Sunday 29 January 2012

Week 2 Hungary to Romania

Tuesday, 10th May 2011/Thursday 12th May 2011 Blue skies yet again, aren't I lucky. Kept on the B roads until I reached Hungary, just to test out the roads really. I thought I would head to the World Heritage site, just west of Budapest, the Pannonhalma Monasteria a beautiful building, high on a hill. After the festivities at Altotting it was very sedate and not a lot of visitors. Kept seeing signs saying no horse and carts – didn't see any either!

I bought my first 4-day vignette to go on the Motorways. Diesel along the route has been pricey too!  (15,643 Florints £52.50 including vignette).   B roads in Hungary were a bit bumpy so I decided to use motorway hence vignette; it was a pleasure to drive along, didn't have to pay any more tolls. 

Hit Budapest about 4 pm traffic quite heavy and TT working well until the last km when it told me to turn left and it was obvious I couldn't, I had to turn it off because she kept telling me to turn round, and I couldn't do that either. Eventually found a left turn and it caught up with me, thank goodness. Camp site alongside a main road but has double fencing as security and a beaten up old car as the security hut. Makes you a bit nervy.  So am at Haller Camping ACSI (N47-28-33 E19-4-59) Central Budapest, lovely young gentlemen in reception with very good English. Can't understand their language, doesn't sound how it reads! Travel for the over 65 yrs is free if you show your passport. A weeks ticket is about £16, so I'm £'s in. Been on the trams, Metro, over the bridge to Buda and back to Pest. Saw the square where the uprising in 1956 started and which I vaguely remember, lovely memorial gardens there and a unique everlasting flame outside the Parliament buildings. Walked along the Danube embankment to St Stephen's Basilica, absolutely beautiful inside, much gold leaf and red marble. Saw the 1st King's mummified hand! and people posing in front of that and a large urn! Found this a bit odd. Then I tackled the steps to the Basilica dome, didn't count the steps, a bit out of breath and took the lift the last 40 ft to the viewing platform. All round view of the city, marvellous.. Weather has been glorious, very warm and a bit sweaty too! Very clean city, lots of single older age group tourists, spoke to quite a few English people. At the camp site I was parked next door to a couple from Northern Ireland, Belfast, thought I was going to have an early night and then got on the internet!

Went back into the city today, got to the main palace which sits on top of a hill, went by tram and a look at Pest from the other side. This castle reminds me more of a French Château than anything. Thought I might head off again tomorrow to Eger, another interesting city advised to go and see. Making my way to Romania where I want to see the very old painted Monasteries and there is a camp site right there. There is a thermal camping site just over the border, then to the painted Monasteries further north-east. Found out about these in the Lonely Planet, so have to go and have a look, didn't plan this one. 

Once I get into Romania I think I must rest, it's been quite hectic, but I certainly don't feel so nervous now. Driving here is OK, driving standards quite reasonable. It's just like any other European city. “Romania”, the gentleman in reception said, “is much poorer than here and more horse driven carts on the road”. That's what I found quite funny when I first came here signs saying "No horse drawn carts allowed". Haven't seen one yet! 

So after good night and thought I'd just check out emails, fix TT and email the camp site for tomorrow. As you know it takes time and I wasn't ready to go out till at least 1100. The trams at this time were less crowded got off at the wrong bridge, but walked to the one I wanted in order to get the bus 16 to go to Buda and see the city from the other side. The 16 bus, a bit old, and boy there were cobbles the other side. Talk about being shaken up! Got off at the top of the hill to see the Church of St Mathias and the Fisherman's Bastion. The Church had a beautiful tiled roof and inside every single inch of plaster was painted. Amazing, the work that went into it. Not as opulent as the Basilica couldn't see any gold paint anywhere. Built in about 1850's, quite unique but I'm sure not the last example I'll see. It was good to be in the coolness. I then spied a lady and gentleman behind a wrought iron screen and in front of them was a crown, sceptre and orb of gold. The lady was working on the jewels I asked if it was original, they spoke English. “No” it was a copy of a copy, jewels and enamel portraits on the sides. She said she had made one of the copies, not this one, but another elsewhere. The original dated 1000 and was just a round circle, the cross members came later along with the portraits. Must have been a King's crown, as Hungary as a state originated then.

Outside the heat was getting stronger, a mediaeval knight passed me by with dreadlocks! He walked over to the statue and there was a large falcon sitting there for you to have your picture taken with it. The man made an effort to cool the bird down and put him in the shade, there were not many takers, until one man did. He donned an elaborate thick leather arm band and proudly stood there with the bird, still tethered to the man.  I then walked up to the Bastion and had a good look across the Danube. Big city one side and smaller older city the other. Lunch time. On the parapet a newly wedded couple were having an enormous number of pictures taken of them. Perhaps this is normal here in Hungary, she was lounging over the stone, then the kiss, short at first then lingering to, eating each other! Down from here, through a square, into the Toilet for .50€.  Clean, tidy, outside a display of cakes with icing depicting various old fairy tales and some new Disney stuff. Feet beginning to ache now, so I decided to find the bus. Caught one which took me down to the river but not across, so I got back on and went back up, shouldn't have bothered it was so bumpy. Got off, crossed the road to find that the bus I wanted was round the corner. That came along and we went past Buda Castle which I thought looked like a big French Château, down the hill, under something in a tunnel and then across the bridge again, to change bus, no sorry, get on a tram. Unfortunately, something had happened to my foot whilst crossing the road and it was a big pain. Fortunately got back to the van swaddled it in cold wet towel, had a nap, now it's ok again. Talking to Sally my daughter tonight via Skype. Well that didn't happen, too many people using the internet on the camp site. We talked via Facebook, but it didn't flow very well. It was getting cold outside so after half an hour we said goodbye. 


The fountain you can play with!
The picture of the Tomb commemorating the uprising in  the Square of the Revolution in Budapest. The Parliament building was behind it, I decided against going in as it was such a lovely day. The picture is The Monument to the Revolution and an explanation about the hole in the Hungarian Flag follows:
Symbolic Grave
The Hungarian Flag has a hole in it because on October 23, 1956, the revolution, those Hungarians who revolted against the Soviet Union, tore out of it, the foreign coat of arms that symbolised the power of the Soviet Union and Communism. Since then this flag has symbolised the freedom of the Hungarian naton. This memorial is a symbolic Grave. Here on this square several hundreds of people fell dead onto the ground, due to the killer blow of a firing squad on October 25th 1956. Honour and rememberance to the victims! The system of communism has failed in every sense. However, it will be very hard to get rid of communists, for there is nobody as dangerous as the usurper of a failed system, who abandons the system, but guards his loot and power position. (Hungarian English)! 
Friday 13th May 2011 I woke early the next morning, packed up and was ready by 9am said goodbye to my neighbours, swapped email addresses and phone numbers. It was the wrong time to have left. Budapest has a rush hour too. Still never mind just gave me more time to look at the suburbs until I got on the motorway, which didn't actually take that long. The next part of the journey was flat, flat flat. Hungarian plains, the weather was good, back to vast fields for easy maintenance when harvesting. However, now and then there were a few small fields clustered around farm houses with a few cows munching away. I turned off after about 150 km to go to Eger, Had a quick look at the architecture and spied Tesco's. Well I might as well go in. It was a Mall, apart from Tesco which was up the very end, so you had to go past all the shops to get there! It was vast, one thing I noticed that there wasn't much packed meat, it was all laid out butcher's style, so people had to queue up to choose. I didn't get much, just to use up my Florints, still have a few left. The heat was getting to me as there was no air conditioning in Tesco's, so decided that was it, off I went. Back to the motorway to head over to Romania. 
The border guard didn't smile, looked at my passport “Ann Pauline” never mind the Speirs. Gave it back to me and asked me to open the side door. I did, expecting him to get in to look around, but he just looked me up and down and asked“Where are you going?” “Through Romania, to Bulgaria, then Turkey”, said I. “Finish?”. “No, then Greece and up through the Adriatic coast”. “Have a nice day”, again no smile and slammed my door shut. Except although I latched the door quickly and got on my way, half way down the road I realized it was flapping in the wind. Quickly stopped to make it secure and carried on driving, road not too bad and then oops, what a mess cars going all over the road trying to dodge the craters! And then, new tarmac, brilliant as I made my way to Carie Thermal Camping site, Romania (N47-40-27 E22-26-42 Reisemobil not actually right!)  Road was good, then very very bad. 
 They did drive along like mad things, especially the white vans, not mine of course! On entering a village you had this long oval island, the village, then a long oval island again. Speed went from 50kph to 70 kph back to 50 kph in less than 1 km of road, just keep it at 50 kph. No I think it was to give the road sign painters something to do! And I saw lots of them signing the roads. The houses were different to the Hungarian ones, not just one floor, but two with high gables. Some run down, falling down and then you'd get a completely brand new opulent house. Couldn't make this out if Romania was supposed to be so poor. On entering Carie the GPS position wasn't the camp site, couldn't find it so just drove through town to have a look. Found a garage, bought some  
Church in the mountains
diesel, seemed expensive and asked about site. The very attractive receptionist, with very fancy painted nails, pressed all the buttons very precisely and in return giving me three bits of paper for Too cold. That's as may be because it certainly was much colder here and it had rained a bit too. They told me to go to the traffic lights and at the next cross roads turn left and the baths were there. Thanked them for their very good English which she said she learnt at school, I apologised because they didn't teach me Romanian in school, wasn't much good at languages anyway.  Decided to go back and have a look only to be flagged down by the local police man standing at the side of the road. At least this one smiled “Passport please”, “Certainly”, “Vehicle papers, please?”, “Just a minute”. Got them out of the back but couldn't find the log book, why not! Perplexed! Gave him my insurance certificate anyway, that seemed to suffice! “Business/Tourism?”; “Tourist” says I. “Have you got Lady Catherine in the back there?” Well I didn't click on to that, bit nervous I suppose, said I didn't understand, then about ten minutes later realised he was talking about the recent William/Catherine wedding. Silly me.

No camp site in view, no motorhomes, anything. It might have been 4pm but I decided there and then that I would drive on, in the hope of finding somewhere. I was heading towards the Painted Monasteries in the North east of Romania, something I'd read about whilst in Budapest and decided to give it a try. I proceeded up the DN19 to Satu Mare, through villages, saw my first horse and cart and when I was least expecting it. It was Friday and high up in the hills I came upon everyone coming out of the Church; the ladies in their traditional costumes, hats, waistcoats and black skirts billowing out over many layers of petticoats. Couldn't stop to take a picture, no where to park! Blast, another mighty ornate hideous looking house, brand new with sculptures up the front, no parking space either, so only my memory of it. Up towards the border with Ukraine into a very beautiful forest and up the hills from then on. Well it was getting darker, I didn't stop for any tea, too taken up with watching the road for pot holes and then whoosh round the bend, without any lead car came an enormous wide, heavy transport lorry and trailer and I had to stop, so it could ease past me just on a bend! Breathe in, many cars behind it and then low and behold another one, taking up most of the road. No camp sites, then a good space, lorry and coach parked there, decided to go in! Parked up for 5 minutes when along came another lorry which backed in narrowly missing me in line with the other lorry, too close for comfort this. Off I went again leaving them to it, obviously a private parking space.

Not long afterwards I came to a Coluic Popas Touristica (Tourist Hotel) Romania, with a very wide parking space to the front of the floodlit (well, one light) entrance. I was well off the road, had something to eat, locked up securely, put alarm on too, because I couldn't keep awake any longer and my arms were practically dropping off, apart from a numb bum too. Took a couple o/f Ibuprofen for a good sleep, must have been about 9.30pm and dozed off straight away.
Saturday, 14th May 2011 I awoke to the sound of a pack of dogs barking! The dawn was just breaking, got dressed quickly and breakfasted on route. I had written down the mileage of 31992, 04.39 the time, and progressed on my way. Well, I suddenly realised that the clock must have gone forward another hour because everyone was up and busy by 0600, wrong 0700. The road got worse and then of course got better, but you could see the cobbles making up the road surface where the tarmac had worn away! It was very bumpy and noisy in the van, my nerves were taking a hammering! Many packs of dogs along the way, allowing nature to take its course, right in front of me. As I was going past a wood yard I stopped to take a picture of the notice, and then an old man was at the window asking for cigar, cigarettes? Well, not smoked for 20 years said me. Didn't have anything else to offer him either. I'm not good at that sort of thing, don't believe in begging, or either fancying a fag! He was OK waived me goodbye and I drove off, dodging potholes. Eventually coming off the mountains, which were very beautiful, typically alpine together with flowers, firs and yes, snow! Got up to about 4800 ft and snow still backed up, I got on the main road, found a beautiful parking spot looking over the valley and promptly had another sleep.
It was now about 1100. An hour later after hearing the noise of something landing on my roof, I decided it was time to go again. This road was marvellous, but back again to the leapfrog speed limits which got boring after a while. Followed main road and came across a very beautiful church standing back and a large hotel to the side with a sign at the front saying “French/English spoken VLADIMIR Suczawa with a motorhome dump point sign”. Took the GPS N47.49632 E25.26106 which was the first one I'd seen. Obviously a B&B as well, although I understand they don't do breakfast! Just rooms. Then I came to Garu Homorului and turned up left towards the Monastery. This was the next GPS location for Cristiana Camping in the Reisemobile handbook. Except she wasn't there. Yet another false log. I turned up left to the Monastery, went past it saw the pictures on the walls and kept going, because somewhere I had to turn round. Found a place further up this one track road, at least I got up there and turned round successfully. Saw some people coming towards me, grabbed the book, said “Hello” asked for Cristiana camping and showed them the book, which was immediately handed round and one of the ladies said “I phone” and with that she was talking to Cristiana and in so many words I worked out she would be waiting outside her house, if I turned left at the bottom of the road and just kept going straight on. Cristiana Camping in Suczawa N47.60257 E25.85236 correct GPS
Cristiana was a lovely lady, quite modern in dress, opened her gates to let me come in. We had a conversation about how many days and there was only me in the Van! In that case I could have it for 15 Lei, or €6 a night. I only had 100 Lei, so I plumbed for €'s. I was flaked out. Realised I'd driven 669 kms and the hours had registered 54.97 since Sandy; 32121 miles, 1571.60 from Calais, average 36 mph but my average miles per gallon has stuck on 30.5 mpg. I was only going very slowly, I'd been registering that mpg doing 70 mph back on the motorway!
Well it was a lovely day, so I rested, got my skin out, slip slap slop, book, Campari and feet up! Along came Cristiana with a bowl of beef soup, specially Romanian. How lovely, my grateful thanks, because I just realised I didn't have any lunch either, I was just glad to get here after all that. It was delightful. There were a bunch of school children gradually filtering towards the guest house, obviously the contents of the white van sitting in the parking space. Bit of a rowdy lot, but they are teenagers and what else can you expect, so out came the special earplugs. Actually, I bought these when I was clay pigeon shooting with my ex some 20+ years ago and they are the best investment I have ever made. They cut out the bad decibels and leave you less shattered, but still able to hear and talk at a reasonable level. Just found out this is an actual dilemma called hyperacusis which had come up in a book by James Patterson called The 6th Target. Actually the man with it had just murdered several people, so I'm glad I know my limit of noise and take precautions before I start doing anything like that! However, I don't hear voices either! But I might do if I didn't know how to take care of myself! My grown children can vouch for me always saying “Don't scream like that, it goes right through me!” If only I'd known about these earplugs then! Had dinner quite late, several Campari's, wasn't drunk at all, but at last found a drink that I can handle. 
Sunday 15th May 2011 Sleep came quickly and I woke to bright sunlight and the clip clopping of horse's hooves on the road in front of me. How delightful! Got sorted out quickly, Cristina came along and said the children would be leaving by 1300, I hadn't complained, but obviously she didn't have a set of ear plugs. I went up the road on my bike to the Humor Monastery (c1530-1535), a child just wouldn't let me in the door until I raised my voice and his mother took him away so I could get the bike inside. A little rattled I started to walk my bike up the path when a very dower faced nun walking towards me said I could park it against the fence, which was something I hadn't naturally thought of. I thanked her and I got a smile and “No problem”. Padlocked it 'cos I didn't know what security was like and strode
The School
off again to look at the church. The paintings were beautiful, faded, but intact higher up, protected from the rain and sun by the roof. I asked if I could go in, because I had long shorts on and didn't know if it was acceptable. The young very attractive nun clad in a little pill box hat with a black veil coming from the back to shroud her face, a shawl wrapped round her neck and clad in black right down to her feet. The paintings inside initially were of martyred Christians; heads chopped off, hung, drawn and split between trees, crucified up-side-down, I could go on, not very pleasant; all part of what the guide book describes as “the frescos, due to their age and tontinuity, they reflect the esthetic spirit, the deep Christian creed, the flory and the melancholoy of the historial destiny of the human being on these lands”. Phew. Apparently two settlements with monasteries were built near the Humor River from the time of Alexandru the Good, some of these ancient walls near the entrance to the Monastery. There is a date of 1415, but I think he's earlier. The ruins happened due to unknown causes and the monastery was reconstructed in 1530 in a new location. Prince Petru Rares wanted to repair the old monastic Moldavian buildings and The Chancellor Toader Bubuliog (Toad Bulldog, I initially read it) and his wife Anastasia were the ones who founded the monastery. Very well preserved inside and the outside painted in 1535 by Toma from Suceava. It's said he painted the church as part of a gramme imposed by Petru Rares. The dominant background colour is red, but the painting reflect a perfect harmony between the characteristic elements of the Byzantine art, originated in the theology of the Eastern Church and the gift of the local creator.
When I was absorbing all this from the guide book I could hear a loud voice, from England with a northern lilt, American thrown in, expounding the fact that Christ instigated his own demise and made Judas betray him to the authorities. Then a Romanian voice saying “Who was the first human being to go to heaven”, “Don't know” says the now broad American; “Well the good thief, at the side of Christ who said, when asked, he would follow him”. There then followed a conversation about who was to blame for Christ's death, not Herod, the Romans, yes it was the Jew's themselves. The wife had walked off at this point, quickly followed by the guide.
Later on, this gentleman really upset the guide by going over his views yet again. I learnt the guide was from Bucharest and he gave me his business card. I was invited to their guest house, however it was some 9 kms away and I would not be riding my bike there, graciously thanked him for the invite and they quickly left to catch up with the wife who had toddled off back to the car.  
Most houses have a well
Back to the van, delighted with this village, but not with that particular tourist. Back to sun shine and again feet up, but no drink, didn't feel like it. A little cat found its way to my van, I found it some titbits to curb its appetite except that it didn't look that hungry. There was a big ginger tom lurking around somewhere and whilst the cat was munching away she kept looking up to check. I spent the rest of the afternoon planning where I was going next, how far it was, trying to avoid more mountain roads and whether there was something to look at when I got there. I gave myself a headache so finally sorted it to the Bulgarian border for at least another week. Then I realised I hadn't bought a vignette at the Border. Oh dear. All that way, being stopped by the cop, not legal! Ask Cristiana tomorrow.
 


 

Week 1 UK to Hungary

JOURNEY TO TURKEY

Back as far as 2007 when I first rented my house out in order for me to travel to pastures new, I had wanted to go to Greece to visit my cousin who lived on the island of Andros. I then owned a car and caravan, planned the journey through Italy, found that I was financially compromised for a while, delayed departure, until thoughts entered my head again in 2010. I'd looked at many sites on the internet by travellers writing about their experiences, MagBaz Travels, Wildcamping UK and Europe, and The Motorhome Diaries I knew there were lone travellers out there, but only knew of one other female adventurer. The positive comments about Eastern European countries being safe and how lovely and helpful the people had been really made me want to go this time. So with many deep breaths, and starting out from England at the end of December 2010, down through France into Spain with a couple of friends I started the adventure, only to be stopped mid-stream by my tenant wanting to vacate by end of March, 2011. Back home, new tenant, another few deep breaths, rerouted, through France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece – back home! 11,000 miles later. (Including the ferry journeys!)

Monday 2nd May 2011 Left Sandy Bedfordshire, saying goodbye to my family. Although late I decided to drive down to Sittingbourne where I had arranged to pick up some light Calor gas bottles from the Depot. Found a suitable lay by for an overnight stop. Sandy, Beds Mileage 30381.

Tuesday, 3rd May 2011 Slept until 0630; leisurely had breakfast; looked at the rush hour traffic fortunately heading in the opposite direction towards the M2 and started off just after 0900. Managing to get the CCC discount, paid and stowed the bottles away in the back of the van and headed off towards Dover. 30549 miles

As I came down the hill towards the Docks, the sea looked somewhat rough. Having boarded I quickly found a leather sofa, and promptly napped for a while. Looking up there was the French coastline and in another 20 minutes we had docked and I was on my way to Carrefour for some yellow indicator lights, nearly £5 a set in UK, but only 2.45€ here. Towards 3 pm although it was getting late I decided to hit the road to see how far I got. The first destination was about 200 km away and I didn't know what the traffic would be like. Time was passing and I didn't feel tired, about 4 hours driving, and then TT directing me to turn off for the last 10 kms to Eupen (N50.62180 E6.09148 Reisemobil) where I planned to stop for the night. It was a reservoir and there in front of me were about 5 NL vans, their passengers having a picnic dinner until dusk. Intrepid Motorhomers these Dutch, find them everywhere. (Calais 30549; Eupen 30766) Just 187 miles for the day, but enough. A good first day.
Eupen
Wednesday 4th May 2011  Was woken at 0645 to the sound of garden maintenance machines! Right behind the van. Thought I might have to move, checked the van and I wasn't overlapping the grass, but the grass cutter came perilously close! Within 15 minutes they'd trimmed the grass, blown the cut grass off the pavements and gone. Then along came a large crane lorry, what are they going to do now? There were some loose bricks on the pavement, covering a large steel contraption; it was this that the crane started to attack. Also minutes later it was out, bricks shoved unceremoniously back in the pile and barrier replaced. All before 0730! Breakfast over, spurred on by the industrious Belgians I decided to do something about my nearside mirror, already walloped twice, but still intact, wide Cello-tape to the rescue. No I'm not buying a replacement at €340 for someone else to damage. The wind kept pushing it towards the van yesterday, making it rather dangerous when overtaking. Solved that problem and cleaned the windscreen for the next part of the journey. Just by chance I moved my CD player which was on the floor behind the passenger seat. A mark on the floor made me upend the player. Oh dear, the batteries had leaked. Extra operation to clean player and discard old batteries, yuk!

On to a very large motorhome stopover. Hymerring (N49.77368 E9.58034 Reisemobil) near Weitheim (Spellplatz). Over into Germany before I knew it, did these Germans drive fast! The lorries were in abundance too! German mainly, Polish, Hungarian, Romanian and Austrian. Have only seen about 4 UK vehicles so far, not a lot! Diesel at the Shell garage gosh 149.4€ put in €70 worth and vowed not to do it again on an autobahn! Didn't see too much of countryside as these roads were quite old and the surrounding forests very mature, when it started to get hilly then you saw a bit more scenery and castles. The one outstanding building still being completed was a KPMG building which looked like a large bulbous high speed train. It was huge, had large struts every 25 mtrs extending down to the ground with an escape staircase inside. Couldn't take a photo, traffic going too fast to stop! Must look it up on www later. Kept driving, didn't stop for lunch because I was nearly there. This Spellplatz is huge supplied by the large motorhome dealer network, Eurocamp.  
Hymerring   
Had lunch, had sleep, woke to find myself surrounded by vans and caravans, no time to look inside the shop tonight, decided to type instead. Mileage 30995 Total 229 miles. About right mileage and time. There is electric here if you want it, 1€ for 4 hours; services at the far end. A few people have been here a while. All the satellite dishes up, mainly the diamond shaped ones.

Thursday 5th May 2011 Woke up to a bright start, some people had left early. Drove along the motorway and needed diesel, TT said I could get it cheaper just 8km away, so trusted it and yes, 1€459, cheaper than the others! Eventually got going, started out one way and then turned past Munich to a place called Altotting/Altoetting (N48.22953 E12.67449 Reisemobil) where you can stay for free for three days. Perfect place for a few days. Having had enough of motorway driving for a while and thought it would be good for a rest.
Friday 6th May 2011/Saturday 7th May 2011 Visited the various churches and watched many young people coming in with sore feet, sun burnt bodies having walked from various places on a pilgrimage to Altotting. The First Aid tents did a roaring trade. Didn't know where they all came from, but the square was full to the brim, many picked up their bags from the baggage pile, see picture. Also lots of bikers, many my age, that is, over 60 years of age, didn't think religion and motorbikes went together, obviously they do. There was a open air service Saturday evening, I was waiting for the candle lit procession, but I got too cold to watch.
Sunday 8th May 2011 Saw sunshine again and a few early coaches, but nothing like yesterday. I tried to empty my grey water, but the road surface didn't slope towards the drain!!! Oops! I couldn't even wash it away, a waterless tap! Not good. Had a good night so decided to take the non-motorway route straight across Austria to Orth/Donau. (Orth on the Danube) (Camperstop N48.14523 E16.70383) Had a few minor glitches when the sun messed up my navigation with TT, but the road, although single lanes was a good surface and scenery flat with some lowland hills, until I reached the banks of the Danube. This was marvellous, a wide expanse of river, not many parking spaces until you reached a town; you were constantly going from 50 kph to 70 kph and back again. It was quite a winding road, not much space to overtake, except for motorbikes. If you like to ride your bicycle there was a cycle path from where I hit the river for a good 100+ kms. Haven't looked to see if there were any nearby aires or camp sites because I was making for Orth/Donau. Eventually I had to stop for lunch, found an open spot next to the river and the sun came out after a few spatters of rain a while back. A bridge came in sight and I crossed that, the signs now signalling Wien (Vienna). I had been here before in '78, beautiful city, majestic, cultured and very clean. On approaching the city the skyline had changed, no sky scrappers before, but that's all you could see now. Slight navigation problem at one point, but picked up again and only had about 50 kms to go. Saw one police car in a small village, but nothing else along the road. Fortunately no accidents today, it was lovely that there were no lorries on the road starting off on B12, B3 most of the way, B14 and others to destination. Managed to find Diesel at €1.309, cheap, so pounced. Will fill up again tomorrow before going into Hungary, could be cheaper, but If I don't like the atmosphere, I can shoot straight through with a full tank. So finally, at about 1700, arrived at Orth/Donau which was actually a car park at the end of the town; journey took a bit longer than expected and would only stay one night. Must try to cut down mileage a bit, too long to drive. So today I drove 235.3 miles, 31483. €50 ltrs Diesel at 31348 drove 6 hrs 48 mins too long!

Monday, 9th May 2011 Good night, decided to go to Deutsch Jahrndorf (Camperstop N48.00777 E17.11073) looked a good place for relaxation, and put my feet up for a while. Got there quite early and was intrigued by the man who came round with his envelope for me to make a voluntary donation, which I did €6 I thought that was about right. It was a lovely day, cuckoos doing their thing quite close in fact, but couldn't see them. Several ladies came along and did the gardening. It seemed that this was a co-operative affair to keep the spellplatz tidy and looking good for visitors, and it certainly did. Had a good night but got woken up fairly early by the inhabitants of a house opposite when they both left, in separate cars, for work at 0530. I think I did go back to sleep for a while. Just 33 miles today.