What To See In Vienna and Austria

Problem
What to see in Austria? In Vienna last time my focus was on the Freud Museum. What next?

Answer
The New Year's Day concert showed the Clock Museum. Not a place I would normally have put high on my list. But now I've seen it on video, I'm interested. The museum possesses a staggering 4,000 clocks.

The video shows, not just grandfather clocks, and small clocks, but clocks animated like the astronomical clocks you see in some European town squares, with little figures.

I watched: a clock face set in a figurine of a horse and rider, a clock on a character whose eyes moved; a procession of little monks; a character pushing a cart.

Other museums, according to the video, included those devoted to funerals, and esperanto.

Story
We drove around Salzburg trying to follow the map. I was passenger and guide. The driver kept seeing road signs pointing the opposite way to my map. After several arguments, goring increasingly heated. Lucky there wasn't a divorce, murder, or road accident as we changed direction. The driver pulled in and grabbed the map and discovered the problem. North was at the bottom of the map.

Tip
Learn one place in the north of the city, one on the south, one on the west and one on the east. That will help you to read a map and follow the road signs.
The satnav on many cars can be programmed by choosing one of two options either to show not at the top of the screen, or to show the direction in which you are heading in front of you at the top of the screen.
Useful websites:
Uhrenmuseum, Wien.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.