Haas Bad Gastein

Stayed at a beautiful spot in Austria (Saalbach) with Hilly, Stu's old friend and new Father..actually felt sorry for him, the poor sod was knee deep in relatives, in laws, newly purchased crib and nappies, etc.....we stayed for afew days and it was neatly timed with the arrival home of new born Frankie. Hilly's place is 3 feet from a field of horses so Lauren was easily kept busy with feeding duties.

Stu tried ...

Abfahrt von Poettelsdorf dann endlich gegen 1/2 7 abends. War ja nicht so einfach - alles einladen - dann noch diverse Besuche - zwecks Wohnmobilbesichtigung ;-)
Kurze Pause in Ilz - abendessen und gegen 1/2 12 dann Ankunft in Steinfeld - Frau Graf ist sogar noch wach ...

... bikes to use, so I rode around the towna nd to surrounding villages for about three hours. It was great. Very relaxing too. There were a lot of bikers out, all Lance Armstongs in the making I think. They all looked very hardcore with their expensive race bikes and tight shorts. Zell Am See is a ski town. It is completely surrounded by lifts etc, but it's in ...

... moved. Kids were instructed to sit still for very good reasons, as the sight of a huge eagle heading straight for you is a tad unnerving to say the least.

Any photographer would know that this is probably the toughest shooting challenge of them all, and after rattling off 150+ photos, Jamie was only slightly happy with one of them... guess more practice is needed.

Rest of the journey into Salzburg was fairly uneventful, and we arrived at our camping site ...

... yesterday have become a white ball of healing light. I fully expect to achieve enlightenment tomorrow when I lay eyes on the St Marco Square in Venice. Don't worry, I'll tell you all about it. I have also managed to work out the kinks in moving in a straight line. Which means the narrow sections no longer vex me so. Furthermore, the trees no longer scare the bejebus out of me. I've also discovered that the ungroomed ...

... discriminating between does, and where doesn't hurt. Though occasionally I get a spike of my in my left buttcheek, just to remind me I'm still alive I guess. I should also point out that it's all good pain today, probably the result of this unfamiliar thing I've been doing called exercise... Things I don't like about the slopes here: - There are a number of ...

... of carving through fresh powder (and not falling over). I'm also completely buggered, so I'll sleep well the next couple of days. Hopefully the weather will clear up tomorrow - as awesome as it is to have fresh snow while you're boarding, the loss of visibility doesn't do me any favours. I've also been told that the average blue (easy) run here, is the equivalent of a intermediate run in Australia... Way to go through a tria by fire, James. Alright, that's it for now. Wish me luck.

... in Europe, that would be the Astronomical clock in Prague - which I also saw. In Prague I walked away in bemusement after 2 minutes though (it takes 20) shaking my head at the tourists watching in rapt awe.... Munich's history isn't quite as nasty as Berlin's but there are still some very entertaining facts about the city... For example there have been not one, but 2 Beer-related revolts in Munich. The first in 1400 and whatever, when the King raised the ...

... seeing a 70plus year old lady going up on a european town bike with basket on the front and back!!! She was almost at the snow line when we pasted her!! So 30 minutes waiting for the brakes to cool was spent watching the antics of brake and new unreleased car testers going backwards and forwards some even carrying double axle trailers at full speed. An amazing experience for us both and well worth the long drive to get back there.

(Note : All entries from now until Perth in November are way shorter than they should be, as all out text got stolen, together with our laptop, all our valuables, and almost our whole campervan, when it was broken into and trashed in Rome at the end of October. Have a look at that entry if you want to have a look at the damage the *******s did. The next month or so´s text is written 6 months later, so we may have forgotten some bits!)

We picked up ...