Lunch
I was struck on my very first day in Vienna that I don´t have the vocabulary to do justice to what I was seeing around me. For instance, I had lunch that day in the Fine Arts Museum, and I was so overpowered that I stayed and wrote this description of what I saw. Remember, this is where I had lunch -- you can imagine what the rest of the museum was like.

It´s an octagonal hall, with a dome that reaches at least fifty metres above the ground. The effect is stupendous. The colours of the hall are from the black, grey and earth marble, the gold that is everywhere, part of everything that I describe, and the pale white marble of the statues. Each wall has a fifteen-metre high arch, support by two black marble pillars. To each side of the arches and above the pillars are life-size statues of people in court life -- carrying wine, acting, posing with a sword, unfurling a fan. Reach from above them and into the apex of the arch is a gold string of roses and sunflowers.

Above this are eight greater arches, encompassing all that we see on each wall, throwing more marble down to the floor, supporting balconies on what must be a second floor. Dazed museum-goers peer out of the balconies, unsure whether to look up, down or across. Framing them are more golden flowers and two statues of female griffins. Above each of these arches are two angels, alternatively trumpeting the call to battle and holding a crown of leaves for the victors. Higher still, and in the centre of the wall, are man-sized medallion portaits of Habsburg kings, flanked by subjects on either side.

Now, finally in the dome, we see a window, then each king´s royal crest and crown presented by tiny angels. The apex of the dome is an octagonal blue and golden window; a simple conclusion to a rich, ornamental room.