Europe Travel Diary 1987 12

Although we had intended to make an early start driving, we only woke up at 7:30am. Nonetheless, we sprang into action and after breakfast, packing and cleaning up, we were able to set off at 9:45am.

We began by driving east from Prague through Český Brod, Kolin, Tynec and Chvoletice, and on to Pardubice before turning south-east and heading towards Brno and then south to the Austrian border at Mikulov.

Pardubice had a lovely old medieval town centre, which even featured several pastel-coloured Škodas and a Lada decorated with white ribbons as wedding cars. Rain started to fall as we left Pardubice and continued our drive through Chrudim, but it cleared by the time we reached Ždár nad Sázavou, a newer town where we stopped to have lunch and admire the open-air gallery of black-and-white photographs showing grim-faced model workers.

By taking a roundabout route to Brno we travelled along some backroads (in fact, extreme backroads) through stunningly beautiful countryside and rural villages. We made a stop near Horní Vestonice to view the small village nestled at the foot of a mountain range with bare limestone on top.

Our final leg within Czechoslovakia took us to the border town of Mikulov, where there is castle overlooking the valley. We stopped and climbed up to the castle which overlooked the valley with lovely views on this fine, sunny day.

The border crossing into Austria was quick and very civilised, much to Liesl’s relief as she had been somewhat anxious in anticipation of it. We drove through wheat and sunflower growing countryside of Wilfersdorf and reached our Youth Hostel at 24 Friedrich-Engels Platz in Vienna at 7:30pm. When we arrived, we were surprised and disappointed to find that the family room we had reserved had been given to another traveller. We therefore spent the night in two 2-person rooms. By the time we were finally settled and I had managed to help Phil overcome a bad bout of constipation, it was a late night, approaching 1:00am.

Day 12

Prague to Vienna

Friday 24 July 1987