Thursday starts with us leaving the Owl hotel in Hungary and our plan (fair winds permitting) is to get into and out of Austria and see how far we can get into Germany.
Nothing of major interest happens today and I mean nothing, we are on motorways all day today. The miles just keep clicking by and we see little of the country that we are passing through except for the motorway service stations where we take our rest breaks.
Today we travelled for 720 Kilometres and the only real thing of note was that we crossed the Donau five times. The Donau is the German name for the Danube.
As the day progresses we realise that once again we are going to be able to get into a regular hotel of ours in Parsburg Germany. The good thing about using these hotels regularly is that they get to know us and so are usually able to offer us a discount, we know the standard that we are getting and more importantly we know that they have secure parking for all 10 vehicles.
Friday starts in much the same vein we are early to our vehicles and on the motorway for another day of just clocking up the miles and getting us closer to home. We pass out of Germany and into Holland the last country before we sail back to Newcastle.
These couple of days are probably the worst days on the whole convoy, at least on the way out on the motorways we had something to look forward to. We knew we would soon be delivering the aid, we knew that we would soon be meeting the children that so desperately need the aid, we knew that soon we would be delivering smiles. On the way back it is a totally different matter, everyone just wants to be back at home with their loved ones. The miles just tick by; the radios which were buzzing with chatter on the way out are quiet now. The convoy driver’s thoughts start to turn to home but they are also thinking about what they have done, the good work they have already done and the good work they still have to do.
We drive a little further than expected today as for the past two hours convoy leaders have been calling hotels to try to get us all in, most are full but others are charging over 100 Euros per room and are unwilling to offer a discount. Then the call comes that they have found rooms in Utrecht for 70 Euros which is about half an hour away. When we get there the place from the outside looks like it is a Chinese restaurant but inside it is very plush. We quickly learn that the rooms should have been 130 Euros each and that Peter once again managed to negotiate them down to 70 Euros. Once again well done Peter, he has played a blinder with all the hotels on this trip and has managed to get good prices at nearly all of them.
Today we travelled for 690 Kilometres and didn’t cross the Danube once.
Until tomorrow and see ya later
Paul (one half of the big boppers)
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