Day Fiftyone - Jul 11, 2012

Vienna, Austria to Night Train

High Point: The temporary scaffolding in Kunsthistorisches Museum to see the Klimpt lunettes

Low Point: Mentally preparing to sit up all night, it turned out to be a good thing

Miles By Foot: 2

Miles By Train: 4

Today's Antiquities: The Egyptian collection in the Kunsthistorisches

Today's Weather: Hot and muggy, in the low 90s. Clear and sunny in the morning, thunderstorms in the late afternoon (it was easier to copy and paste)

Tonight's Lodging: Annemarie's studio near Praterstern Station

Touristic Events: Kunsthistorisches Museum, St. Stephen's Cathedral, the Danube Canal

Travel Tip: We've said it before, embrace the metro

Daily Didactic

We started our morning with a short list of todos. With no one coming tomorrow, our apartment host green lighted us a very late checkout. So, after getting mostly packed, we took the U2 line to the U1 line and surfaced at the steps of St. Stephen's Cathedral. We stepped in and back out. No go, mass. We adjusted the day's schedule a few minutes and caught the U1 back to the U2 to Museum Quarter. Exhausted from all of that touristing we had a quick lunch and headed into the Kunsthistorisches Museum, known for an extensive collection of Dutch and Flemish painters. We were speedy and walked right past Titians and Tintorellos, adding only the relatively small Egyptian collection to the northern Europeans. Four hours later we put our sunglasses back on and headed on. We had initially thought about the Natural History Museum, but time was no longer permitting. We took the U2 back to the U1 back to Stephansplatz and looked inside the cathedral a bit. Next we took the U1 back to U2 back to Plasterstern to the "shores" of the Danube canal for an view. It was 7:00pm and time to exit Vienna. We headed back to our flat, ate what we had left in the fridge, and took the U1 to Volkstheater and the U4 from there to Westbahnhof for our night train to Switzerland. Still a little disappointed at ending up in steerage, we found our room (it turns out second class on a night train is those six seat cabins that are first class during the day) full of six young men. After a little confusion, they headed off to their car and we settled in with our two other reserved roomies. She passed out immediately, while he was a very conversational Ecuadorian who chatted it up with Theresa about art and architecture. The remaining two seats filled with an older drunk man and a sweet young Austrian gal who was on her way to an interview in Innsbruck to work in with disabled adults. The drunk was cranky and left for a bit. The Ecuadorian filled his seat with the biggest roller bag we've ever seen, which solved that issue. The four of us who remained awake had a really great conversation until 1:00 in the morning. Sleeping was bad, but the opportunity to talk with our roommates was well worth it.