• MF's travel blog
Sep – Dec 2019

Singapore UK and Europe 2019

A 105-day adventure by MF's travel blog Read more
  • Ayr to Arnside

    September 26, 2019 in England ⋅ 🌧 13 °C

    Free breakfast with the room !!!! Packed and headed off to Arnside taking the road less traveled - the drive is through the “Lakes District” Narrow roads with stone walls coming right up to the bitumen - Anne had a couple of heart attacks when trucks were coming towards us. We stayed at the fantastically named “Ye Old Fighting Cocks” hotel. It was a lot better than it sounded😁Read more

  • Arnside to Wrexham

    September 27, 2019 in Wales ⋅ 🌧 14 °C

    We’re in Wales!!!

    Had breakfast at a very quirky little coffee shop in Arnside - the Moochin’ About cafe. It really poured rain today so we stuck to the motorways. Just a quiet day spent driving in the 🌧 . We are staying in a nice Ramada hotel tonight.

    Tomorrow to Bedford.

    Ohh just as well traffic signs in Wales are bilingual- see below.
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  • Wrexham to Bedford

    September 28, 2019 in England ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    First of 2 days in Bedford. No particular reason for picking Bedford except it’s on the way to Dover for our car ferry back to France. We stopped at Newport for lunch - what we thought was a nice little English village. Then on to Bedford staying at a Mercure right on the river that bisects the city. Arrived in time to find a laundrette and do some washing!!!. Ahh the luxury of room-service for dinner.

    One thing about driving in England is that they love roundabouts - if you stay off the main highways you are likely to have to drive through one every 3 or 4 kilometres. Now roundabouts shouldn’t be particularly hard to negotiate, but sometimes they are - double roundabouts with traffic lights. I have to admit a couple of times got lost and came out of the wrong exit!!!! Anne is still doing a fantastic navigator’s job 🗺.
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  • Anne after drinking 1/2 litre of cider (and no food)

    Bedford day 2

    September 29, 2019 in England ⋅ 🌧 18 °C

    The day turned out cold and showery, but not enough to stop us from getting out and about. There is a beautiful parkland on both sides of the river. People/families walking, charity runs, kayaking, sailing and well behaved dogs wondering around - even the occasional squirrel. There are heaps of really friendly swans on the river that come up to you looking for food. I did however get chased away by a very aggressive looking duck!!!! Had ice-cream😁.

    You can still buy fireworks in England - including one called “Satanic Desecration” that looks like it could take out a small town (for about $170).

    Dinner was at the “Lettuce and Slug” - a lot better than it sounds. It’s a pub that was having a quiz night - noisy but fun.

    Tomorrow to Dover.
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  • Bedford to Dover

    September 30, 2019 in England ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    After a McDonald’s breakfast (it’s ok - first and last time while on holiday) travelled to Dover for an overnight stay to catch a car ferry back to France. Stayed off the motorways and toll roads but still had to go through the outskirts of London. Again stopped at a “market” town for lunch called Buntingford - these villages really are beautiful. We did a practice drive to the ferry terminal - looks like we should be ok in the morning 🤔. Pity we didn’t make more time to have a look around Dover plenty of history here.

    We have been listening to BBC 2 while travelling - great station. They even had a 4 day Beatles special for the 50th anniversary of the Abbey Road album. Brexit is all over the TV, radio and newspapers. There is no middle ground and it really has divided people - the Parliament is a shambles.

    Light dinner then made sure we had passports etc. ready for the French border.
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  • Dover to Nazareth (the one in Belgium)

    October 1, 2019 in Belgium ⋅ 🌧 14 °C

    Up reasonably early, breakfast and the ready to go.

    We were going to go to Dunkirk, but Anne needed a Calais fridge magnet (she collecting them from all our stays but we missed this one. By the time we get back we’ll need new luggage to carry them all and pay for excess baggage!!!). Actually we were early and the ferry company offered us a spot on an earlier ferry going to Calais so we took it. The trip across was uneventful.

    After Calais we stopped at a little pub/brassiere just inside Belgium. We were having some trouble ordering when a young local lad, who had some English, gave us a much needed hand. I think they were speaking a type of Flemish - we seem to be able to get by in France, but little or no hope in Belgium!!!.

    We’re back to driving on the right - no close calls so far, but it does take some remembering!!!!

    We had booked an Airbnb for 4 nights in the little town of Nazareth just outside Ghent in Belgium. It’s a very very nice one bedroom place with a garden terrace. Not much in the way of shops open here on a Tuesday, so went for a drive and found a grocery store.

    Tomorrow we’ll do some exploring.
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  • Ghent and Ypres

    October 2, 2019 in Belgium ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Up and breakfast then drove into Ghent, one of the larger Belgium cities. Parking is very expensive in the centre of Ghent so we parked about 2.5 kms from the “old town” and walked in. Did the usual exploring and found a chocolate shop. As they say; “when in Belgium, eat chocolate” - so we did 😊. It’s a pretty city but seemed quiet. The usual castle and cathedral (as in most European cities) are here. The main tourist season is over and it’s is mid-week. Had some lunch and then Anne talked me into driving to Ypres - luckily she did as it’s a great city to visit,

    Ypres was the site of a number of WW1 western front battles. It’s where over 13,000 Australian soldiers lost their lives. The are many memorials and war cemeteries and a very good museum in the city. There is also the “Menin Gate” dedicated to Commonwealth soldiers whose graves are unknown. Every night they play the “last post” at 8 pm and hundreds of people gather to pay their respects.

    After dinner we drove back to the flat.
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  • Maurice has a bad cold...

    October 3, 2019 in Belgium ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    Maurice has a bad cold so is feeling miserable and making sure everyone (Anne) knows about it. As a matter of fact, he’s sure she gave it to him on purpose!!!!! We had a lazy day at the apartment and around Nazareth, the local church had its annual commemoration for the many local policemen that lost their lives trying to protect the local population.Afterwards we went to the local cafe/pub for a hot chocolate. The cafe has a dog (Kayla) and she’s the only one that showed me any sympathy (though even then I had to scratch her behind the ear to elicit that🙄). I scratched Anne behind the ear but just got a dirty look). Anne did some washing (I think she thought it was her penance - though I think a harsher punishment was in order). Hopefully I’ll be back to my normal wonderful self tomorrow.Read more

  • Bruges

    October 4, 2019 in Belgium ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Have I previously mentioned we usually get up of a morning and have breakfast? A day out in Bruge (about a 45 minute drive) - speed limit is 120kph on the freeway but, apparently, it must only be advisory as I was overtaken by every other vehicle on the road. We had booked a 1 and 1/2 hour walking tour but the guide didn’t turn up🤨. Bit hard to complain when it was going to be free - guess you get what you pay for. Ok, so we substituted a half hour horse-drawn carriage ride. Not free - 50 euros plus a 10 euro tip for the horse!!!!! Actually it was pretty good - some random tourist took a pic of us as we went past. I was going to try and charge him £10 (I mean we didn’t pay £60 so he could get a free pic) but I wasn’t allowed 🤷‍♂️. The driver/guide gave us a pretty good commentary. She pointed out some very old buildings that had their windows bricked up - Napoleon, when he conquered Belgium, imposed a window tax. If you couldn’t afford to pay you lost your view (harsh). Bruges is a beautiful city with a lot of history with its own magnificent cathedral (Sint-Salvatorskathedraal). Weather was starting to set-so we headed back to Nazareth after a good day.

    Ohh, just I’m case you’re wondering, I haven’t put on weight - it’s cold and I’ve got about 4 layers on 😁.
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  • Nazareth to Amsterdam

    October 5, 2019 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Didn’t have breakfast this morning (of course we did) cleaned up, packed then headed off on our drive to Amsterdam for our 2 night stay. Before we left Nazareth we stopped at our little coffee shop/bar for a hot drink. We had a good chat with the owner who asked if we had an Australian souvenir she could put up on the wall - so we gave her one of the little Koalas we’re handing out occasionally (see below). The drive is about 3 hours or so. We got to check-in early then bought a couple of 2 day metro tickets and headed into the Amsterdam “old town”. Before we knew it we had accidentally walked into the “red light” district. Everything they say about this area is true, including the window advertising 🤭). There are heaps of coffee shops selling “funny” cookies and brownies and you should take some care😁. The smell of weed was prevalent!!! Anne went into what she thought was a grocery shop (well it did say supermarket) but came out without buying anything - every product had marijuana as a base ingredient 😲. Cannabis 🍦 anyone? We did have a coffee and hot chocolate with some pastries (checked out the ingredients first!!!) - all good). Back to the hotel.....Read more

  • Amsterdam

    October 6, 2019 in the Netherlands ⋅ 🌧 9 °C

    The weather is just horrible - (very) cold and light rain ☔️. We caught the metro into the town centre where Anne had to buy a new umbrella after the wind nearly turned hers inside-out. We decided the best thing to do would be a canal tour in an enclosed boat. The idea was good, warm and dry, but also meant the windows fogged up and so too difficult to take photos or get a really good view - but on such a horrible day it was good way to do some sightseeing. Much of the city is built on land reclaimed from the sea as well as very soft soil. This means that many of the buildings (particularly on or near the canals) have quite a lean as one side sinks faster than the other!!!

    After the cruise we tried to do some more sightseeing on foot, but the weather really was too bad. Having said that, there were hardier souls than us and the city was still really busy with tourists (though a lot of them probably weren’t feeling the cold, just hungry). We decided it was time to head back to the hotel. I’d brought along our google chromecast so we watched Netflix for the afternoon.

    We did see two really tiny 🚗. Ohh and 🚲 are one of the main modes of transport.

    Tomorrow we’re off to Hanover in Germany.
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  • Amsterdam to Hanover

    October 7, 2019 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    I have finally been given the chance to write on the blog - so a little bit of laughter and some waffling coming your way 😂. I had better start the same As Maurice - we had breakfast and a free breakfast at that, well it was part of our room deal. We hit the motorway, no side country roads today as we have a 4 1/2 trip in front of us. We arrived safe and sound and had to pick our apartment keys up from a little Italian Bistro. Maurice was in seventh heaven when he was greeted with Ciao ...and off they all went with their hands and language. We had perfect position for our apartment, 5 min walk to the trams and 10 minute ride into the city. We are staying right next to an amazing nature park, so we took a walk through and ended up at a gorgeous little plaza. It was around 5pm when everyone is out and about so we sat down and had a cuppa and enjoyed the people watching.

    You can tell Europeans (particularly the Germans) are trying to find the funny side of Brexit - see the pic we took of a rather large frustrated Paddington Bear, in a phone box, having a conversation about how well it going!

    A great start to our first day in Germany.

    You can tell Anne is enjoying doing MY blog - look at that smile (I’m very sick as I write this one paragraph 😷).
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  • New Town Hall
    View frim the top of the Town HallIs this yours?

    Day out in Hannover

    October 8, 2019 in Germany ⋅ 🌧 13 °C

    Headed down to our “local” Italian bistro for our start up coffee and hot chocolate - although it had to be tea for Maurice as they didn’t have any hot chocolate 😭. We caught the tram into the city, a bit of an overcast day today so brollies were on hand. We had a walk around a bit of the old town and came across the ruins of a church which had been demolished in WWII. She was still standing firm and tall. We also did a visit to the Town Hall, trip down memory lane for Maurice as he visited the exact place 3 years ago . Magnificent building and we also caught a very small lift that sort of went up diagonal and then a bit to the left (that’s a definite) and then a few circular stairwells to get to the top of the tower and WOW...beautiful views. After a late lunch we decided to find a supermarket and head home before it got too late. I’m not sure why but every time I put in find a supermarket it takes us to the red light district. Thankfully not as entertaining as Amsterdam and we did eventually find one that served our kinda food. Home to cook and bed ready for another day of exploring.

    If you have a look at the last pic it’s not something you see every day. Someone had parked their mobility walker at the front of the apartment we were staying at!!!
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  • Or the salmon?
    Just another photo of another market

    Quiet day in Hannover

    October 9, 2019 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Anne reporting:

    Catch up day today. Maurice needed a haircut and I wanted to do laundry. We are seriously having fun. Maurice found the quickest barber in town, not that that was what he was looking for. I don’t think he even got the seat warm, but he got the basics done and that’s all that was needed. After laundry duties we once again tried to find a supermarket ( it ain’t as easy as it seems) and eventually we decided that we would have a nice little Italian meal - which you will find out in the next chapter was the first hiccup of our trip. Not too bad after 40 days of travelling.

    A quick word from Maurice (read the next footprint) was it the salmon or was it the 2 litre Aperol Spritz?).
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  • Supposed to drive to Zielona Gora but..

    October 10, 2019 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    Anne reporting:

    Well the hiccup....food poisoning..yup...from about midnight. Thankfully we were able to book another night at our apartment in Hannover and our apartment in Zielona Gora wasn’t too expensive. Maurice did a couple of trips down to our lovely little plaza just to get some air, but apart from that....let’s just say a very quiet day was had. Fingers crossed we are in the car tomorrowRead more

  • Never ever drink this
    Apartment buildingZielona Town SquareStreet artJesusWhat you dont want to see when travelling

    Zielona Gora - finally

    October 11, 2019 in Poland ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Anne reporting:

    Yes..we are on the road. We have decided to take the autobarn to make the trip a little quicker although it is still going to take us 4 1/2 hours. Maurice was brilliant, they have very good etiquette on the autobarn and it all flows well if you all follow the same rules. We did have a couple of traffic jams with road works and there must have been 100 semi’s bumper to bumper. An amazing sight to see. We arrived at our destination around 2 - beautiful new apartment in the old town square and just magnificent weather. We had a late lunch and Maurice couldn’t wait to practice his thank you in Polish....it was hopeless.

    The traffic on the way, in some places due to traffic was abysmal. There are thousands (literally thousands) of semitrailers (along with some trucks) on the road. Unfortunately for them, they are restricted to 100 kph and the slow lane. When traffic is forced to slow down they just get stuck one behind another and stopped. At one stage we must have crawled past a couple of hundred just idling away.

    We had a lovely walk around the square. We went down a small lane way that on one side had some great art of movie stars and then, on the opposite side, for some reason - Jesus. We found a local Aldi and did some grocery shopping and they have a middle aisle. Maurice bought what he thought was some sort of juice drink. Unfortunately it turned out to be a oats based fermented soup that you heat up to eat. Maurice’s turn to dry-retch 🤭.
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  • Warsaw Palace of Culture and Science
    A statue of ?

    Zielona Gora to Warsaw

    October 12, 2019 in Poland ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Anne reporting:

    We are on the road again - a beautiful day. We are going via the auto strata again, otherwise it is a long day to get to our destination. We stopped at the friendliest service station on our way out of Zielona Gora - a man came over and fuelled our car and told Maurice to just go in and pay. When Maurice walked through the door a big burly man came out of his office and shook his hand...didn’t say anything...and then went back into his office. Poor old Maurice didn’t know what was going on ....I just laughed.. The countryside on the way to Warsaw is beautiful and sprinkled with little towns along the way. It is very flat, reminds me of when we drove to Adelaide . Arrived in Warsaw around 2pm ... Maurice has done very well with his accommodation ...14th floor this time. I had a lie down for the rest of the day as still getting over the bug and Maurice went and did a little bit of exploring. And yes...he found a supermarket 👍Read more

  • Lazy day in Warsaw

    October 13, 2019 in Poland ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Anne reporting:

    MA quiet start to the day. Maurice has woken a little weary today...I think no sleep from when I was sick has caught up on him. So what does one do on quiet days ...yep...laundry😂😂. We are very clean travellers. We ended up going out for a walk in the afternoon and had a good wander around. Some magnificent buildings to be seen. The temperature is the warmest we have had for awhile..tops of 22. We cooked up steak and 3 veg tonight..just what the bodies needed to mend... a good bit of Aussie food.

    Not a photo taken today ☹️
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  • Last day in Warsaw

    October 14, 2019 in Poland ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    And reporting:

    We got our walking steps in today with a walk to the old town of Warsaw. A lot of history there and a few tourists as well. As I said before, the buildings here are amazing and would definitely recommend a hop on hop off bus next time to see them all. Every corner seemed to have another great building. A good day out seeing the sights and now preparing for the next journeyRead more

  • I raked all the leaves up and Anne messed them up again!!!
    The view after climbing nearly 300 very steep stepsWroclaw University Church (not my pic)Handsome pair - Maurice on the leftWroclaw square

    Warsaw to Wroclaw

    October 15, 2019 in Poland ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    Anne reporting (Maurice continues to be a lazy bastard).

    And we are off again. Our trip to Wroclaw should take about 3 1/2 hours via the motorway. Maurice is going to have trouble getting back to travelling the 100km speed limit when we get home. We stopped at a little village along the way to stretch the legs and have a little lunch. Gnocchi and chicken with a side of slaw ( I know 😮 but it actually worked) and yes I gave the Italian another shot. Hopefully no hiccups. We got to Wroclaw around 2.30 and located the motel (best western) but it took us about 4 goes to get onto the street. It’s a bit like driving in Victoria - trams everywhere and if you want to turn left you need to get into the tram line...it took us a couple of go’s to finally work it all out and then closed our eyes and hoped for the best 😎😎. Booked in and we were off exploring. We are a 2 minute walk to the old town and double WOW - what a hidden gem Wroclaw is. The buildings and square.....just magnificent. We climbed a church tower and got some amazing views of the city. We have attached a photo of the folk story behind the bridge - only wished we had that hanging up in our house when we had teenagers. We had dinner in the square - shared a pizza and gelato (I know - lots of trust in the Italians). We went for a walk along the river just as the lights were turning on and came across a church. They were in the middle of mass but we stayed a couple of minutes to take in the surroundings. The entire roof was painted - a little like a Michelangelo, just beautiful. As I said, a magical place and definitely one to put on your to visit list.Read more

  • See I can park on the footpath too!!
    Some beautiful sights slong the wayAutumn in Czech Republic

    Wroclaw to Prague

    October 16, 2019 in Czech Republic ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    For those that missed me - Maurice is back.

    Really comfortable room with breakfast included!! Stayed off the motorways and took the backroads to Prague - a really winter-time looking day with trees losing their leaves (looks like yellow snow) leaving a beautiful carpet of yellow on the forest floor. Staying off highways makes for a great drive, apart from having to slow down quite a bit. Staying on the backroads means lots of little villages and quite slow travel. 90 kph, 70 kph then 50 kph - repeat over and over again (not sure how many speeding tickets I might have ☹️). Got to Prague late afternoon (staying at the same apartments, in the city centre, I did 3 years ago when I toured by motorbike). European city centres are easier to navigate by motorbike, than by car, as you can hop up on the footpath if it all goes wrong - try that in a car and the pedestrians are much less understanding!!! Add in one-way streets, traffic signs you can’t understand, narrow lanes and then throw in trams, well it’s interesting to say the least. We got there finally (still no dents on the 🚙) and I had a lie down!!!!. Had a walk around - tomorrow we’ll explore (but leave the car at home 🤔).Read more

  • Prague - day 1

    October 17, 2019 in Czech Republic ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Naturally, we had breakfast.

    Headed off the the “old town” and nearly sprained an ankle on the cobble stone streets. Some of the best sights are in the old town parts of the cities with churches and cathedrals being museums and windows into the past - some really are quite glorious. They make a type of barrel donut called a trdelink - there’re sold as a traditional sweet but apparent that’s just a tourist gimmick. Who cares, I love them so I had about 4 !!!!!!. Anne cooked steak and salad for dinner - 2 inch thick crown rib-eye steak. I know we have the best meat back in Australia, but this was a fantastic piece of beef and at a cheaper price than back home (about $25 per kg it worked out at).

    Carl is flying into Rome on 14th Nov, for three weeks, so we spent a bit of time planning an itinerary so we can meet him there - we’re looking forward to doing some travel with him before he flys out of Paris back to Sydney on 6th Dec. We’re going to fly out on the same day but we’re going to go Tokyo for 4 nights on the way back to Brisbane.

    Tomorrow we’re on a 6 hour tour of the city - more walking!!!
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  • View from the boat
    Another view from the riverLunch at a medieval restaurantAnother cobble-stone streetA handsome coupleLook at the bottom right-hand corner - an insurance company advertisment

    Prague day 2

    October 18, 2019 in Czech Republic ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    Today we’re off on a bus/boat/walking tour of Prague (that includes lunch at a medieval style restaurant). The tour goes for about 6 hours. The guide was friendly and knowledgeable and the other people,on the tour, were pretty good too - I’m sure they thought the same of us. You might have thought I’d forgotten to tell you we had breakfast after we got up this morning - but I’m telling you now 😛. It was a great tour exploring much of the old city (the palace, Jewish Ghetto etc). One of the Cathedrals had to be rebuilt and some of the funds were raised through commercial sponsorships - first time we’d seen stained-glass windows advertising an insurance company🤔

    There was quite a mix of people on the tour, us, a couple of Poms, some Israelis and others. About 1/2 the group were either Jewish or Muslim - this is important to note. We had pre-ordered our lunch so it would be ready soon after arriving at the restaurant. I had the pork roast which was nice, but I had a couple of things on my plate that I was unsure of what it was. Anne decided to help me out with this and not thinking about the structure of the group she asked the entire group, a couple of times (including the couple from Israel who were sitting across from us) “anyone else have the pork?”- this was met with silence and lots of head shaking. It took a couple of seconds (which felt like minutes) before Anne realised what she had said. Thankfully no one was insulted and afterwards We had a (guilty) laugh at her gaff.

    The boat trip was about an hour and gave a pretty good view from the river.

    A lot of the buildings have a basement that used to be the ground floor. Flooding meant they had to go higher and adding floors was the most effective way of doing it.

    A really good and interesting day.
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  • Prague day 3

    October 19, 2019 in Czech Republic ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Repeat after me “Happy birthday to Maurice, you look fantastic”. It’s my birthday!!!!

    Late start and out for breakfast - croissant with egg and cheese and a second one with butter and jam - birthday breakfast. Anne a more tempered breakfast (just one croissant 🥐).

    A walk around the more modern part of Prague (including a river island). In the evening we went back to Wenceslas Square - the people really do come out at night to eat drink and be merry. They do like a 🍺 in Prague (young men, old women - even kids I think). Back to the apartment so Anne can pack for us to leave for Brno in the morning - only fair as I have to be alert to drive....
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  • Best dessert cafe ever
    Our review was much kinder than this

    Prague to Brno

    October 20, 2019 in Czech Republic ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    In the car and off to Brno staying off motorways and autobahns. There’s finally a bit of a chill in the air. Slightly foggy but all ok. Sunday morning is a good time to drive out of the city centre with traffic a bit lighter - the other drivers however do let you know when you try to go down a one way street the wrong way - how kind of them.

    We stopped at a cute little town called Caslow for a hot drink. The cafe was really a dessert shop so we had a rich heavy cake to go with the hot drink. The Czechs like cake almost as much as they like 🍺, and they like beer a lot. Then it dawned on me, 3 years ago I stopped at the same town and same cafe on my motorbike trip - I think I had the same chocolate cake!!!!! I told Anne I would take her back to some of the places I had visited!!!

    Got to Brno about 2pm and had the obligatory walk around (and went inside the obligatory magnificent church) before checking in. Not much for dinner as I was still trying to digest the 2kg of chocolate cake from this morning.

    We did a review of the hotel and from memory gave them a pretty good score. Our score was a lot better than one left by a previous guest (have a read below). I’m not sure what happen to them, but apparently it ended up with a broken “ass” and even Iga agreed!!!!!!!
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