Vienna

Yesterday the sun shone in Budapest.  Another day without thermals!  How exciting!  Greg had work to do so Bella, Liam and I hopped back on the hop on/hop off bus to do a bit more touring, taking lots of photos from the open top bus with all the blue sky, and went on the Danube cruise at 1pm.  We sat up top, so we could get some good photos (of course!) but it was starting to get overcast and cooler, so the kids were a bit reluctant.  On the way down river it was fine, but on the way back it got so cold (wishing we did have our thermals on now!)  we ended up going inside.  There was a commentary on the boat which might have been really interesting but the tourists around us were speaking to each other loudly in Hungarian (we thought) that we could only catch random words which was annoying.  We do love our audio commentaries!  We caught up with Greg and had some pizza for lunch, and it was unexpectedly delicious - who would have thought that the best food we had in Hungary would be pizza??
We were grateful that it was Sunday and traffic was not as mad as on Friday when we'd arrived, so we got out of the city without too much drama and it was a quick 2 1/2 hour drive to Vienna.  The road was great (we are so grateful to have left Polish roads behind us!) and the speed limit on the freeway was 130 km, but  no-one - except us! - keeps to it.  We are really hoping to avoid any traffic infringements so even though it's tempting to keep up with the others we let them flash their lights and toot their horns at us... and stick to the rules!  Once we crossed into Austria it was autobahn time again.  Its really stressful when its dark (it's dark by 5pm these days) and the cars are literally flying along a dark freeway with only their headlights... I am always so grateful when we safely make it to our destination!!
We are staying in a hotel in the suburbs about 20 minutes from the city by tram.  When we arrived and checked in we headed out to find somewhere to eat.  There are loads of places to eat around here - but they were all full of smokers.  Yuck.  In the end we opted for a small Turkish takeaway without any smokers.  Not impressed.
Today was COLD.  About 7 degrees.  It was back to our thermals and we were grateful for them :-)  Oh, except Greg of course.  I'll let you know when he takes the plunge.  Then you'll know it's seriously cold!  We started off by taking a few tram rides around the city to get our bearings, then we went to St Stephen's cathedral and walked the 343 very windy stairs to the top.  Bella and Liam couldn't believe we paid for the privilege!!  It was very dizzying to twist your way up and back again, but the view was good!
Our next stop was the Leopold Museum, reputed to have a good range of Gustav Klimt.  Yes, here is my new bit of info, Gustav Klimt is an Austrian - I never knew that - and also quite a lad, having 6 kids to three different partners while having a long term (20 year) "life long intimate friendship".  Bella said "sounds like friends with benefits".  Well, yes.
Again we struggled to find somewhere smoke free to eat.  I thought Paris was full of smokers, now I have to say the Viennese win hands down.  Every second person is smoking and the restaurants are full of them!! It's disgusting. Bah humbug, throw them out in the cold I say...!  We went to Belvedere, a gorgeous castle which was absolutely bursting with Klimts (including his famous "Kiss") - but no photos were allowed.  We found somewhere smoke free for dinner - Augustina Keller - and went to a musical performance we'd been talked into while at St Stephens (by a man dressed as Johann Strauss, one of many in the platz!).  We knew it was the equivalent of seeing a corroboree at home, and it wasn't cheap... but I thought we should do it anyway!  So you'll be pleased to hear that yes, it was a bit schmaltzy

and if you looked closely the costumes were a bit thread bare, but the music was wonderful and I was pleased that the kids enjoyed it as much as I did.  I'm not sure about Greg!!  So a full day of smoky Vienna!

Budapest

Well our drive to Budapest yesterday, while long, was actually very pleasant.  The countryside was lovely, there were quite a few castles, and the sun was shining.  In fact it was hard to be travelling on such a gorgeous day, but on the plus side it did make driving in the mountains on the twisty turning roads much easier. While Greg did most of the driving, I did a few hours.  I'm getting better with the whole right hand side thing BUT I still don't like it. And remembering to give way to your left instead of your right?  It does your head in!
We had left Krakow at 8.45 and got into Budapest at 4.30pm, found our apartment check in location then had to park the car.  A mis-communication meant that I thought when they said the car park was in the street to the left, it was actually on the street around the corner to the left.  In fact it was two doors down, on the left, hidden by a closed roller door with no signage what so ever.  And Budapest is a city of one way streets, so our GPS had to work very hard getting us back (through very heavy traffic) to get us back to the original location.... this time Greg went in to get directions and was more successful than me.  As you can imagine this was a touch stressful. We could have opted for free street parking, but the Lonely Planet warns that its not a great idea to leave your car out on the street.  Our apartment is like Fort Knox with locks and swipe cards, so obviously theft is an issue here!
We are at the Locust Apartments and I'm not very happy with them.  We chose them because they offered private parking, took credit cards, had a washing machine and wifi.  The parking was a huge drama, they would only take credit cards if we paid an 8% fee (so we opted for cash), the washing machine doesn't work and the wifi is a bit iffy.  So they won't be getting a great review on Trip Advisor from me!  Also reception was not very helpful in pointing out where we were on the map etc.  Liam, Bella and I had to play a "where's Wally" game to find our street on the map, which as it turns out is just on the very edge of the centre of Pest - about half an hour's walk into the main part of the city.
We made it into town with my navigation and found Tourist Info, and had dinner.  We chose Hungarian specialities and I had possibly the worst meal I've had so far in Europe, I couldn't even eat half of it. Luckily everyone else's meal was fine.
Today we opted to buy the Budapest Card and took Noushka's suggestion to get the Hop on, Hop off bus for the day as Budapest is HUGE and not easy to get around.  So we saw a fair bit from the bus, did two galleries - the National Art Museum (home to a few lovely El Grecos) and the National Museum (don't say we aren't filling these kids to the top with fine art & history!).  We spent quite a bit of time at the fabulous castle on the Buda side of the Danube, then managed (with local transport) to find the St Lukas baths.  Budapest is famous for it's hot springs and there are several to chose from.  St Lukas' is free with the Budapest Card, hence our decision to visit.  The water was fabulous!  So warm and toasty!  Right away we could see the big issue would be... getting out.  Especially as Greg (who'd decided not to join us and had been sent away to locate and hire towels) emerged with just one sheet thing for all three of us!  It was as hard as we thought it would be, absolutely freezing even though we'd been blessed with quite mild weather today - around 17 degrees for most of the day, but overcast.  In fact it is the first day I haven't worn thermals under my jeans and it felt wonderful!
We had thought to finish the day with the boat cruise on the Danube included in the Hop on, Hop off bus ticket, but it appeared to be closed!  I'm hoping I can talk Greg into doing it tomorrow before we head off to Vienna.  Dinner tonight was in a little restaurant across the road which appeared a big dingy and edgy and offered Hungarian cusine.  In fact it was quite clean and bright inside and the food, while edible, was hardly a taste sensation.  So far Hungary has been quite disappointing food wise, but it's a really beautiful city.  Oh, and the pastries are pretty good!

Krakow

Yesterday we returned to the National Museum in Wroclaw and found the energy to walk back to the student cafeteria where we had lunch yesterday - it was that good.  I think I mis-lead you and said it was 3.90 zloty per 100g, in fact it was 2.59 zloty per 100g - a bargain.  Liam and I weighed in around 450g but others in our group who shall remain nameless nearly made it to 1kg!!!  It was hard to chose as all the food was so good.  Then it was back to our lovely car for the trip to Krakow (which thankfully is just pronounced Krakow, remembering to say "Frots - sauve" instead of Raw Claw all the time was plain hard work!!).
Our car smells very strongly of cheese.  We've been a bit fond of picking up cheese as we travel and as it's so cool, its no problem to store it in the car - except for the smell.  Greg picked up a very ripe camembert which Les Hodgson would approve of, no-one else will eat it, and we are all blaming it fair and square for the smell, but I suspect Greg's hidden sausages are also contributing.  The good news is, after a few minutes of complaining and whinging, we all settle down and can barely smell it... until the next stop!
I had looked at the distance between Wroclaw and Krakow  - it seemed like an easy drive, just 271 kms.  Little did we know that in fact most of that 271 kms was going to be travelling at 50kms an hour!!  We assumed there would be a big freeway between two large cities, but we assumed wrongly.  It was in fact just a two lane (one car in each direction) road, with lots of small towns along the way.  The speed limit in small towns is 50kms and while it goes up to 90km, sometimes it's just for two minutes before you hit another bloody town.  It was raining, and dark by 5pm, so we were relieved that the GPS worked perfectly and led us directly to our hostel for our stay in Krakow, the 4.Friends Hostel.  It's not too bad, about 20 minutes out of the old town by bus, but it had parking - I couldn't find any hostels in town with parking.
When we went in today, I could see why - there is lots of no traffic areas in the old city.  It was cold, but quite lovely, and we enjoyed wandering around.  We got talked into a tour by electric car - we were being endlessly harassed and it seemed the easy option to just give in.  It was quite interesting, with an audio (supplemented by our pommie driver, the only problem being he spoke over the audio which made it a challenge to know what to listen to!).  When we got to Wawel Castle I jumped out to buy some tickets as the guide told us that there are only limited tickets to the castle.  This involved walking rapidly up a slope of around 600m to get to the gate, then to the ticket office.  The good news was that the castle exhibits were free in November!  The bad news was that not all the exhibits were open.  We'd already decided to see the armoury and the temporary exhibit (which included the Da Vinci painting, "Lady with an Ermine") but the woman at the ticket counter told me (in a voice which didn't allow any discussion!) that we would also see the very lovely state apartments and the Lost Wawel, and here were our times.  What could I say except thank you, and go down to cancel the rest of our car tour - as our first time slot was in 15 minutes!!  I really enjoyed the castle and it was a bit disappointing not to be able to take any photos, not even without a flash.  Look for us in the general castle shot, Greg was more interested in getting the castle in than us!    Later in the day we realised we actually had more zloty than we needed.  We knew we could spend it on petrol, but Bella thought one thing we should spend it on was getting her ears pierced.  Yes, she has had her ears pierced twice already, but thought it would look very cool to get a third one done in the lobe of one ear, and one high up on her other ear.  She was very determined but after the ear piercer had done the first hole (using a big disposable needle, not a gun!) she nearly backed out of the second one knowing it would hurt a lot more - however I encouraged her to stick with her decision, I knew she'd be disappointed if she didn't.  It DID hurt but she was very brave and was delighted afterwards that she'd actually done it.  I've added a pic of the needle sticking out of her ear!
Another thing we've been meaning to do is to get Liam's hair cut. Bella has been working on him since we've been away and had convinced him to have a short 'do, long on top and very short around the back.  We've tried at a couple of salons but they've been full or didn't speak English, this one could fit us in and voila - see the picture for the new Liam!
We had a splurge Polish dinner at a nice restaurant in town before catching the bus back to the hostel.
Tomorrow we leave Poland and are off to Budapest in Hungary.  It's not far, just 394 km, but only 41 km are on a freeway! Yes, according to the Michelin maps and routes, it will take us 6 hours 47 minutes to get there, with the majority of it travelling at 50 km an hour!!  Well, at least we are prepared.  Greg did try to talk me out of going to Budapest but its on my list of must dos, so we are doing it... I'll report in and let you know how bad it is and if it really was worth it!!  Most of the time we are travelling in Slovakia, so I hope the roads are better than Poland.  They should be - there are tolls on their roads!!

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Clear skies in Poland...

well, at least it's not raining :-) 
Yesterday we left the rain and Berlin behind and cruised down the autobahn (thankfully accident free) - and into Poland.  Bump, bump, bump... the road was atrocious!  We had 42 long, tedious kilometres of what can only be described as corrugated asphalt.  Greg & I were trying to think of a comparison, the best we could come up with was the dirt road into Corroboree Billabong just after the wet season... to add insult to injury, the road on the way out of Poland was smooth and lovely.  We were bumping along at 70kms and everyone going out was cruising at 120km!
Once the horrible bit of highway ended, I didn't mind driving - there was considerably less traffic and with a speed limit I felt more comfortable (although we were the only ones who seemed to be paying any attention to the speed limit!).  However when we got into the city area it was a bit hectic and I was glad when a wrong turn (at Greg's insistence!) meant he could take over driving.  The Lonely Planet guide had spoken about how beautiful Wraclaw is but obviously the beautiful part is right at the old city centre, as the outskirts are dour, grey and depressing.  Our hostel is about 12 minutes walk to the old part of town, and it's fairly ugly around here.  The Wratislavia Hostel where we are staying is very clean and tidy.  We've booked a one bedroom apartment, which has a huge living area, a small kitchenette (although its so cheap to eat out here I can't imagine us bothering to cook), a bed room with a double bed and one single (Bella is on the sofa bed in the lounge room) and a very large bathroom. Greg jokes that it was originally a two bedroom apartment and they changed one room to a bathroom! 
We went exploring the city and found somewhere to eat.  It really is lovely in the old part of town.  Like Berlin, Wraclaw was extensively bombed during the war and most of the old stuff is a facade, but they have done a great job of it!  We bought Liam a gnome map for 6 zlotys (the exchange rate is 2.97 zlotys to the Aussie dollar, much better than the bloody euro rate!) as Wraclaw is a city of gnomes.  They are everywhere!  The map shows over 120, but apparently there are even more.  Finding the gnomes is a lot of fun and Liam was reluctant to go back to the hostel last night with so many more gnomes to find!
Today we set off to do our CULTURAL duty to Wraclaw.  We started with the Royal Palace which has been restored and turned into a history and art museum, with some royal apartments on display.  We saw lots of grand buildings that were obviously palatial, so ignored what the map said, did a few more kms, and discovered that as grand as they were, they were just government offices.  The smaller building with the nice garden we'd passed was actually the palace!  After back tracking (but finding a gnome - bonus!) we went through the palace.  It was quite sad as the rooms covered 1000 years of Wraclaw history, and there was very little to show.  Hundreds of years of wars have been inflicted on or in Poland (its been tough being Polish) and pretty much anything that was preserved, was destroyed in WW2.  
Our next stop was the Raclawice Panorama.  The painting in the round was in the same vein as the one at Waterloo, but in much better condition, with an audio which explained what was what - very helpful.  The Panorama was painted in 1894 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the victorious battle of Raclawice (never mind that they went on to be absolutely flogged afterwards - it's a memory of success and it's very important in Poland). Tickets to the Panorama also give you entry to the nearby National Museum, but I think the kids were a bit relieved to find it was closed, so we will go back tomorrow morning before we leave Wraclaw.  
So it was onto lunch, and I'd read about the University Refectory in the local guide book.  It's a buffet with a delicious range of Polish food, and you pay by weight - 3.75 zloty for 100 grams.  It was so good that everyone wants to have lunch there again tomorrow!  And now we know exactly where it is :-)
Our last stop for the day was the University itself - some of oldest buildings in Wraclaw (again, mostly heavily restored and rebuilt after WW2).  Apparently there are some lovely rooms you can see but although we walked all around the campus we couldn't find the signs (or else they were in Polish and we couldn't read them!) - but by this time we were all running out of sightseeing energy, it was getting dark and cold and time to walk back to the hostel for a rest before dinner!
If you are wondering how we are coping with the cold, well to be honest it hasn't been that cold so far.  In Wraclaw our daytime temps are 10 - 12 degrees during the day (but the wind chill makes it colder!) and 4 degrees overnight. Liam, Bella and I wear our thermal bottoms under our jeans everyday, but with our coats haven't had to use our thermal tops yet.  Greg has been much tougher and has not pulled out his thermals at all yet, the kids say he has enough hair on his body to keep him warm (although he did comment on the cold as we walked back late this afternoon so maybe he is caving!).  
By the way the same handy guide which has helped us find where to eat etc, has a big article on how dangerous driving is in Poland, that all Poles are crazy on the road and there are more automobile accidents here than anywhere else in Europe! So fingers crossed we make it safely to Krakow tomorrow and then onto Budapest!

Grey days in Berlin

I bet you thought we were being a bit lucky with our Autumn weather, didn't you?  So did we! Well the last two days (and today in fact) have been a bit grey and rainy.  The first rainy day seemed like a great opportunity to have a quiet day, as we've been so busy! And Greg could keep working on his damn report.  Bella and Liam both had (reluctantly!) school work to do too, so I thought I'd have an adventure all by myself: a trip to the laundromat!  It turns out that there is no laundromat in this area, the reception printed a map off for me and told me it was 5 train stops away, then a two block walk.  Easy peasy I thought. Well I got onto the main drag with my bags of dirty washing and went down to the U train platform, but the only train was taking me into the centre of town - not where I wanted to go.  I went back onto the street, walked around, and found another U train entrance - but it was the same destination.  I was frustrated - I didn't want to go back to the hostel and say I couldn't make it!  I thought I'd find someone who spoke English to help me.  Did I mention it was raining quite heavily?  No?  So I'm lugging my bag, my laundry, my umbrella, my (damp) map, asking random people if they spoke English.  I didn't have much luck with my first couple of people.  One lady kept repeating, louder and louder, "Seestrasser" - I thanked her, I knew the name of the street we were standing on!!  A kindly older man stopped to help me and gave me directions to the U stop he thought I wanted.  I followed his directions, and arrived to find I was still a few stops away from where I should be.  How the hell did I get there?  It was a relief to find a woman who spoke English and told me that in fact I wanted the TRAM.  I'd assumed the guy at reception had said TRAIN, but no he'd actually said TRAM.  I found the right tram, and the laundromat, managed to follow the steps (in German, but luckily with accompanying illustrations!) and then TRAM my way directly back!!
I was disappointed to find that NO-ONE had finished their work in the time I was away.  Really!  Can't they just get on with it??  I'm quite happy to spend a quiet afternoon working on my album or sorting my photos but with Greg using the laptop I have no option but to keep reading "Game of Thrones" on my kindle.  I'm into book 2 and I have to say there is a lot less sex in the books than in the TV series!  I'm hoping to get to watch it soon (when Greg is done with my laptop) as I have a much better understanding of the characters.
Yesterday was MUSEUM DAY. Greg feels very strongly that we must expose the kids to as much culture as they can stand, and then add a little bit more :-)  So we set off to the Museum Island in Berlin.  Liam was navigating.  (Bella had her turn the other day).  We made it into town OK but were not quite sure of our direction from the train station - whoops, Liam corrects me here, he knew exactly which way we were going, the rest of us where a trifle unsure.  We saw the TV tower in the distance (a great landmark!) and passed a family puzzling over their map.  Greg wanted to give them some assistance.  I queried what sort of assistance we could actually offer.  We could point out the TV tower?  And acknowledge that we were guessing which way we going?  No, I moved us on before we confused those poor people any more than they already were!
But yes, Liam was correct and we did find the Museum Island.  It's undergoing some serious renovations so the exact entrance required a bit of too-ing and fro-ing but luckily it had stopped raining.  We started with the Pergamon Museum which has amazing and HUGE antiquities which the Germans saved/plundered from the middle east.  The museum included an audio tour (as you might know by now we are big fans of the audio tour) which contained just a little bit too much information.  Especially as the museum turned out to be enormous - nearly half as big as the Louvre I thought, but Greg thinks that is an exaggeration.  My tip to them would be to reduce to size of their info tidbits by half - I think if you listened to it all it would seriously take an entire day.  As it was we were at the museum for over 3 hours which is a good effort!
We had a little break wandering in the nearby market (being a stall holder in the cold with the rain did not look like much fun) and Greg & Bella tried currywurst, a Berliner favourite snack.  Bella quite enjoyed it but Greg thought it tasted disgusting.  Liam just had a regular sausage which Greg also was not impressed with, so he went back for different one which he also declared foul. (I smile everytime thinking of Greg's face as he ate his currywurst - I took a photo of course!)  Being the fussy one I went into the museum cafe and had soup, the kids joined me for chocolate cake and hot chocolate.  Is there such a thing as too much chocolate in one sitting?  They said no, but Bella struggled with her last mouthful!
I had a bad headache and Greg said he'd find me some panadol.  It turned out to be a saga worthy of mention in my blog, along the lines of my laundry visit! While we waited outside the cafe, he tried the newsagency we'd passed on our way to the museum, but they referred him to the chemist shop in the train station, which was closed -it was Sunday. So then he tried a few supermarkets in the area - they all referred him back to the chemist (a bit like our GPS!).  His next idea was to ask in the pubs - surely heavy drinkers need a panadol or two every now and then?  No luck at the first few - eventually at one, a customer rifled in her bag and produced - a single panadol.  Greg thought it was a bit ungrateful to ask if she had two!!  It was a very large panadol though and seemed to do the trick - at least it made his journey worthwhile.  We've resolved to make sure we have panadol and tissues in my bag at all times from now on :-)
We girded our loins and set off to visit the Old National Gallery.  The gallery had a lot of sculptures which the kids really enjoyed - the paintings did not inspire them as much.  There was one room with impressionists which I liked.  Again, the audio information went on, and on, and on!  If you ever want to know really intimate detail about a painting or sculpture, just take the audio tours at the Berlin museums!
Today we are leaving Berlin for Poland.  Tonight we will be in Wroclaw, which is said apparently pronounced "vrott-suave" not "raw-claw" as we were saying!!  
I caused some hilarity with my family at breakfast today.  It's a cafeteria style set up where you get your tray, bowl, plate, cutlery, put your tray on the bars in front of the food and load your plates up.  I was sliding my tray along and reaching from some bread when there was an almightly crash.  The roll thing had ended and I wasn't looking - it was my smashed bowl and plate (with cereal) on the floor!  I had to zip into the kitchen and find the broom and sweep it all up, Liam and Bella pretending they didn't know me... Greg did help me find the brush and pan to clean it all away!  

Waterloo, Trier and Berlin!

’s been a busy few days so this will be a big blog entry.  Grab a coffee and come back when you are ready!

Only two days ago we were in Bruges eating another HUGE and delicious breakfast.  It was a sunny day yet again (so lucky!) and the market square was actually full of market stalls, so we wandered down to buy some food – sausages (Greg), fruit (me), and lots of cheese (both of us).  The kids meanwhile found a lolly stall – 3.20 Euros for ½ kg of lollies of their choice, which was like heaven!  We visited the Historium, a multi-media history of old Bruges experience which Greg did not think much of but the kids and I, obviously less discerning, quite enjoyed!

Our host Albina gave us the left over croissants and bread for lunch (knowing how much we appreciated her baking!) and we drove off toward Trier.  Our late lunch stop along the way was at Waterloo.  The kids and I chose to climb the 226 steps to the top of the Lion Monument, and we also visited the Panorama – a huge piece of art in the round dating from the 19^th century complete with smoke and gunfire!  Greg opted to have a nap while we did our exploring, and I did think as I climbed the 226 steps that he’d made a smart decision!  It was still sunny so we enjoyed our picnic lunch of left over croissants (still delicious) with cheese, ham and mustard, followed by crisp apples, strawberries and grapes! 

Our journey to Trier went well until the end when there was a bit of a traffic jam (Casper, you would be proud of how well we are doing with our right hand driving thanks to your expert training!) and it was dark by the time we found the hostel.  Actually the GPS took us to the wrong street, even though I’d definitely selected the right one – Greg had to get out and ask at the nearby supermarket and it finally found it.  It was called Hillies Hostel and I wouldn’t recommend it.  It cost half as much as our B & B in Bruges (without any breakfast!) and although I’d booked a four bed dorm we were in put into a six bed one.  Our companions were a girl from Cologne and a boy from Greece, who turned out to snore like a champion; I’ve never heard anyone snore so loudly, or for so long, in my entire life.  Needless to say none of us slept well.  To add insult to injury although we’d paid for linen (which was of the attractive nylon variety) we didn’t get a towel, and reception is only open for two hours a day (we’d made it by the skin of our teeth to check in) – Bella and I decided to use our bed sheet the next day rather than rough it like the boys!  We had a room with a private bathroom which meant one toilet and shower for six people.  It was a bit old and grotty. Oh, and the wifi didn’t work.  You can gather that we were not impressed!

In the morning we woke up to a misty Trier (it was a chilly 5 degrees) and bought a pastry from the bakery next door then set out to explore the fabulous Roman ruins in Trier.  The only downside of this was that we couldn’t use our gloves while we ate as they were so sticky, and it was very chilly on our fingers without them!  (Bella and I both picked up a pair of 10 euro leather gloves in Bruges which are wonderful). The ruins are seriously impressive, and we also walked to Karl Marx’s birthplace.  We had thought we might visit this museum but there was a sign out saying opening was delayed due to some renovations, and we couldn’t linger, so we set off to Berlin.  It was 740km and the GPS estimated our arrival around 4.30pm.

We really like our GPS but she has some flaws. She doesn’t talk too much, which Greg appreciates. She likes to give us a warning at 2.2km but sometimes choses to wait until 400m, which on a busy road can make things a bit challenging.  Other times she doesn’t say anything at all, clearly thinking it’s an easy matter to follow the blue line on the screen and we don’t need any other assistance!  When she does wait until 400m she is very insistent.  “Veer left at the fork”; “Veer LEFT at the fork”; “VEER LEFT AT THE FORK”.  So we tend to respond to her – “yes, yes, we are veering!  Keep your pants on!”  Just out of Trier we encountered road works and the autobahn was closed.  We detoured, the GPS re-routed, and gave us instructions which led us safely back to… the closed autobahn.  We ignored her entreaties to “do a U-turn as soon as possible” and tried several different ways, each time allowing her to lead us back – to the bloody closed autobahn!  So I devised a cunning plan that we would just drive in one direction and when she stopped insisting we turn around the GPS would re-route and we would be OK.  Well, the result of this bit of genius thinking led us to drive for about an hour in a totally unknown direction (all I know is, we were somewhere on the Rhine River!) without her giving in.  We eventually stopped at a small town near a restaurant and Greg insisted I take the map in for directions.  I would happily have done this if we actually had a map, but in fact all I had was a double page spread in the Lonely Planet Europe on a Shoestring map, which didn’t even have the place we were in, let alone the road we were on.  I thought they would laugh us out of town, and this caused Greg and I to have our first serious verbal navigation disagreement for the trip!   In case you are wondering why the hell we don’t have a map, well we have tried to buy a general Europe one several times (along the lines of the whole of Australia ones you can get which at least have major roads on it) but it appears they don’t exist, or at least we can’t find one.  Anyway, I put our destination back into the GPS, and voila, she decided to give us a new route which thankfully didn’t involve returning to the closed section of the autobahn.  However, she was clearly peeved with us, and led us through a series of small country roads barely wide enough for two cars and through a variety of small towns, up hills and into the clouds – we couldn’t say it wasn’t scenic but we still had no bloody idea of where we were!  Eventually she relented and let us back onto the autobahn. 

In Holland, Belgium and Luxemburg the GPS had also displayed the speed required – although we still double checked with any signs we saw (not as numerous as at home).  However in Germany on the autobahns there was generally no speed limit displayed very few signs.  There were three lanes and we tended to travel in the far right, with the other slow vehicles travelling at 130km an hour – the far left lane had cars whizzing by so fast we couldn’t believe it.  Occasionally we would see a sign (or the GPS would suddenly show a speed) and most people would slow down to that speed – but as soon as they could, it was back to 200km an hour or more.  Crazy!  So it was no surprise that about an hour into our return to the autobahn all three lanes slowed to 10kms an hour (if we were lucky).  For more than an hour and a half!  Ambulances squeezed by.  But as always, when we finally got to the end of the road block, there was no sign of what had occurred.  It was frustrating.  So now our arrival into Berlin was looking at being 6.30pm.   It got dark early (around 5pm) and still cars were travelling at over 200km per hour with just their headlights to show the way.  And then… another accident.  It took us about 40 minutes to reach the detour (the accident was still far ahead).  As always, the GPS was insistent that we turn around.  I don’t know how to get on top of this as the GPS had actually registered the accident had occurred.  We ignored her requests to u-turn and just decided to follow the cars in front, which involved a very convoluted journey through at least three small villages before we re-joined the autobahn.  By now our arrival time was 9pm.  We were all a bit over autobahns.  They are clearly over-rated – going fast is no good if you get stopped for hours!  And we could only imagine that any accidents that occur would be very serious ones that speed.

FINALLY we reached Berlin and our youth hostel, the JGH Hostel in Antwerpenstrasse.  And to our delight, the four bed room we booked was actually just four beds, it was clean and fresh, and our price included breakfast!    We like it! The kids crashed while Greg and I had a late supper at the local Italian restaurant and a soothing beer J

Today we had breakfast (probably the best we’ve ever had at a youth hostel – simple but tasty and there is plenty of it, bread, meat, cheese, cereal, yoghurt, fruit, juice, tea and coffee!  Then we took the train into the city to find the Fat Tyre Bike tours.  Greg and I had done three tours with this company in Paris in 2011 and loved it, so we hoped the kids would also enjoy exploring the city by bike too.  It took us a while to find the office and we were worried we’d miss the tour, but happily we found it on time and set off to explore Berlin.  It was a crisp Autumn day and not exactly sunny, but not raining either!  We all enjoyed the tour – the stop for lunch toward the end (which has to include German beer of course!) makes the return ride free and easy!  We made some new friends – an Aussie Gus, and two Scots (father and daughter) Douglas and Lyn.  It was a lovely day and very relaxing to be on a bike after hours in the car yesterday!

Oh by the way, please admire our new hats - both from second hand shops in Bruges!