Bernie in Vienna 2006: Travel Diary Vienna ’06 – 3rd entry

Today getting up was a bit easier, probably because I’m getting used to the wine. At around half eight, I hit the streets and walked along the – now quite empty – Mariahilferstrasse to the Museum of Art History. Due to the fact that under the reign of the Habsburg monarchs Vienna had been the factual ‘capital of the world’ for quite some time, the art collection is huge and can easily compete with other leading museums in France, Italy and Spain. And so it isn’t very surprising that I spent five hours in there and still found that the time didn’t reach by far. From relics of the ancient Egyptian civilisation over Greek and Roman sculptures to Renaissance paintings – they’ve got it all. In my opinion it’s a highly interesting place for anyone with an interest in art, from amateur to art historian. However, I knew that I had to get out because there were still other places I wanted to see and so I went to the Austrian House of Parliament at four and got a guided tour. One of the main things you hear in that tour is a brief explanation of how Austrian democracy works and although as an Austrian citizen I know the basics well enough I still found it interesting. The tour took about an hour and after some more walking around at half six I met up with my brother, his girlfriend and her parents who are really lovely people. We took their car and drove out to Perchtoldsdorf, a village on the outskirts of Vienna, and there my brother’s girlfriend’s older sister and her boyfriend joined us too, so in the end we were seven people, a quite lively round. At the moment there’s a wine fair going on in the courtyard of Perchtoldsdorf Castle and there we went, trying different wine sorts, chatting and having a good time. Time went by quickly and before long it was eleven, time to drive back into Vienna and as we arrived at my hostel I said goodbye to my ‘second family in Austria’. Maybe I can meet them again this summer though.