Day 48 - Friday 4th September

Long journey today

Anna took some last views of the lake before leaving:

We decided to detour via Luxembourg to look at the city and refuel - 75p a litre :-)

After a grey wet start to our visit and a difficult job finding a parking space, we headed into the city to explore and have some lunch.

We found out that the whole city is built on a rock casement which can fit thousands of people inside.  A quick trip inside the rock and a walk around the edge of the city walls as the rain had stopped:

 

Finally the girls played in the most amazing park - complete with a huge boat and a water play area with sluice gates.  Unfortunately we had to keep it short as the parking meter was ticking.

A final drive through a bit of Belgium and into France, spotted this 20ft high wild boar just off the motorway.  No idea what its doing there...

...and then back to the first place we camped - our first and last night's of the trip - Guignicourt.  Just time for the girls to have a swim in the pool and a pizza before bed.  Joined in the pool by a frog (amphibian!!) which we rescued with a net!  Ellie was particularly delighted and talked loudly about it all evening.

Day 47 - Thursday 3rd September

Start of the journey home

We said goodbye to Camp Zizkhov with a final coffee and green tea from Keanu at the coffee shack:

Very much an Autumnal feel today as we headed West from Prague and across the border into Germany.

Long drive, stopping for lunch and an hours tour of the Nurnberg rally site, beginning with the museum in the unfinished Congress Hall - the most important architectural remnant of the 3rd Reich.

...and ending with a ride on the big wheel at the VolksFest to get an aerial view of the scale of the site.

Arrived at Camp Seewiesse in rural Germany in time for a swim in their pool (not the lake - too cold!)

Thought provoking day for the girls today - lots of questions about Hitler, Jews and death tonight over dinner.  Hitler seems mixed up with King Ludwig in Caitlin's mind - no similarity really!  Long discussion on Franz Joseph's death bed and what would have happened if he'd died in a chair "death chair"? asked Ellie.

Our trip has given some snippets of European History to the girls which we wouldn't have come across at home - they loved the link between King Ludwig and Empress Sisi being friends.  Otherwise, its just been random unconnected snapshots!

Long drive to France tomorrow and our return to Guignicourt where we spent our first night of the trip.

Day 46 - Wedneasday 2nd September

Day in Praha

After a short false start in the wrong direction we headed into the City by tram.  We walked up from Wenceslas Square into the old town, pausing to try the weird looking BBQed pastry "Trdlo" and then a second they were so good!!

 ... and then across Karl's bridge.  We climbed up the old gate tower for views over the city and back across the bridge.

 

Walked on towards the castle before stopping for lunch in an old hotel:

Well its the most liberal state in the EU - no smoking bans here, a long list of legal drug possession and the waiter decided to serve Ellie her first beer much to her (and our!!) surprise - at least it was a small one!  Don't worry she only posed with it before feeding it to the newly purchased clown puppets and handing it over to Daddy for a quick dispatch!!  Clowns posing above before and after their tipple.

Views of the City:

More views including the Castle and the astronomical clock in the Old Town Square:

Meet the gingerbread Merritt family:

Armed and dangerous... well not with those ice cream swords girls!  Is that a helmet with a built in tea strainer?

In the grounds of the castle, the Cathedral of St. Vitus was worth a look - lovely modern stained glass windows leaving beautiful reflections on the stonework:

And finally a trip around the town - and the Jewish quarter - by horse and cart.  To give our feet a rest before negotiating our way back to camp on the tram for another night of live music.  Rock/blues this time.

Day 45 - Tuesday 1st September

Drive to Prague - via Bratislava

We decided to take a short detour into Slovakia and its capital Bratislava as its so close to Vienna.  After navigating through the tramlines and trolleybus lanes, we found a parking spot and walked into the old part of the city.

 

Some beautiful architecture left over from the Austrian Empire days remains - with some references to Marie-Therese who we learned about in Vienna.  The old town streets were pretty empty though - a few groups of tourists but very few other people - not quite the bustling capital we expected.

 

 

Weirdly the old town area ends abruptly on all sides with the architecture changing into more Soviet style concrete buildings and flyovers.  Lots of bars/restaurants and art shops populate the small old town area - we buy a painting from the artist pictured below:

 

 

Lunch of the biggest meat platter we have yet to encounter fills us all up for a walk following the crowns which mark the old coronation route (but of course leaving room for an ice cream!)

After our few hours in Slovakia, we head off to its neighbour and one-time partner state - Czech Republic.  Our tiny campsite is in Zizkhov - very near the centre and certainly Bohemian.  We felt instantly at home - a fire pit, live music, fresh food and drink, sand pit play area - what's not to like!!

A great evening eating pulled pork and  listening to the band - recognising some tunes but not all the lyrics.  A rendition of Jolene in the original Czech!!  Girls educated in beer mat activities!  Late night for all - but well worth it!

Day 44 - Monday 31st August

Second day in Vienna

We caught the Underground to Karlsplatz, where we sat admiring the Cathedral and pond view while the girls played in the park. 

Refilled our water bottle at a handy dispenser - the Viennese are apparently proud of their water - before setting off to walk across the City.  Found the Rathaus (town hall) where the annual film festival was in full swing.  We had a fantastic lunch at the street food fair - Chinese, Austrian and Indian dishes, as well as Emperor Franz Joseph's favourite pancakes with plum sauce.

 

Some views from our walk around the City:

 

We went to the fantastic Vienna Time Travel museum next - the girls loved it.  It started with a 5D film - retelling Vienna's history from Roman times, through Plague time (complete with rats brushing against our ankles), Turkish siege and WW2.  We then moved onto learn about the Emperors an their families, the culture and finally took a horse and cart ride around a simulated modern Vienna.  All very well done - exhibit this rather suspect model of Franz Joseph and his Empress Sisi:

To finish off the afternoon we headed over to the Schonbrunn Palace where we toured some 40 state rooms (a small part of the enormous complex), pausing to look at the treasures and do a quick Viennese Waltz in the ballroom.

Finally a walk around the gardens including the Orangery and the marionette theatre, before heading back to camp with 3 exhausted girls.

Day 43 - Sunday 30th August

Day in Vienna

We took the Underground train early into the centre of Vienna - only a 15 minute journey from our camp.  We wandered around the quiet Sunday morning centre and had breakdfast in a street café before picking up our tickets for the Spanish Riding School's famous Lippizaner horse show.

Unfortunately no horses in the photos - it upsets them apparently!  Having seen them as black foals 10 years ago in Piber it was great to see them as full grown white stallions seemingly "dancing" and showing off their skilled jumps.

 

OK not my photos - but this is how they would have looked if I could have taken them!!  :-)

 

Its very hot here, at least 36 today... so girls cooled off in the pool in MQ (the Museum Quarter)

where we were joined for lunch and some boating fun by Carola, Dan, Sophie and Anthony.

We all took a tram to the banks of the Donnau or Danube River where we spent many hours well into the evening catching up while the children played around us in the sand.  Ellie and Sophie are firm friends once again!!  Thank you Moons - can't wait to see you again soon.

Finally a kebab from the street kiosk and a train ride back on the Underground.  Fantastic evening!!

Day 42 - Saturday 29th August

Travel to Vienna.

We made the 4 hour journey to Vienna today.

The restaurant last night had run out of the famous Bled cake - so we had yet to try it.  We saw a sign off advertising it whilst queueing for the border tunnel into Austria and decided to stop off.  The shop was closed though and there was no way back into the main queue.  We followed a car who seemed to be in a similar predicament into the truck lane.  5 minutes later we had avoided the queue and were in the tunnel - although we did have to go through the truck hot spot detector on the way!  Still no Bled cake :-( we will have to come back another time.

For an hour of the journey we travelled around this huge cloud of smoke.  Turned it on the news it was a huge fire in a recycling plant.

Arrived in Vienna around 6pm and headed down to the Neueu Donnau - New Danube area for dinner and a look at the river.

Day 41 - Friday 28th August

Day at Lake Bled

We woke early to watch the sun rise over the lake whilst the girls slept:

This campsite is in such a fantastic location, right on the shore of the lake - "Bleddy camping" as we've named it:

We hired a row boat and all had a go at rowing until we made it over to the island to have coffee and look around:

Back to camp for a swim in the crystal clear green waters of the lake.  Anna and Gordon swam to the island and back - 1.5km.  Took them just under an hour.  Rest of us swam around the shore - spotting fish and picking up stones from the bottom.  Magical place.

Had a quick pasta lunch at the van and then we took a taxi to the Vintgar Gorge:

Girls did really well to walk nearly 5km up and down the gorge and back.

Taxi collected us and dropped us in Bled town on the other side of the lake from our campsite.  We had a quick look around and decided our side of the lake was nicer!!  Took the land train back to "Bleddy Camping" so we could have an Aperol spritz on the beach and another meat platter dinner at the restaurant!

...and no day is complete here without having a go at the brilliant archery shooting range!  We all had a taster tonight.

Packed day today - tomorrow we leave early for Vienna.

Day 40- Thurs 27th August

Ca'Savio Beach - Drive to Bled

When all the 5 girls woke up from their sleepover, we headed over to the beach for breakfast.  It was beautiful first thing in the morning, very few people and freshly raked sand.

We decided to spend a few final hours at the beach before the drive.

After a final ice cream and a fond farewell to the Pindorias we headed out of Italy.  The van started no problem after its 10 day rest in Ca'Savio.

 

 

After a quick stop to buy a vignette for the toll roads (or rather vijneta as they say in Slovenian), we crossed the border into Slovenia.

 

 

Our route took us through the capital Ljubljana.  No time to stop unfortunately, but it looks an interesting city - a mix of Western and Eastern European architecture, with wide tree lined streets, large squares and bridges.

 



 

 

We arrived at Lake Bled half an hour later, passing through large areas of rolling tree lined hills, completely uninhabited as far as you could see.   With the towering Austrian Alps on the right as we left the motorway, the road headed down into the valley and we caught our first views of the lake with its picturesque island and castle overlooking from a cliff.

Just time for a fabulous heaped platter of grilled meat for dinner and C to show her skill with a bow and arrow, killing 1 wolf, a pig and 2 eagles.