Today the hills came alive with the sound of music. That's right folks, we've entered Austria. First of all I have to say that Italy is brilliant, you should all go there and go now. Come on, are you booking tickets yet? Sally and I have fallen in love with the place, the history, the art, the wine, the food and even the manic death wish driving. If we knew Italian we would probably live here, but since we don't you get to keep us you lucky ducks. But now onto our brief experience of Austria so far. The lakes are like oceans and there are endless mountains. I will now elaborate. Our first stop in Austria, our second for the day (at the first I actually had a coffee that I didn't hate), was for lunch. We ate by the side of what was seemingly a never ending lake and we ate well, roast chicken, salad, a roll and a beer was less than €10 each. Judging by the beer we had my beer consumption is about to go up (edelweiss weisbeer is like ambrosia). We then stopped at a motorway stop that specialized in cakes and pastries (amazing!) and then to push my luck I had another coffee (rubbish this time, too strong). All this after passing some of the most beautiful mountain scenery you can imagine. Picture green rolling hills, with a clear stream running through it with waterfalls cascading down and a little village with a white chapel every so often and then imagine seeing that so often you kind of get bored. It was magic. We are currently staying on the outskirts of Vienna in a golf resort but there is no time for golf, we have a busy day in historical Vienna tomorrow so I'm sure I will have lots of facts in tomorrow's edition. Aufwiedesein children

Alex