Cliff's European Adventure: Germany -> Switzerland -> Austria -> Hungary -> Slovakia

I left Germany and headed over to Austria (via. Switzerland) to meet up with my friend, Thomas, whom I had met last fall in Florida, where he was hanging out at Quest, working on hang gliding and aerotowing, and participating in one of our events. He was an awesome host, taking me on a tandem paragliding flight. Because I was able to reach the control handles, he let me fly it a while, with left and right turns, speed up and slow down, and a 360 turn. I found it very relaxing, and the view of the mountains was spectacular.

Then Thomas and some friends invited me to dinner, he showed me around downtown Innsbruck, and then invited me to stay at his flat for the night. I've had such great hosts on this trip, it's really amazing!!

Then the next day I drove east across the entire country of Austria, on into Hungary, then north into Slovakia, making it almost up to the Czech Republic before it became dusk. I was looking for a campground, but not finding one, stopped at a really nice hotel and asked the price. It was 18 Euros (cash) for the night!!

Miscellaneous Observations:

1. Best Radio Music - Slovakia! Actually, all the European stations are really interesting. They play about half local music and half what-I-thought-was-American music. But the "American" music isn't the cliche pop stuff I hear back home; it's all indy and folksy stuff. Then I realized, at least a good percentage of it isn't American at all; it's native singers and production singing in American English.

2. Tunnels - I've driven through hundreds of tunnels; the first hour through Austria I was below ground more than above; one of the tunnels was 14 km long!