Started with the beautiful city of Salzburg.  It is truelly picturesque in every sense of the word.  We entered the city by driving through a tunnel to find buildings formed out of the mountain rockface.  Immediately to the left is the River Salzach.  We can’t quite describe the market streets or Getreidegasse which were something like an alley with the shops in alcoves off of it.  You get the sense of a fargone age.  We literally wanted to photograph everything.  Some of the alcoves laberinth out into inner courtyards with quaint coffee shops and bistros.  Flowers hung fully from small balconies and window ledges adding to the imtimacy of the place.  We were still experiencing wonderful weather, with a skies so blue made a lovely backdrop for all the pics.

At this stage we had caught onto the fact that we could get Wi-Fi at any coffee shop,but we felt bad for just using it without buying a cuppa.  So off we went in search of a coffee shop.  Once we sat down and ordered a cup we learnt that the internet wa actually in the centrum and could be used free of charge by anyone.  Well 5 Euros later we had Internet that was in fact free.Much later in the story we wisen up a bit, but not until then…  On our way out of Salzburg we stopped at a MacDonalds as we had by now figured that all of them have wireless Internet, except of course the one we stopped at.  Once again feeling obligated to buy something instead of just using the Internet, we sampled the BigMac Meal, Salzburg style (you get one battered onion ring extra with your chips).  To our disgust the Internet had been down for the past few days , so once again we were caught out and this time cost us 10 Euros.

Onto Vienna we went via Kalkapen National Park.  We hoped to find a secluded place to wild camp.  Much to our dismay this was the most populated national park we have ever come across, more like a concrete jungle.  That would not do so we turned to the GPS and set is to shortest route to Vienna hoping it would take us down some backroads, instead it took us through a little villa where we could swear the roads were narrower than those of Venice.   Not having th esmallest car in the world, we had to inch through alleyways with buildings literally 10cm to each side.  Yes, these were definitely roads as there were cars parked in bays along it.  We promptly put the GPS onto fastest route and header straight for the higway.  We were pleasantly surprised to find a farmers field not to far from where we set off.  I still find it hard to sleep on wold camps and creak int a cold sweat everytime I hear a sound outside.  Neil on the otherhand falls into a comatose as soon as his head hits the pillows.  It doesn’t get easier either. 

The thing about wild camping is that you get up really early to avoid any disgruntled farm or land owners.  S off we set for Vienna a t 5am in the mrning and you’ll be pleased to know that we found free parking within 4kms of the inner city.   It was about 6am, so it was no hard feat.  Compared to the stresses of Pris and Salzburg sightseeing.  We had a really good time in Vienna.  The weather once again was perfect.  We did most of Vienna in about 6 hours.  We won’t list it all here, but you can check out the pics.  After this we header to the Neusiedler See where we spent 2 evenings. 

What a groove we were on.  One day of city seeing and two days of relaxing and birdwatching.  We are quite taken with our nature photography and have decided to add a picture gallery to showcase these wildlife specimens.  On one of our birding forays at Neusiedler See we happened upon a fellow birdwatcher who happened to greet us in English.  Neil was immediately onto this fact and proceeded to ask what the local birdlife wa like.  It just so happened that this particular birdwatcher, Mike Blair, is in fact in the process of writing a book dedicated to the birdlife and nature of the Neusierdler See region.  Right there na dthm we exchanged details and had a lovely chat for the better part of an hour.  Mike provided us with priceless info and contacts for our travels further on down the road. 

For the first time on our travels we braved the local winde.  What a wonderful experience that was. We came away with two bottles of sweet white wine.  Man alive was this stuff sweet!  Wehave never quite tasted wine this sweet before.  Obviously we had the stuff made only in that region.  After a good dip in the See or Lake, we made our way to Hungary.  Austria wa indeed a lovely experience.  Gruss Gott Austria!