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.

a quick update from FLorence where we toured the city last nigth without the crowds. Great! after toodling around Chianti, Umbria, Sienna and Assisi, we liked the small villages the best. Several wines and a great stay for 3 nights in a farm cottage (organic olive groves!). Have actually had some rain now, but all is good. Heading for Venice soon.

Have made it to Italy. Hangin' out on the Med at Cinque Terra - 4 little towns at the mouths of valleys and one on the top of the ridge between vineyards stretching along the coast. First place we have heard mostly English - Yanks, Brits and several Canadians - one of whom had lost their passport. Weather remains great, noisy German camper mates competing with the birds at this campground.

Canal du Midi

B at Pont du Gard

Road to Castellane

Well we were a while in Agde as we suspected. The weather was windy and cool, but the vibe was good so we hung out for an extra day or two.

Biked the canal du Midi on two days (tandem one day, ours the other), and met an Englishman and his Norwegian wife and in-laws, got invited on board his guppy for some box wine and a hilarious chat that would have sat very well with brother John in its blunt references to other boaters from various countries (that we shall leave unnamed, although we did watch one of them try at least three times to line up a lock, while a tug and barge did the same thing in one shot). Agde was an interesting ancient town that has the old streets but not the tourist bucks to fix them up. Did a wine tasting (Mas St Antoine - bought and drank some Picpoul de Pinet white and St Nicolas red). We eventually decided to leave because the beaches were too cool and windy for bikinis, and the store at the campsite opened so they stopped delivering croissants directly to your campsite.

Made it along the coast via beaches, oyster beds, windsurf/kite board areas, another walled town and a load of pink flamingos (unlike in Woodbridge, these ones moved) to the Pont du Gard, another 2000 year old Roman structure that we as a society should reflect on more. Had a campsite in pine trees overlooking the Gard River - more like Canada than we would have expected, but with this wonderful human creation around the corner.

Then off through Provence poppy and lavender fields (if I typed this before the panache, wine and port, it would be a lot faster) along yet another truly amazing road (with Barb doing her best imitation of M. Villenueve in a camper car) to our campsite in Castellane and the Gorge de Verdon that we will explore in the next couple of days. Campsite has free wireless internet and a truly amazing radio station (still primarily the rock that we grew up on, or some French copies of same).

La Sagrada Familia (and the most common bird in Spain - the crane)

imagine telling the building inspector you didn't use mortar!

B in a little church in Segovia

Walls of Avila

No more photo envy for the kids.

So after the wonder of Salamanca Cathedral, we saw the 1000 year old walls of Avila with 86 towers, and moved on to Segovia. This place had a cathedral to match Salamanca (and we had a camera this time!), a castle that would start another castle envy round with the kids (and Real Gaston) and an enormous 2000 year old aquaduct (yes, other real Spike Gaston, we have seen an aquaduct - a heck of a lot of construction to carry a ditch about 150mm x 150mm, not sure they couldn't have paid the peasants to carry the water instead, but it sure looks neat, but pretty amazing that there is no mortar in it).
Met our first Canadian campers (from Burnaby) and stayed up way too late with Rioja and Port before the big (500km) road trip across the middle of Spain to the low point campground of the trip, but the scenery on the way was a spectacular mix of mountain, mesa, prairie, wind farms and river valley. Off through the industrial belt to get to Barcelona early the next day, to a campground with a view over the Mediterranean (clothing is apparently optional on their beaches) and close to the train (everyone was dressed, 15 minutes into the centre of town). We checked out their redeveloped waterfront (a huge marina, cruise port and theme park and bi-level roads and pedestrian boulevards), the gaudy Gaudi cathedral that has been under construction for over 1oo years as a tourist attraction (which one person said had nothing to do with God and all to do with Gaudi, which we will leave to you architects to discuss), and the Picasso Museum, giving a great perspective on the evolution of his art from 15 years old until 80 or so. We also had a superb dinner in the place that he used to hang out early in his career. And everyone was hanging on tightly to their purses and packs, which was disconcerting, so enough city for us.
Off on the autopista to the south of France, where people seem a little lighter in the heart. Passed through the Fitou region and thought of Mark. Landed at a really nice campground on the river and a short bike ride to the fishing port and beach town of Grau d'Agde, along the beach from the mega resort of Cap d'Agde. First cloudy day in ages, but great to slow down in a place that is so pleasant. We may not move for a while.