Thursday, September 4th...

Evan and I rent bikes and ride around downtown Salzburg. Then, as Evan is leading us home (I should know better by now) he makes a wrong turn. I notice him doing it, but I think he's taking us home a new and exciting way. (I should really know better by now)

We get lost. At first it is fun and clever and we both think we are so cool not obeying the bike laws in Austria, and it is only scary when riding in the street with traffic. We stick to the sidewalks when we can, which is either rude or illegal because pedestrians are giving us odd looks and sometimes shouting things at us.
We are speed demons! We can't pause to understand their gibberish!! We are excercising in the sunshine of Austria!!!

Finally, we fail to locate the mountain that is our landmark, or the fortress above the middle of downtown.

But we're having fun so we keep riding.

Evan takes the lead again (really, am I that lazy or just really that stupid?!) and we head underneath what looks like the Auto Bahn on-ramp. There is a metal guard-rail on the right side, but we are going so fast we don't have time to make a ninety degree turn and get on the bike path.

We enter a tunnel on a very narrow, high speed, two lane road. The cars are driving a minimum of 100km/h. They are blasting by us, and we are pedaling furiously, trying to shorten our time in the scary (but exhilarating!) tunnel. There are 15 inches between us and the traffic; we are riding at top speed, and all I can think is, "Please dear god, don't let me biff it here."

Of course we make it through okay, crack up, and come to the Coca-Cola factory, and the Stiegl factory.

A plane flies over head - we are near the aiport, a fair way off from the main part of Salzburg.

But then we find a huge park and ride all the way home on a snuggly-safe path.

Later, we go to the wedding rehearsal; I practice ringing a Tibetan ceremony bowl.

We go out to dinner with Tom, Carol, Maria, Kim, Pep, Rachel, and Noah. I order a mixed salad: iceburg lettuce with tomatoes drenched in italian salad dressing. Underneath this lettuce disguise is potato salad, shredded, pickled cabbage with rye seeds, and cucumber salad. A delightful surprise - you really get what you order.

Get back to Pension Gugg and drink some wine with our gang.