We had enjoyed the cool of the hotel, and slept better. Kath had asked for a postcard per country so she may not get anything else as this one only cost 40c euro to buy but 1.4 euro to post – 40 euro cents more than Germany.

We drove back into Wien via the Schonbraunn Palace . We opted out of the Palace tour so we had some time to explore the city. It was the summer palace of Marie Therese and the Hapsburgs and did look beautiful however. The tour members who did the tour were very happy with the visit.

We were dropped into the main centre and picked up 24 hour travel tickets to make life simple. We then trammed to the Huntertwasser complex. Or so we hoped – we knew it was a 20 minute walk, and the direction to walk, so took a tram for what seemed about the right distance. We then asked someone where we had to go and he said we were 1 minute away. If we had stayed on the tram for one more stop we would have passed it.

Huntertwasser was Austrian but had lived in NZ at Kawakawa where we had seen his 'world famous' toilets. He believed in colour, non straight walls and different materials. This is a public housing area as he believed in architecture for ordinary people. Although the style is not really ours, we enjoyed the contrast to the rest of the Viennese buildings. There were lot of visitors wandering and even tour groups here which reminded us how famous he actually is. There was an information centre and even a small mall in his style with cafes and souvenir shops. Later we saw the TV tower in his classic bright colours, as we left the city

We found the usual buildings in Vienna somewhat overpowering . Vienna was our least favourite city to date although we know we didn’t really get the chance to see it at its best.

We were reluctant to go too far from the pick up point so spent the rest of the morning wandering and using the tram. We had not picked up a tram map so took one and if it went off in an odd direction we just caught one back again. We did check out some caches but one was near a children’s park and the other a fairly public bridge we so we didn’t search for long. Lunch was Asian, and as it had a lot of prawns we were happy. Then we looked around a small flea market before the midday coach pick up to leave for Prague.

Wind turbines featured a lot in the countryside here. We drove through the wine area and through a couple of villages that reminded us of the Alsace with wine cellars (available to the public) under the buildings and lovely statues and churches in the town. The roads were a little wider than the Alsace . These roads were being shared with large trucks so the space between vehicles was narrow.

The only hold up at the border was caused by road works, but Czech police were around and checking some vehicles.

The comfort stop was in an attractive village just into the Czech Republic. We changed 20 euro and got 460 Czech krone. We took photos of the castle then had beer and wine in the cool of the local pub. The barman poured my wine into a small measuring glass and then into a big glass.

We then passed a big lake and Anita told us that fishing was both popular and free in the Czech Republic. Also beer, Riesling wine and potato dumplings are traditional dishes. Czechs consume on average per person 160 litres of beer per year making them the world’s largest consumers. We bypassed a few cities as the motorway went directly to Prague (or ‘Praha’). The motorway was fairly bumpy from here as it seemed to be of a slab construction . We think this was necessary to allow for expansion because of the extreme temperature variations.

As we approached Prague the road was wet although it did not appear to be raining. It was weird as the cloud was black and appeared to be behind us. They were the big anvil shaped clouds that Teddy use to talk about as being very dangerous to fly through. The temperature was dropping fast. Then the hail started and it was thick and the sky completely grey. We passed a convoy of VDubs that had stopped in the side lane. A motorcyclist was seen sheltering under an overhead bridge. We stopped for our comfort break but no one got out of the coach except Giovanni with a huge umbrella. We usually are required to but the circumstances were unusual. We instead had an impromptu concert on board.

By the time we got into Prague the weather was much better. We were staying in a small pub called the Villa Hotel in what appears to be a residential area . The room is lovely and was cool when we entered as they had the air con on for us already. There are about 30 rooms so we will take over most of the place.

After we had tea in the hotel in stifling heat (no air con downstairs) we then collected umbrellas and headed out for an evening tour. This gave us a quick overview of the city with a local guide. This included a brief stop for a local beer at Strahov Monastery. From here we had a wonderful view of this lovely city despite an overhead thunderstorm. This made the scene even more dramatic.

We then proceeded to Krizikova Fountains where we were pleased to findwe could sit under cover. These fountains are famous for their display which synchronizes with music and lights. Unfortunately the show stated a little early (before it was dark) and went on too long. We all got sore bums from the wooden seats. The display however was very good but rather repetitive.

We then bussed back to the hotel enjoying the lights of Prague on the way.