And part of my love affair with Vienna relates to the Kunst Historisches Museum, which is just a couple blocks walk from the Wandl. Again, I've been fortunate to visit better museums (and I think the Hermitage in St. Petersburg would be my first choice) but there's just something about this museum which always draws me back. First of all, it is a very good museum with a substantial collection of Egyptian, Greek and Roman artifacts and an impressive portrait gallery - so much Bruegel and Titian (I rediscovered his Danae this time) and Rubens and Rembrandt and I was pleasantly surprised to remember that Botticelli's portrait of Guiliano de Medici is here (it always plays a big role in my Renaissance lecture - a lot of symbolism related to the death of his wife). However, a lot of it is, again, very personal. I can still remember the first time I ever walked into the museum. It was a few years ago on my first trip to Vienna (and it was also the first time I ever wrote in my actual travel journal, which means that whenever I reread the journal it immediately takes me back to those first tentative steps at writing, and also of exploring) - and the weather was horrible and the wind was howling, and I think I retreated into the museum as much to escape the weather as for any other reason. And I just lost myself in the museum - as I always do with all museums (ask anyone who has had the misfortune of going to a museum with me - it takes forever, and even if the person I'm with is ready to go I inevitably stay until they turn out the lights). I was feeling a little down this time, truthfully, but the museum immediately made me feel like I was visiting an old friend - which, in fact, I was.
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