Day 67: Vienna, Austria - Last Day in Vienna

This is an art museum.

Art day, good thing because it rained again. Man, remember when I didn't see a single drop of moisture the first 40 days of this trip? I guess that's what happens in the Middle East. The first stop today was the Albertina Museum, a mostly impressionist museum, with smatterings of cubism. It was, truthfully, not the most impressive place I've seen. Compared to the Belvedere and the Leopold, it paled.

What better way to uplift my spirits than to eat a bunch of cake? I found a place called Demel which had about 50 different cakes and pastries lit up in the store window. I chose a particularly delectable looking one, only to discover that it was essentially the same as a kremna rezina (from Bled, Slovenia). No matter, it was still delicious.

Luckily, the second museum of the day was the Knuthistor, aka the big art museum in Vienna. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but, when seeking art, head to former capitols of empires. Containing a lot of the collection of the art-obsessed Hapsburgs, the Knuthistor has to be on the list of best art museums in the world. The building itself is worth the price of admission.

Bam!

Now this is what an art museum should look like.

The museum had a healthy collection of classical art and sculpture, i.e. Greek and Roman stuff, but I had seen enough of that recently. What I was interested in was the second floor, home to Renaissance, Baroque, and Dutch expressionism. The Knuthistor did not disappoint. The Renaissance section alone had an entire room dedicated to Titian, and another dedicated to Raphael. In addition, around the corner was a Caravaggio room with, not only his work, but that of his pupils as well.

For dinner, my parents took me to what must have been the fanciest Chinese restaurant I've seen, anywhere. There was an outside garden and an inner courtyard. The price of the food matched the surroundings, but it was a great meal nonetheless. I was happy to have some Chinese food after two months of not having a big Chinese meal.