P, B and Gordie on the last day, before Gordie's eyes clouded over, or was that Bubu?

Yes, that's the big M sign in Salzburg, latching on to the sound of music fever. (we cannot tell you what the Austrian McD flavour is)
To top off our driving experiences in 7 counties, this Quad ATV passed us on the Autobahn near Munich (we were only doing 110kph, so what should we expect?)

Spent yesterday afternoon and night in Salzburg, scooting between downpours to check out the downtown and the beerstubl and then packing the bikes before an incredible downpour threatened to turn Gordie into an arc. Headed through pretty country today to Munich where we dumped the gear at the hotel and returned the camper without too many scratches (tree branches if you can believe it).

"So Peter", asked Barb (aka sailor Bubu), "how would you describe the second phase of your sabbatical?" "A continuous stream of learning opportunities", he replied.

From the beaches of Portugal to the mountains of Austria - 9 weeks, 8500 kms, 7 countries and 32 campgrounds later, we are homeward bound.

Tonight we are looking forward to meeting up with Emma and Erich coming in from Rome before we all fly home tomorrow in time for their convocation on Saturday. Lots of exposure to the different ways people live has made this a great part of the radventure. We are now looking forward to being a part of how Canadians live down home on the farm.

Got to Slovenia, beautiful countryside and nice town of Ljubljana. Lots of students, great river front, and a serious light rail and bike network that you would not find in any 300,000 person city in NA. Not bad for a country that was bankrupt after Mr. Tito died. NA should be ashamed.

Leaving Slovenia this rooster was sheltering in the phone booth at the border crossing (only one we have had to get checked at, even though it is in the EU), while we had tea, and then came out with the sun.

And now we are waltzing around Austria - the country of the dry people and the angry German tourists - well only one but he was our first encounter in the campground in Vienna that was seriously oversubscribed. We weren't driving any further and Gordie fit beautifully into the spot this guy had taken his car out of for the day. It all worked out as we got a real spot the next morning and had two days visiting Vienna.

Very interesting introduction to the Hapsburgs that we knew almost nothing about. Vienna had million people in 1900, and 1.6M now that the empire is no longer. It was the government centre for over 50million people before that little disagreement between 1914 and 1918 put an end to things and to the monarchy. All those taxes let you build really BIG homes. There is a surprising amount of old stuff still standing after going through two big wars recently, and many others not so recently. The huge Cathedral was rebuilt by the locals after a major fire at about the time the Russians"liberated" the city in 1945, which is pretty incredible. We managed to get in a choral mass there on our first day with soloists and orchestra and organ all there to support Barb through some glorious hymns. Then off to a fun dinner in a courtyard brewpub with some locals meeting to plan their vacation.

Biked the Danube next morning and off to the summer palace (photo for Gaston Spike) for some design ideas for Gaston Real to implement for us at the farm this summer – no more slumming it for us! Then more touring around town. They have incredible public transit, biking and park systems that we could be learning from. We took in a beautiful trumpet and organ concert in a small church in the evening.

Today we headed to the mountains, lakes and free wireless of Hallstatt in central Austria, where we are waiting out some lightning. (Much of the country is flat, which is not what you would expect but presumably you couldn't have started an empire without some homegrown food.)

SO we spent another day in Florence including climbing the Duomo (Barb has gone places you'd never bet on in this radventure!) before heading to 4 nights across the Lagoon from Venice - visiting the beaches and a spectacular waterlogged city full of tourists. They are spending a huge whack of dough on a plan to separate the city from the sea, while letting the boats go back and forth. Not much left for the buildings which are looking like life is tough. Traffic jams in gondolas are not that romantic either. Have now reached Ljubljana in Slovenia, where the people are definitely not Italians - nobody has even tried to steal our laptop sitting out here in the square. A real student town, and nice to get back to tons of bikes around. Are getting more rain than the first 7 weeks combined, but temp is good and somehow it doesn't rain when we really need it not to.