So you can keep your Rome's, your Florence's and your Venice's. The most beautiful city in Europe is Vienna. My senses have been in overdrive today, We started with the grand tour as we usually do, this morning both by bus and foot. The beautiful Baroque architecture which I love. The grand duke in the 1850's decided to pull down the old city wall to extend the city and replace it with a ring road. So now there is a beautiful avenue flanked with the most beautiful buildings built in the old style. Except for the museums of which there seems to be a museum for just about everything, these buildings were often the palatial homes of the rich. Now they are hotels or apartments etc. Vienna is a very green city with some 800 parks. ... read more

Arrived in Passau this morning and on the bus at 8am for the two hour ride to Salzburg. Now I remember how I loved the Austrian scenery 25 years ago. Love the way the farms have no fences, they appear to be rolling meadows. We stopped on the way into Salzburg at the beautiful Schloss Hellbrunn. A castle built by one of the archbishop princes for use as his day castle. Hense it has no bedrooms. But we had not come to see the castle infact we had come to sing a duet, boys with girls "You are sixteen going on....." You guessed it, we had found the famous gazebo from the sound of music. Turns out the people who bought the chateau where the film was made got sick of bus loads of people singing ... read more

Well we did end up leaving the boat for a little while in Bamberg. At 4 o'clock we noticed the bikes parked beside the boat so we decided to take them for a spin. Spin being the operative word. They go really fast. If you have it set too high (as Grant did on mine) you just have to touch the pedal and off you go. I finally worked out how to slow it down and we managed to get back without taking out any of the locals. It turned out that Bamburg was a very pretty old town that had never received any bombing in the war so it was very original with the houses having very pretty paint jobs. Yesterday itwas up and on the bus to tour Nuremberg town and then to the ... read more

Finally, finished with those bloody castles and get to visit a palace. The Bishops residence this morning was just stunning built in the 1700's for the Bishop Princes who paid for it from the old system of taxing the poor. We were not allowed to take photos but hopefully Grant will be able to scan. Followed by you guessed it more wine tasting in the cellar. The bishops also collected wine a a form of tax and then redustributed it to the administrators as a form of wages. The love of wine is very obvious, more than beer here and you can even get it in the coffe shop. They consume 90% of the product that they make. Love the wine guides quote this morning, "When you drink white wine you think "funny" thoughts. When you ... read more

We spent the morning cruising through the castle district starting at 'koblenz this morning. Stunning scenery. Castles percheded atop the hills that are covered with terraces of grapes that make the famous resling. At every bend on the hill another bloody castle. Bloody being th operative word with these castles having such a chequed history of being raised to the ground by robber barons only to be rebuilt again and invaded once more. Such a cruel and bloody time the middle ages and now I know that although they look romantic sitting up on the hill they are infact dark austere and pokey places. Another iillusion destroyed. More pretty are the little towns dotted along the banks of the rivers and the large chateau type homes (Think Sound of Music). Meanwhile back in the cabin I ... read more