In Bruges
Thurs 23 May

Greetings from beautiful Bruges.

Our last postcard was from Prague on our last evening; a few days ago but it seems like we've come a very long way since then.

Almost everything has gone perfectly.  Our train to Dresden was smooth, comfortable, scenic and easy and our hotel, about 200 metres from the station, gave us a room up on level 12 with an outstanding view across to the old city.  Our car was waiting for us exactly as per plan the next morning - a little Mercedes Benz that we've come to love.  It has brought us easily across Germany and now Belgium. 

We're now old hands at using Booking.com at the last minute and finding great hotels at reasonable rates and in sensational locations.  Our overnight stops have been in Bamberg, Fulda, Aachen and now Bruges.  There have been a range of hotels from very basic to quite luxurious, but there isn't one we wouldn't happily go back to.

We've used a mix of motorways and (where the map indicates a scenic route) small local roads through tiny little villages.  Many of them look as if they should be on Ravensberger jigsaw puzzles (and perhaps they are!).

After our beautiful warm sunny days in Prague we had hot weather in Dresden (which had a holiday long weekend complete with international 'Dixieland' festival), and increasing cloud and chill as we've come west.  The last few days have been showery and there is currently a very icy breeze outside.  Our car reported an outside air temperature of 7.5C around midday today.

We'd thought of this part of our trip as being a quick transit from Prague to the UK to pick up the van, but have found that it's much more.  We've discovered how easy it is to drive around Germany without pre-booking.  We've also discovered that we should have allowed much more time for this part, but that's okay, we can come back.

Here we are beside one of the canals this afternoon....if Rob looks more rotund, it's not just the layers of clothing (it's freezing here) but more a reflection of the good, solid German food (and Chinese and Italian, etc.) and the Belgian chocolate!!

Tomorrow we'll enjoy another continental breakfast (but not like the ones in Australian motels) then drive the short distance to Calais.  If all goes well we'll return the car, step aboard a P&O ferry, cross the Channel and pick up another car waiting for us in Dover.  Fingers crossed that there are no delays or other problems.

We have email access on and off and love to hear from people at home.

Regards to all from Judy and Rob