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Published: October 31st 2010
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Hungary
Stopped on the motorway MONDAY 11 OCTOBER - Part 7
Mileage 31093 - 327 miles yesterday - 1701 miles overall
Alarm set 0700 hours. A good nights sleep, a good hotel.
Down to breakfast, buffet style. Bacon and eggs, cornflakes and croissants. Good coffee.
Paid the bill at reception -
Room 272.74
Restaurant 162.00
Bar 25.00
Parking 20.00
Total 479.74 RON
On the road 0820 hours, 6°C on the car.
Romania is much more upmarket than Bulgaria. Houses in much better condition and quite a lot of new builds. Very few closed businesses. Much better signposting. Better road surfaces. Language much easier to read, not Cyrillic. Fewer horse drawn carts, but still lots of stray dogs. Lots of car and lorry wash places.
We followed the signs and made our way to the Romanian/Hungarian border. The Romanian border was no issue. The Hungarian border was a quick passport check and a glance in the car. The clocks go back one hour at the border.
We purchased the Hungarian Vignette 1170 Forints, for €8, they noted the car registration, the time was 0822 hours.
We were through and on our way by 0830 hours.
They have
Tesco in Hungary, open 24 hours, this was our first surprise.
Changed drivers at 1000 hours, Pat to Steve. We were now on motorways.
We went through some roadworks which said they were for 4 kms, and also on that sign was a sad face L, which made us laugh. Then at 3 kms K, finally at 1 km J. So they appear to have sense of humour in Hungary.
However we managed to encounter a real hold up at 1050 hours, there had been an accident and we were delayed until 1139 hours. The weather was nice and this wasn’t really any issue for us, so we just waited patiently, along with everybody else.
After 1200 hours we stopped in the vicinity of Budapest for a change of driver. We picked up more petrol 14776 HUF Forints. Pat was amused by the bar in the service station.
We also had a McDonalds, a large Big Mac and Royale with Diet Cokes, paid in Euros €12, (2879 Forints) got 70 Forint’s change in coins. Definitely back in civilisation now!
Back on the road at 1250 with Pat driving. Decent roads, well managed.
1430
Mondsee
Our room in the Leitnerbrau changed drivers.
We passed through the border into Austria, no sign of Customs or Immigration, again back in the real world, as we know it. Purchased a vignette €7.90.
1600 hours stopped for two lattes €6.20 (!) at a motorway service station. Also two bars of chocolate €3.98.
Pat drove us off at 1614 hours.
We noticed lots of wind farms in Austria.
Changed drivers at 1730 hours.
The roads were all major roads, and our speed was averaging 70/80 mph easily.
We spoke to a friend of ours who lived in this area, and arranged to meet up with them that evening. They live in Mondsee, just before Salzburg, the area in which “The Sound of Music” was filmed. This was a very short way off the motorway on which we were driving.
We were given an hotel recommendation and directions, sadly they were full, but redirected us to another hotel just around the corner; the Leitnerbrau, which was €135.00, very quaint, traditional and upmarket.
We went to our room, came down for a drink and met our friends at 1845 hours. They were only able to stay a short
Mondsee
As usual our car from the room while, but agreed to meet up again in the morning to have breakfast with us.
We were given a further recommendation for an Italian restaurant called Nudelini in the town. We found our way and had dinner;
Proscuito
Minestrone Soup
Taglietelli Salmon
Pizza Casa Alla, (Pepperoni, gorgonzola, mozzarella and onions)
2 glasses red wine, 2 diet cokes. €42.60.
Nice restaurant, good food.
A quick walk in the town to find our friend’s shop and peer in through the window.
Back to the hotel at 2145 hours.
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