Beyond Vienna, 3 and 4 October 2017

Since we were parked up just opposite a McDonald's, we decided to treat ourselves to a McDonald's breakfast.  In Germany, they don't force feed you hash browns with your sausage and egg McMuffin, I was glad to find!  I do love them (sausage and egg McMuffins) but try not to eat them too often.

After that, it was a long and dreary drive to Calais.  Originally we had planned to break our journey somewhere in Belgium, but of course the extra day in Hungary put paid to that, and the long drive isn't impossible, just boring.  There had been a couple of bad crashes on the border - the only crashes we saw all holiday, thankfully - which held us up for a bit, but not too badly.  We stopped a couple of times for breaks and lunch, and arrived at Cité Europe at about 5:30.  After a cup of tea, I went shopping in the Carrefour there, and the SW went for a walk, and then we decided to visit one of the restaurants in the Cité Europe instead of going to the Buffalo Grill like we usually do.  Big mistake - the meal was foul.  The snails were okay, but one of them was so tightly stuck in its shell that I had to break it to get it out.  The duck was edible, I suppose, but its sauce was way, way too salty for my taste, and the potatoes that came with it were undercooked.  Plus the helping was too large.  Then I ordered crepes with jam for pudding - they were tepid, tough, and he'd sprinkled them with sugar and THEN expected me to put jam on them.  I did eat one, but really.... not good.  Won't be going to that restaurant again.

Sad to wake up this morning amid those motorhomes that were heading off on holiday as well as the ones coming home.  Wishing we were going in the other direction, we presented ourselves to Eurotunnel hoping for an earlier crossing.  Oh dear, disruptions, and a two hour delay.... but fortunately it caught up with itself and we crossed at our booked time of 11:20 - home in time for lunch, although then there were hassles with the builders who fill our car park each day and make it so impossible to come in and out.... sigh... how soon can we go away again?

Beyond Vienna, 2 October 2017

Another wet day, alas. We set out from wherever it was we had spent the night, just outside Kitzbühel.  Our first port of call was Landau, a large ReWe where we did a Last Shop in Germany, and then we headed cross country, in the rain, towards Trier. We missed one services, where we had planned to stop briefly to put on jerseys, etc, but finally found one to do for lunch. We are parked up in the big park and ride car park - not 100% sure we are supposed to spend the night here, but people seem to. Certainly they did last year....

Beyond Vienna, 1 October 2017

It had stopped raining by the time we were ready to go out this morning. As it was Sunday, we assumed we'd be able to park in the street, and indeed, that turned out to be the case, and we could probably have parked even nearer to the town centre than we actually did.

We had a pleasant walk round the centre of Augsburg, and in the main square we came across a mass balloon-release - we have no idea what it was in aid of, and were rather surprised that Germany allows such a thing (so bad for the environment), but it was pretty!

After a cup of coffee, we found a bakery that was open and bought rolls for lunch, and then headed back to the motor home to head on north up the A8, only this turned out to be blocked, so the Satnav took us the pretty way, with such an attractive lay-by to park in for lunch!  Only an oxbow where they had straightened the road, but still!

Then on, and I fell asleep and didn't weaken until we arrived at the Aire here just north of Kitzbühel, I believe. Not where I had intended for us to stay, but the SW decided it was less off our route.

Beyond Vienna, 30 September 2017

One of the loveliest mornings of the holiday so far!  We decided to breakfast outside, and the picnic table was brought into use for that. Then we cleared up and said a sad farewell to the Alps, and headed off. Or first stop was a local ReWe, which was disappointing as it had a rather poor range of meat and sausages (but it did have Federweisse!) and we had to stop again later for meat.

The aire in Augsburg was very nearly full when we arrived; we were lucky to get place. The SW went for an explore and said the town centre was lovely, but shortly after supper the rain came, and hasn't really stopped since!