Underwhelmed

Vienna

Being in a city full of museums, I decided to check a couple out. Found a cracking - and unusually for the continent, free - exhibition of photos of the natural world on the side of the road near the Museumplatz. There must have been 60 or 70 huge pictures and they looked great lit up last night and again in this morning's sunshine. Also went to the sumptuous and newly-reopened Albertina gallery. It was considerably less good with a host of Emperor's New Clothes modern art and lots of stuff in very over the top state rooms. Vulgar lot, the Hapsburgs.

There isn't much spirit or soul about this place. Coming here from Bosnia - which has it in spades - is a bit like going from the house of an exciting new friend round to your stuffy old great aunt's country mansion. For middle-aged and rich Japanese and American tourists Vienna must be like a wet dream. But it's not my kind of town at all.