Monday, 11th July 2005 - Regensburg to Vienna.

A driving day today, and as now appears to be the norm it was raining. Once again there were no formalities when crossing the border, just a kiosk where we had to stop and buy a Vignette to allow us to drive on the Austrian motorways. The scenery that we drove through was superb - rolling wooded hills with the occasional field of corn lit gold against the black skies by a shaft of sunlight. We found the campsite with no bother, but we get the feeling that their internet site rather over-sells them. The "rural" location is in fact right next to the main road and the "camping field" is a bit of scrubland at the back of the site. On the plus side we have 4 nights in Vienna for about £45, which isn't bad. Of course it was raining as we went to bed, serenaded by the lorries thundering past outside...

Mark chewing on a Sesame stick whilst driving to Vienna.

Tuesday, 12 July 2005 - Vienna. 

The plan was to spend the day doing admin type things, such as updating the website and looking for places to stay in Romania and Bulgaria. However the lack of any kind of internet connection whatsoever and the truly appalling weather put paid to those ideas, so it was another washing, re-packing and cleaning day. Dull. To make up for it, we used the last of our precious stash of sausages and cooked Bangers, Mash and Broad Beans for dinner, washed down with a couple of bottles of wine. Went to bed much happier.

Wednesday, 13th July 2005 - Vienna.

Gorgeous sunshine greeted us when we woke up, so it was a quick breakfast and shower and then we were off into town. We stopped at the Stadtpark for a coffee and some cake at the same place where Mark had had a coffee about 15 years earlier. It was still fantastic - you sit on the veranda of an Imperial Ballroom overlooking the park and the bandstand where, on summer's evenings, an orchestra plays whilst people waltz into the night - it's a great spot and we're planning to have dinner there tomorrow night! After coffee we walked into the centre of Vienna, had a look around St. Stephens Church then walked around the Imperial Palace buildings - had a look in the butterfly house where we watched huge butterflies eating bananas then went to the Spanish Riding School where unfortunately the next performance was not until September. After a spot of lunch and a brief shopping expedition it was over to Praterstrasse for a go on the giant ferris wheel. Below is the view of Vienna as you go up, with St Stephens in the middle.

Thursday, 14th July 2005 - Vienna.

This morning we updated the website, which was simplicity itself, and checked our e-mails, bank accounts etc etc. We also spent ages trying to find the location of our campsite in Budapest. In the end Amy phoned them up, and got directions of a kind: "Drive into Budapest, keep right, if you go over the river you've gone too far...just follow the signs" "Where are the signs then?" "On some of the roads..." Guess that we'll be buying a map of Budapest then...Having finished on the internet we went shopping for some hair clippers (no Mum, I haven't shaved it all off...yet....). Then it was coffee and cakes whilst watching the street performers and over to the restaurant in the Stadt Park for dinner in the open air - it was very good and would certainly recommend it if you're every in the area.