We were off at 7.30 am and were soon leaving the smells of German abattoirs and pigs behind as we again crossed into Austria. Apparently 6 people on the bus had booked into white water rafting, upstream of a little village called Harming. We dropped the rafters off then drove back down to the village to wait for them, we had about 2 hours to kill. 

We went for a stroll around the village and thought that with its little cottages and flower boxes it was very Swiss looking. Heather ducked into a public toilet block and came out with an amazed look on her face, and would only say that I should go. Feeling a bit silly I went in and flushed the toilet and immediately saw what had tickled her fancy. The whole toilet seat rotates off the pedestal and through a unit under the cistern returning to the pedestal totally disinfected. Amazing technology.

With the rafters safely back on board we headed off, crossing into Italy and onto Venice arriving about 8pm. At one point on this stretch we passed a semi trailer that had careered off the road and into a vineyard requiring ambulance and helicopter. Our lodgings in Venice was to be 4 to a caravan and given the bigger number of males than usual we quickly teamed up with a couple of girls, one from South Africa the other Kiwi. They quite happily offered us the double bed and were staying longer, where as we were moving on again tomorrow. While it is always difficult sharing a confined space with strangers, this time it worked quite well.

We went out for a traditional Italian meal and then for a stroll around Venice's dockyard area. On one pier we saw a pair of lovers being very romantic, in fact very romantic!. When we got back to the van the girls had already turned in, and were still asleep when we snuck out in the morning.

Next stop Rome.