, Author at BRIDGET THE MIDGET

Night John Boy

11th August 2022 By roychinnor2 Comments

Bridget and I will be home tomorrow (Tuesday 9th) afternoon. We are currently in Calais and booked on the Channel Tunnel service tomorrow morning. My apologies that the trip has only lasted for two months and that it is much shorter than the original planned trip around the world. As I stated at the beginning we have Mr Putin to thank for that situation and this trip was no more than a consolation. That said we have travelled through 20 different countries excluding the UK and covered some 5,000 miles, which most would consider a reasonable tour. I have not made a final decision about whether or not this will be Bridget’s last road-trip. I need to reflect on that for a while. I can confidently say that there were three highlights to this trip, one being the extraordinarily kind gentleman that spent the whole of his day towing Bridget and myself around Moldova after some idiot filled Bridget with diesel. He...

Heading Home

6th August 2022 By roychinnorNo Comments

Bridget and I have left Colditz and driven 225 miles north-west to Arnhem. I have decided that 20 different countries are enough for this trip. The drive to Arnhem has been relaxed with excellent roads and, in the main, good drivers. Bridget has now added ten new countries bringing her tally to 62 different countries in all. Calling in to Arnhem is largely a personal inclination. I joined the British Army in 1962, straight from school, and my first drill sergeant in basic training was a paratrooper that had served in 1st Battalion Airborne dropping into Arnhem during the Second World War. He was injured and carried that injury for the rest of his life. He made a significant impression on the rest of my life and I just want to pay my respects. I would love to find some sort of record, even just a photograph, although that is the proverbial needle in the haystack. Like most tourists to Arnhem...

Germany

31st July 20224th August 2022 By roychinnorNo Comments

I arrived in Leipzig today from Prague. I am quite frankly in culture shock. I have previously driven through small parts of Germany, but don’t believe I have stayed, even for one night. Therefore this visit to Leipzig, although short is my first experience and it hasn’t been anything like I was expecting. Germany has the strongest economy of any in Europe and has been like that for some years. Everything we have heard over the past 30 years has been how well off workers are and how well the social state looks after people. Having checked into my hotel I decided to take a short walk to a nearby restaurant for an early evening meal. The area I found myself in is a student area, but living near to Oxford, that is not something that is new to me. On this road-trip I have seen many poorly maintained buildings that are in that state due to lack of finance, age of...

Rzeszow – Bratislava – Prague

30th July 2022 By roychinnorNo Comments

We only stayed in Rzeszow for one night and then we started the first good drive of the trip. Up until now, due to the very high temperatures everywhere, I have restricted our driving to two hundred miles a day. Hardly got started before I was putting her back in the garage. Today I have decided that, as the temperature has dropped to mid-twenties centigrade and it is cloudy, we will do a full four hundred miles. Great decision because the roads in Poland are in first class condition and by and large the traffic is light to middling. The weather played ball and remained reasonable all day, although it did rain for about an hour. Fortunately, I saw the warning signs and put the top up before it started, so all text book stuff. Including several stops, we were on the road for seven hours. We arrived in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, at around 16:00 hrs; this is the 17th...

So Long Ukraine, But Not Goodbye

25th July 2022 By roychinnorNo Comments

If you have read the previous post you will know that I gave a brief description of Lviv and posted it around mid-day. I then decided where I would head to in the morning and made a hotel booking in case the border crossing was bad and it was late when I arrived. I then went walking around the city again before packing up ready for today’s drive. Bad plan! I discovered a considerable amount more about the city of Lviv that I hadn’t discovered earlier and it is a beautiful city. Those that follow me regularly will know I am not a lover of cities, I prefer nature, mountains and deserts. Lviv, even under the current circumstances is vibrant, the population is enjoying its freedom, the children were playing, screaming and laughing in the waterspouts of the main square. On almost all of the park benches there are earnest chess matches being played by enthusiastic men of all ages and...