Beyond Vienna, 26 September 2017

This morning was All About Zagreb. After breakfast we bought day tickets and caught a tram into the town centre where we saw the various sights and took a funicular up to St Marks Church and the Greek Catholic cathedral.

We walked back down via the Stone Gate, and then caught a tram that went round the town a different way to get back to the van via a very large Kauffman store where we used up our currency on bread, cheese and fruit, and a bus for one stop to the end of our very long road!

After lunch and using the services, we headed on to Slovenia. I had decided I was to mean to pay for a vignette and we could go non-motorway. Big Mistake - the roads were horrible, all hairpin bends, roadworks, etc, even one faulty level crossing where we had to slither between the barriers (don't try this at home, boys and girls), as did most other people!

Slovenia is very pretty, more like Austria than like Croatia. The language is a bit different, too, which surprised us. School, for instance is "skola" in Croatian, but "šola" in Slovenian.  However, after that nightmare drive, I am rather out of love with it, and as it appears we may have to buy an Oyster card, or its equivalent, to use public transport here, I doubt we'll bother.

We are parked up in a restaurant car park where one may park for 24 hours if you eat there (they charge a small fee if you don't); we had a really delicious meal. I had squid grilled in garlic with a sort of bubble-and-squeak of spinach and potato, and the SW had a pork schnitzel with chips, followed by apfelstrudel with ice cream. I didn't have room for a pudding and, sadly, couldn't even finish my squid!  Oh, but it was delicious!

Beyond Vienna, 24 and 25 September 2017

We were not really comfortable at the thought of travelling any distance without a spare tyre, so we spent yesterday at Tranquil Pines, too. This has put us a day behind ourselves, but we will catch up by spending only one night at Lake Bled instead of the two we had planned. Unless we drive straight to Cité Europe from Trier, instead of spending the night en route. We shall see....

So, anyway, we didn't do very much yesterday. In the morning we drove to the local town of Tamási and visited Lidl and located where the tyre repair place was, to which we had been recommended by Andrew, our host.  Then in the afternoon I rested while the Swan Whisperer went for a hike, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

This morning we made our farewells and headed off to the tyre place, which mended and replaced the tyre and put the spare wheel in its bin under the van, all for €23, which we thought was excellent.  Then a last shop in Hungary, and on to pastures new in the form of Croatia, where we had never been before.

 

We hadn't realised Croatia was not part of Schengen, so we had to show our passports and our vehicle registration documents, both on leaving Hungary and on entering Croatia.  However, we were not held up for long, and drove cross country (to avoid paying motorway tolls) to Zagreb. We are parked up in one of those secure parking for motor homes - not glamorous, and not very cheap, either, but safe and legal and there are services, and there would be WiFi if we had parked up nearer the entrance.  The Swan Whisperer has gone to get currency and to explore a bit, and I am making a chicken casserole. Sadly, what I thought was a cut up whole chicken turns out to be several chicken backs, probably designed for soup, but I expect it will be eatable even if there isn't much meat!

We rather like Croatia - no idea what its infrastructure is, apart from agrarian, but the villages are much tidier than their Hungarian equivalents, and the road are better.  One day we'd like to visit the Hungarian Great Plain, just because we can....

Meanwhile I suppose this is the furthest point of this holiday, and we will be homeward bound from now on. But we are only just over half way through!

Beyond Vienna, 23 September 2017

Best laid plans, and all that...  We were just heading off from the camp site this morning when the guy behind us pointed out that we had a flat tyre.  Oh dear. Fortunately, we had a spare wheel and a jack - but the latter appeared not to with very well.  The Swan Whisperer went back into the camp site and found a very nice New Zealand guy who had a jack and who came and helped him change the wheel and pumped up the tyre for him - it has a screw in it, such is why it went flat.

However, by that time it was already noon, and we reckoned that the baths would be crowded out at that time on a Saturday, so we sadly decided not to use them, but to head on to this camp site I had heard of, in the heart of the country, run by an English couple.  It is very nice indeed; we are the only people here, and they gave us a beer on arrival and chatted until the rain came.

We may well stay here another night so we can check our tyres on Monday. The is a Lidl in the local town, and you can tell they use it, as lovely thick Lidl paper in the loo (I do hate the thin stuff we have to use in the van, but it can't be helped), and I am already looking forward to my shower tomorrow morning!

Beyond Vienna, 22 September 2017

What a difference a night makes!  The rain stopped sometime during the night, and when we woke, it was to bright sunshine. Which has lasted all day.

So we did various domestic-type things like using the services and changing the gas bottle, which decided to run out on us just before breakfast.  Then the Swan Whisperer trotted up to the metro station to get me a day ticket (we were told he didn't need one, being over 65) and then we headed to the tram stop at the end of the road.  We changed trams when we got to the river, and ended up in the centre of Pest. 

After pottering about a bit and deciding not to go into the cathedral, we found somewhere to have a rather expensive cup of coffee, and then walked down the main shopping drag to get the SW a new pair of shoes, as his have demised and let in the rain. Mission accomplished - oh, you have never seen such a Euro high street with familiar brands from all over Europe, even Tiger - we decided to have a real tourist lunch - goulash soup, followed by chicken paprikash, followed by a pancake with jam. Very traditional, very predictable, very carb-heavy, and very delicious!

Then we walked back up the street to the metro station and caught the "Foldalatti" up to the park to check on the opening times of the baths there, and to see whether there was anywhere we could park nearby, as we thought we might do that before we head on tomorrow.  

The next hour or so was spent on buses heading over to the Buda side and back (the main tram terminus/interchange there is considerably posher than it was ten years ago, or whenever we were last here).

Then we found a tram that would take us to a big Tesco's, for shopping purposes, and thence back to the camp site. Now we (well, the Swan Whisperer) are doing a mid-holiday washing (it isn't quite half way through, but we can do another load later if we feel the need), and then it will be a light supper tonight!

I am tired but because I didn't run for any buses or trams, I don't feel unwell as I did after our day in Vienna, so I'm hoping not to flake out again.

Beyond Vienna, 21 September 2017

Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, and did I say rain? It has done nothing but rain the entire day, although it appears to have stopped for a moment at nearly 10.00 pm.

The Swan Whisperer went for a run this morning, in the rain. Then we drove from our overnight place on the Tihany peninsula to the town of Veszprem, where we went to the zoo, in the rain. 99.9% of the animals - all those that could - were sensibly indoors or if the rain so could not be seen, and the plan they gave us was not very accurate. And the café wouldn't take cards or euros, and we had no local currency. And it rained. I was exhausted.

So we drove to Budapest, in the rain. September is supposed to be the driest month here, so goodness knows what the rest of the year is like. Last time we were here it was October, and it was hot and sunny. Today, it has rained all day.

We arrived at the camp site, and haven't really left it, although the Swan Whisperer did go and find some currency. I cooked a delicious chickpea stew, and have been reading the new Jodi Taylor, which I commend to you.  It rained.

Beyond Vienna, 20 September 2017

I felt much better this morning, but still took it easy, and after a late breakfast we finally set off to explore the city, if such it can be called. The tourist part, in the middle, is tiny, and only takes about ten minutes to walk round. We started, though, by taking a tram across the bridge, which dropped us off at the edge of the Old Town.  We wandered hither and yon, and ended up in a café for coffee - the SW had a huge brownie, too!  How he could, after a huge breakfast, I do not know!

After this, we walked back to the far end and, in order not to waste our day tickets, we took another tram up to the main railway station (which we had been through before, but never seen from outside - still a touch Communist-era), and then a trolley-bus down to the river again. This cleverly dropped us outside the other main shopping mall in the city, which also had a huge supermarket, so we did some more shopping, and then got a tram back across the bridge to the motor home.

It was lunch time, so we had that, including ice creams we had bought in the supermarket, and then we set off for Hungary.  I was tired, so wrapped myself in my mermaid sleeping-bag and went to sleep, waking to reprogram the Satnav at the border to tell it it was all right to use toll roads again (I had bought the e-vignette before we left home), and then not until we arrived here, on the Tehany peninsula on Lake Balaton.

The SW has, needless to say, gone for a walk, so I am going to sit and knit and watch the sun go down....

Beyond Vienna, 19 September 2017

Yesterday was the only day of our holiday so far when it didn't rain. And that didn't last - the rain came in the night and has barely stopped all day.

We hadn't far to go today - only to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia which is nearer both Austria and Hungary than anywhere else, and at one stage acted as the administrative capital of the latter.  We told the sat-nav not to take us on toll roads as it seemed hardly worth buying a Slovakian vignette for such a short distance.

The aire is lovely - beside the Danube looking across it to the old town. However, I overdid it so badly yesterday that I couldn't face much more walking, so my exercise was limited to going to the big supermarket about 500 metres away.  And even that was too much, really - so annoying!  The Swan Whisperer did explore a bit, and we are hoping to have a walk round the town tomorrow, taking a tram or two to get there.