Velenge to Villach

We're heading into back to Austria after a great breakfast - lots of variety and as much as you can eat (lucky I have the ability to fill up for the day ahead).

I've been meaning to mention the long, long street names found in some European cities (particular in Eastern European countries such as Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia amongst others). Streets are often named after famous people or politicians etc. Street names like "Zygmunta Krasinskiego Ulica" or "Avenjia Marina Drzica Ulice". Whilst the names might be long (and take a while to say) the streets themselves might be quite short. The problem this presents, when using a GPS, is that by the time the GPS finishes telling you to turn right into "Avenjia Marina Drzica Ulice"", you've actually driven past!!!! The GPS will re-route, but it keeps happening over and over again.

Slovenia is a small country, but what it lacks in size it makes up in scenery and fantastic roads. We were back into Austria pretty quickly .

We got to Villach and tried to drive to the hotel which unfortunately (again) located in pedestrian only area in the "old town". Anne tried to convince me to drive down an ever narrowing laneway that lead to the square - thankfully I resisted, the other end was far too skinny for any car. I had only just finished telling her the story of the guy who followed his GPS into a mine shaft and got stuck!! I think we would have had to change our hotel stay from one night to the rest of our lives. Having said that the car would have been parked only about 50 metres from the hotel so it would have been a short walk after we got out of the boot as there would have been no way to open the doors. We found a park, walked to the hotel and got directions on how to get to the court-yard at the back. We did eventually manage to find our way, but I'm pretty sure, from some of the looks we got, we drove the wrong way up some very narrow streets and some footpaths as well. Staying in the middle has a lot of advantages as far as sight seeing, restaurants and people watching,but it is hell on the nervous system😨. We had lunch after booking in - first time in a while I was tempted to have a very large whiskey (to calm the nerves) but I resisted.

It's a very quiet day due to the "All Saints day" holiday. So hardly anything open. As much as I hate to admit it, we ate at Austria's version of Kentucky Fried Chicken. At least we had a more traditional dinner at the hotel restaurant (though after we did walk down to McDonalds so I could have a sundae - the shame of it all).

Tomorrow we head into Verona Italy - hopefully my Italian will be as good as I hope it is (I've had a few embarrassments in Italy before😊).Read more