Well, I'm back in England now and it is all over. The concert I went to in Vienna was quite wonderful, aria's from Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro and Die Fleidermaus, along with other famous works by Mozart and Strauss. The singers were wonderful, the ballet dancers excellent and musicians fantastic. There were ten of them and they played without a conductor which was pretty impressive. I'm sure the percussionist must have had dreams of being in a rock band (maybe he is as well) by the way he twiddled his drumsticks.
The compere was however the star of the show. He sung a couple of aria's himself, and appeared in the first half dressed as a character from The Magic Flute. According to the girls he looked a little like Brad Pitt, albeit with Boris Becker's voice - better than the other way around I suppose. But second half he appeared in a tux and all the women's hearts around me skipped at least one beat!
So that was my final night, the next day was spent catching up on photographs and a final meal, two huge Vienna Schnitzel with fries, to the extent I couldn't eat it all, and a final beer and then to the bus. It only took twenty two hours to get back to London and the slowest bit was coming through the suburbs south of the city. Got to see the white cliffs at Dover for the first time in many years and they are actually quite spectactular. Still had time to chat to a couple of people on the bus, a Lithuanian girl (who seemed disappointed that I hadn't visited her country - maybe next time) and an irish guy.
So here endeth the lesson...I hope those who have followed me around have enjoyed it, and maybe inspired you to visit the places yourselves...And stick around, I'm sure the next adventure won't be too far away!