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Published: June 21st 2009
I added a short video ( to see if I could) and to show you the waterfront at Hvar below the castle. Your virtual trip are getting more realistic all the time!!
Fom Hvar, we went by fast ferry to Split on the mainland and to Diocletian's Palace. What an amazing place, over 18 centuries old. Our apartment, on the top floor and on the edge of the Roman palace, faced the water with foot thick walls on 2 sides. We picked up a car the next day and drove up the coast of Croatia to another Roman town, Zadar and through mountainous country into Slovenia. On the second day we did a quick circuit of the capital Lubjianna and onto Bled, a fantastic lakeside town. After the mountains and rocky hillsides, the water and the islands of Croatia Slovenia was an oaisis of greenery. The wine we bought up with our last Croatian coruna's went down a treat each night when we stopped travelling.
From Slovenia we crossed into Austria and were stopped at a border checkpoint for sometime while our passports and my driver's underwent scrutiny. Finally we were told we were driving illegally as we did
not have the international drivers permit required in most European countries. On previous trips we had carried IDP's but had never been asked to produce them and didn't think about it this time. He graciously allowed us to drive on to Graz, but as it was late, we went through to a magnificent hotel in a small village outside Linz. After checking emails, we looked up IDP's and discovered that we were uninsured if we didn't have one. As a result we went to the equivalent to NRMA in Linz to get temporary cover (to get us through the rest of Austria and on to Prague), downloaded forms from Sydney and asked Noel at home to post permits to Budapest so that we will be OK for Turkey.
In Prague, we had our first homestay. Petra and Justus have a townhouse in what was an industrial site being redeveloped into apartments, townhouses and shops, just like home. It was a lovely 12 month old apartment completely furnished from Ikea - even more so than your place Noel and John! It was located on the 3 tram, which was our main way of getting into town and connected with the
See the two little windows at the top!!
Lugging bags up 5 flights of stairs was a bit much but the view at the top was worth it. It rained but we didn't care.subway if we wanted to go elsewhere. Prague has a large number of tram lines, crisscrossing the city and suburbs, allowing access to anywhere you wanted to go. Our 3 crossed the river twice and at the other end of the line followed the river for miles. The 17 took you back along the river through the old town, the 22 took you to the castle and the 8 and 12 were Ross's favourites-it didn't matter where they went! I was just sorry Oskar was not there to share the excitement.
The Opera house (where we saw Carmen and Barber of Seville), the evening concert in the Klementium and another in St Nicholas in the Lesser Town (with a memorable duck dinner to follow), beautiful cobbled streets throughout the city, the plentiful parks and fascinatingly ornate facades and other art nouveau buildings and interiors kept us very busy as we walked and walked our way around this lovely city.
Petra came home on our last night and we learnt a lot about her life as a consultant working in some other European city every week and back on the weekends. She was amazed that we declined her suggestion
What to do with Roman ruins!
This was in Zadar on the way north. of a taxi next morning and took our bags on the 3 and the red line metro to the station to get our train to Vienna. We all had been to Vienna in the past few years but again enjoyed our 2 nights and a day just wandering.
On Saturday 13 June, we traveled by Hydrofoil from Vienna to Budapest, about 360kms, travelling along the river at 70k/h. Our six hour Danube cruise took us through two locks, past Bratislava and other small towns that were significant in years gone by, as empires and borders changed. We decided it was enough of a Danube cruise for all of us and it was a great way to arrive in Budapest. After an adventure with a taxi company ( one wanted to charge us 15 euro's - about $30 to go 2 km's) but we rang and got one who took us for the equivalent of $9), we met with Paul our host, collected the keys and a rental car and drove along Lake Balaton to our apartment in Heviz.
Heviz is another story and we'll tell you about that, our food adventures and about other things next time. Ross
Bled in Slovinia
Green, green and more green in how we will remember this little country and Helen have left us to continue their adventures in the UK - we will nmiss them both.
NB - continuing to report on the netbook. It is fabulous. We have been able to make regular and lengthy calls to Australia over the past 5 weeks and so far the bill for Skype through our computer is $17!! Daily weather updates for the coming days wherever we will be. Booking tickets online and being able to have scanned copies of our IDP's when we were feeling very worried. Keeping up with family and friends so that we know Brent is doing well, Peter is recovering, Noel and John are progressing with their renovations, Jen is enjoying her new job, Kris and Chris ar eboth busy but going well, Lachie and Georgia are well and Phil, Tara and Graham Col are looking forward to our visit.. all this has made it invaluable.
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