Today was a long travel day to get from Budapest to Vienna. The trip was broken up with a stop in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. Since we arrived a bit later than planned, lunch was a very quick affair in one of the outdoor cafés on the Main Street. Our guides were waiting for us in the main square when we arrived and provided a two hour walking tour through the city.

Bratislava has a population of about 500,000 people about 10% of the total population in the whole country. It is a very old town and like many European cities has been fought over and won by many different groups. It is also the only European capital that borders two independent countries. Since becoming part of the European Union, there have been many pluses and minuses. Housing in the city has become quite expensive, so people live in the border towns and then drive to Hungary or Austria for work. Many more people also live in the small towns and commute to work in Bratislava than was possible under communist rule.

We were interested to see farms throughout the countryside growing crops, but there were no animals – cows, pigs, sheep – in sight. Our guide, who just graduated in veterinary medicine, told us that farming is a very difficult occupation here and the farmers can’t afford to raise animals. This is one of the minuses from joining the EU. She also told the story of Danes coming in and buying farms in the south, subsidized by Denmark, because they have run out of land in their own country.

We finally made it to our hotel a little before 5pm, but it takes quite a while to get so many people off the bus and settled in the right rooms with their luggage. Dinner was supposed to be at the hotel but was moved to another hotel because the dining room here is under renovation…a surprise for our tour company late last week.

It’s nice to be back in Vienna and it felt quite comfortable walking the streets again tonight. Tomorrow we have most of the day on our own as George and I have already done a tour of Vienna. We’ll be visiting some of the other museums that we didn’t quite finish last week. It’s also a long day…we’ll be on the road until 11pm as our concert is at a monastery about 2 hours from here.