Vienna is cool, but oh so hot!

Today I set out to spend little money but enjoy my day and so far success!

I picked three museums that promised free entry on Sundays, although none of them were very close to each other, but again, saving money to I chose not to make use of the six different public transportation options available in this city. 

First I set out for the Hadyn House.  There were music sheets, pictures of Haydn and instruments of his passion.  My favorite part was listening to some of his works while sitting in one the rooms where he created it - at least I assume as much as nothing was in English.  There was also a room dedicated to Brahm.

Next stop was the Wien Museum, so I made my way through a maze of streets toward it.

  By then the temps were in the mid 90s for sure, so I was overjoyed when I found out it had a/c.  I also started noticing a trend.  None of the museum folks are very friendly, and they watched you like a hawk while you were in there, which is kind of maddening when you are trying to take your time looking at things.  The best pieces were paintings, the Lady in Yellow by Max Kurzwell, Lady in Something Else (missed translation) by Wilhelm List and two works by Egon Schiele in which the characters hands fascinated me, one showing the Star Trek hand signal, and this was back in 1911.

I lingered there as long as possible taking advantage of the a/c, but the place was pretty small so off to the third stop.  On the way I happened upon one of the ring roads and there were police blocking the road and motorcycle cops heading down the road and soon enough, three bicyclists came through with support vehicles in tow.

  A bike race...Tour de Vienna perhaps?  Shortly after a whole group of cyclists came through, with more support vehicles with extra bikes and parts behind.  That´s one of the fun parts about being in a city and not knowing what is happening at the time, you happen upon all sorts of surprises.

From there I arrived in the vicinity of a Starbucks from which I sampled a caramel frapuccino the previous day, so I had to break down and go in for something cool and caffeinated, with a comfy chair with my book. I lingered there for over an hour and it felt great, although I was starting to nod off to Tolstoy´s Anna Karenina, so I had to get moving.

Next up the Clock Museum.  I know, sounds dreadful but it was by far my favorite.

  I took a ton of pics of some of the most unusual clocks, but again, the museum staff were unfriendly and hawk-like, so I didn´t stay too long.  I think the problem is that it is a Sunday and pretty much everything is closed, so they are not happy to be working, even though it is apparently casual Sunday due to their jeans and t-shirts. 

I wanted to make my way to the Danube, so I started off and ended up at the Holocaust Memorial.  At first glance it´s not an attractive building, but luckily an English tour group came along and it was explained that the building is designed to show the loss of 65,000 Viennese during the Holocaust through a serious of 65,000 closed books, representing each life lost.  That made it a very impressive display.

 

Once at the Danube I recalled the song Blue Danube, but there was nothing blue about it.  It was very brown and sludge-like in fact.  Later I consulted my map again and realized I only made it to the canal, so  maybe the river is prettier, but since it meant another hour walk in the opposite direction from my hostel, next time through perhaps.

Oh, I also finally found the underground loos by Loos.  And I seem to blend in here rather nice as everyone keeps talking to me in German, even asking for directions.

So last night I never made it to the film festival, choosing instead to chat with other travelers from my hostel over the tasty and cheap beer on tap at the hostel bar and then calling it an early night despite invitations to bar hop.  Tonight I feel like doing the same.  It is just so warm here and quite a hike to city hall, plus I am off again tomorrow with a four hour train ride to Prague ahead of me.  Maybe next time around I´ll catch some of the festivals, but with only a two day tour in this heat, sipping a tasty brew seems to be the thing to do.