France

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FOUR COUNTRIES IN ONE DAY - PART I
Tony and his mother arrived in France and there was an emotional reunion of sisters and a brother who had not seen each other for 50+ years. We collected our car which fortunately comes with a GPS (nicknamed Maria). We left France travelling through Switzerland, Germany and Austria overnighting in Villach (Austria). The weather was sunny with a thick haze over the mountains (mainly due to the fires in Greece) and we went through many, many long tunnels, some up to 6kms long. From Austria our journey took us through Slovenia and Croatia. With Maria to guide us the motorways were easy to negotiate, not so much the cars travelling at over 200kms. Then we reached Bosnia Hercegovnia and two lane roads shared with any form of transport from trucks, buses and cars to tractors and horse and cart. As we crossed the border there were reminders of the devastation of the recent war. Though when we reached the town of Derventa, which had been mostly destroyed, there was strong evidence of rebuilding. We had two nights in Prnjavor and met for the first time some more of Tony's cousins who were on holidays.

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