A lot has happened since the last post, so it's time for a new one. But first, I'm on a Czech computer, and while the keyboard isn't as bad as some (the French ones in particular), some of the keys aren't in the 'right' place, and I haven't figured out how to make some of the others work, so apologies in advance for any crap spelling and punctuation.

This is me in the bathroom of our luxury cabin on the SS Sunk With All Hands on the way to Dubrovnik. The toilet had an excellent flush, and the shower was hot, but the phone didn't work.
The luxury part was a bit of a fib, the cabin was so small, we had to go outside to change our minds.

The port in old Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik (old and new) was fantastic, stacks of beaches, mostly rocky but still nice, fantastic food, and beautiful buildings and views.

The Croatians are mad for meat (who can blame them), this is a selection of local specialties, pork, chicken, beef, duck, livers, and vegetables. Chips are made from potatoes, and potatoes are vegetables, ok.

All of Croatia turned out to be fabulous, it was a real pleasant surprise, especially as it wasn't part of our original plan. The people were really cool too, with amazing accents, and a very blunt way of speaking (from an Anglo perspective) that reminded us of movie villians from the cold war era. The scenery was just amazing, even inland on the motorway, and the coast road was one of the best day's driving of the trip.

After Croatia we drove through Slovenia and into Austria, to Italy, and back into Switzerland over the Stelvio and Galvio passes (both over 2500 metres altitude), pausing to play in the snow, before heading to Germany.

This was probably the most scenic four or five days so far, and amazing driving on iconic alpine roads. Unfortunately I can't put any photos up, as a bastard German computer decided it didn't like the memory card, and disappeared them, along with most of the Croatia photos.

Apparently when we get home they are recoverable, but it requires geeky black magic beyond Deena, much less this Luddite. By the way, if anyone feels the need to tease Deena about this, I wouldn't (this means you Watson).

On to our current location, Prague, in the Czech Republic. A very nice place, with a beautiful old quarter, which is a bit like Paris.

A bit wet though, what with the constant rain (and I mean rain, not drizzle) since we arrived. Could we worse though, I'm still wearing shorts, and the car is the cleanest it's been since we picked it up!

On the highway on the way in we passed this old Skoda, good to know the classic car sickness is international.

Our first Czech meal was tea, courtesy of the hotel. We normally avoid hotel eating like plague, except breakfast of course, but decided to give it a run, mostly because it was free, and we are cheap.

I went for the roast pork shank, with coleslaw and potato pancakes (veggies again), while Deena picked the mixed plate of local specialties, duck, pork, ham, potato dumplings, with pickled cabbage.

When I read 'Pork shank' I didn't envisage half a bloody leg.

The picture below proves that I managed to finish it off, only so I didn't offend anyone, of course.

I will say that it was quite a struggle, with the meat sweats making an early appearance, but I just rolled up my sleeves, had another sip of beer, and pretended it was shearing time at Colebrook. Plate clean, me full of porky and cabbagy goodness, and nobody offended. Result.

I will say that I didn't think I would eat pork again for a very long time.

At least until lunch the next day, pork ribs, sausages, and garlic bread, all washed down with beer. Yummo.

Anyway, only a bit over a week until we leave, although there has been talk of shipping the dogs over, selling up and keeping on going, but the possibility of us supporting ourselves by selling our bodies becomes ever more distant with each meal.

Mind you if we could get a price per kilo, we'd be set.

As the Czech's would say, nashledanou. I think that is goodbye, either that or I may have said something really bad to a nice old lady today.