Art & Christmas Eve

Most of the places we've been the past few days don't allow photography, so you'll have to just put up with my writings about it.  Christmas Eve is the big holiday here, and we accepted the reduced hours and went to the Kunsthistoriches Museum.  Should you ever choose to visit this temple to Hapsburg art shopping, may I recommend a map, a compass, and a healthy supply of trail mix?  We stumbled out of there five hours later.  There may have been babbling.  In fact, I am sure there was babbling.  Something about severed heads...  Judith and Holofernes, Salome and John the Baptist, David and Goliath, even a few Mesusas including a really hideous one by Reubens.  Ultimately, I think we saw dozens and dozens of decapitations.  Yeuch.

We also continued my previously noted trail of dead Jesuses.  Lindsey kept insisting we were celebrating the birth, not the death.  But you wouldn't know it from the corpses piled up in those paintings.

Of course, the funniest moment was when we had just arrived and were still fresh and enthusiastic.  I was excited to note that the scaffolding is still up on the grand staircase and told Lindsey, "that's what we've come to see!"  The incredulous look she gave me was notable.  However, I had good reason.  Klimt did some of the murals near the ceiling of the room, and the scaffolding allows visitors to see them close up.  

The Christmas Market in Theresien Platz was still going outside the museum.  You may see here my "tiara".  Lindsey bought Christmas headbands.  Mine has bells on it.  She has a bow.  As you can see in the photo from our Christmas Eve dinner.  At Der Kuckkuck Restaurant.  And here's what we had:

http://www.derkuckuck.com/Restaurant_Der_Kuckuck_English/Restaurant_Der_Kuckuck_en_Weihnachten_files/Weihnachten%202011.pdf