Schmuddelwetter

Off to the sun? That's a joke!
The plan was 1000 miles over 5 days to get to Croatia.
The first day was pretty straightforward:- good roads, both to the German border and then onto the A3 autobahn which would be using through to Austria. We stopped close to Frankfurt in small town called Obertshausen, in a very good small hotel. We were able to go for a sunny but cold afternoon walk and find a source for the cheap French red wine we failed to get in France! We had a good dinner in the hotel (which has a Turkish slant) but were surprised there was no wine list. Next day we got back onto the autobahn with destination Regensburg. We had picked that location for a two day stay because of distances, but had then seen that it  is considered to be a very fine city! We picked an economy hotel on the outskirts, and again it was an ideal choice in terms of value accommodation, but somewhere along the line it started to rain! In fact it caused us to get out cagoules we have been carrying round unused for nearly six years.

 Clearly the Schmuddelwetter was a pain, but there were good things, apart from major sights! We found two good restaurants that we could run to from the car, and the hotel was associated with a bakery-cafe which did a huge range of breakfasts from cheap to lavish. On the Sunday morning we ate there and amongst other customers was a woman in full Bavarian dress!
Next day we did the tunnels! We were a bit intimidated by the list we had made of all the lengths, but it was raining so much that tunnels were some relief! It was also our first visit to Austria so we had the delight of buying and fitting the vignette that is used instead of motorway tolls. In any case we survived them all, including the 10km one -  Plaubutsch (21st longest in the World) that bypasses the city of Graz. We were no sooner out than we had to do some nifty decision-making lanes-wise, but got to our strange overnight stop relatively painlessly, and it stopped raining! We stayed at Greenrooms, which is ultra-modern, very green, comfortable in general, and close to a shopping centre where we had our first running sushi dinner. (Weird, but this was no time to explore Austrian cuisine!)

Next day we came up against weak anti-smoking law in Austria.(What is their problem?) A very good breakfast representing great value, served with a smile and virtually a fag hanging out of the mouth! Austrian TV had a lot to show about Scmuddelwetter!

Back on the road, armed now with a Slovenian vignette! We had a long adventure as we headed for nations 8 and 9 of the migration (and out of the EU!) Austrian motorways are good, and maintained, so we had a long period of roadworks.  Slovenia has perfectly good motorways, for which the one-off charge seems reasonable, but the last 12 kilometres before the Croatian border are barely more than a donkey track. Then there is the border crossing. It was wet, but quiet so our queue was bearable, but we pondered what this would be like in high summer. Staff were not exactly jolly, but we assume from July 1st they won`t have jobs!

Croatia´s motorways are good, and with normal pay-as you-go tolls. There are some impressive feats of engineering in terms of bridges and tunnels, and we think the views might have been good, too, but they were largely obscured by rain! By the time we reached our destination just North of Zadar the rain had stopped, but everything-  including the punters - was soggy! Thus began our supposed sunny stay!