Before I get to todays train ride, I should note that the only photos for todays entry are from Nina's early morning walk in Vienna. She found Belvedere Palace near the river, which had a menagerie (like a Zoo) established in 1720 second only to the menagerie of Louis XIV.

Overnight our guide found out that todays train had been rescheduled because of flooding west of Vienna. As a result our days journey was now two connecting trains rather than a single intercity ICE 26 service.

It was interesting to finally experience a true EU service and see how it stacked up against all the other trains we had experienced. Overall it was a positive experience, nice carriages, a buffet car for food and drink, and high speed up to 200km/h. However it appears that one can get on these trains without a booked seat and hence there was a lot of toing and froing as people looked for un-reserved seats and, as on today train, there can be more people than seats and hence people sat in the corridors. I concluded that I prefer the Chinese approach of only booked seats.

We got into Frankfurt around 18:00 and fortunately our hotel was close to the station. The only sightseeing we did was exploring near the hotel for a suitable restaurant for dinner - Mexican.