An apology is in order. The Danes aren't alone in Scandinavia in their capacity to charge. The rest of Scandinavia is right there with them, although we have concluded that Sweden offered a little more for our money than the others have so far. The prices are not really unexpected but they do make you blanch a little. And what is the Australian GST? A pissy little 10% was it? Try whacking 25% on everything you buy, or at least everything that we seem to have bought to date. We decided to make this run up and around Scandinavia because we had a month between one Frankfurt visit and the next. We realised that this would not be enough time but thought that we could have a taste that might whet our appetites for a future, ... read more

Starting to wonder whether this plan to post on each country makes sense but I will try to keep it up for a bit longer. So what do we know about Slovakia? There was one of those filler programs on TV program that focused on British people who bought houses in Slovakia. It basically showed a beautiful country that had cheap houses and an easy atmosphere. Slovakia used to be part of Czechoslovakia until the Velvet Revolution when the Communist regime was removed and elections were fought by more than one party. Slovakia supplied a couple of Prime Ministers at least for the former 'joint country. Alexander Dubcek was the one who was probably the most famous. He took a view that wasn't supported by the USSR at the time and the Soviets sent in the ... read more

'Why would you want to go there?' Delivered in a flat, cold tone by a woman who had been scrupulously fair and reasonable in our discussions when we mentioned that we intended to travel through Serbia. She was Slovenian though and that may have been part of the reason. Signs on the motorway from Zagreb only started to indicate that we were on our way to Belgrade after we were well on the way. Croatians just don't mention the place. In Montenegro there is a much greater acceptance and friendliness towards Serbia and, of course, the two seem to have been allies lately. In Bosnia-Hercegovina the situation is mixed. Clearly, the Republic of Srpska within Bosnia-Hercegovina is closely related to Serbia. Just as clearly, the remainder of the country is not keen at all on the ... read more

We didn't spend a lot of time here. Basically a float through on the way to Montenegro and then back after Montenegro to Sarajevo, on through Mostar and out again to Croatia. But Bosnia-Hercegovina is definitely worth more of a look than we gave the place. Sarajevo and Mostar are well set up for tourists with plenty of pansions and many, many shops. I think to be honest that the aspect of Bosnia-Hercegovina that interested us most was the war and its aftermath. This was a war that even our children can remember - I think.(That's sad for old peaceniks who thought that if we worked hard enough we could stop them all, but there you go.) It was a TV war of course and we all had the chance to see people running across intersections ... read more

I read a book recently set in Slovenia written by Paulo Coelho. The main character lamented that no one ever seems to know where Slovenia actually is other than that it is a place somewhere in Europe. I was much the same. This is unfair on the country and the people. Slovenia is one of the components of the old Yugoslavia. It is small. 20,000 square kilometres and with just a little over 2 million people. Slovenia was one of the first parts of the former Yugoslavia to split off and set itself up as an independent country. The Slovenes have their own language and, those that we have met, seem strongly committed to their nation. It was of considerable interest to move around a country in a part of the world that has undergone such ... read more