Germany, Holland, Belgium & France in one day

Frozen Olive Oil from the cupboard, why do we bother running the fridge?

Border hopping is so easy in the E.U. & using the same currency is just so much easier. We parked for the night at the Stellplatz in Cologne where there were about 10 other vehicles. It is next to a useful park & ride to the city and quite a nice spot though all the motor home facilities were taped up & closed which didn't matter to us.

We managed to get across Germany without having to buy Diesel & after 560 miles on one tank we filled up in Belgium where it was cheaper. Light snow on & off until the French border where for once it was dry but quite windy. Used the free WiFi in Auchan to check the ferry prices & we are set to sail from Dunkirk at 8am tomorrow for £44 one way on DFDS. It was the first time we had stayed at the ferry terminal there, it was much quieter than Calais. We stopped in the parking area for the ticket office where there are more than 100 parking spaces & there were just a few cars & no other motor homes when we arrived at 7pm. Later on we gained a new neighbour for the night, were they trying to get some shelter from the wind for the night?

(sorry about the photo quality it was still dark at 7am)

Arriving home we had driven almost 5000 miles in less than 5 weeks, our winter tyres have had a good run in, hopefully they won't get too much more use this year. Now it's the big task of getting everything out of the van & aired as it's already so damp after weeks of cold weather travel. The house is cold but the gas meter hasn't moved in 5 weeks so that's some saving!

Christmas Market in Nuremberg

We have fond memories of Nuremberg from one of the last trips in our old van during the 2006 World Cup & we knew there was a convenient stellplattz overnight parking place. We found it easily & set off in to town to visit the Christmas Market. The temperature was plummeting it was minus 2 when we set off but in the centre of town squeezed in the crowds & under the stall lights we got slightly warmer. 

We had so many layers on but still the cold penetrated so we had to maintain our energy levels by sampling cakes & warmed wine & then appreciating the heated tram on our way back. In the night it snowed & we had the first real chance to test out Winter tyres. It was Sunday morning so little traffic & I think the snowfall of about an inch on most roads was unexpected. There were lots of mini snow ploughs getting going though, even clearing pavements.

On & off all day were light snow flurries, the countryside looked very pretty in the unspoilt snow and as it was Sunday traffic was lighter as all the trucks were parked up as most are not allowed to travel. As it was so cold we wondered if we would be able to get fresh water as our tanks were getting low, but we called in at a place we had stayed on our way out which was still working where we filled up with enough to last us to Dover if it doesn’t freeze. We have just found the olive oil in the cupboard in frozen, however the diesel heater still works great & wasn't affected by the fuel cock-up & we have now driven about a 1000 miles since Romania & the engine is running well & fuel efficiency is no different so hopefully we've not harmed it.  

Hungary to Austria

Working on the quickest & cheapest Toll free route home we headed for the Hungarian Motorway system which required another vignette which is controlled electronically. You can buy it online by credit card but the website didn't seem to be security enabled & we were using a public internet connection so didn't want to give out our details. Therefore we had to pay cash at the border & suffer the exchange rate rip off, paying in Euro's as we planned to get in & out of the country in one day without buying anything apart from 100% pure diesel.

Arriving at dusk in Austria our map showed a large lake not too far from the Motorway where we found a very quiet parking space close to the closed turnstiles for the 'beach' access. Leaving in the morning to explore the small town & get some shopping we saw a sign forbidding camping but it was probably just beyond where we had parked.

Getting into Austria meant we had to buy yet another vignette but this time we had the local currency Euro's so there was no extra charge. Now we were back in the 'rich' part of Europe & it was very noticeable. Better roads, buildings, sign-age, recycling & expensive prices. The cost of a Coffee on the Motorway had doubled (though we weren't buying any) but we were able to finally get a super clean shower at an OMV services for 2.20 Euro's which was welcome after going many days without campsites, and they also have free WiFi.

Wrong Fuel Ooops!!!!

It would be nice to say we had an undisturbed night, but after getting to sleep about 10.30 pm at 11.15pm we had a visit from the Romanian Border Police. They weren't bothered about us stopping there, just wanted to know who & why we were there & needed to check our passports. (perhaps they thought our van had evaded passport control on the bridge and swam across the huge Danube river!!?)

In the morning the plan was a steady 200km drive up to Timisoara, 24hr car parking in the city centre & time to look around & a meal out for a change.

The fuel tank was getting low, not enough to get all the way so we pulled into a large fuel station. Usually someone will be there to do the filling but I had to do it myself. 4 pumps 1, Green hose, 3 Black all different Euro 5 grade fuel. I am thinking ordinary Diesel, Super Diesel, Tractor Diesel & Unleaded. Put 66 litres in & drove off. 5 miles down the road the engine stopped and we rolled to a halt. No power but electrics still working but engine wouldn't restart. We were in a dangerous spot on a 2 lane main road up hill near a bend with lot's of heavy traffic. Here we started to use all the compulsory items you need to travel in Europe. Warning triangles front & rear & Yellow jackets whilst putting them out. Checked under the bonnet, nothing obviously wrong so time to call Safeguard for the European breakdown service. Just then a Yellow Mercedes Romanian van pulled up to see if he could help. He had seen our GB sticker & spoke English. Checking battery terminals & obvious things I said I had just refilled & showed him my receipt, he said “Oh my Jesus” you have put in Benzine instead of Motorina, which is what Romanians call Diesel. Firstly what we needed to do was get to a safer place off the highway & here another previously unused item, a tow rope came in handy once I had fitted the towing eye. Mikel got us safely up the hill to a wider area to stop then got on his phone calling up various contacts he knew & explaining what these stupid people had done! . He reckoned if we called our breakdown we probably would be stuck there a couple of days & no one in the village would help us as they didn't speak English. At this point if you are like us, you start to think is he trying to set up some rip off deal, but we felt he was being genuinely helpful. About 15 minutes later a car appears with 2 men & an assortment of plastic containers & tubes. We now had to try to remove 80 litres of fuel from our tank which was done firstly by the mechanic sucking the fuel through the hose until it flowed, and then filling up the containers. It flowed on & off & once he got a mouthful of Diesel & came close to throwing up, but he persevered. 

Being in the centre of the village everyone had to know what was going on & there was a constant referral to Benzine & Motorina (and probably stupid foreigners but those were the only words we understood). About 60 litres had been removed by the gravity method but the final bit was proving difficult. Then they worked out it could be pumped out by attaching a pipe to the diesel pump & turning the ignition on & off to pump it through. One of the by-standers was roped in to keep turning the key on and off for the next 15 mins or so. Eventually it was calculated almost all the fuel was out & they then drove off & brought back what they said was 50 litres of Motorina which was filtered into the tank through a stocking into a funnel. Then they carried on the pumping method and after about one more litre the Diesel started coming through. Starting the engine it fired up first time, no sooty exhaust or anything. In 3 hours from conking out it was all sorted & the total cost was 100Euros, 60 of which was the fuel! We were so relieved & grateful, everyone had been so helpful & friendly & we felt they weren't out to take advantage of us. They said drive steadily & fill the tank (ONLY with Motorina!) at the next fuel station, when we did we only had to put in 30 litres so the 50 litres they had brought was correct. This whole occurrence just confirmed what we had felt about our experiences in Romania that the people were genuinely friendly & helpful & it is a wonderful country to visit.

Arriving later than planned we found the city centre Parking Cu Taxa where we we directed to a coach parking space (40 Lei for 24 hours) & went out for an explore & a meal. They were busy setting up cabins for the Christmas markets & we quickly took in the sights & then found some great food in the Pinguin Lebanese Restaurant, were another helpful Romanian, lady advised us which dishes were good for vegetarians and stopped us over ordering! 

After a traumatic day we were ready for a good sleep & getting back to the van found we had company, a tiny Police car with a Blue light on top & a sign on the bonnet saying Jandarmerie was parked hiding away behind us. The car park has about 100 spaces, they were directly next to us & all night was coming & going, chatting & laughing, doors slamming & the engine running to get some heat. A few other Blue vehicles appeared through the night all parked up close to us. We think the next 2 days were national holidays which perhaps explained the extra security going on.

A little bit of Serbia

Every day now seems to start of with misty mornings & hopefully through the day the sun manages to get through at some time. We drove through Arbanasi which meant we only really saw the views overlooking Veliko Tarnovo & not stopping to see the other buildings as we had many other places to get to today. 

We drove up the Shipka Pass in sunshine through golden late autumn forests & no sign of snow. We then headed East making good progress along well surfaced roads with little traffic. It was getting later in the day & we were enjoying the sunset when suddenly we seemed to approach a wall of cloud & the sunlight vanished. Quickly we were in fog & driving was becoming dangerous. We had to stop earlier than intended & found a small road off the highway where there were a few safe places off the road with not too much passing traffic. It was as place where a lot of trade type waste is dumped, probably including this old kiosk, but we feel no one will be bothered or probably know we are here.

In the morning the fog was a little clearer as it was now daylight, but it kept coming back in patches. It was all worth it though reaching one of the highlights of our trip at Belogradchik with it fortresses & a sea of rocks in todays mists. 

On another day I am sure it would look quite different but still stunning, but with the low winter sun & the mist in the valley it was one of the finest views we have encountered in our worldwide travels. Even better, looking at our photo's so many of them seem to have come out really well, now we just need an enormous panoramic screen to view them.

We were running out of Bulgaria now having driven West to East & had a choice to get back to Romania, either the Ferry over the Danube or a small diversion through Serbia. Of course we went for the Serbia option as it's another new country for us. There are more complications as Serbia is not an EC country, so different border formalities & currency & vehicle insurance though they only checked our vehicle reg. Document. Despite there only being about 6 vehicles in front of us it took over an hour waiting in the rubbish strewn queue (what a lovely introduction to your country) to get through all the border formalities. I think some big-wig type was visiting & everything stopped, we could tell this wasn't normal as all the local Bulgarian & Serbian drivers were getting agitated.

We only had about 40 miles to drive & no local currency so we didn't get much chance to see the country. First impressions were the houses were much larger & more modern & everywhere seemed 'richer' than Bulgaria. It may be because a lot of our route was following the Danube so many place had nice river front settings & 'beaches' There is a road bridge across the border to Romania which we crossed over in the failing light & found a small side road to park up on close to the river with the now almost obligatory railway line that seems to pass all the places we end up sleeping for the night.

Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Our vehicle documents were checked as we left the Romanian border, then a drive through some water I guess to cleanse our wheels then we were in Bulgaria with just a small office open to sell us yet anther vignette this time cost about 5 Euros for 7 days. Immediately we could see that they were putting this money to good use as there was a brand new road awaiting us & the one other car on the road for the first few miles. Our first stop was worth a visit, an unspoilt headland before getting to the tourist development further down the coast. Kaliakra Cape is mostly a nature reserve, important for migrating birds & there are the ruins of old fortresses. It was sunny at last so we had an hour pottering around alone as it was only 9am but the entry kiosk & museum were open so we happily paid our fee of just over a pound each.

Our first town, in search of an ATM was quite a different experience to the other countries we had just travelled through, mainly due to the Cyrillic writing, it's not easily decipherable like most Latin based languages. A bit like when we were in Taiwan, is it a sign for the bakers or the bookies? Most road signs have a translation but not all & my Garmin GPS Bulgaria map from openstreetmaps just shows ??????? for most town & street names. At least the ATM gave me a choice of English so we ended up with a handful of shiny new banknotes. Diesel seems to be about the same price as Romania but many service stations look quite old & you wonder if they have credit card technology. There seem to be many old industrial buildings & more square blocks of flats all covered in clothes washing & satellite dishes. Also a lot more older cars on the road, even Lada's! but not as much traffic as we have encountered in the previous countries.

We headed inland from Varna on a Motorway but were forced to divert off due to maintenance. It was noticeable that many of the roads bypass the villages so at least you get on at a reasonable speed & the small places are spared busy traffic passing through them. Madara Reserve sounded interesting & we arrived at dusk just as the site was closing. We stopped in the parking space in front and had a quiet night & were ready for the 8am opening. 

It is a sheer rock cliff face famous for an 8^th century carved horseman that is depicted on all the Bulgarian coins. There is a fortress up at the top, a 120m very steep climb with uneven steps but a secure handrails & superb views. At the base are some caves & a small chapel with many small religious icons.

We had contacted the owners of the highly recommended http://www.campingvelikotarnovo.com which was closed but they were happy for us to stay & park & had use of a toilet, electric, water, waste & WiFi all of which were a nice change from a car park area. It looks a lovely site, well laid out, good views & excellent facilities.

The owners were away but their caretaker Bev made us welcome & gave us lots of helpful advice & guides of local places to visit. Beautiful blue skies in the morning after another night when the temperature dropped below zero. We spent all day looking around Veliko Tarnovo , a very nice town set on hillsides divided by 2 rivers and with an enormous fortress. 

There is an interesting artisans area with potters, wood carvers & painters & above average interesting dust collectors to take home. We should have had an early warning about portion size after the cakes we had at morning coffee. Eating later at the recommended Ego Pizza & Grill we totally over ordered as the portions were so large & we even had to make up a small doggy bag to take away. All the food was superb & only cost 31 lev (about £13) for 5 dishes & 2 drinks.

Parking in the centre is by the hour for 1 lev, paid to one of the many ticket issuers. We wanted to park for 5 hours & were issued with 5 large tickets which we had to display on our windscreen. 

We could easily have spent more days here wandering around the town & the surrounding area but it is getting time to start the long route back towards home after now having driven just under 3000 miles.  

The Black Sea

Heading South trying to follow the coast or the inland lakes was very nice, had coffee overlooking a reed beds & out to the lake with lots of Cormorants, in Summer this area also has many Pelicans but they have now all gone. 

Eventually though all this natural environment disappears as you get closer to Constanta which has spread along the coast & is full of continual tourist development though at this time of year without the tourists. 

In Constanta itself suddenly there was a mass of traffic on wide highways & we quickly fled hoping to find some nicer coastline again. Below Constanta most places on the coast are on roads that only go down to the coast and do not link up along the coast with each other very much. There was the very strange area of Neptun-Olimp, pre-revolution elite Communist party resorts which at this time of year were completely deserted apart from a few loose dogs & the odd security guard. If you ever want to make deserted tourist complex, after an apocalpse, movie this is the place if you come in November. Luckily just further South Mangalia is more of a working town, there is a bit of beach not built on and a new smart marina. There was a large marked out parking area at one end of the beach where there was the only Motorhome we have seen anywhere for more than 2 weeks, but no sign of anyone in it & no other vehicles. 

As we drove in a security guard popped out of a small cabin and we asked/gestured if it was ok to park/sleep the night. He seemed ok about it & we also had 5 dogs to protect us as well! The whole area was floodlight all night but we couldn't work out what he was guarding. Even better we had good internet access from some local hotel which we couldn't even see. The change of shift guard in the morning seemed to want us to leave quickly in the morning so we moved further down on the firm sand closer to the beach for our breakfast. Soon after we were at the eerily empty Bulgarian border & our 5^th new country on this trip.

Castles in the fog

Another morning with patches of freezing fog as we started on the frosty up hill ascent to Sinaia, in the Carpathian mountains. Peles Castle is set in alpine clad forested hillside and today was mostly in fog. 

It's more like a Palace with tiered statued terraces & ornamental wooden balconies. It was closed for tours today though we were allowed to visit a Klimt exhibition in the museum gallery where the best exhibit was a Tiffany lampshade that was usually on show in the Castle. Just up the hill is the Art Nouveau Pelisor Palace which was open and was very interesting but a shame we couldn't have compared the two. This was home to Queen Victoria's granddaughter, Mary, lived in the summer having married the Romanian heir and future king. Lots of superb oak panelling, stained glass windows and interesting furniture & an interesting tour, in English, of many of the family rooms. As our guide said when Dracula was mentioned, at Bran Castle they have the Legend but here we have the History (of Romania)

Leaving Sinaia suddenly we dropped back down to the very flat plains but sadly the sun had been left behind over the mountains. Now it was flat fields & long straight roads where a bend became quite an excitement. About every 20km would be a small village with the road passing through the centre and a 50km speed limit sign which must only seem to apply to foreign drivers. Often there would be a 'concealed' Polizia car but you are always warned by the other drivers who flash their lights when approaching you from the other direction. Apart from small lay-bys close to the road there was nowhere to pull off & stop for the night & we eventually found a quiet side street in Lanca, a small town where we just parked & had an undisturbed night.

Now we are almost a sea level it was 8C warmer last night but it still feels cold as a wind from the North has picked up & there is no sun.

Finally found a car wash where for 20 Lei we removed the dirt & salt of the last 2000 miles & managed to get a water container filled up as we never know where we will end up camped for the night especially at this time of year.

We were now out on the Danube Delta with the worlds largest area of reed beds (not many roads then!) There are many small lakes and waterways with some great looking wild camping spots. Not such a good day for navigating though as these maps seem to get harder to read as we age. Outside Braila we unexpectedly had to take a small ferry to cross where there surely should have been a bridge. We just fitted on!

In the next town Tulcea we tried leaving towards Murighiol, on 3 different roads where we had been following the signpost suddenly there were no further signs just a choice of roads & we somehow always chose the wrong one.

It was hillier than we expected after all it's a delta, but it does allow good views down over all those reeds.

We were also very close to the border with Ukraine, another unexplored country for us, but for another time. We don't need much from a campsite, somewhere safe to park, fresh water & toilet facilities & sometimes a shower and we don't need all of these every day. The gates at Camping du Lac were open so we drove in & conversing with the Romanian owner, in our only common language, of French explained our basic needs as they were busy renovating the facilities & would have sent us away had we required hot showers etc. We could have potable water, a toilet & somewhere to empty our Porta Potti & a space to park, all we needed, which cost us 10 Euro. From reviews I have read it always seems popular & the new facilities they are installing look very nice. We walked about a mile along a track on the side of the lake but you can't see much through all the tall reeds. The main attraction is boat tours & bird spotting on the Delta but obviously there's not much of either at this time of year.

Transylvania area

19/20 November

In and out of freezing fog all morning mostly on small country roads with little traffic. We spotted more bird life, Goldfinch, Bullfinch, Herons, Pheasants & all the time buzzards perched on telegraph poles. Following the signs to various Saxon villages with fortified castles & churches sometimes led us up some quite rough tracks which often ended in a dead end unless you have a horse & cart. 

Our destination was Sighisoara, especially the old town with it's medieval guild towers perched on the hill & the birth place of Vlad Tepes (the Impaler) apparently the inspiration for Bram Stokers Dracula. 

A great place to wander around the small cobbled streets looking at the colourful painted buildings & to try out some cafes. 

Also we were lucky there is a very central open all year camping which was very easy to find as it was well signposted & you are very close to town so ideal for a meal out for the evening. 

Camping Aquarius seems to be a big swimming pool site for the summer & everything was shut except the Pension reception. A wizened old lady, possibly from the time of count Dracula, seemed to be the only person in charge but she competently photocopied our passports & conveyed that we needed to pay 40 lei for the night. It was fine for us, we were put in a gated parking space but with a key for our own toilets & hot showers. 

Their business card was promoting Free Wireless Access Areas but when I asked her about this she replies quite forcefully No! Getting back in the van & trying the laptop gave me full strength signal Camping Aquarius unprotected network! I guess the internet may have passed her by or she considers it an instrument of the Devil!

We had interesting dining in a hostel restaurant which offered vegetarian meals but when coming to order only one of the dishes was available, also no White wine was available and they only had one glass of Red wine left. Each dish & course came out separately, maybe they only had one ring to cook on & in the middle of it all some electricians arrived to sort out a problem which to us seemed to be that everytime they tried to play an Elton John track a fuse kept blowing, should have tried some better music I felt! At one point the whole place was left in darkness apart from the one T-light candle on our table (there were no other diners) Anyway it was quite entertaining & made a change from van dining.

Next day we headed for Dracula territory but Bran castle didn't sound appealing, so drove out through the ski resort area in the forested hills between Rasnov & Brasov. It was around 800m altitude as evening was approaching the roads were getting quite a frosty look to them. We decided wild camping here would be pretty cold & didn't fancy dodgy roads in the morning. We knew there was Camping Darste on the edge of Brasov but thought it would be shut and we would have to park up somewhere in the dark. When we came across it we saw it had a Motel & Restaurant attached which were open & after declining their offer of a Motel room we asked if we could just stop in one of the parking spaces outside the camping gates. The receptionist looked a bit nonplussed, but shrugged and agreed, probably not realising that even small motorhomes can be totally self contained for a few nights without campsite facilities.

Sibiu Romania

Moving on the fog kept coming & going, I guess that's the price we are paying for the wonderful weather we are having at the moment. Blue skies & sunny but only for a few hours of the day as the sun is so low in the sky, I'm glad we are mostly heading South Eastwards. I think we have been spoilt seeing the countryside in such beautiful light & with the end of the Autumn colours. We haven't found the roads too bad so far, maybe that's having had the last 5 winters on Moroccan roads. The main highways here are full of trucks and sometimes the road surface has been sunken by their wheel tracks. Off the main roads we have found good surfaces until we come to a small village where the nice new tarmac seems to disappear until we head out of town on the other side where it magically re-appears.

 Every side road though seems to be an unsealed track & we would be dubious about venturing down many of them at this time of year. Our van is filthy after 2000 miles but there's not much incentive to clean it as every day's journey invariably throws up more road dirt. We were stuck behind a truck full of soil with water dripping out the back for miles which didn't help, but we will need to find a car wash soon.

Reaching Sibiu our main destination was the Museum of traditional folk civilisation which was more interesting than it's name. It is set in a large forested park with a central lake & many traditional buildings & structures from all over Romania have been re-established here in quite traditional settings. There are wooden churches, windmills, weavers homes, farmers dwellings and all sorts of representations of rural Romanian life which have been brought here since 1963 to preserve them.

It also seems to be a very popular park with the locals for a day out and was very good value at 10leu (less than £2.00) We thought about stopping the night in the car park but the thought of hot showers was appealing. I had posted some info about our blog on motorhomefacts.com & quickly got loads of useful advice & links from other members. Sophie & Adam's site europebycamper.com has frequently provided me with so much useful information so I was very grateful to get some useful links from Adam when he saw my post. One of his links was to a list of Romanian camp sites and we contacted one of the few that are open at this time of year and this led us to http://www.campingdeoudewilg.nl/ in Carta. What a surprise there was no one else there, we haven't seen another motor home since Prague! A very nice site behind the house backing on to fields. Loads of useful information about the area & it's in a small village so you see lots of local life going on. Even though it's not high season everything was operational, a campers kitchen even with electric kettle & hair dryer. Lots of homely quirky ornaments around the site, it must be beautiful in summer with all the plants & vines.

We've been up in the Fagaras mountains today, we'll at least as far a we were allowed to go before the pass was closed at 1246 metres. Some bends that never get sun at this time were still icy on the edges but they had been gritted. Our coldest night so far -2.1C but warm enough in the van & a good excuse to cook warming meals in the oven.

Romania first impressions

Very peaceful night considering we were in a truck stop & we awoke to a heavy frost & blue skies. 

The clocks have moved on an hour so are are back to slightly later evenings. Sunny days just give everywhere a cheerier feel, everywhere looks more rustic, stacked up hay bales & chopped wood piles, horses pulling old wooden carts & people pushing hand carts. Many people trying to flag down traffic for a lift to the next town, there are many abandoned decaying industrial buildings & railway tracks that we're never sure if they still function. Mostly though its agricultural but with much smaller fields than Hungary & a lot of small roadside stalls of people selling their own produce. 

The road was not too bad though only single lane & with many trucks or speeding & overtaking drivers. I seemed to be the only one driving within the speed limits in towns & villages & would invariably end up with a queue behind me until I pulled over. We eventually ended up going for about 30 miles on a very empty but good stretch of Motorway though we were starting to get worried as there were no exits for such a long way. We decided to explore a bit and go cross country on what looked like small sealed roads which they were but as we got more remote the tarmac seemed to be more covered in mud, I guess from vehicles & carts from the fields. There was little traffic on the road but it was slow with many bends & we weren't progressing very far. Finding ourselves on a quiet road we found a place to pull off for coffee & decided to stop the night a couple of hundred metres down a firm track hopefully without passing traffic. 

The temperature quickly dropped to around 2C as the sun was setting without a cloud in the sky & showing a sliver of a new moon. 

We have been so glad of the Webasto Diesel heating, it saves all the problems of carrying enough gas & has always been very economical & it's great being able to turn it on whilst still in bed in the morning. Both our 5 year old leisure batteries continue to give us the electrical power we need though the solar panel doesn't get much charge now the sun is so low, but as we are driving most days it's not a problem. Most of the electric power still seems to go to run the fridge though I sometimes wonder if it's actually warmer in the fridge than in the van through the night.

Not a sound in the night but -1.6c our coldest so far & we woke up in thick fog & this view out of the window

Into Romania

Thursday 16th November

Took a while to get out of Budapest, they don't seem to go in for many road signs & also it's hard to find turns against the traffic as the main routes are often a few lanes wide. We had to drive almost back into the centre to get out again. The rest of the route was very flat, across vast fields of Black soil being ploughed by tractors. It was a very good road the No.40 or E60 with lots of stretches of dual carriageway with many Romanian trucks. Spent the final Hungarian money in a Lidl, we miss the ease of being able to use Euro's in so many countries.

Romania

There was a long line of trucks approaching the border but no queue for us. We had to show our passports & were pulled over for some sort of inspection, they seemed to look at our lovely new winter tyres, then waved us on. You have to buy a Vignette to use Romanian roads and we opted for a month one as it's little more than the weekly one. Of course as there's no ATM at the border & we don't have the 31.76 RON we had to pay in Euro's at the vendors exorbitant commission rate, so what should have cost about 7 Euros cost us 10. It's now all done electronically so we have since found out we could have done it on line here http://www.roviniete.ro/en

Diesel is just over £1.00 litre the cheapest so far & we soon found an ATM outside a hypermarket. It was one of the sneaky ones though that tries to convert your withdrawal into Sterling, much better for us to choose the withdrawal in local currency & let our bank convert. Heading East it was getting dark & no chance of a camp site  We looked at Truck Stops & happened to drop in on a very modern one with no charge for overnight stops, just a small fee for toilets or showers & free WiFi. No obligation to eat in the restaurant but we went in to check it out. Very good filling selection with friendly service & a beer was only 50p. Gills smoked bean soup was a surprise as it was served inside a whole round loaf of crusty bread. 

Hungary

November 12th & 13th

Bumpy road surface but with light traffic all the way down to the Hungarian border near Sahy where you just slip over the border without realising you are in another country. Then we saw the Diesel prices 441 per litre, but it wasn't really a worry as £1.00 = 350Hf. Planning to take about £100 from the first ATM we saw I asked for 4000 then when I got back to the van I realised I'd missed a zero and it was only just over £10 and I get charged £1.00 for every ATM withdrawal! Next, on to Tesco that well known Hungarian supermarket, they even have Clubcards but I didn't think they would accept our UK one! I wish the Wine & Beer prices at home were the same as here though. Getting to Arena Camping in Budapest should have been easy except once we were on the ring road we couldn't see any roads marked going off and we had to guess which junction we wanted to leave on which we missed and then spent about 30 minutes trying to get back to the correct road. The GPS map I had downloaded for Hungary didn't work, eventually we sorted out where we were from the Autoroute map on the laptop & found we were only about 500m from the camping but on the wrong side of the dual carriageway.

It was dark & raining when we got there but at least it was open. Only one other plot occupied by a caravan and building work was going on so we had to squeeze through a small gap to get to the pitch. Peaceful night apart from the planes & trains but we are in a city. So far this is the most expensive site on our trip costing 5800Hf per night, almost £20, double what we paid in Prague. The price includes electric hookup which we don't need for a few days stop but there is no choice to go anywhere as close to the city that is open at this time of year. WiFi is free but quite a weak signal into the camping area though we are getting a slow connection now with our signal booster.

Our first day we spent looking around the more modern side of the city in Pest, full of parks & wide streets with large grand buildings many of which seemed to be embassies. 

Michael Jackson tree?

The size of St Stephen's Basilica was vast and it was surprising to find it was only completed in the very early 1900's. 

The enormous dome was very impressive & of course it also has a great 'relic' St.Stephens mummified right hand on show in a special display case. 

After this and visiting the Ossuary in Czech Rep. We are thinking cremation is looking a better option, people can't put random bits of you on display when you're gone! Getting around was very easy with the 24 hour travel pass & everyone we spoke to was friendly & helpful & had some basic English, unlike Czech Republic & Slovakia where it was usually only German. People weren't as stylishly dressed as folk in Prague but it's hard to tell when they're bundled up in winter coats.

Buda, across the river Danube, has the castle & older buildings with the advantage of great views over the city. 

Despite being November there are still many large groups of tourists being led around by their guides. Overall we enjoyed our visit but after 2 days tramping the streets we are keen to move on again so we are heading for Romania tomorrow.

Here's today's tasty mid morning snack, shared rather messily between us

In to Slovakia

10^th & 11^th November

This time of year the days are short so its up around 6.30am to make the most of daylight hours. As we approached Slovakia we could see bigger hills and the border was right at the summit at 740m. You wouldn’t know it was the border though, no obvious country signs & no border formalities. Places looked the same though with a lot more alpine type houses with steep roofs, we are in skiing land. 

We are now back with the Euro but Diesel prices seem the same as Czech Republic about 1.46 per litre. Negotiating Zilina we missed a turning & came back round to where we had just entered the town but then found the correct road towards Martin. Near here was hopefully an open all year site but on arrival it looked closed. However there was a bell & quickly someone came to the gate. They were still open but of course there were no other campers. Autocamping Turiec is a very good site with spotless facilities for 12.90 Euros. Hot showers, an indoor camp kitchen & TV room, loads of good guide books and free WiFi which we easily picked up in the van. What timing, we just arrived at 4pm and listened on Seagulls Player to all the live commentary of the exciting Brighton v Wolves match (3-3). There are nice wooden chalet rooms and great views to the mountains with a dusting of snow on top.

Next day we set out early to drive around a mountain range in the Mala Fatra National Park and were rewarded with a beautiful and mild day. Strangely in the middle of it all was a Lidl which seemed to be doing a busy trade from exiting chuchgoers at 10am. All the churchyards we have passed are a riot of flowers on almost every grave stone, floristry must be a very profitable business here. Leaving the van at Chata Vratna we found a waymarked trail heading up into the hills with picture sign of a restaurant in 45 minutes walk. 

It was open and already busy, luckily the menu also had a German translation & we managed to explain no meat and ended up with Lentil soup, Fried cheese (Gill's dream food) with potatoes & tartare sauce & a fried pasta dish, excellent and a stunning setting.