Last Stop: Vienna

This morning we said goodbye to Budapest and boarded the train to Vienna. This was many of the students' first experiences riding an intercity train like this, and they got to experience both the good and the bad parts of train travel. On the good side, the seats on the train are generally more comfortable than the seats on an airplane. The bad part is that each person has to handle baggage by himself or herself, so it was a struggle to board and exit the train with all of our luggage. The train station seemed to taunt us as well by making us go down a totally unnecessary flight of stairs with our luggage. But it all worked out in the end.

This afternoon we had a relatively short walking tour of the city with our guide, Ulricke. We took the overcrowded tram to the Opera House area of the city and then toured Hofburg Palace, the former imperial palace of the monarchy. We got back to the hotel around 4:30pm, and many of us took a quick nap before exploring the city for dinner this evening. We have a lot of free time here, but many of us are going to see the Spanish Riding Exercises tomorrow morning followed by a visit to Schoenbrunn Palace.