Leaving Vienna, Austria. The Green Team was here on its first full day off. This
City of Wien is incredible, another gem that I never expected. It is built along
the poetic and musical River Danube, and is incredibly romantic. Last night Laura
and I wandered around in awe in every direction from the main Stephansplatz. Today
we took the city rim's tram and took in sites all over town before having a
great lunch and returning to the hotel for the trip back through the Czech Republic.

Everything in Vienna feels big and goes around in circles. I'm not a city
person but I'm sure I've taken more than a hundred photos of the buildings
we've seen in Dresden, Prague and now Vienna.

My run yesterday through the Czech Republic east of Prague was awful. Congested,
polluted, littered highway with minimal shoulders and zooming semis. I passed the
pilot car and told them I was out there rewriting my will in my head. Luckily it
was a warm, partly sunny day and there were two very special highlights. First, in
my start town of Tabor, the mayor came out for the exchange. She is a delightful
woman and very savvy about water issues. She read the BPR message in Czech and I
repeated it in English, then Laura handed off the baton to me. My second highlight
came about 7 miles into the run when Jin Zidell's niece Faith joined me to run
in to the next exchange point. It was her first run since having her baby and she
did great. I gave her the baton and let her dictate the pace. Faith has a Vermont
connection, having been a ski racer at Burke Mountain. She married a Czech man and
they now live in San Francisco. They will be there to greet us on our return to the
US.

We passed a number of lakes yesterday that were man made about 500 years ago for
fishing and they are now natural looking and impressively large. As we moved closer
to Austria, the scenery improved dramatically. Once in Austria it was an Alpine
wonder of mountains, forests, expansive farmlands and vineyards, and lovely
settlements all manicured and perfectly aligned. This area is home to a lot of
logging operations and the people love rocks. Rocks abound everywhere, in the house
construction, the gardens and centerfold to the roundabouts. Yes, there are still
roundabouts.

We've now maneuvered our way around the Prague and Vienna subways, and the
Vienna tram. The systems are user friendly and practical. Why the US can't get
its mass transportation act together is beyond me. The same regarding windmills
which are also prevalent in Austria.

The Green Team starts the 3pm to 9pm shift tomorrow and we are headed into Poland.
This is it for my language abilities until we return to the US. Once we hit Poland
we will be in the hands of interpreters. All the languages between here and our
return to the US are extremely foreign to almost all of us. This coupled with the
fact that we will be losing our Italian team of drivers and support personnel, and
that the teams are going to be shuffled around, will create a whole new set of
dynamics for the trip from Belarus across Russia, Mongolia, China and Japan. Onward
we go!

Chinese proverb from a friend: When you drink the water, remember the spring.