Vienna
Arriving in Vienna slightly late ... 6.30pm, having downloaded a Vienna travel app, we buy a ticket on-line and take a tram to our lodgings about half an hour away. This is an apartment so it is good to have more space. We find a local studenty hostelry and enjoy a supper of schnitzel with some wine and beer, I favour the Dunkel Weissbier which was followed by pancakes and a sort of creme caramel in a mug. Delicious.
Home for bed.
This morning we decided to visit the massive, imposing Vienna Art Museum
which is found in the town centre on the Museum Platz ...an area of many museums in close proximity, also near the main shopping area perhaps equivalent to Piccadilly and Regent Street, all pedestrianised and pleasurable to walk around.
Anyway we enter the Art museum and yes, first, we have breakfast in the opulent cafe, cream cheese strudel (topfenstrudel) and toasted sandwiches ...
fortifying us for the next few gruelling hours of trudging around the interior of this wedding cake.
There are many famous painters displayed here amongst them there are some Dürer works which we hadn't seen in the flesh in Nürnberg.
This one portraying the ageing process and the uselessness of wealth.
Not just graphics but paint too.
Liked this one but forget the artist.
We seem to have become fans of Bruegel the elder on this trip and there are many of his works here, 
Here is a link to more of his work with amazing tech, which allows one to zoom in and explore the works in minute detail.
https://www.insidebruegel.net/#p/v=paintings&lan=en&a=1016&x=s:3_l:1_v1:1016,vis
We took so many photos without restriction, unlike in Japan, but I can't put them all on this blog ... but here's a few more.
amongst which are a Reubens and a Vermeer.
Oddly energised by this visit we head off into the shopping area and have some Gulaschsuppe in a restaurant, out of the slight drizzle.
Wandering around somewhat aimlessly we discover the Vienna State Opera house and find ourselves persuaded to buy tickets for tonight's opera ...who would have thought it possible ...from a ticket tout ...yes I know! ...we were very unsure about parting with a largish sum of money to a dubious looking geezer ...with a doubly inflated ticket price ... but we did and it worked out OK.
Mozart, Abduction from the Seraglio, a comic opera so not too taxing on the intellect although I'm not sure I got the plot, as seemingly ridiculous things happen all the time and the relationships between the characters is also mystifying. However the music, both in terms of the orchestra and voices, was superb and we were both glad we risked the dodgy dealings for an evening of delight.
Back for a quick pint in our studenty cafe and bed.
Morning is bright and sunny (first one so far) despite the mixed forecast. We hire some city bikes and head off for the river ... Danube that is and more blackish than blue not that we are keen on Vienese waltzes.
A pleasant ride along an island strip with the Danube flowing either side before the notion of breakfast inevitably looms.
We cycle off to find a bank to change euros into Forint (Hungarian spondoolies) ready for our arrival tomorrow, midday, in Budapest.
More and more exotic the more we travel.
We have bought food for lunch which we eat back on the island, sitting on a log in the warm sun.
We would have liked to have done the 'Third Man' sewer tour but we were too late, however Karen had bought tickets for MAK which is a design museum; another grand staircase and rather lovely stained glass
so we spent a couple of interesting hours there looking at computer aided design and various ideas for an ecological world, including bricks made using sand and urine ... well, people have lived in houses made of dung so ....
also lots of bent-wood beech chairs, a seminal design by Thonet. 
I liked their simplicity compared to others in the exhibition.
and some posters of other times.
Some of the permanent exhibition was closed unfortunately but there was plenty to stimulate, intrigue and question.
This is of an extra thumb operated remotely by toe movement, allowing more grip ... not sure that it would benefit the guitarist much.
...
Karen watching a film about the development of AI for robotic cars.
Home for a rest, then out to supper ... we plan to cook in Buda as we have a good flat to stay in there and we need to spend less ... enjoyable though it maybe.
Bed ...
This featured blog entry was written by xopher from the blog To New Zealand and back.
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