My ride to work

It has to be the best commute I've ever had: 32km through the alps, along a canyon and over a couple of tricky climbs. The canyon road is quite amazing, just wide enough for a car and with a short tunnel bashed through some rock (you can just see it to the right of the photo).


This is the last climb - a nasty 1 in 6 effort over the Sonnberg before dropping down to Fuschl where the office is. Gotta love it.
The cycling season is now well under way and I had my first ride out with the bike club (RC Hallein) last week. That turned out to be a 110km in 3hr 15min blast through Bavaria, just over the German border. I felt surprisingly strong given that it was my first proper ride in months, but it was seriously "vollgas" and no hanging around.

Vienna

We spent our first wedding anniversary in Vienna and had a great time. Lovely weather meant that we were able to cruise around the streets on their special citybike service. It was all very cultural: went to the fine arts museum, the zoo (brilliant) and nice restuarants. It's a fantastic city.


Looking thoughtful outside the Hundertwasser Haus. Hundertwasser was an Austrian artist, environmentalist and architect. He lived out his final years in New Zealand where his only claim to fame are some public toilets he designed for a town in Northland. There are buildings of his all over Austria though, and they are all quite remarkable.

Delicious new Austrian ice cream

Something tasty to lick on a hot day...

Ljubljana

We visited the Slovenian capital Ljubljana this weekend, and loved it. It had a real nice 'vibe' to it. Architecturally beautiful and classically European with lots of trendy young people hanging out in cafes.

View from the top

We took a cablecar to the top of the Untersberg (1800m) today. Well, it was a pretty amazing view! This picture is down towards our town, Hallein (in the centre of the shot). Extremely green for middle of winter and it doesn't look like that will change any time soon. A real shame as there is a ski piste from the top which goes all the way back down to the valley: 1500m of vertical. Nice if there was enough snow!