Final Tally

The final tally is in: we spent 3 nights in Germany, 25 in Czechia, 18 in Slovakia, 9 in Hungary and 5 in Austria. That’s a total of 60 days on the road; 61 really, because we spent a 61st day driving back to Amsterdam. Two whole months on the road: our longest trip so far. How I wish we’d had that kind of time available to us when we went on our honeymoon to Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. That’s the curse of work for you.

Of course, we’d only banked on being away for one month. That’s how long we thought it would take us to cover the ground we wanted to see. So, we were 100% off in our estimates. I’m just glad we had the freedom and flexibility to absorb the extra month.

Does that mean we’ve now been everywhere in the Czech and Slovak republics that we want to go? Certainly not.

There’s the Terezín concentration camp, which we should have visited on the way to Prague from Dĕčín, but somehow overlooked.

Then there’s the south Moravian town of Tábor, which we had booked a stop in, but then cancelled in order to spend an extra night in Český Krumlov.

A couple of nights in the Šumava would be nice. Driving along its edge made clear that it’s a beautiful, unspoilt area of forest. Lake Lipno looked pretty inviting.

As for Slovakia, we managed to see most of what we wanted to. Only Levoča was skipped, more an oversight than anything else, and by the time we realised, it would have been too much of a detour to go back.

Of the towns we did get to see, both Prague and Český Krumlov are prime destinations for recurring visits in the coming years.

Hungary and Austria will obviously require repeat visits, as we saw only northern Hungary and the Austrian capital.

In the coming days, we’ll work on putting our photos on-line. There are currently 2952 of them, but we’ll work on trimming that number.

Thanks to Bas and Onno for their suggestions of what to do and where to eat in Budapest. Your advice was heeded and appreciated.