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Europe 2019

April - June 2019
A new trip by Motorhome in 2019 Read more
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  • TravelerEurope 2019

    Zermatt and the Matterhorn - day 11

    April 22, 2019 in Switzerland ⋅ ⛅ 5 °C

    Shock horror, I set an alarm this morning. Only for 6.30am though so it wasn’t too traumatic. It always seems to take us a while to have showers, and get ready and then it was a bit of a walk to the train station, but we were on the train at 8.41 and arrived at Zermatt just over an hour later. The train ride was spectacular with the cutest wee houses, waterfalls, a river and boulders the size of houses. We found it interesting trying to work out how people could actually get to the houses with no roads. At the last 2 stops, people just got on with ski boots, masks and jackets already on carrying their skis. So we wondered how far they would have to go to get to the slopes once we got there. But no worries, people walked maybe a couple of kms from their hotels to the trains/shuttles etc with ski boots on. I had to take a video of the girls which went shopping in their boots. I used to find them really uncomfortable for walking, but that was over 30 years ago, so they might have improved a bit since then.

    Our first stop was the info centre. There are several different points where you can go up the mountain and see the Matterhorn. The lady there advised us to go up to Rothorn which is meant to be the best view, and is from the Italy side. When we were up there I read the guide, and there were actually more things to do at the other peaks, but we were happy with how our day went, so that didn’t really matter. We had a bit of a walk to get to the funicular, and were a bit confused at which steps we needed to go up. The guard said it didn’t matter, and that’s when we realised that people just stood at the stairs on either side, and boarded the funicular from there when it arrived. It went very fast and up a very steep track in a tunnel, so we couldn’t see where we were going. Then we took a small gondalar carriage up to the next station, and then a really large gondala which fitted maybe 40 people with their skis to take us to the top.

    Our first steps off the gondala were a bit hairy as it was quite icy, and we just had walking shoes on. We managed to find a wetter snow path to get to the building and restaurant. The Matterhorn was not on full display at any time that we were there with just the top poking out from time to time. There was another amazing peak that was in full sunlight the whole time – weird as they weren’t that far away from each other. We wanted to go down a wee hill to take some pics, but it was too slippery. Then I realised people were having lunch and not using their ski poles, so a very nice man lent us 2 sets. It was still a bit slippery, and I had my camera ready but Jody didn’t oblige me by falling on her bum. Never mind. It was just so peaceful up there looking around. Lots of skiiers came off the gondola and immediately hit the trails. We had lunch up there, and stayed for maybe a couple of hours just enjoying the view.

    On our way down we stopped at the next station and had a look around. The beginners ski slope was great with a travellator for people to go up on. There were 4 different ones, on different gradients so it would be easy to advance. Once at the bottom we looked in a lot of shops. Bought some amazing sox with really soft inners. Oh, and the first shop we saw just might have been a chocolate shop – golly these ones were super amazing!

    We were both feeling rather tired by this stage even though it was only around 3pm. We walked for a bit, then sat on the plentiful benches or steps, then walked for a bit more. We found these great wooden reclining seats in a park, and put our feet up for a while. I had been keen to try raclette, and cheese fondue while I was here, so looked at many restaurant menus to find one that did those. Finally managed it, and we had both. Well, I won’t be needing to try them again – just ok really, but lots of cheese. On our way to the train we saw these really cute stuffed toys in a window, so went in. They were very soft, and the guy told us they were made from the softest animal fibre from the south of france. I didn’t quite get what the fibre was but the price was incredible - about 700 euros! Then it was time for the train back again and a walk back to Nico. Got back around 7.30 which is good as we were both a bit knackered (and full of cheese!).    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2019

    Visp and Steimen - day 12

    April 23, 2019 in Switzerland ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    We had a rather leisurely start this morning. I have had a bit of a sore throat and cough, so trying not to overdo it. It also was raining lightly this morning so that made it easier to stay in bed for a while. So we left the motorcamp at around 10am, and then got a bit distracted at the Lidl supermarket in Brigg (I loved Lidl when I was in Croatia, so wanted to visit another one). We were then heading to Rowena’s place (an old friend of Jody’s who has lived in Switzerland for 27 years). We left Brigg around 12, and googlemaps said we would arrive at Rowena’s in 2.5 hours. And then the journey began….

    It started off quite well, the roads were a bit narrow but not in great condition. The view was amazing again with such lovely little buildings all around and lots of little villages. As we went along, there was more and more snow, and the roads got narrower though the view got better. We seemed to be heading for some really high snowy mountains, but there didn’t seem to be a pass. At one stage we were heading for a tunnel, and found a round red sign that looked like it was a stop sign. We sort of thought that maybe we shouldn’t go through the tunnel, so I got out and asked the car behind us, and they didn’t have any idea either. So I beckoned the 3rd car through, and they went down a narrow path beside the tunnel, the other car followed, and I went to as well. But then a car came from the other way, so we waited for them, and then went on the narrow path. It was a couple of kms long, and it was very fortuitous that no cars came towards us, as there really wasn’t any room. It looked like a slip had fallen over the tunnel which is why we wouldn’t have got through it. When we got back on the road, it looked like there was a petrol station. We drove past that, through the town and then headed again for the mountains. The snow was encroaching on the road, and there was only just enough room for us to get through. I started thinking that this road really wasn’t a goer, and then we came across another red stop sign – looked like the road was closed. So we found somewhere to do a youie houie (missed a good photo opportunity there!) and went back through the time. There was a sign pointing us back to Brigg, but that seemed a long way to backtrack. So I thought we could go back to the gas station, and see if there was another option. Lo and behold but it wasn’t a gas station at all – it was a car train! The next train was at 1.05, and it was 1.00. So we quickly bought a ticket, drove over to the guard who showed us where to drive and we were on. He then handed us an A4 sheet of paper with about 10 different languages – basically saying that as we were pretty high, we couldn’t drive into the covered part of the train and we would have to wait at the other end for them to help us off. The train journey was around 15 minutes, and all the cars ahead of us just drove forward to get off. The cars behind us had to wait for the guard to open up some side gates, and maneuver us forward and back to get us off. The pass we went under was called the Furkapass (not what we were calling it!), and apparently it is only open for 5 months of the year. I have just seen picture of it, and driving under seems a preferable option.

    So the road after the tunnel was still a bit snowy and not well repaired, but then we started seeing some signs that looked like a motorway – yeehaa! The motorway still wasn’t amazing, and we went down a huge hill with hairpin bends (pleased that Nico has a manual gear), and finally got to the bottom of that and got on a road that I could even set cruise control on. We stopped at a gas station off the motorway and had lunch – ie Jody heated up our meat patties and cut up some stuff to go with them while I lay on my bed for a while. And then it was off on our final leg to Rowena’s in Steimen.

    What a lovely place this is. Rowena is a kiwi, but married Paul who is Swiss, and they have lived in this house for 27 years. We had a lovely dinner – bruschetta, rosti, and fleisch kase (translates as meat cheese). Rowena and Paul had a good time laughing at the routes that we have taken so far. Apparently the St Bernhard pass that we did on the first day was one that not many people would take by choice, and today’s effort was even better. Paul has been great at helping us with our route for the next few days – maps out all over the table. Interesting for me trying to login to my google drive on their wifi as it only gives me German and French as language choices. But very lovely hosts with a washing machine, and we get to sleep in beds where we don’t need to use ladders to climb into them – a bonus! Nico is currently parked in their driveway, but is on a bit of a lean so when Jody went in there with her socks on she slipped from one end to the other.

    So tomorrow we intend to go into Lucerne either by boat or train depending on what the weather is like.    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2019

    Lucerne - day 13

    April 24, 2019 in Switzerland ⋅ 🌙 12 °C

    So today I woke up feeling a bit worse, had coughed a fair bit overnight and then woke up at 9am. Rowena then took us on a wee drive around Stienen and we visited the swiss army knife factory - Victorinox – where we might have bought a few things. We both got a ceramic knife which is supposed to stay sharp for ages, and reduce the crying issue when chopping onions, and also several little knives which have lots of little gadgets. Rowena also took me to a pharmacy that had lots of natural remedies, hope they work.

    Then we had a stop at a café near Lake Lucerne, and decided not to take the boat as it was pretty rough. It was just under an hour on the train with 1 train change which was pretty easy and got there around 1pm. We spent the afternoon in Lucerne browsing the shops, taking silly pictures, and walked up the hill to a castle which had lovely views. Things really are pretty expensive here which was great as we weren’t tempted to spend any money. We caught the train back around 6pm, and Rowena cooked us a lovely meal of meatballs, pasta and salad.

    Oh, yes we might have found a chocolate shop as well. We both picked up a visitors guide, and 1 page had an advert for this shop, and by presenting the page we got 4 lindt chocolate truffles. Of course we had to visit that shop.

    So tomorrow I am hoping that the remedies work as we are on the road again tomorrow. Heading for Innsbruck, and stopping off in Litchenstein on the way.

    And forgot a funny story from yesterday. Rowena’s husband does a lot of skiing and pointed out the hill that he skis on that you can see from their house. He drives to the train to get there, and I asked when he put his ski boots on, and he said when he got out of the car. I said that he must be comfortable in them, and he said well I can’t drive in them! I think he would if he could tho.    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2019

    Innsbruck - day 14

    April 25, 2019 in Liechtenstein ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    We were up early today to say goodbye to Rowena and Paul. What fantastic hosts they have been, and it has been great to meet them and share many stories. Rowena is an amazing cook, and Paul has lots of stories about Switzerland. It was lovely staying in a house for 2 nights as well – not that we don’t love Nico!

    The road trip was fairly uneventful though it was extremely windy in parts – ie wind blowing hard (why does windy have 2 meanings?) Nico is rather top heavy with the large luton and the sideways wind really knocks him around. We did drive into Litchenstein (just because we could), and there wasn’t really a lot to see there. And then it was off to Austria, and our destination for the night which was Innsbruck. Our campsite was up in the hills, so we parked up and then took the courtesy bus into the city. That was after a wee lie down for me, my head cold has taken hold so am definitely below par, but hopefully it won’t last long.

    When we arrive in the city, we planned a route to the gardens. On the way we saw a number of interesting shops, and also had the most amazing views of mountains at the end of every road we looked at. The gardens were quite nice with lovely tulips. There were big sized chess sets with local men playing with them. Then we walked back into town and went into heaps of shops with interesting things to look at. Then we saw the Swarovski shop – lovely crystal jewellery, ornaments etc. We were in there for quite a while. We plan to go to the Swarovski museum park tomorrow on our way to Salzberg. I also found some raspberries for 2 euros, really yummy! There was this amazing shop where you could buy schnapps and fruit liquers and you chose your own glass bottle to be filled. The bottles were in a vast array of shapes so it was very interesting. I bought a neoprene cap from a outdoorsey clothes shop that had loads of lovely clothes which were quite different to things that I have seen before. I thought the cap would be good for out on the water as it is washable and floats.

    When we left the campsite, we thought the bus back went at 7.20pm. When we got off the bus we asked the driver where we caught it back from. He was very gruff, and when I first asked if he spoke English I got ‘NEIN NEIN’, and asking for where we caught it back was nearly too much for him. So we got back there before 7 in plenty of time, but there didn’t seem to be another bus back this evening. So we caught a taxi for 20 euro which wasn’t too bad.

    Jody is a pretty amazing cook, and cooked some lamb fillets to perfection which we had with salad and foccacia. I had picked up a couple of small movenpick sorbets at a gas station, and found that our freezer works rather well. We have stocked Nico with all sorts of tasty treats which we try from time to time. After dinner we had some planning time for where to next. We have that a lot more sorted than a couple of days ago, and even know where we expect to be for the next 3 days!    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2019

    Swarskovski Crystal Palace - day 15

    April 26, 2019 in Austria ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    Paul gave me a sachet of something to drink before bedtime, and I had an ok sleep the night before, but last night it totally knocked me out for 9 hours. Then I woke up feeling vaguely well again – yeehaa. So we had showers in the most amazing shower block. Each shower had a shower room, and an adjoining room with a basin so it was easy to keep everything dry. The showers were wonderfully hot with good pressure, and the whole shower block was heated. The motorcamp was a bit out of the city, and was surrounded by lovely countryside with tracks for walking and mountain biking. Lots of people were there with their dogs (and the campground even had a doggie shower). It would have been easy to stay there for longer, but we had plans.

    So off we drove to the Swarovski Crystal World. It took a bit to get there – thanks googlemaps! The workers might have been surprised to see us what for 90 secs at the red light, go through the one lane, do a youie at the other end and come back through again. But once we got there it was simply amazing. We didn’t quite know what to expect though had a map, and knew it had outdoor areas. We weren’t expecting the hour long inside tour through many different rooms and different experiences. I have posted pics of most of them, and they will hopefully remind me of how amazing it was. We were there for nearly 4 hours, and by that time the weather had really started to close in.

    Then we started on the drive to Salzberg, and the rain got pretty hard so it wasn’t a quick drive. We had fun rocking along to old music, and did our best James Corban kareoke impressions. We also drove in Germany for part of the trip which we hadn’t expected. We had sussed out a campsite, and it had a Spar 1km away. I was getting excited thinking that was Austrian for Spa – always love a hot swim. When we got closer we started looking for a supermarket (loving the Jody cooking!), and finally ended up with one, guess what it was called? Spar! But it was a good supermarket, blueberries for 1 euro, a large watermelon, and some beef and chicken for Jody to cook.

    The campsite is quite nice, and we got lots of information about what to do in Salzberg. But it is raining, so we are having a quiet night in, enjoying reviewing our pictures. Jody has liked having our SIM cards – so much that she has used 80% of the data on the first one, so we have changed her to a new one. Lucky I was prepared! She cooked a lovely meal once again, and I even felt well enough to finish off my first bottle of limoncello.

    Tomorrow we were going to go to Lake Bled, but the weather forecast is bad there, so the plan has changed to go to Graz instead. We might end up in Budapest earlier than expected solely due to the weather forecast. It would have been nice to have a look around Salzberg in the morning – it is a short bike ride there, but if it rains like it is forecasted too we will just be getting up and leaving.    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2019

    Vienna - day 16

    April 27, 2019 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    It was only raining lightly when we got up, but we stuck with the plan of heading for Vienna, and left the camp ground before 10 – we just don’t seem to be able to shower, do dishes, sort out emptying water/toilet, and filling water before this time, lucky we don’t have any deadlines to meet! Driving was easy today, the roads were better, most of it was on motorways where the speed limit was either 130 or 140kph and Nico was quite comfortable doing around 110 with other cars just hooning past us. It drizzled on and off for the morning, but then our decision paid off as it at least became dry, though not very warm – around 8 degrees at lunchtime.

    We stopped once at a waterfall by a dam, and the force of the water was quite incredible. Googlemaps can be useful at times for searching on places of interest nearby, and we went off the motorway to find this. We also had a couple of stops along the way, including bacon and eggs for lunch at some random carpark stop.

    When we arrived in Vienna, I had the bright idea of going and getting our tickets for the Lippizaners which we are going to see next Saturday. I thought it might be a wee way out of town, and there might be somewhere to park (like the good parking at Swarkovski). Hmmm, maybe not. We ended up driving through the middle of the old part of Vienna, following horse and carts, driving through hordes of people and it brought back memories of Lucca! I don’t think we weren’t allowed there, but it certainly didn’t feel like somewhere that a big motorhome would normally be driving! When we got to our destination, there was definitely nowhere to park – maybe I should have emailled, or called to ask them. Oh well, then we pulled over as soon as we could, and googled where we might stay for the night. We ended up driving around 30 mins out of the City, and have a lovely camping ground which is next to the train station. I ordered an ACSI card before I left NZ which gives us cheaper camping in the off season. We have now used it at several sites, and is definitely saving us money. This campground is 20 euros per night plus 3 euros tourist tax. Everywhere we have stayed has a tourist tax – I can’t understand why NZ politicians think it would be so hard to accept in NZ. People here just expect it. At the non ACSI sites, I think the most we have paid is I think 41 euros which is around $55 NZ at a guess.

    This evening we went out for a bike ride – yes I am feeling better! It was a nice short ride, just to see where we were. It is still quite windy here. Tomorrow we will take the train into Vienna, and we intend to take our bikes on the train. It is a 14km ride into Vienna, and we have thought about doing that, and possibly might bike back but that depends on the weather, and how sore our bums are! We are going to stay here tomorrow night as well, and then we might head for either Bratislavia or Budapest.

    As you can see, our destinations are not fixed at all. It is sad that I will be missing our on Slovenia again on this trip – maybe next year Trish? But, it is hard to get keen on visiting there when it is meant to be raining all week.    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 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

  • TravelerEurope 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

  • TravelerEurope 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

  • TravelerEurope 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

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