We are now on our way home to Sydney. Today in Doha Qatar is a stopover for a days rest for me and a city tour for the ever irrepressable Nina. Over the past few days we have trained from Freiburg to Frankfurt for a night in an airport hotel and yesterday we caught a morning flight from Frankfurt to Doha. Not surprisingly, given the war in the gulf, the flight was very lightly populated and therefore a bit more comfortable than usual.

Today was another excursion; this time to the local small town named Breisach Am Rhein which overlooks the Rhine River and the border with France. After Breisach Am Rhein we ventured into France to visit an old walled city called Neuf-Brisach where we found a large crowd and a noisy festival underway as part of the May day (May 1st) celebrations.

The photos below are from a day excursion into the nearby Black Forest. As you can see the weather was great and made for good photos of the forest, lake and historic buildings.

Today was a travel day; an early start to Lisbon airport for an 8:30am flight to Zurich where we were met by our two sons. Thereafter a couple of hours drive to the southern German town of Freiburg where we will stay for a bit over a week and visit with our family.

Disembarkation was a slow affair. It seems that Europe has a new immigration computer system that will record biometric info about all people entering Europe in order to accurately enforce Shengen immigration rules. We got our first taste of this system today and while it might be comprehensive it is also slow. It took us about an hour to get through customs and immigration in Lisbon.