It's an old city, quite visibly so: archaic-looking stone buildings (like the one they've just left) cheek by jowl with much more modern-looking complexes and high-rises, the streets clean and brightly lit but clearly designed for foot and horse-drawn traffic rather than the much faster aircars.

Cordelia points out a few items of interest: a medical complex ("very new, very well-staffed, almost up to galactic standard"), a sprawling university campus ("where Ekaterin got her advanced degree"), a few distant picturesque castles picked out in colored floodlights.