Enough is enough?

Since we’re on the subject of my bad habits, here’s another one: I don’t know when to acknowledge when more is less. When I planned our trip to Pennsylvania a couple of years ago, I insisted on adding to our nice, uncomplicated trip to Pittsburgh side trips to Falling Water and Philadelphia. The hour and a half drive to Mill Run to tour a Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece was absolutely worth it; the three-plus hour journey onward was not. We had enough time to see the Liberty Bell, get followed for several blocks by a thug, and meet a destitute man from Detroit who compared me, in a very complimentary way, to a rippled potato chip. Cracked, nearly jacked, and totally wacked.

Similarly, when I arranged my vacation to Budapest last summer, I thought since I was already all the way over there that I should add on a day trip to somewhere nearby. The obvious choice was Vienna, with its MuseumsQuartier a short train ride away. Somehow, I expected in a half day’s time that I would visit the Kunsthistorisches Museum, the MUMOK, the Naturhistorisches Museum, and the Leopold.

This is the Kunsthistorisches. Does it look like I could see it all & more in five hours?

Instead, I saw only a fraction of the Kunsthistorisches and suffered a moment of terror when my passport was confiscated on the train and I considered for a very long second that I might actually be arrested.

  

On a positive note, I did see what I was after, which was the largest collection of Pieter Bruegel works in the world. Including The Procession to Calvary, which later allowed me unabashed bragging rights when watching the film The Mill and the Cross. To completely change the subject, this is an astonishingly rich, moving monument to an equally impressive piece of art. A must see for anyone who cares about such things, which I hope you do.