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Fiona Ferrar

Fiona Ferrar

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    • Fiona FerrarTravelerEurope 2019

      Frieburg with day trip to Basel - day 26

      May 7, 2019 in Switzerland ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

      Day 26 – this is the midway point of our trip – by golly we have done a lot!

      So today we set alarms which was a bit of a shock. We were on the tram pretty early, and then on the train to Basel by 9.15. Basel is in Switzerland, and one of our aims was to spend all of our swiss francs by the time we left. It was great to have our tour guide who bought the train tickets, and worked out where we had to be – aka Jeremy. When we got there it was a quite a walk to the old town. J&J needed a coffee so we went to a Coop (aka supermarket) and had some breakfast. Then we walked around the old town, found the cathedral which was rather cool. We visited a few shops, and had lunch at the market. I had fun spending my remaining francs pretty much just on chocolate and had exactly the right change to spend on lunch for no remaining francs – goal met!

      Then J&J walked to the other side of the river to sit in the sun while I explored a few more shops. I was a bit restricted though cos I had spent all my francs, so would have had to really want something to use my card. Then I joined them sitting in the sun which was really nice. I did take my sox off, and tried my feet in the water (the Rhine) and by golly it was cold. It would have been great if I had a sprained ankle, would have sorted that out pdq. Then we decided to take an earlier train back to Freiburg. I am a slow walker, so left straight away while the J’s were going to stop at Lidl for limoncello and something for dinner. Was so funny, we were at the train station waiting for our train at 4.30. I was wondering why people were coming up the stairs and walking quickly to the left. Then I realised that our train was already there out of sight, and there was about 3 minutes before it left! Needless to say that we got up in a hurry and rushed to the other end of the platform to get on the train. We had bought a return ticket initially for a 7.30 return, and then bought 4.30 tickets. It would have been funny if we had had to buy 5.30 tickets as well – not!

      So the train trip was uneventful, and the tram trip after. Then it was about a 1 km walk back to Nico. We then had a wee snack, and I was sent off on a mission on my bike to get olive oil and dish washing liquid. We had run out of both of those. On our initial shopping trip a couple of weeks ago we bought some flowing soap for our toilet. By golly it was such crap soap – a real mission to get any soap out of it. I was so relieved when Jody relented and allowed me to buy another bottle, we both love the new bottle! But while at this supermarket I found more berries at a similarly cheap price – ie 2.50 euros for 500g of blueberries, and 2.0 euros for 250g of raspberries. These had been more than double that price in Switzerland. I knew things were more expensive in Switzerland, but the last time we were there, we weren’t as familiar with the prices of other countries, now that we are we didn’t want to spend any money there.

      When I returned from the shopping, Jeremy whipped up another feast for us. Yummy roasted potatoes, and fillet steak. It is quite nice having our own personal chef – Jeremy works as a chef in Stuttgart and certainly knows his way around a kitchen. During and after dinner we played the card game again – bugger your neighbour. I really like this game, and winning makes it even better, tho I didn’t win every game tonight. Jody had ended up buying 2 bottle of limoncello which I thought was a bit carried away since we still had the Baileys and Cointreau – cost of that was 8 euros, and 11 euros so extremely cheap. And the limoncello was 13 euros. Anyway tonight we polished off the Baileys and Cointreua, and nearly all of 1 bottle of Limoncello. Not a bad effort seeing as I don’t normally drink – that Jody is a really bad influence. I don’t normally eat gummy bears either, but Nico’s glovebox is full of them, and they are rather handy when the navigation efforts are less than ideal.

      So Jeremy leaves us in the morning, and unfortunately the forecast is for rain nearly everywhere we would like to go. So possibly we might take a train in the morning to Titisee lakes which is about 25kms away, and then bike back (mainly downhill of course!). But if it is pouring first thing, we might not do that. We still have 9 days before we have to drop Nico off, and really could end up anywhere in those days. My weather forecast app has Bruges (Belgium), Versailles (France), Rotterdam (Netherlands) Strasbourg (France), Munich (Germany, but we are not going there, so not sure why that has come up…), Luixembourgh and Versailles (France). The forecast is rain for everywhere tomorrow, but not so bad after that.

      We can’t quite believe that we have done so much, and we are only half way through our holiday. I am not sure that the videos of me singing really needed to make it onto a public domain – apologies for that! I need to get some more incriminating videos of Jody…

      Ciao ciao ciao (yes, I am still not totally sober! But have done a pretty good effort remembering what we have done for the last 2 days. Midnight was a while ago, so bed is calling).      Read more

    • Fiona FerrarTravelerEurope 2019

      Freiburg - day 25

      May 6, 2019 in Germany ⋅ 🌙 0 °C

      Well today was a really great day. It was beautiful and fine though pretty cool – think it got to double figures at one stage. Last night that I suggested that we do our own thing today, and that worked out really well. I got up earlier and went off biking after putting the washing on. Saw lots of fun sights in Frieburg before arriving at the market near that cathedral. I locked my bike up and looked around that for a while, then found myself at the galera for breakfast. It was really nice (and had a toilet included which is always a bonus), and had a charge per 100g for the hot food. Then I looked around a few more shops, found a shoe shop where I bought 2 pairs, and then made my way back to the market. There I found another bright green bike locked up next to mine – Jody and Jeremy had arrived there as well. I found them eating some sausage for breakfast, it is always too early for that for me. So I went off doing some more shopping looking, then biked back to Nico (unfortunately that is up a big hill), and put our sheets in the dryer. Jody and Jeremy then arrived back – Jeremy’s hire bike is not so good, so they are going to take a train to the town around 7kms, but I am going to bike there.

      So after our sheets dried, I went off on my bike to the next town, Kirchzarten, which is 7kms away. Unfortunately it is a gradual climb all the way there, but spectacular scenery being beside a river all the way. Rather funny that as soon as I got there, the first people I saw were Jody and Jeremy. We then went to a pub and had a drink (non alcoholic for me of course). Then we visited a supermarket and found such cheap berries – 2 euro for raspberries, and 0.89 for slightly older raspberries. I bought some, ate a punnet and then had to go back for more. Blueberries were 2.50 Euros for 500g – I was in heaven!

      Then J&J took the train back, and I got back on my bike. Biking back was great as it was all downhill. I stopped a few times to take pics, and got diverted a couple of times over the other side of the river for a look see, and then finally got back to Nico. I biked maybe 25 to 30kms today, so felt that I had done some exercise for a change. And then the evening really started….

      Jeremy and Jody had a card game that they wanted to play, but took forever to work out what the rules were. They even tried to ring someone in NZ to confirm – only 6am at that time! So finally we got playing, and they had an issue with the fact that I kept winning. What is their problem? There might have been a bit of Baileys and Cointreau involved as well. I don’t think Jody quite gets that I normally don’t drink at all.

      Jeremy cooked us this amazing meal with chicken – cooked in the frypan, and then the oven for around 2 hours with potato underneath it. It tasted really amazing, but I was having a bit of an issue spearing some of it on my fork, nice of Jody to com to the rescue. Then I tried to stand up – who knew that Cointreau and Baileys had such an effect?

      So I think we went to bed around 11.30 feeling slightly under the weather!      Read more

    • Fiona FerrarTravelerEurope 2019

      Stuttgart and Freiburg - day 24

      May 5, 2019 in Germany ⋅ 🌙 -1 °C

      Well it was pretty cold last night, but we were snuggly warm in Nico. I did wear my puffer jacket and sox to go to the shower though. The showers and toilets were lovely and warm with no silly push in button on the showers that you have to use every few seconds. It was still only 2 degrees when we left around 10am. It took us around 2 hours to get to Stuttgart, and Jody’s navigation was impeccable as per normal ie she had to call Jeremy (her son) and ask him if he lived in a University as that is where her address took us. He said no, and then suggested that he come to us as he must have thought we woudn’t be able to work out how to get to him. So I then friended him on messenger, got him to send a link to his address and we were off again. About this time we had a discussion about her navigation skills, and what we have been experiencing is not unusual! Though she is pretty good at directions on motorways still.

      Anyway, we ended up going down a one way street, and at the start of it I suggested she let Jeremy know that we were close ie 200m away. We could hear him running down the stairs through the phone, and then he wondered how he would see us, hmmm I think it was pretty obvious when we were the only huge motorhome in the street, partially blocking traffic once again. Jody then got out to stop the traffic properly, Jeremy got in the back and we were off. It took nearly half an hour for us to get to a rest stop where they could say hello properly. We also had yummy hamburgers for lunch again courtesy of the chef (ie Jody, not the actual chef Jeremy who is now on board). While we were stopped, it started snowing.

      We headed for a camping ground near the Black Forrest. There was no-one on reception, the sign said find a pitch and can check in from 2-4. We found a pitch, used the toilet, and then decided that we would rather go somewhere else. So we drove for another hour and ended up in Freiburg which is near the borders of both Switzerland and France. We got a bit excited on the way as the temperature got into double figures. This is a really nice campsite, and the guy who checked us in is from Taranaki. Then we jumped on our bikes, and Jeremy hired one and we biked into the city to try and find some dinner. I saw a steeple in the distance and made my way there, and we were in front of an amazing cathedral which turns out to be the main attraction here. A lot of restaurants are closed on Sundays (actually most things are closed on Sundays in Europe), but we found one in that square that served German food, so we had some nice things for dinner – sausage, fillet steak, roast pork with potato dumplings and dark beer sauce. Then we biked back up the hill, but it is a lovely evening for that, although rather chilly.

      We had vague plans of Jeremy sleeping in Nico with us – the table converts into a bed somehow. But, luckily this campsite also has a hostel, so he is going to sleep in that. We plan to be here for 2 nights, and will be going out biking tomorrow. Tho there is a great market in the main square from 7.30 to 12.30, and we possibly might have to visit that first!

      Pretty amazing that 2 days ago we were in Hungary, and now we are on the western border of Germany. Budapest is just over 1,000 kms away, so maybe we have done a bit of driving! We drop Nico off in 12 days, and are currently 700kms from Calais. So we have a bit of time to explore near here – Basel and Strasbourg are both close, and meant to be lovely places.      Read more

    • Fiona FerrarTravelerEurope 2019

      Lipizzaners - day 23

      May 4, 2019 in Germany ⋅ 🌧 2 °C

      We are getting good at getting up if we need to, and were on the train at 8.30 as planned with our tickets picked up, and having breakfast in Starbucks by 9.30. Just before we were able to go in, we walked through more of the area and found some other amazing buildings that we probably should have known about before. Oh well, you can’t spend time at all of them. When we got to our seats we realised how great they were. We initially wanted to go a week earlier but couldn’t get the best tickets then. Today did work out a better day for us anyway.

      As for the performance – wow wow wow. They started with 8 of the younger horses which were still different shades of gray – they turn white when they are older. They just showed some simple exercises which was good. Then they had more experienced horses doing some of the complicated exercises while mounted. Then a session of experienced horses doing unmounted exercises with the horses leaping. Then a pair of horses doing synchronised exercises. Then a group of 8 experienced horses. What I was most impressed about was the leg changes at the canter, and their ability to turn tight circles leading with the wrong leg. The stallions looked extremely muscled and strong. It really was magical with each session introduced in german and english, and the use of lighting was wonderful as well. This was something I had wanted to see from when I was much younger, and I was very pleased that I have now experienced it.

      After the performance we went back to Klosterneuberg (camping near Vienna) and Nico. We were trying to drive as far as we could that day to Stuttgart where Jody’s son is living. We did pretty well – 570kms after leaving at 2pm, and ended up at Augsburg in Germany. The drive wasn’t too bad, though the first hour or so was on country roads in Austria before we finally got to the A1. Then when we got to Germany we were a bit confused about the speed signs, but were pretty sure that we were on an unlimited speed road by the buffeting we got from the speed of the cars going past. Nico was trundling along nicely at 70mph (around 112kph), and cars were just leaving us in the dust. We had fun watching them come up from behind and Jody was videoing them – anything to pass the time of day! It was also very interesting seeing the number of solar panels beside the motorway. The weather forecast had not been good, but the only time it really poured was when we stopped for lunch, and nicely just after Jody had filled Nico up with gas and gone into pay. The temperature got steadily lower and was 2 degrees when we arrived at 8pm. Now it says it feels like minus 1, yikes! We had been looking at different locations today and tried to stay away from the ones that were forecasting snow. We have worked out the heating in Nico now though, and are feeling toasty warm after Jody cooked some very tasty hamburgers with mince, bacon and eggs. The campsite is very basic, but is close to the motorway so we will be on our way in the morning.

      So there were no driving issues today with googlemaps, and we absolutely nailed the trains in and out. Such pros!      Read more

    • Fiona FerrarTravelerEurope 2019

      Bratislavia and Vienna - day 22

      May 3, 2019 in Slovakia ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

      The campground really was quite noisy with sirens going on overnight. We both woke up about 2am, and could hear the thumping of music way in the background, maybe a nightclub? But we got up relatively early, visited the very small farmers market next door (amazing strawberries tho), and hit the road before 10am. The drive out of Budapest was so much better than the way in – might have taken us ten minutes what took over an hour when we arrived. We stopped at a gas station near the border so we could use up our remaining forints before leaving Hungary. We had about $45 NZ worth, so it took a while for us to find enough to spend it on – lots of new things to try out now!

      Then we decided that as we were close and it was early we could drive through Slovakia and maybe have lunch in Bratislavia. We had to buy another vignette to be able to drive there, but when else will we ever be there? So the drive went quite well, we went into the city over a bridge saw a nice church. Then we saw a KFC sign, and I had been interested in seeing what it was like in other countries. So Jody put KFC into googlemaps – golly what a mistake that was! It directed us up this road, and then wanted us to turn right. None of the right turning roads had room for us to go down with cars on either side of rather narrow roads with buildings on each side. The road we were on started going a hill and was getting narrower. So I pulled over at the entrance of a street, and when there were no cars coming towards us I told Jody to get out and stop the traffic. She was very very good, and did a wonderful job holding all the cars at bay while I did a several point turn for a u turn in the middle of a narrow road. She then jumped in and we hightailed it outta there!

      Near the border we stopped at another gas station where we found some Adblue which is an additive that Nico has been telling us that he was running low on. Jody found a good bottle with a pourer on it, so we bought 2. We were a bit confused at the start as there was a bowser with adblue on it, and Nico has an adblue hole. But google helped, and this is a bowser where the adblue and diesel are mixed together, so lucky we didn’t use it. We both had a really nice bread roll thingey for lunch – our only purchases in Slovakia!

      So then we were off to Vienna again, and my golly our navigation could use some work. So Jody couldn’t remember the name of the camp ground we were going to, so I said it is written in 1B4 – the warwick exercise book that has a page for every day for recording useful information. After going through a few traffic jams and stops, we arrived at the camp site – hmmm, it wasn’t the one that we had been at before that Jody’s bike was in the shop nearby and that we had booked for tonight. Later on we realised that Jody had written down some random campground name in 1B4 – golly knows where it had come from. Anyway, then she put Donau Park, and we headed off for there. When we were close googlemaps said we needed to park and walk to our destination – what? Hmmm, googlemaps wanted more specific information ie Donau Park camping, so we were 6 miles away from our destination. So 3rd time lucky we hoped (ie I put our destination in my phone! Just kidding, it is very good having a navigator on board, and we always get there eventually). On the way we spied a Lidl supermarket so stopped there for some supplies. No limoncello, but I bought some schnapps to try for 5 euro.

      Finally got to the campsite, and Jody went to see if her bike was ready. Yeehaa, we are back in the biking business. So after a cup of tea and seeing as the rain was trying to hold back we went for a lovely bike ride for about an hour. Went down some trail to the river, and back via someones planted back yard. Then off on the track to Vienna which was lovely and went by the river. Then back via the main road to see the monastery. It didn’t rain the whole way which was great, but started shortly after we got back.

      Jody cooked us a lovely tea again with moroccan chicken, and we tried out the Mozart liquer little bottles and the Schnapps. Jody is keen to find larger bottles of the Mozart, and the schnapps is currently outside under the hedge, and will be left here in the kitchen in case someone is braver than me!

      So tomorrow we are off to see the Lippizaners. We have tried to get our tickets 3x so far, but tomorrow should finally get them as long as we get up at 7am, and get on our train as planned. After the performance we will be heading off to Stuttgart, but don’t expect to get all the way. Have no plans of where we will be staying for the night so that could be interesting.      Read more

    • Fiona FerrarTravelerEurope 2019

      Budapest - day 21

      May 2, 2019 in Hungary ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

      Lovely and fine, over 20 degrees

      This morning we had planned to meet up with my friend Anna Eiffert at 11am. But we also wanted to go to the big city market, so decided to leave as soon as we woke up and do that first. Well I woke up at around 7.45 – I am amazed at how many nights in a row I have been sleeping for longer than 8 hours. My normal is about 6.5 hours. We were pretty organised tho, and left the campground before 9am. We are good at the train system, and Jody managed us through the train network rather than having to walk 1.2 kms to the market.

      The market was very interesting, and Jody and I split up as we had to leave there at 10.45. Lots of Hungarian food options – interesting meats, and loads of paprika. Upstairs were souvenirs, trinkets and clothes. I bought this wee linen jacket in white. Then I bumped into Jody and she bought one in a pinky colour. Then it was time to get another 2 trains which we did successfully, and found Anna by the big ferris wheel as arranged. Budapest is a city of 1.7m people, so we are doing pretty well getting around having been here for 2 days. I met Anna 6 years ago when she was taking an agility seminar in Texas which I attended with Clare Wellington and Allan and Elaine Rohde. Since then Anna has become a One Mind Dog coach, and is a really good teacher and handler.

      Anna found a bus for us to catch to go up to the castle which overlooks Budapest. Pest is on the flat side of the river, and Buda is on the hillier side. It was very cool up the hill as we could see both sides, and the castle itself was just amazing. After the castle we took another bus and had a bit of a walk to our lunch restaurant which Anna had booked. It was called Stand 25 and is part of the same company as the one michelin star restaurant called Stand. The food was incredible, and presented extremely well. It was lovely chatting to Anna and hearing about her growing up in Budapest, and about European agility. Unfortunately she had only come home yesterday, and is leaving again in the morning, so only had a short time with us, but it was lovely to catch up with her.

      After Anna left us, we made our way to the metro and took a seat working out what we were doing next. Lo and behold a sign appeared in front of us – Decathlon! Just one of my favourite European stores. So yep we just had to visit. I bought 2 pairs of togs for a total of $40 and a t shirt. Then we went to Starbucks – mainly to use the loo, but more working out of what we were going to do. We both felt a bit weary so decided that staying around for the evening river cruise was not going to happen. But looked up the market again and thought we could spend a bit more time there so took 2 more trains for that. It was good because we have now done the whole market and won’t feel like we were jmissing out on anything. I bought some wonderful large blueberries and tasty strawberries. We had been very disappointed in the strawberries in Italy, so haven’t had any for a while. After the market we walked down a road that looked like it had lots of eating places, and that was a great choice. Heaps of souvenir shops, and whatdeyeknow, some more clothes shops. Jody and I bought another linen jacket each, and a couple of other tops as well. They are so nice, and pretty cheap. We also stopped and shared a chimney cake which I had been wanting to try. Basically doughnut baked into the shape of a cone, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and filled with icrecream and cream. It was rather nice, but we won’t be needing to have another one. Then on the way to the next train station we went for a walk over the bridge to take some pics and then finally got on the train. We sort of got on a train going the wrong way, so had to get off again. That was paired with me making us get off a train which I thought was going the wrong way earlier in the day, but actually wasn’t. Lucky there are so many trains so it isn’t really an issue.

      So we walked 1 km from the train station back to Nico, and by this stage Jody was re-energised and buzzing. I suggested that maybe she take the train back into town and try out the river cruise but I didn’t get a positive response.

      When we got to this campground, we parked behind another motorhome, and the guy wanted us to move forward as much as we could. I was hoping he didn’t want anyone to park behind us, but at 9pm tonight that exactly what he was trying to do. We are going to leave in the morning, so don’t really want anyone behind us who might go out for the day. We managed to get him to find somewhere else to park, and will have to keep an eye on the situation in the morning. It is not the quietest campground, and we have been serenaded by someone playing some sort of horn this evening.      Read more

    • Fiona FerrarTravelerEurope 2019

      Budapest - day 20

      May 1, 2019 in Hungary ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

      Lovely fine day over 20.

      Overnight there was quite a bit of train noise in our campsite, and we weren’t that impressed by the chemical toilet just being a grill in the driveway where the other grey water was being emptied. Then one of the helpful people on the Justgo FB site mentioned that the site he preferred shouldn’t have been closed, so we re-looked at it. Not sure why we thought it was closed , but we were very pleased that it was wrong and were happily parked up at a new camping ground much closer to the city by 10.30.

      We took a train into the city (the Hungarian plan names are not the easiest to remember, but photos and maps helped us). Once there we realised that there was a big car race on in the city as well as it being a holiday on the 1st May. We saw a couple of guys with small green electric motorbikes, and ended up talking to them – nek minite we were hooning around on them. Although Jody is sworn to wear a helmet on her bike, there wasn’t one for these so we tried to be careful. We went over the bridge to the other side of the river, and then onto Margaret Island which is where lots of fitness activities are held. There was a lot of people there riding all sorts of tourist bikes and things. The parliament building is absolutely stunning, and we hope to have a better look at it tomorrow. We had one of the guys as a guide, and had the bikes for just over an hour which was a good amount of time. Then we visited lots of very funky little shops with funny hats etc.

      Both of Jody’s sons have been in Budapest before which is one of the reasons we are here. Matt had recommended an eating place which we spent a bit of time trying to find. We did find it, but there was no sitting down and a huge queue. On the way there we had seen a bit of an outside food hall, and ended up having a late lunch there. I had goulash on flat bread, and Jody had a pulled pork sandwich. Both were really nice. We had a good chat to a couple from near Manchester who were in Budapest for his birthday just for a few days. He was interested in Nico as he owns a garage.

      Then we decided it was time for some hot pools. There are loads of options in Budapest, so we chose the number 1 attraction which is the Szechenyi Baths. It took us a while to find a train station – googlemaps is not our friend, and was the source of much amusement with our lunch companions as they find it similarly challenging. But once we got on the right train, we got off at the right station and the baths were very close. We got a bit confused after going in as there were these little rooms with doors at both ends with both men and women going into. On the other side of the rooms there seemed to be a lot of nearly naked people running around. We finally figured out that these were changing rooms, and the lockers were on the other side. But people would push the doors open while we were in there (which we had done as well), so it wasn’t obvious when the rooms were full or empty. Once we put all our stuff in lockers we headed for the first pools which were inside. We found a cold plunge pool which we weren’t going to try, and then found a 37 degree one that we walked through as the tiles looked a bit slippery on our bare feet. Then we got outside and found the really large pool which was 38 degrees. We stayed in there for about an hour just watching and listening to various people – we both love crowd watching, and the different languages and looks of people were very interesting. Not many asians here, and a lot of slavic looking people. Also interesting that there wasn’t anywhere with free drinking water – quite different to NZ where everyone is encouraged to keep hydrated. Then we went to the inside pools and found a 38 degree one, and then finally the 40 degree one. That kept us warm while we changed in the little cubicals – and for me to find my sock which someone had kindly put on top of a shelf for me.

      Then back to the train again. We found that it is a really good plan to catch the train the wrong way so it goes to the end of the line cos then you are guaranteed to get a good seat which we then kept on until we got to the city centre – Deak Ferenc ter. The station by the camp site is called Nagyvarad ter – yep, those names just roll off the tongue! It took a wee while at Deak Ferenc ter to work out where to catch the train, and then when we got to Nagyvarad ter we went up 2 sets of stair cases before we chose the right one to walk 1km to our campsite. I don’t normally take 2 trains, and walk a km after doing hot pools! Once back at Nico we decided to check out the restaurant – I had veges and kumara chips, and Jody had chicken and grilled veges which was just ok. Then we polished off the rest of the limoncello, must make some plans to replace that! Actually Jody is quite a bad influence on me! It is quite nice listening to the NZDAC 2017 playlist – current rocking away to Mania by Michael Sembello (who knew who sang that song?)      Read more

    • Fiona FerrarTravelerEurope 2019

      Budapest - day 19

      April 30, 2019 in Hungary ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

      Vienna (raining), Budapest (fine)

      We did well with our alarms, and were in Vienna (Wein) by 9am. It was interesting at the Lippizaner ticket place as the queue was way out the door, and as it was raining there were lots of umbrellas out. We looked at the shorter queue, but didn’t see a person there, so abandoned that idea for now and went to Starbucks to get out of the rain. I had a hot chocolate (have learned to ask for them with milk rather than water), and Jody had a cappachino. The it was 10am and the museum of illusions was open. There was a group of around 20 teenagers that went in just before us, and it was interesting watching what they did with the exhibits. It is a fairly small museum, but had lots of cool things and we took a number of silly pics. I took one step on this vortex tunnel thing and thought it wasn’t for me, but Jody walked the whole way though she felt a bit sick after.

      Then we went back to see if we could get our tickets to the horses. The queue was even longer at that stage. We worked out that the practice sessions were from 10-12, and people could queue up for that whole time. We found a guy to ask questions of, and he took us to the front of the line but their machines were down. The lady explained that it wouldn’t be nearly as busy on actual perfomance days, so next Saturday we should be just fine to go in there about 9.30 and get our tickets. So the 3rd day in Vienna, and still haven’t got our tickets! Then Jody decided she needed some tights for lounging around in Nico, so we went shopping in H&S. That was a sucessful trip, but funny when Jody was in the changing rooms and I was outside playing on my phone. I thought the door looked slightly open, so called out to her but she wasn’t there. Had not even noticed me sitting outside, and was up on the next floor. Thank goodness for phones and mobile networks! So by then it was after 12, and we had to check Nico out by 2pm, so it was off to the trains again. It was raining pretty hard by that stage, so we were pleased to be on the underground. Catching the trains has been pretty easy for us – similar to the tube in London. But our second train stopped and everyone got off. Then we all seemed confused about which side of the platform we should catch the next train. We got on and off a couple of times, but then sat down and were pleased when the train headed off in the right direction.

      Jody then went to the bike shop to see if the derailer had arrived, but unfortunately not. So we decided to head for Budapest, and pick her bike up on Friday. This was a shame as we could have headed off yesterday if we had known it wouldn’t have been ready. Oh well, never mind. So it supposed to be a 3 hour drive to Budapest. It rained quite hard for the first part of the journey so it was slow going. But then it became dry, we crossed the border and Nico was happy sitting at 70mph amongst the huge number of trucks that joined us. It was very weird driving in Hungary as there was nothing really to see except flat fields. There weren’t any little settlements, and even 20kms out of Budapest we were driving through farmland. The we hit Budapest, and I really wished that I had had a reststop before we did. It took over an hour to drive through the city, and I was well and truly over it by then. The bad thought was that we will have to do the trip in reverse on Friday, but at least I have 2 days with no driving. Our campsite is a bit different, we drove in and stopped on the first pitch we saw and then went to find reception. We ended up staying exactly where we parked as it was level – not that it was nicely parked in the middle or anything and lucky neither of us have OCD.

      The girl at reception talked and talked and talked about things that we could do, and neither of us seemed capable of taking it in. We took away the brochures, and headed off to the university restaurant. My dinner of crumbed turkey with rice and grilled veges was really nice. Jody had pork which was extremely tender, but received boiled veges instead which weren’t quite so nice. But it cost us $10NZ for both meals so that wasn’t too bad.

      Now we are sitting in Nico with limoncello working out what to do tomorrow. It is May the 1st which I hadn’t realised which means that many of the shops are not open. All of the attractions should be, including the hot baths which I have been looking forward to. I think we will be doing the hop on hop off bus for a while as that seems to be an easy option. I didn’t have much concept of how large Budapest is, but it is similar to Auckland and will take us about 30 mins by public transport to get into the middle of the city. I am thinking I will be sleeping very well tonight as that drive was rather tiring. It was quite long, I was driving at speed and there was a lot of traffic. Nico is being very good though and responding to my directions quite well.

      Jody is just refilling her glass with limoncello. I am thinking we might have to find another bottle…..      Read more

    • Fiona FerrarTravelerEurope 2019

      Reading day in Vienna - day 18

      April 29, 2019 in Austria ⋅ 🌧 9 °C

      Raining this morning, and the bike shop didn’t open until 10am. So Jody went off there while I was reading a book in bed (though I had been up for a shower). Hmm, bike won’t be ready until tomorrow, so we decided to have a lazy day in Nico hiding out from the weather. It wasn’t actually that bad from lunchtime, but by then we had settled in and had the heater on. We had vague plans about going into Vienna to a jazz club, but the jazz started at 9, and we would have had to be there at 7 for a seat, and leave at 10.30 to get a train so we flagged that idea. I did go out on my bike to find a supermarket, and managed to fill up my backpack, and bike back with a bag of chips down my jacket. Raspberries were 1.80 euros, and large blueberries were 3.80 – from Spain, and very tasty. Jody cooked steak and made salad for dinner, and we finished off the Movenpick sorbets that we picked up a few days ago. So all in all a total rest day, but our first one and it was pretty cold outside.

      Tomorrow we can check out at 2pm, so the plan is to set alarms, and be on a train at 8.30am in to Vienna. Funny, we didn’t pick our Lippizaner tickets up on Sat when we arrived as couldn’t park in centre, didn’t pick them up yesterday as it was Sunday, thought we might today (Monday), but then looked at our voucher, and Monday is the only day that we couldn’t. So we should be able to get them tomorrow, and that is next to the museum of illusions (similar to the one that we never got to in Dubai).

      Golly this morning seems a long time ago, Dubai must have been about a year ago!

      The pics are from the museum of illusions. It would be fair to say that we never quite got the hang of the door thing!      Read more

    • Fiona FerrarTravelerEurope 2019

      Vienna - day 17

      April 28, 2019 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

      A bit windy, but around 18 degrees

      We have both been sleeping really well in Nico. I didn’t actually wake up this morning until 8am, so a 9 hour sleep with no pit stops. Pretty unheard of for me, and I was very surprised at the time. But feeling quite on the mend now, and didn’t take anything to help with symptoms today. So we left the campsite around 10 with our bikes all ready to catch the train – first time I have done that with a bike. It wasn’t too hard as the carriage that could take bikes was clearly marked. We had to change trains once, and then we were in Vienna. It was a bit different taking the bikes up and down the escalators too, but we coped admirably.

      So then we were out in the sunlight deciding where to go. We had a few places in mind, and chose to go to the Hundertwasser village and museum. When I worked in Whangarei there was a lot of discussion about Hundertwasser as there had been fundraising for a building, and it was quite a contentious issue. I now have more of an appreciation of how wonderful his art is, and what an unusual approach he had to life. The toilets in Kawakawa are of his design, and I was asked if I had been to them today. We bought the audio cues at the museum, and that had heaps of information about him. It was great cos you could read it on the screen as well as listen to it (could scroll through it very quickly, and there were lots of pages). His art is very bright and vibrant, and not restricted to paintings. In Austria he has designed the exterior of a refuse incinerator plant which looks fantastic, and also came up with the concept of tree tenants which had some wonderful words with it which I can’t find – about having trees in your houses which don’t need to pay any rent as they pay in many other ways. We were there for quite a long time as both really enjoyed his art and concepts. His art reminds me a bit of Gaudi in Barcelona, and it was great to see examples of both everywhere in their home cities. We had lunch there – kumara chips with guacamole (odd, but nice), and some beef goulash with bread and a gherkin (yes, very odd!).

      Then it was off to try and find the Belvedere Palace and baroque gardens. It was a bit of fun riding around Vienna with one hand off the handlebars with googlemaps on my phone directing me left and right and all over the place. We stopped and took pics at a couple of places with stunning churches, and managed to find the gardens. That was pretty spectacular, and a very popular place for runners. We took lots of photos, and I have been trying to perfect my posing technique – there are lot of examples for me to follow! I think people think we are a bit mad, but it is a bit of fun.

      So after leaving the gardens, we went on a bit more of a tiki tour and saw a lovely fountain. Shortly after that as we were biking down a road, I chose to ride up a sloped path onto the footpath, while Jody thought she would be clever and jump her bike up a really high kerb. Unfortunately she was going a bit slow for that, and her front wheel landed in the dip, so she flew over the handlebars. After ascertaining that she was ok, I was convulsed with laughter cos it really was the most ill-timed jump. I was riding beside her at the time, so had a great view. Unfortunately when she got on her bike again, she realised that the derailer was poking into her spokes, so it wasn’t really rideable. So we found a place to lock the bikes up and went walking. Later on we devised a temporary solution with a New World bag and some dental floss to tie it up (kiwi ingenuity to the fore!).

      The we walked to Stephanplatz which is a bit of a big square with an extremely high church (maybe as high as the Sagreda Familia in Barcelona?). We walked around that, and had a look in the church. Then walked to another square and into another church where they were having a service. The priest was the one leading the singing which I thought was interesting. Then we decided to have an early dinner before taking the train. Jody had some enchilada type thingeys, and I had beef spare ribs which came with chips. Everything seems to be served with chips here. Last night we had Wiener Snitzel at the camp ground which came with a side of a potato dish as well as some chips. Then it was back to the bikes, and trying to work out how to get back to Nico. The train system here is similar to the London underground with a few interlinking lines. Our campground is beyond the Vienna lines so we had to take 2 Vienna trains, and then 1 regional one. It wasn’t too hard to work it out though, and we were back by around 8pm. Really enjoying the good wifi here, and are both downloading the NZDAC 2017 playlist form Spotify.

      There is a Giant bike shop next door, and that is our plan for the morning. It doesn’t open until 10am though, so we possibly might be staying here for another day. There are scooters for hire in Vienna, so maybe we could try them out – I have told Jody that if we do, I think she should take her bike helmet. She has chosen only to tell me now that she is a bit accident prone on holidays! Next time she looks like she is doing something unwise I might be yelling NEIN NEIN at her!      Read more

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