Last Day - Art Museum

Today Karen and I went to one of the major art museums which was an incredible place.   We both agreed that it makes the Metropolitan Museum of Art look folksy!  They have an extensive collection of all kinds of art - sculpture, jewelry, knick knacks, religious art, secular art, fabrics etc., all from the collections of their various emporers.  Some of the objects were truly incredible - gold works, ivory carvings, precious stones...really incredible things.  Then we stopped for Viennese hot chocolate and strudel in the cafe in the rotunda which was a gorgeous place to sit and gaze at the amazing building that is the museum and then we flew through their extensive collection of paintings from the medieval and baroque periods.  Truly it was mind boggling the collection they had.  We felt like our brains were overloaded.  The art museum building itself is extravagant and gorgeous, never mind the art that is in it.  We were surprised when we got downtown that all the shops were closed.  Seems like the feast of the Epiphany is a national holiday here.  We were glad the museum was open as we had the tickets bought from our last excursion on Saturday!  And I'm really glad it was open because it was a truly wonderful collection and fascinating to visit.  If I lived here I'd be there frequently and one could spend weeks really going through everything they have there.

We returned home for packing and getting ready for departure tomorrow.   I'm going home and Karen, Roz and Deldar are off to Prague.  Pics today are some shots of the museum interior.