27-28-29-30 May: Adieu to Europe

I am presently in the QANTAS lounge at Singapore's Changi Airport awaiting my flight on the dreaded Jetstar to Darwin in about 3 hours time. This will be the last leg of my three sector flight to Darwin from Vienna.
I will try to bring the blog up to date once I am back in Darwin, but in essence the conference/symposium in Gera went well and I gave the final paper of the event which seemed to go down quite well as I pointed out that while uranium mining  may not be sustainable in that once you have dug a hole it stays dug but there is no need  nowadays to  accept that the land is no longer useful.
After the event closed  we walked to the local "schloss/castle" for a BBQ which as   a bit upset by wind and rain but there was pianist in one of the old rooms who played to entertain us.
On the Friday we had an excursion to see waste rock dump remediation in the area around Schlema where I have been visiting for a number of  times before. Then it was off to Dresden for the night  with my old mate Alex to have dinner with another old friend from the Saxony Environment Department. A good meal in the shadow of the wonderfully reconstructed Frauenkirche.
Saturday dawned early as we set off at 0515 for the drive to Vienna in the rain. 6 hours of not a lot of fun for Alex but we made it with plenty of coffee stops and even managed to avoid the worst of the traffic on the Prague ring road.
Saturday afternoon was the official handover of my apartment - pretty sad after nearly 7 years  there  - I will miss the place a lot.
Saturday evening we went out of town to Langensersdorf to have a nice supper with American friends and colleagues Russ and Karen before a return to Vienna and my last night at the flat. Alex headed off to his hotel and we said farewell.
Sunday was a rush of last minute cleaning up and then  off to lunch with my very dear friends James and Elizabeth at their apartment in the 5th district of Vienna - a very traditional Viennese meal. Then James kindly ran me out to the airport for the start of my journey away from Vienna and back to Darwin.
I will add pictures once I am back in Oz.