T Rev

well the conference is over now apart from 2nites verona by nite tour after dinner at 1900. 2 days of speeches has taken its toll. An interesting cross section of world areas incl azerbaijan nepal ghana cambodia..all with soem significant problems. My presentation went well of the 50 odd...some said it was the best if not one of the best. after sessions yday we went into verona for dinner at 2100 in one of the squares in a redone atrium open to the square with silver service and lovely food and wine. wonderful nite in keeping with conf theme..verona is for passion. got back at midnite and was up at 6am 2day to rehearse speech etc...had to get it reformatted as it was too big on about 4 pages. very hot again.mid 30s each day. 2moro ... read more

rived in verona from vienna yesterday. Flight was 105 so previous day I had decided to stay at an airport hotel for ease of travel in the morning...one gets sick of carrying 37kgs around all the time. It was 3 star next to exit 19 off a4 to the south of vienna. 2 orienteerers in the car had managed to get lost twice getting ther from Freistadt..the driver who lived south of vienna and kindly offered me lift from F missed a mway junction about 40mins out as we were taliking 2 much.So taht involved 20mins detour back to mway. Then I was navigating and we knew we were after Fischemend exit 19...we both saw exit 13 and were chatting away when 19 went past......so that involved another 10mins on mwat to exit 32 and a ... read more

Im now at vienna airport hotel..the cheap one.Got here about 6pm having ben driven from Freistadt post race 2 by a ex pom living in austria who was racing..he cam first..I came 13th out of 18. Nivetrip down..140kph on mway,,and getting passed a lot. Race day was earlish start so brekky at 0730..chatted with a guy who had young son with him. He spoke good english..good enough to joke about there being no sheep in austria. They were doing motorcyle sidecar cross country racing would u believe..2.4 m long 1.8m wide ex ww2 bike and sidecars...!!!! Temp today was down..about 20..i had last start..they treat foreigners well here....race went quite good..500m of climb so tuff event with tree roots all over the place. Pleased with outcome..made few errpors but maps were not the best with some ... read more

race day one in freistadt is over....finished 11 th out of 13 which was good but btter was that my time was within 5mins of 7th which was about 7 mins behind first..7th was achievable but for 3 errors. 2moro is long distance..heat wasnt as bad as it thought as trees kept temp down. Ride there knackered me tho..it was 4km out of town up big hill in 35 degrees of heat..it is now 6pm and its still 33. Hydrating heaps and now its off to dinner then early to bed as race 2 is 10.45am star so brekky iois at 7.30..I rescheduled it from 8am! Organisation at event was good..with drinks and cakes afterwards..I had 2 sticky things..very nice!..and austrian music playing..hum pa pa.... Smoking is not banned here so eating out is a challlenge..as ... read more

hey..its now saturday 6th arrived in freistadt in teh north ex Wien off 0840 train..well it left at 0853 as there was a security scare..an old lady had locked herself in loo whilst hubby was in a seat hoping i guess to pay only one fair..they eventually gave up and were escorted off by armed guards to sanitorium I guess. Train trip was 3 hours with one change at........LINZ.....lovely trip thru countryside especially last hour as it climbed up about 1000m and then into valleys. Freistadt is at 562m. I got picked up from station by owner of guesthouse im staying at..they speak no english!..Lovely new place well set up. Got biek assembled and went for 18km ride on a triangle route to 2 villages..climbed up to 800m and back down to about 550m in 35 ... read more

day 15.....second day in vienna but i decided as i am apt to do that i wanted to go to bratislava instead so i caught the 9am ferry down..15 euros so good price. took 90mins at a good speed..slowing for the odd barge. some interesting sights..small one room fishing huts with net booms hanging out over water...and one castle. spent the day wandering around streets looking into shops and having cheap lunch from tescos after long black of course and then had a red wine about 4pm before jumping a tram to railway station for return trip..10 euros which was even better value. bratislava is nice..i actually like it better than vienna but thats just me. u shopped in euros or slovak kroner except when u got to the train staion where u had to use ... read more

one day more than yday... now in vienna after good train trip from prague to vienna. 4 hours on pendolino tilt train....nice ride and sort of interesting scenery..flat out of czech at first then a steady climb thru pines then flat then more climb then flat. hot as when i got here..32 degrees so took cab ride to place im at instead of 3 sets of tubes etc. 15 euro so not to bad. no meter i just said how much at start and thought that sounds okay..probably too much but my luggage is weigh to heavy. first impressions of vienna is not as spectacular as prague..although that is probably unfair. prague is more gothic whereas vienna is definately regal. strolled thru main area this arvo..have full day 2moror but a bit worn ouit by it ... read more

Last say in Prague is drawing to a close with a hoy choc at starbucks folowed by metro and tram back to Hotel Septimus for early slog to Praha Holsevice to go to Wien. Spent the day wandering around Prague Castle. Got there via #22 tram which was a pleasant trip..change from metro. Great cathedral..similar to Notre Dame but smaller. Lunch was spud and beer..tourist prices but cest la vie. Wandered downhill and looked at more small alleyways and shops..monthy pythons saying springs to mind. Speaking of MP..the are hot favourite in Poalnd! Grabbed deli food from Tescos in new town..cost $15 all up and $3 for a cold beer from shop near hotel. Did packing for 2moro and downloaded 2days pics to lapotop..might do a cd backup in Austria just to be sure. About 7.30 ... read more

Hi..day 14 ..I know that cos its a Monday! Well actually its Tuesday and Im in Starbucks again but blog is retrospective sometimes. Firstly thanks to Craig et al for getting my ppt done. Now I just have to practise it. Yday was a foot weary day around the wonderful streets of Prague...certainly a very impressive old city and teh squares are great with towers tec..shame about the countless tourists. Still ecoomies must thrive. This place has more torists than Poland.....heaps of americans and brits etc. Trash shops line the streets as well as teh nice glassware places. Yday was harrowing getting odd train and to hotel but metro is easy to use..colour coded...not good for dogs tho so they still need their owners to help them ride trains which they do. Trams are funn as ... read more

Hi..day 13? Left SJ for Warsaw by car not train as got offer of free ride..3 hours. Terrible roads in places and diabolical driving..like on single carriageway with 6 foot shoulders u get 3 cars abrest as oncoming cars just overtake..u either go right or crash...it is scary stuff..and u have to look always in mirrors and ahead to know which dodgems to dodge.....boy oh boy Random aside..dog just walked into Starbucks with owners!..take me for acoffee Mum. Wandered around Warsaw old town till 7pm..quite nice in a small new way as it was all bombed out in WW2. Got train okay..mad dash to front carriage..I was toast if it crashed. Disjointed nice as train wobbled everywhere and stopped and changed engines! Got soem sleep tho. It drops u at Kolin 60 kms from Prague ata ... read more