A detail from inside Stephen's Cathedral.

P.S.
I never knew a museum could make me sick, but this one sure came close. Hidden in the basement of the Vienna Mumok (Museum of Modern Art) is a gallery featuring works from the Viennese Actionism movement. Hm. I was about to describe it, but actually you can do a google search if you really want to know. No pictures of this.