The Final Post... A summary.

Home again, & it feels great.
What a journey, others may do this in their stride but for us it has been a truly once in a life time event.
We have been happy, sad, exited (but never bored), stressed, relaxed, impressed, disgusted & emotionally moved.
This combination may or may not be what is expected of a holiday. But it has certainly made us feel alive & appreciate the magnificent country we live in.

A very important part of our trip was to the village my parents left, never to see again, when they emigrated to Australia. Our verdict, without much deliberation, is that the decision was undoubtedly correct.
The actual move itself would have been emotionally traumatic & very frightening. My mother never saw or spoke to her mother again & I know this effected her deeply. Their thoughts were for the future of their children & I am dissapointed that they are not alive today, that we could express our appreciation of that monumental decision.

There are no more crap quality photos to see, just an itemised list of my 10 personal opinion do's & dont's of our experience.

.1. Don't waste your time going to the cities, the names of which we hear so often. They are just cities & they are the same the world over. There are specific locations in some cities that are worth the crap you need to put up with to see them.These will be individual choices.All European cities are rediculously overcrowded.

.2. Do go to the Alps & spend time, there is much to see & do, the beauty is indescribable & uplifting to the soul. The Alps are beautiful in every country, Italy, France, Switzerland, Austria & Germany. After all they really are the same mountain Range.

.3. Beware of French & Italian drivers. They are incosiderate & dangerous.

.4. French do not maintain anything & there is dog shit everywhere. Italians are not much better.

.5. Don't fly Emirates. Virgin is much better & cheaper.

.6. Cruise the rivers. It is the easiest & best way to see all places except the Alps.

.7. Add 2 days to whatever time you intend spending in Dubai.

.8. Watch at least 1 or 2 legs of the TDF. It will be the highlight of your trip. (to the Alps)

.9. Cycle, if you must visit cities. It is faster, safer & gives better views than vehicles

.10. Packing After you finish packing, open your bag & throw out exactly half of everything you put in. It will make your life a whole lot easier.

Here endeth the sermon..............................................

A couple of days in the Persian Gulf

We are in yet another plane at 34000ft above the Indian ocean. We have been in the air now
for five & a half hours with along way to go yet until we reach Brisbane.
To fill in on events in Dubai....The quickest way describe Dubai is to say we underestimated
the time to stay. We did not realise just how much there is to see & do there.
The flight out of Vienna was a nightmare. The aircraft we flew in was an A340 & if I never
fly in one again, it will be to soon. The seat was the most uncomfortable thing I have ever
sat in & my back was sore within 5 minutes & felt like it was broken by the time we arrived.
The crew was snooty & were more interested in playing with their mobile phones in the back
than doing their jobs.Luckily we had a tailwind & only took 5 & a half hours for the leg.
Emirates may have many new planes but they are nowhere near as good to travel with as Virgin.
(Fortunately we have a nice 777 for this long leg to Brisbane. Very comfy & a little roomier)
Back to Dubai...
We arrived at about 6am after a miserable flight & were very tired by the time we cleared
customs & got to the hotel it was about 8.30 & we had to wait till after 11 to get a room.
After a short rest we headed for the Metro train at around 12.
The Metro...is great spotlessly clean (no grafitti or scratched windows here)& very fast.
The trains are 3 or 4 carriages long and are have no driver as they are fully automated.
It seems a little strange looking out the front window at the track.The system is very easy
to work out & gets you there in cool air conditioned comfort, 2 or 3 times faster than a cab
or bus.An unlimited day pass costs abut $5.00 AU & includes buses & water taxis.

A word about air conditioning...In Europe A/C does not exist or is extremely poor, so that
you are nearly always hot & sweaty. In Dubai it is just the opposite, everywhere is refrigerated.
Everything has A/c, all shops, train stations, pedestrian walkways & every little bus stop
shelter & it is always turned down very cold. That is very fortunate as the lowest
overnight temperature was 38 degrees.The daytime temps were in the mid to low 40s.
We were told it is a very mild summer as it is usually in the low 50s in August.

On the first day we took the Metro to 'The Mall of the Emirates & stayed until about 8pm &
had dinner there.We did not see all of it, as I think that would take some time. We did
however see the indoor snow skiing, snow zorbing & bob sleding. The whole massive structure
is kept at -3 degrees.

The next day we did an all day bus tour of a lot of the interesting sites, part of which
was the gold souks. The Souks are an old part of the city where many small shops are set
up like markets.IT is very large & covers many city blocks,with many small crowded backstreets.
All the different types of store
are grouped side by side. Like there may be 50 or 60 leather goods shops then the same amount
of car parts shops or hand made dresses etc. You can buy anything in the Souks CHEAP !
There are many gold artisans here & it is estimated the are more than 10 tons of pure gold
in the Souks at any one time.We saw the largest solid gold ring in the world complete with
its Guiness book of records certificate.It was made from 63.3KG of 22 carrat gold. Needles
to say it is a little large to wear.We liked the souks so much that when the tour dropped us
 back to our hotel, we jumped straight back on the Metro & went back to the Souks where we
had several hours of night shopping & a nice meal. I know what you are thinking,walking around
 the back alleys of a foreign city at night might be a little unwise. That is not a problem
 in Dubai. The city has a 0% crime rate because the muslim laws are so harsh. For instance it
 may not be worth getting your hands chopped off, just to pick pocket a couple of bucks.

This morning Yvonne spent our last 100 odd Dirhams on a few small gifts at the airport & we
are now headed for home.About 20 minutes ago we passed over Male & its emerald coral reefs.
off the southwest coast of India.

As I type this I have just watched the most magnificent, irridescent
 orange sunset over the Indian ocean towards the African continent.I am also constantly
glancing at our GPS course plot on the seat back screen. We are currently way out in the Indian
 ocean between Africa & Indonesia About 1000 nautical miles from Broome WA, which will be our
next land crossing. From Broome we fly a nice great circle arc into Brisbane. We are both
looking forward to getting home, it seems like a lifetime since we left & many things have
happened during that time. This blog only touches some of the events.I have watched 2 movies
 while Yvonne slept for 3 or 4 hours.She has now just finished watching Jack the Giant Slayer
 & has started some other movie.From glances at her screen, Jack the Giant slayer, looked
pretty good so I might watch it shortly.

Yep it was a pretty good movie & I would reccomend it for a bit of escapism.(great CGA)
Well our course has altered well south & we crossed the WA coast, just north of Perth.
The lights of Perth were a great welcoming sight.
(the first glimpse of Australia is always exciting & much appreciated,whenever we have been out of the country)
I guess we came this far south to pick up the jet stream & pick up some time & save a
little fuel. The plane left nearly an hour late due to one of the runways in Dubai being
closed. but we have now made up that time & the GPS says it will have us at the terminal
gate in 1 hour & 16 minutes.We are currently northwest of Adelaide having passed over
Kalgoorlie & Coober Pedy in clear skies, with a lovely view of the well lit towns.
As we are travelling very fast almost due east, very shortly we will be having a very rapid
 dawn & sunrise.
We just filled out our entry cards & we are tired & happy to be getting home in less than
1 hour, we are just crossing the Queensland border. This has been a pretty good long
haul leg in a comfortable plane. If you can't fly in an A380 then go in a 777.
I will be back with the final summary of the blog when we get home.

The Burj Khalifa. Worlds tallest building by over 200 metres standing over 2770ft high, in real life it looks like something out of science fiction. I could not fit it in my camera so I borrowed this picture from google images

The man made palm islands. We drove up the centre stalk to the enormous Atlantis hotel. There is an underwater tunnel connecting the centre stalk to the outer ring. The Atlantis is the small dot straight above the centre stalk on the outer ring. (borrowed this photo too)

Inside the wonderful & cool Metro systemm.

Yvonne with the Burj Khalifa in the background.

A small part of the Atlantis on the palm.

The driverless Metro pulling into the station.Note the thick glass walls separating the train from the platform. The train doors & the glass doors line up & open for exactly 20 seconds, meaning that the station A/c is maintained. trains run exactly every 10 minutes for most of the day & every 4 minutes during peak hours.

Heading toward the 'Souks' one hot afternoon/

The gold Souks

Worlds largest solid gold ring, 63.3 kg of pure gold.

On the pristine white beaches near the Burj Al Arab.

A really nice development of suites on a freshwater, man made water way.

One of many shop fronts of handcrafted pure gold in the gold souks.

The old Dubai fort from the 1700s now has a modern airconditioned museum underground.

More hand crafted gold in the souks.

The gold is sold at the price per kg of gold on the day plus a separate labour cost for the manufacture. The work is extremely intricate.

A small part of the indoor snow & skiing village. This is not the ski run, which is quite long.This is the zorb area.

One of the many covered air conditioned walkways they usually contain travellators.

Inside part of the massive Mall Of The Emirates.

Haring along in the Driverless train. A passenger checks out the view.

Goodbye Europe.. Hello Dubai..

Well the very last days in Europe have been some of the most enjoyable. This again being due to the fact we spent the time in the lower Alps.We have explored the area around Lassing, with a trip through the gorges & a chairlift ride to the top of a quite high mountain. The entertainment being, watching the hangliders leap off the cliff. Sitting on the mountaintop having special coffee & apple strudel, felt like being in the Eagles nest.
Unfortunately all good things must come to an end & yesterday was spent transiting (very slowly with coffee stops) back to Vienna. This morning I ran Roz & Byron to the airport for their 10.30 flight back to the USA.
I tracked the flight on flightradar24 & noticed it did not leave the ground until 11.00. (close enough)
After lunch we took the car back & checked in for our evening flight. So here we sit at another airport, waiting for another plane. (We seem to have been doing that a lot) Next stop Dubai for 3 days & 2 nights. The weather forecast is for temps in the 40s & we already know that the moisture from the Gulf will probably give us over 90% humidity. We are the purveyors of hot weather.

Another hilltop overnight stay. The star suite was a tree house out back.

Heading into some more Alpine gorges.

The hills are starting to get higher again.

Climbing down to an Alpine creek at Wasserlochglamm.

The creek at the bottom. Note the suspension bridge at the top of the picture.

The last nights stay in the Austrian Alps.

The top of the mountain. The dude threw himself off 5 seconds later.

TThe same dude moments later.

"Shall we end it all now Betsy" ?

On the way down on the chairlift.

Roz & Byron exiting chairlift.

Panorama setting at roadside stop.

The tree house suite.

Family Roots...........

We are now 4 travelling across Austria from East to West. We have managed to jam all 8 bags
 & 4 people into our Opel Zavira, which is a fairly large station wagon.
Austrias' reputation for being a pretty country is well earned, as we found on our trip
through rolling farmland, with kilometres of corn & wheat & the tall, dense & dark forrests
that are scattered over the country. We spent our first night back on the road at a guest house
in a very small village. The guest house was the only thing in town & was actually closed as they
were hosting a very large wedding, but they took pity on us & allowed us to stay. As this
was the only venue we had to travel to the next village for dinner.(about 2klm).
Great dinner & we appreciated it as we had missed lunch.

The next evening found us in Braunau (Hitlers birth place).This is the area in which our
family came from, in the nearby town of Ranshofen. Our mother used to work in the konditerei
(coffee & ice cream shop)in the main square of Braunau & used to cycle the 5k to & from
work in summer & winter. We had coffee & pastry at this shop & thought of mum walking these
same floors 60 years ago.The same family still owns this shop.
We think we found the factory where dad worked & will confirm this with some research when
we get back. We found the first house that dad built, near the crystal clear  creek where
 oma used to kneel on a pad & wash the clothes. The same creek where Rudy fell in during a
wash day. The little platform is still there.
We found the second house that dad built, where oma hand made the bricks. This is the house
& oma they left behind & never saw again when they came to Australia.
We visited the school Roz attended & had a beer in the Brauhaus at the town square.
It was a melancholy experience.

Our guesthouse where we were staying had an incredible lady running it & she gave us plenty
of entertainment during breakfast & dinners.

The next day saw us heading South through colourful rural areas & through the outskirts of
Salzburg & onward into the early hills of the Austrian Alps(think Hiedi & Sound of Music).
The scenery is truly storybook pretty & we spent a pleasant night in on of these postcard
villages. The next day we completed our southerly heading at Villach near the the Slovakian
& Italian border & started heading Northeast slowly heading toward our departure point of
Vienna.We have again spent the night in a lovely old building on a hilltop near another
old church & castle. We are now so fat we are ready to explode.

Cornfields in rural Austria.

Braunau town square.

The house our family left to go to Australia. I took this picture from about the same angle as one we have at home in black & white with our oma in front. The house looks the same.

Morning tea in the shop in which our mother worked.

The outside of the above shop.

The first house dad built. It is actually L shaped but you can't see the other leg.The house has been recently renovated as the external woodwork is all new.

The creek in which oma washed. Note the little platform on the right.

Leaving our guesthouse & the very colourful lady running it.

Entering the foothills of the Alps & the many picture perfect villages in it.

A scene from the road side.

Although we chose not to use the Autobahn, so that we could take our time & see more, it was never far away, usually above us.

Another road side stop.

Budapest...pearl of Europe

Well the ship is a lovely memory that we left behind this morning in Budapest.
Budapest, the surprising gem of Eastern Europe. We sailed into the city at about 11pm
to be greeted by the most amazing light show you can imagine. Light beams lancing into
the sky, purple lazer streaks & strobes & the magnificent buildings beautifully lit.
After 10 countries & countless places I think this may be the true gem of Europe & is the
one city I probably would have liked to spend more time in. This is even more surprising
considering that the stops were getting a little more ordinary as we were travelling futher
behind the former iron curtain. Communism having left its obvious legacy. Bratislava
seemed to be really struggling.Yet a small distance down river was this vibrant lovely place.

We anchored in the city heart, right beside the historic 'Chain bridge'& the sundeck in the
evening after sunset was spectacular & pleasantly cool place to be. The 4 of us enjoying a
bottle of wine & the scents of the city. (I think the air is thick with the smell of paprika)
The excursion was beaut & included the mandatory ABC & castle. The most interesting thing
was the underground caverns under the castle buildings, which we checked out during our free
time.There is a complex of about 8 miles of these caverns & they were cool & fascinating.
We went from 38 degrees above ground to about 20 degrees in the caverns.

Today it was difficult to leave the boat & the thoughtful crew behind but we caught a taxi &
after ten minutes of life threatening terror, were dropped at the bus station.
We are now halfway back to Vienna where we will be picking up another car for our week in
Austria. The bus is completely full & I am typing this to take my mind off the fact that
they only ever have the A/C on very low & it is HOT, even though it is a cool day outside.
Europeans believe A/C is unhealthy, so everywhere is always hot. Anyhow only about another
hour & we will be in Vienna to pick up our car, where we will crank the A/C up to the
refrigerate level...........

Entry  to tunnel from chain bridge into tunnel to drive up to ABC & castle.

Inside Budapest ABC.

Parliment house on the Danube. Taken from ABC.

Inside Labyrinths 60 feet under castle

During an evening walk we came across a large group of young people near the river bank, dancing loud & lively folk dances barefoot with a singer & a band. They were kicking up a dust cloud & having a great time.

Chain bridge, taken from the river bank near the dancers.

Parliment house from the river.

Museum & chain bridge from the river.