Tuesday 1st September South to Bosnia-Hercegovina(hereafter called B-H) We face probably our biggest challenge of our adventure today as our plan is to drive south through Croatia to B-H and a 2 day stop in Sarajevo,a city that was at was just 14 years ago and by all accounts is still finding its way after a peace deal was finally hammered out between the 3 warring factions. Although we had breakfast included in our tariff at the Retro Hotel in Pecs it was fairly basic and for a moment we thought we were going to have to pay separately for our coffee at HUF200 a cup!!Thankfully the pleasant woman proprietor came to the party saying that we didn’t have to pay because we booked through Booking.com.Funny how we didn’t notice that coffee was going to be ... read more

Another little bit of worthless information for your next trivial pursiut night for you.Hungary is situated in Eastern Europe but is their laguange Eastern European???Well,no it is not!!The language which is totally incomprehensible to English speaking people like us actually is a Finno-Ugric language going back to the Neolithic age from the Urals.So store that in your nec ktop computer for the next challenge down the pub on a Tuesday night!! Its another beautiful day(we hope we aren't boring you Southern Hempishere people coming out of a wet and cold winter)but the change in the weather last night has taken the heat out of the day and its likely to only get to 25C today so it should be much more comfortable for sightseeing. The road outside the hotel is quiet for a change and being ... read more

We spent a good amount of time last night checking out Google maps ready for the run to Budapest and getting down the instructions.I am on trial again as navigator and I have to pick my act up after what has now beome infamously known as 'the Vienna debacle'.!! The day has dawned beautifully fine again and the heatwave continues. It is a relatively short drive to Budapest even via the lesser roads we plan to take so we are not in a hurry.However we are still having breakfast when there is a tap on the door and they are wanting to prepare our room for the next lot of guests.Gretchen told the woman politely that we were not yet ready to leave and to come back later. We finished breakfast but it didn't seem ilke ... read more

Wednesday 26th August Day two sightseeing in Vienna What we didn’t see yesterday in Vienna we plan to see today. We didn’t validate our 24 hour all in ticket until 11am yesterday and with an early departure for the city today we can still use the ticket to get us into the city and then by tram to our first sight for the day. It has been Gretchen’s lifetime ambition to see the Spanish Horse School which is located in the Hapsburg’s Palace buildings in the centre of the city.Since she saw a movie in her childhood with her mother,about the Spanish Horse Riding School based in Vienna which she thought starred Christopher Plummer she has wanted to visit where they are trained.The movie was apparently about how the horses had to be evacuated at the ... read more

Monday 24th August Three countries in a day again and then lost in Vienna Today started out so promising,the weather was beautifully fine and we had a fairly direct run to Vienna with two borders to cross. We started off relatively early thinking we would take our time with a relatively short distance to travel. Those of you readers who are observant will recall that we used to own a Skoda Sabre in the early eighties and it was a silver colour. And lo and behold as we joined the main road south out of Prievidza we came across a ‘lookalike Skoda’ to the one we used to own parked on the side of the road.It was the same model and here it was nearly 30 years on!!Ok it was looking a little battered but then ... read more