Friday, January 14, 2011

The Ghost Museums

The second day of walking is always the worst.  That's when the blisters show up from the first day, and the feet aren't really happy about their increased workload.  But, they get used to it after a few days, and stop their infernal whining.

One great thing about traveling in January is that it's almost like you get some of the museums to yourself.  There aren't nearly as many tourists here because they for some reason avoid cold (although it hasn't been here so far), so I've got a pretty sweet setup going.

Because of the various tooth problems yesterday, I had time for one other sightseeing visit, to the Natural History Museum.  Not a lot of tourists here either, although there were several school groups.  Overall, it's a very impressive collection, with some especially interesting stuff - for me, anyway - on the evolutionary fit of several of the large animals that went extinct within the last 10,000 years, like the saber-toothed tiger, giant armadillo, and giant sloth.

The prize of the collection here is the Venus of Willendorf, a 25,000-year-old figurine found near Vienna that shows a female figure with exaggerated features, of which archaeologists have found several similar ones from the same period throughout Europe.

Miles walked today: 12
Total miles this trip: 29

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