Four countries in one day!

From Poland we had a very long drive through Slovakia, then Hungary and into Romania where we spent a night in a hotel very close to what is seen as Count Dracula's castle but which is really Bran Castle. The photos in this blog are a mishmash from different countries but give a general feel of what we saw on the road. What has surprised us on the drive is the lack of significant borders, you can drive from one country into the next without really knowing. There is just a little blue EU sign on the roadside letting you know when you have crossed borders. The borders between Scotland and England are more impressive, with big signs and flags.

There has  only been border immigration checks at Romania, Bulgaria and Greece, where we had to show our passports. We also showed our passports when we got off the ferry in the Netherlands.

In some countries we had to stop just after the border, usually at a petrol station to buy a vignette, which is a road tax for that country. We were a bit concerned about doing this but it was straight forward enough.

We have had a mixture of very pretty roads but also ones with big barriers blocking the view, these were mainly in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany .  

We have seen many picturesque lakes and reservoirs with rolling hills and towering mountains. 

Many interesting buildings, churches and forts, many we don't know what they are as we just drove passed them  and most signs we couldn't read! 

We have seen many people working in the fields, hard physical work, people with hoes turning over large areas of ground. We have not seen many tractors at all or other farm machinery.  On the whole we have seen people, of all ages  persevering with hard physical tasks,  just  getting on with their jobs in all weathers. 

While in Bulgaria we have seen that many of the homes have their own plot of land in which they grow vegetables, there are very few gardens full of flowers as the these would be seen as a waste of land when they could be growing food. Any flowers we have seen tend to be in pots or grown on verges outside their house. 

We have also seen a lot shepherds with either cows, goats or sheep. In Bulgaria a lot of the homes in the country areas have a few goats or sheep  which they take to a shepherd in the morning,  he walks them all day then they come back at night. Across the road from where we are staying, we have seen them coming back and knocking on the gate with their heads and the owners let them in. We have also seen them escape and the owners chasing them up and down the street. amusing for us, not for them! 

We have passed many horse and carts even on busy roads. I felt sorry for the horse in the picture above as it was going on a busy  roundabout, I suppose it was used to it. 

We have passed swathes  of fields of rape seed, all glowing in the sunshine. I wonder if the people over here whined about it as much as Britain did when it was introduced. 

This poppy field was more impressive from a distance but by the time I got my camera out I only got the tail end of it. 

By the time we reached Romania it was getting dark and as we drove along the roads increasingly got worse, with  pot holes, dirt tracks and windy lanes. I don't know if it was because it was getting darker but the roads seemed scarier, the towns more rundown and the people in the streets seemed more suspicious. Some of the towns/villages didn't have any lighting and people and animals would suddenly appear on the road, coming out of the gloom. 

As we drove towards our hotel the road became very narrow, winding between the trees, a couple of times a few things swooped towards the car , we were  unsure whether it was big moths or bats. Then out of nowhere a snarling hound leapt from the roadside,  lunged itself at the car howling for all it was worth. I braced myself for the thud as I really thought it was going to hit us. It was like something out of "  Hounds of the Baskervilles."

After what seemed forever we reached our hotel, once again the Satnav had got us right to the spot  but the place was in darkness and there was a big security gate  blocking the way. My heart sank, thinking we were in the wrong place in the middle of nowhere on a dark and windy road.  Thinking we may be close to the hotel and not right at it, we decided to travel a little further down the road.

After a short distance we realised that we were going the wrong way so we  drove back to the security gate and thought we would phone the hotel from there. When we reached the gate though the lights were on and a man was waiting for us, they had seen us turn up the first time but then we drove off! I was so relieved. 

The hotel was lovely, a gorgeous room and in the morning we could see the lovely view from the window. The man who welcomed us at the gate was  really nice and friendly, a lot better than the woman inside. If it had just been her there I would have slept with garlic around my neck! To be fair, I just think she didn't have a good understanding of English. 

We didn't linger in the morning though, breakfast and off!