This journey takes us to some countries of the former East bloc. The preparations - selection of the destinations and accomodations - we completely do using the web. So we are very excited about what we'll find at our destinations.

One day before the beginning of the summer vacations in Northrhine - Westfalia we start early in the morning towards Passau.  Because most holiday travels starts when school ends the highways are free yet and we have no problems with traffic jams, so our Vito takes us to Passau in about 9 hours. The long journey time relates to the fact that our Bernese mountain dog Teddy likes long breaks. The guest house meets our expactations and is located near by the University, so we can quickly visit a beer garden in the evening and I can go for a run with my dog in the morning.

Because of our navigation system the trip from Passau to Budapest turns out to be calm. The main holiday traffic still has not reached us, but the roads get fuller, we need about 6 hours. Our hotel is located in the centre of Budapest, without navigation system I hardly had a chance to find it, because I have problems with the Hungarian street names.  The surrounding of the hotel is absolutely perfect for dog owners, because a large park is right next door. Apart from this fact we can not recommend this hotel. In Budapest we have two overnight stays. On the day of arrival we explore the city centre on foot and are cought by bad weather.  The second day we book a guided boat trip.

The short trip from Budapest to Fonyod at Lake Balaton (about 150 km) takes about 5 hours. It's saturday and it seems that every inhabitant of Budapest is driving towards Lake Balaton. We have rent a cottage there, but when we reach it we learn, that the owner lent the cottage to relatives. So we phone our agency and within an hour and a half we get a larger and more beautiful cottage for the same price. We like the Lake Balation and its surroundings though there are many grass snakes there. We do some cycle trips and we attract attention with our bike trailer, because we don't transport a child but a big Bernese Mountain dog in it.

Two weeks later we go on to Vienna, where we stay in a guest house in the near of the "Lainzer Tiergarten". The guest house and the beer garden next to it are excellent. It's a pity we only have two overnight stays here. But it's enough time to visit the Prater and join a sightseeing tour by bus and boat and to have some walks with the dog.

The we go on to Prague. We have a room in a guest hose near a large park, but the room does not meet our expectations. The room is well furnished, just as on the photo in the web. But on the photo the room seems to be large, in reality it is absolutely tiny. Our Bernese Mountain dog can't move in it. Fortunately there is another big room, but it has no windows, only light shafts. We have no choice, four days we will survive in such a room and our dog is happy about the plentiful space. The location of the guest house is excellent: a large park and good and not expensive restaurants next door and short distances to tram and underground.

These days the weather is not as good as the weeks before, but we like Prague very much.