Unfortunately I get to Europe less and less these days as my time spent away from South-East Asia is concentrated on England and France, However I used to regularly do long drives around Europe and I always say that I can get around pretty well without a road map. Of course that is just going on the main roads. Long distance driving is fine as long as you know where you are going to stay. But unfortunately one seldom does. It is a question of looking for a suitable town around 5/6 in the evening, or later if you want to get on.
In this section some of the selections are from those drives. Finding a good place to have a recuperative beer, or several, and a decent meal is a great reward. Needless to say I have had some pretty awful food as well.
I have not been to Budapest for a year or two. I always find that going back is not always a good idea. I still have many friends there and I suppose that one day I will again take the long drive, or the short airplane ride, to Budapest. In fact Budapest to London is not a bad drive: as long as you take it in simple stages. One over night to the ditch (the channel) is not too bad. But, of course, that means another night in Northern France, not a great hardship! The other way really depends how early you want to get up on day one and get over the water. Two overnights will mean two six/seven hour stints and arrival at lunchtime on day three. As a matter of interest I discovered Schwubisch Hall, near Heilbron on my last trip and as far as I can work out it is almost exactly half way between Budapest and Calais. And several times I have stayed at Kronprinz at Mayerling on the Vienna outer ring (motorway). Of course at that point you are not much more than two/three hours from Budapest. But when you know a good spot like that one tends to stop early relax and have a decent diner. Then I can make Fausto’s for lunch the next day.
So this section is all about my random finds as I traveled not only between London and Budapest, but organised Beaujolais rallies and just wandered around looking for good food and interesting places.