On top of that, a lot of the stuff that I've read over the last year or so about Austria, the Habsburgs, the Holy Roman Empire, all the wars etc...is insanely negative. How can I look at priceless Italian Renaissance painting at the Kunsthistorisches Museum and not be reminded of the fact that the Habsburgs were fervent Counter-Reformationists and the masterpieces of religious pastiche were all in services to their religious insanity.
All of the various Franz Joseph statues, squares and monuments were impressive, but just brought to mind that this man, as dilligent and hard-working as he was, had no small part in bringing about the catastrophe of WWI, and presided over the dying embers of an enormous empire. He was a zealot for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, even as it was obvious it was on it's way out. The whole center of town has the feeling of an enormous mausoleum for an Empire.
That being said, the Egon Schiele exhibit, and the rest of the Leopold collection was mind-blowing. The art at the Kunsthistoriches museum was the best I've seen since I went to the Prado at 16. In particular, there's a room of some of the best Brueghel paintings there are.
Anyway, like I said all of these thoughts are half-formed. It was an intense 3 days. I had a very difficult time just getting out of the city on my bike and on to the Euro-Velo 9 trail which took me to the Czech Republic. It tacked an additional 20 miles onto my already difficult ride, and made me fall short of my goal of camping at the Free Star tonight.
So, to sum up: Vienna = intense, amazing, but insanely difficult to leave on a bicycle.
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