Planning- the best bit

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So, three weeks today we'll be somewhere in Denmark. Last year the trip started with a mad dash to get from the UK to Hungary in 48 hours in a transit van (jason after Jason Dono-van my childhood (ok ok and adulthood) dream man) Breaking up from school clearly involved a couple of small glasses of wine but having to leave at half 8 the next morning to catch a lunchtime ferry made me question the wisdom of the wine (this didn't last long). A 10 hour day landed us in Luxembourg with a traditional first night hotel stay. The second day may not have been the best holiday day anyone has ever had - 12 hours of motorways took us to Vienna followed by missing the campsite opening time by 20 minutes. The advantage with Jason - no need for a proper pitch - we climbed into the back and used the car park as a temporary pitch. The following day was a shorter trip past the sunflowers of southern Austria, into Hungary. Strange petrol station at the border which felt a bit like the UN but we made it to the grand prix campsite. The hot campsite. The really really hot campsite. Full of Germans. Really really loud Germans. Bed time saw them crank up the Abba and oompah music, sing and dance until dawn. Oh and did I mention it was hot? Really hot? A day at the grand prix, fending off wasps and making the most of perfectly placed silver 2 seats before heading back to the campsite for a lovely cool shower (read freezing) a leisurely barbecue (read ridiculous, no heating, making our Polish neighbours laugh at us BBQ) and an early night soothed by the calming noise of birdsong (read mental germans playing Abba again turned up to 11 then deciding it would be a good idea to get a chainsaw out and dance round with that as well) I *think* it's fair to say I went off campsites and Germans and abba all in one fell swoop (again temporary, a night in a nice air conditioned hotel in Budapest the next night after the Grandprix made me feel far more human again.

So what did I learn?

1) You need a car tax permit thing for driving through Austria and Hungary. You can buy them at the border and at garages

2) Grand Prix campsites are only temporary and their washing facilities are definitely limited

3) Driving through Budapest isn't too bad compared to other European cities

Next Stop, Romania

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