Our sixth day on the Tour was a travel day, and a nice break between activities in German cities and our next (and final) stop, Vienna! While some slept in and/or repacked items before our train departed that afternoon, others used the continued good weather in Weimar for one last coffee, museum visit, or shopping run. Some of us even stayed in the hotel through the early afternoon catching up on Stateside work.

At 1:30 PM, it was off to the Weimar train station one final time with all our luggage in tow. The journey to Vienna took over 6 hours but we arrived around 9 PM and were met at the central station (Hauptbahnhof) by our fellow NAFAn and Vienna expert Lori Felton (American University), who guided us to our hotel.

On the way to the Weimar station, our group observed a small but hardy band of locals active in the “Weltoffenes Thüringen” movement about to march downtown to showcase their city’s – and state’s – welcoming and open side. These sorts of marches have sadly become necessary in recent months due to the rise of right-wing agitators and parties in much of the former East Germany. Our multicultural and multiethnic Tour group has been warmly welcomed by all those we’ve met on the Tour, but we realize others may not always receive the same warm greetings. Some of the handmade signs the marchers carried were really witty and so today’s blog shows some of those signs with our English translations.

Hard to believe the Tour is over halfway done now, but there are still scholarship foundations, government offices, museums, and cultural sites in both Vienna, Austria and Bratislava, Slovakia yet to visit! Tomorrow we’ll start with a walking tour of Vienna with Lori and Daniel.

Written by Daniel Villanueva, tour co-leader, Global Education Manager, World Affairs Councils of America.