Special Reunion in Vienna

We went out for dinner this evening to a small Greek restaurant nearby, and sat near these three young people. The owner joined them intermittently, and after a while they brought out a package to give him, with these framed photos. It turned out that the visitors were from Russia and had met Adam, the owner, while vacationing on a Greek island last August. We had a great time talking with all of them--and I promised they would be able to remember their reunion through this blip. A very special evening indeed.

The day's main outing was back to the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Last time we had seen the northern European paintings--German and Netherlandish. This time we took in the other half of the old masters (mainly Italian paintings, including notably three
Caravaggios), plus an excellent exhibition on the English painter Lucian Freud (1922-2011)--the first devoted to him in Austria. It was relatively small, but included a well selected group of paintings from his entire career and mainly from private collections.

After that (at ca. 5 pm) we toured a Christmas Market outside the museum, where we nearly froze to death.