The Return Journey

[Bill & Charlie Burns]

Morning All,
Well here we are again this time going the other way and heading back to the UK, after a lot of discussions with Charlie and me saying shall we stay in BG until it is so cold and miserable that we cannot get out, or do go back whilst weather is changeable on a daily basis, one day your hot and loving it next day being wrapped up and wondering what to do and why are we here when we have central heating and winter clothes and comforts?? in Uk. Although we have most in the app; it is a bit isolated at night and there is only so many times you can go shopping even for Charlie.
So after packing up our app; for the winter whilst freezing and miserable, out comes the sun and the coin, we flipped and lost on 3 spins so left on Sunday morning heading for Sofia, but in all fairness to F/N and esp; Snezha and Rumi and there team, the complex was looking good and work still on going daily and they made our 6mth stay a pleasure.
So now we planned our route!!! first found a great hotel The Best Western in Sofia on agoda.com 4star and superior bedroom with full board and a bath,[ Charlie in heaven ] all for 145 leva so st nav set fuel tank of fuel and off we go. Got to the hotel around 15.00 and the whole town buzzing so dropped cases of then off out, hade a little walk about a decided it was better to head back to the bar and sample the local beer,and did we, we ended up from 16.30 till 21.00 and it was great so off to bed for the start of our adventure back to UK.
Day 2 woke up bright and early although a little jaded from the night before, but after shower we head down for breakfast at 07-00 boy what a spread one of the best buffets ever and all the eggs,bacon ++++ know what Im going to have, so off for me egg and bacon, great Im sorted for the rest of the day or so I thought, stone cold in fact fridge cold, shame so ended up with roll and cheese, oh well you cant win it all.
Pay the bill, load the car, set the sat save for Serbia and head off to meet our Trail Boss Keith and his crew to follow through an unchartered territory for us,so any help would be great, our meeting with Keith was for 09-00 we are 20mins from that point, Sat Nav sends us on a safari and we end up taking 1hr, on meeting we all strat hiding all our cash in different places just incase, incase of what you ask well just incase!! decide that we will hit it hard, us because I have hotel booked in Austria and Keith and crew have ferry home booked.
We get to Sebia border and after about half hr are on route through, some of the best veiws we have ever seen but also some roads you wish you hadnt with trucks trying to squeeze past,but being true Brits we dont allow that.Had a pee stop, but Charlie said she will wait for a proper stop and not a tree like us.Journey all the way through to Austria was pretty hard and fast but afterno problems what so ever,all customs was good and apart from keep handing over toll money we did not stop,some 600 miles later we end up at our hotel in Graz Austria,after waving goodbye to Keith our Trail boss and his crew.
Now the fun starts,here we are in the middle of cosmo area and pull up at this 5 star hotel,everyone has designer clothes and suitcases we turn up with carrier bags and me in my shorts and t shirt, we know how to mix it with the upper class!! Hotel again booked through agoda and another good price £70 reduced from £135 so result. We dropped our bags in this incredible room /studio and head for the bar/ resturant, some odd views as they are all wrapped up in wollies and scarfs and us like we are in Sunny Africa, who cares we had a few drinks and some great food then off to bed to whatch soaps via computor and wifi, now we have just got up ready for a bit of site seeing , then book another hotel for tonight. Stay tuned

[Barry Aspden]

Hi Bill & Charlie,
Sounds like a top class pub crawl.
Good luck.
Barry

[Di & Sean]

Bill & Charlie,
Great reading, keep it coming. Seems like you have left the sunshine here though ? who did the packing.
Have a safe and enjoyable trip. Look forward to hearing the rest of your venture.
Take care
Di & Sean

[Garyjs]

Keep em coming, hope you have a great trip

[Bill & Charlie Burns]

Well here we are, bit more of the saga.

We done out sight seeing in Graz and looked like a couple of Japanese tourist walking round and taking photos of anything that didnt move and looked old, which was most of the town, but was well worth the look, after acouple of hrs we headed off back to hotel for a very grand breakfast then get packed for next phase. Dont lets book hotel Bill, Charlie says lets see how far we get and book one when we arrive!!! so off we set at 11.30, driving through the Mountain passes of austria was out of this world with views of small villages balancing on the mountain sides and snow capped mountains and sun shining. All was great till we hit Germany then came the mist and rain and road works, what a drama one minute your doing 160km then you spend about half hour doing 25 - 40km so journey dragged and not alot to see so after about 400 miles we decided to stop for the night and pulled of into Aschaffenburg on the Bulvarian border, stopped there on the way out so knew there where a few hotels in the centre. So we stop and off charlie trots to book in, Full, full, full, now this is great no hotels available, told you Charlie we should have booked on my trusted web site i had found!!! last one to check before we hit motorway again, The Aschaffenburgur Hof, in she goes and comes out thumbs up, only trouble only single beds, not bad for me as i will have a duvet all night, up to room [not cheap, but clean] open door, well i thought we were on a river boat house the room was about 16ft long and 6ft wide, with the beds on one side with wardrobe in middle and telly on swivel on other wall, guess who had the telly!!! its only for one night and it is clean so off we trot to find a watering hole with food. And we found it a Typical Burverian Beer Kellar, the place was heaving and the atmospher was great, so in we go and start enjoying ourselves,the beer is out of this world but STRONG,one half litre and Charlie is starting to giggle and Im finding her very attractive [ joke always have ] then a big bowl of Gulasch followed by more beer, this is the life only trouble is we now want to stay but know we cannot, so off we go for a km walk back to hotel for a well earned rest.
Woke this morning feeling great and once we had breakfast it was load car and off we go, we had every attention of taking a nice leisurely drive to france and find our final hotel before we get ferry in the morning, we left there at 08-30 and motorway was clear all the way through and we were able to reach an average speed of 130km and we get to france at 14-30, why dont we try to change ticket for today of which we did for a exstr charge and here we are back home. A total of 1780 miles later, car unloaded sitting watching tv, sad or wot after such a eventful trip we end up home where its cold, miserable and we got 3 mths of post waiting and nothing in fridge or on the tv, roll on march / april to do the return journey all again, we would recommend it to anyone who is up for a adventure, we could not do it in without stopping, its an age thing!!, but this way you get to see a bit of europe and taste the local beers, its great. Although in morning reality will hit us esp; when i go into my local and pay £3.45 for a pint of cider thats if it has not gone up.
Cheers All ,hope you enjoyed the reading as much as we enjoyed the journey, only down side was letting Charlie navigate and book hotel, bless her!!

[Brian and Joan Hughes]

Hi Bill and Charlie
Sound like you had a great time on your way home(not to mention a few drinks). £3.45 for a pint of cider!! welcome home.

See you both again next year. Have a good Christmas.

Cheers

Brian and Joan.

[Bill & Charlie Burns]

HELLO EVERYONE THIS IS CHARLIE HERE, NOT BILL, I WOULD JUST LIKE TO SAY THAT I WAS A PERFECT NAVIGATOR AND THAT IT WAS BILL'S IDEA NOT TO BOOK A HOTEL HENCE THE SINGLE BEDS AND HIM GETTING THE DUVET AND TELE...

I would also like to add that we really had a fantastic journey home with lots of laughs, wonderful food, excellent drinks and not forgetting driving through ten countries en route which was just wondeful. BTW Bill was a star getting us home in such a brilliant timeframe.

Charlie xx

[tomhez]

Hi Bill and Charlie

Glad that you made it home safe and sound and thanks for the update on the journey.

Charlie we knew that Bill couldn't have made it home without your navigation skills,we have seen you guiding him round the drinks table on the balcony many a night(or Bill maybe it was the other way round).

Tom and I would like to thank you for taking the bad weather home with you because it has been so warm here the past week. On Toms car thermometer it registered 25 degrees yesterday so not bad and while we were working outside yesterday Tom caught the sun(we might be browner than you now Bill). Had a bonfire on the beach with bbq yesterday and it was still warm on the night.

Take care and keep in touch.

Love Dot & Tom.