Dreams of Austira

The more I read about Austria, in particular Vienna, the more convinced I am that it will be impossible to avoid Klimt. His works seem to abound in every museum, art gallery & on the outside of many buildings.

My relationship with the works of Gustav Klimt is very sketchy. We did one year have a Klimt calendar, hanging in our hallway. At first I really liked it, but by the end of the year I was getting bored with the calendar. The pictures tended to end up looking very samey. A certain amount of gold leaf, people either singly or as a pair, a very 1920s feel.  I’m quite curious to see how I will feel by the time we return after the holiday. Will I be a convert? It has to be admitted that seeing original artworks can greatly affect your feeling about the artist. Reproductions rarely give you the same impact when size, scale & texture are reduced, if not eliminated, in the process of reproduction.

Meanwhile I’m also coming to the conclusion that Vienna is clearly a city that has something interesting around just about every corner. I see the old part is a UNESCO heritage area. I can understand why.

Meanwhile I continue to try to get on top of the exhaustion & pain created by last week’s endeavours. I retreated to bed not long after 9pm to re-emerge after 7am this morning. I keep feeling more on top of things in the morning to find my energy levels rapidly evaporating by mid-afternoon.

The Fox isn’t doing too much better. Now he’s doing his daily physio exercises he’s finding both hips are hurting even more. He’s persevering, remembering last time it was a case of feeling worse before getting better. We’re hoping that’s going to be the case here. And that he is feeling some improvement by the time we set off for Austria.

Still our hotel in the Lakes part of Austria is right by the lakeside so even if we don’t feel like going out we should still have a beautiful view to look out on when we take a break from our books or dig out the travel set of dominoes that we usually take with us. The scenery sounds spectacular to drive through even if we don’t feel up to getting out to explore much.

As you may have gathered we’re really looking forward to it. We’re even beginning to wonder if we should be thinking about another holiday to break up the long dark winter months.