March 19th was a good day. I took Big Bus tour to the Opera/Albertina stop then walked the short distance to see the Austrian State Library. The library was preparing to have a special exhibition on Anton Bruckner, so there were a number of partially completed exhibits. None of that took away the beauty of the space. 

I walked back to the Albertina and sat outside to enjoy the sun, letting my knee recover from walking and climbing stairs. Inside the museum, I spent most of my time in the Lichtenstein 100 year retrospective exhibition in the basement. I read comic books when I was younger and I recall being struck, as a teen, by seeing that familiar style of art in huge canvases hanging at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore.  I enjoyed Albertina exhibit very much; it was good for my adult self to learn a bit about the hows and whys of Lichtenstein’s art. Afterwards, I went up to the 2nd floor of the museum and worked my way downstairs to the entry floor thru their collections. It was a mixed bag for me: some pieces I liked immediately and others which did not grab me at all. There were also a number of tour groups – teenage and middle school age – flowing through the museum which made seeing and appreciating a piece more difficult in any case. However, I did take pictures of pieces which I liked. Back on the entry floor, I had lunch in the museum cafe then returned to the tour bus stop to hop on a different route which took me to other parts of Vienna

 By the time that bus returned to the Albertina stop, I was ready to head back to the hotel. Though I honestly wanted to sit in a cafe, people-watch and drink, there was only one more bus heading to the train station available for the day. I decided to continue taking it easy with my knee rather than using the Metro to get back to the Hauptbahnhof. I just headed back to the train station on the tour bus. At this point, I’m three weeks into my trip and the travel size toiletries are beginning to run out. I found a drugstore, Muller, in the train station and purchased everything I needed – you gotta love Google Translate. I leave Vienna on March 20th by the overnight Nightjet train to Amsterdam; three weeks here might have been enough, not three days.