Back to Prague

Very uneventful day today.  We left Semmering in Austria and back to Prague.  Semmering is very mountainous but we quite quickly left the mountains and the country leveled out into thousands of acres of wheat ready to harvest, there were also lots of sunflower and sorghum crops.  It was surprising, we didn't expect to see Austria so flat.  Being Friday afternoon there was a fair bit of traffic.  The closer we got to Prague the more we realised how lucky we were traveling in and not out of Prague.  Of course there were road works and there was one traffic jam going the other way of about 20 kilometres, the traffic was stopped and lots of people out of their cars just hanging around.  We got to Frank and Belindas about 3.30 and were talked in to walking down the road for a drink.  Frank was up to his usual tricks and the drinks kept coming after we arrived home.  Consequently that red wine allergy flared up again this morning!!!
This is also a chance to critique our first trip - mostly Croatia, but having to go through and stay in Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria and Czech Republic meant going through numerous border crossing, getting our passports stamped a number of times and changing currency every 5 minutes meant we got a little confused at times about where we were.  The road system is second to none in the world, until you get close to the city centre where they still have a system designed 2000 years ago, there is general chaos, narrow streets and people (like myself) who have trouble driving and although all these people use the freeways very efficiently, once they hit the city streets the rule book is left behind so it's every man for himself.  It's not a bad system and quite enjoyable (for some) to drive. 
The smoking drove us nuts, being used to a fairly smoke free environment in Australia really doesn't prepare us for the smoke EVERYWHERE.  Just can't get away from it, although Croatia has just implemented a rule which bans smoking inside restaurants, but no one wants to eat indoors!!  I'm sure it's a step in the right direction.
A day to recuperate then back on the road to Bratislava and Budapest for a week while the O'Tooles are off to Greece.

Leaving Austria, could go to CZ (Czech Rep.) or H (Hungary) or SK (Slovakia.

Everyone thirsty.