Moving on… Port Broughton is an old favourite, and we felt we were in familiar surrounds when we arrived at the caravan park. The trip westward across Yorke Peninsula was short (about 120 kms), but it was enough to give Geoff apoplexy – 24.8 lts/100kms was the best we could do against the wind (read - cyclone). Thankfully the wind abated (mostly) and it was relatively pleasant on the west coast. Geoff and Marg got the fishing gear out and walked down to the local pier to catch a feed for dinner… it was a good thing that we emptied the wallet at the Port Victoria fish shop, as the fish were not biting where Geoff and Marg were. They were biting 50 metres closer to the beach from where G had picked, but what a ... read more

Wouldn’t you know it; our run with fine weather came to an end when it was time to take the ferry across to Ireland. Was this the true English summer we about to experience? Ten days into the trip and this was the first real rain that we had experienced; could the spell of the Sunshine Bus be wearing off? No, by the time we had chugged across the Irish Sea things had cleared up and away we went to explore another tourist place where there were 27 coaches and 975,000 tourists… Geoff held some misgivings about travelling in Ireland, and with our first overnight stop being Londonderry he was in no hurry to get there. But there was nothing to worry about, and we had time to walk around the top of the (old) city ... read more

Of incredible beauty and depressing decay Just when we thought we could not stand another cathedral or ruin, we had to change our position as we were at first surprised by the medieval beauty of Bratislava, and then completely blown away seemingly endless array of castles, cathedrals and opulent public buildings of Budapest. Both cities suffered heavy damage during the war and there has been a huge amount of rebuilding, some in the original style, some post war and some very modern. Offsetting the incredible beauty of the restored/maintained historical buildings are just as many that are sadly falling into decay, such is the pity. A major theme given prominence by the guide in Budapest was the period of occupation and repression under the communist regime. There was a great deal of passion in her voice ... read more

Kos to Athens… Geoff does not usually see many sunrises, but we were at the Kos airport in plenty of time to see the pre-dawn light and eventually the sun appear. And so onto Paris. We touched down at about 3 pm (local), but as the plane was about 6 kms. from the baggage collection, there was quite a wait before the bags appeared, but at least they did appear. We decided to take the train into the city to a station that is walking distance to our hotel. Unfortunately we did not foresee the difficulties in actually getting out of the station which was more like an underground city! Actually exiting the station was not only a mental challenge, but a physical one as well which we found when Geoff tried to take it his ... read more

Whoever said flying was now a chore without any spark of humour has not flown on an aircraft full of Greeks! Ok, alcohol may have something to do with it, but it was an interesting flight from Frankfurt with various passengers shouting comments and encouragement that I am sure was meant to be helpful. At the end of the trip which was mostly smooth, they all burst into applause. We took a taxi from the airport to Athens and Marg practiced her Greek and the taxi driver was delighted, almost gave her a hug when he dropped us at the hotel. Our arrival in Athens went a little way towards explaining the attitude on the plane. To say that there are no rules here is an understatement. Road traffic signs don’t even get to the status ... read more