When I stopped to throw away an empty bag yesterday I noticed a map. On it, I saw that the Egon Schiele Museum was nearby. This was great news! If I had to pick a favorite artist, Schiele’d be the one so I headed for the museum this morning.
It didn’t open until 10 am, so once I reached Tulln (Schiele’s birthplace) I stopped for some coffee and too many baked goods: one nut bread, one apple pastry, and one poppy seed roll to ensure that I’d feel sick.
I spent about two hours at the Schiele Museum. It’s a gem, a small space with one room full of 13 paintings by Schiele from between 1905 to 1907 when he was about 15 to 18 years old.
The Schiele Museum is unique because its paintings aren’t in the style one imagines when one thinks of Schiele (assuming one thinks of him and his art at all)—no spindly limbs or tortured poses. All but one of the paintings look as though they could have been painted by someone else. A forest landscape in the gallery is the only piece in which there are any hints as to what his art would become.
After going upstairs through the secondary exhibition on Schiele’s life, which I highly recommend—they’ve filmed a bunch of interviews with experts on his life and art—I stopped at a riverside food shack outside of Vienna for a veg platter full of halloumi and grilled veggies plus some good beer. Today’s ride was easy going without hills, heat, and just a little rain.
The ride into Vienna is an urban cyclist’s dream. There are fully protected bike bridges and lanes that plopped me right into the city zentrum. From the center, I cycled onto the medieval ring road that’s been turned into a protected bike lane. I zipped around to the parks, monuments, and past the museums. It is the best way to see Vienna. While riding the ring road I tried to imagine how medieval Austrian’s would react to learning that the wall separating them from oblivion had been turned into a bike lane. I settled on, “Bike lane? Vut is a bike?”
I snagged a nice hostel in the Leopoldstadt neighborhood for 24eur. After unpacking my stuff I rode back out into the city for dinner at the Beaver Brewing Co. where I ordered a beer sampler and the seitan burger with seaweed salad and guac. An unexpectedly good combo.
After dinner, I crossed the street to Veganista. My favorite ice cream shop in Vienna. One scoop of cookies and cream in a waffle cone, please.
Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better I found 15eur on the ground.
If you’re visiting Vienna and find yourself in the Leopoldstadt neighborhood then you simply have to take a walk around the Augarten park. Augarten is adjacent to an old porcelain factory. The grounds have what appear to be decaying water towers juxtaposed with meticulously manicured gardens. The lighting in Augarten during a summer evening is straight off of the Lion King VHS sleeve.
Tomorrow is a rest day in Vienna. I’m going to the Leopold Museum and I could not be more excited. A course I took spent a good deal of time discussing the Leopold collection and its implications on the recovery of Nazi loot. The Leopold houses the world’s largest collection of Schiele’s work too; so, there is lot’s to see and think about there. I can’t wait.
