With the Vienna Card in-hand, I was able to use the public transport freely (saving around 10.50 euros today alone), and managed to save another 6 euros on museum entries (so with the nearly 3 euros saved yesterday, that's 9 euros just on museum entry), so already I'm ahead - and have a day to go, as well as the trip to the train station on Friday.
In short, despite my general misgivings about these cards, in this instance, it has proven to be of worth; so far, I think I've got it right in each place, with my decisions to either buy or not working out.
This was a fine museum, and a fine way to start my day - thoroughly enjoyable; as photos were allowed, below is a selection of the collection.
First-up, lets see some works by Egon Shiele, who died of the Spanish Flu in 1918 at the age of 28:
Two Children on a Beach (1904) is a self-portrait of Munch as a boy with his favourite sister, who died at a young age.
I will, however, share this Picasso - Woman Sitting With Green Scarf (1960):
The building is wonderful, but the tour is conducted in German (understandably), and for non-German speakers (mine wasn't good enough) there is a free audio guide - all sounds pretty good. However, the audio guide at each point lasted approximately 1 minute, while the tour guide spoke for around 5 minutes; now, I understand that she was interacting more and had stories to tell - but either they need to incorporate more of those stories into the audio experience, or perhaps send us on a separate tour with another guide who can then simply point out the audio number to punch in at each point, as then the tour would be over in about 15 minutes. I also understand that they need a guide to move you to each location, but to be honest, I was just plain bored standing at each point waiting to move to the next, as there was only so much to be gained from looking around at things you just don't understand. However, as it was free, I can't really complain too much. The festival hall here, where dinners and balls are held, is the largest room in Austria.
As well as the Egyptian and Near East collection, the Coin collection, the Chamber of Art and Wonders (from the Hapsburg collection), the main picture gallery takes up one whole floor, and contains masterpieces by a number of notable artists; here's a selection of works I liked (I could probably tell you why in each case, but that would make this way too long), from the mid-15th to mid-17th centuries, roughly in date order:
Nice to have now seen the original in all of its glorious splendour.
Described as a "Jolly Nigger Bank (USA circa 1930)" it's sitting in a glass case, probably because otherwise it would walk, rather than any particular value - but you never do know.