Day 06 - Sunday 31st May

Last night at dinner, our guide told us we would be getting a wake up call at 7am and we would have to have our bags outside our room for collection at 7:45am. The bus leaves for Prague at 8:30am.

It turned out that we woke up early and we were down in the restaurant having breakfast at 7am.

David, our guide, had previously explained that we would be rotating our seating positions in the bus on every day of the tour. So Suzy was keen for us to get down to the bus early to get a good position. As it turns out, we were the first there and we sat on the seats directly behind the driver.

Everyone was on time and the bus left the hotel at 8:30. First we drove around the ring road which apparently was built where the ancient city wall used to be. It is lined with magnificent buildings - many of which we'd seen yesterday when we walked around the old town before the tour started.

We hadn't gone very far when my plan to take photos through the front of the bus window came unstuck because the widow suffered a direct hit of bird poo.

When we got out of the city, we admired the pretty countryside as we travelled along motorways and highways. After a while, we left Austria and entered the Czech Republic. David pointed out the change in the buildings - they looked poorer than in Austria.

At our first rest stop at a service station, I asked Ference, our bus driver, to clean the windscreen to help with my photos.

Our next stop was the town of Cesky Krumlov which is a town protected by UNESCO as a world heritage site. David described it as the most beautiful town in the Czech Republic and it was easy to see why.

There we were met by a (very attractive) local guide called Ollie ?? who took us down the cobblestone streets to the river, across the bridge and up the other side, stopping regularly to allow us to admire the view and take photos.

We hadn't gone very far when a little girl with tears running down her face ran up to us followed by an older lady with a walking stick. It turned out they were Ollie's daughter and mother. The daughter had been delighted to run into her mother by chance.

After the tour we were free to explore the town and find somewhere for lunch. Suzy had an eye on a particular restaurant on edge of the river but when we got there, all the tables outside were taken. As we stood there looking disappointed, a man at an adjacent table, who was dining alone, invited us to sit at his table.

We were very grateful - partly because of his kindness and partly because he was a very interesting man to talk to. It was a most enjoyable meal. I took the opportunity to take more photos of the river and the town.

Across the river we noticed a couple come out of their house and set up a barbecue on the grass next to the river. What a great setting for a meal - on either side of the river. There were also lots of people travelling downstream in small boats.

This town is not on a direct route from Vienna to Prague. Obviously it was well worth the detour.

Back on the bus, we travelled to our hotel in Prague, the Majestic Plaza Hotel. This was an old hotel and probably needs some refurbishment and repairs. For example, the room had old timber doors and it was really hard to work out how to open them with the key card.

For dinner, we walked down the street to Wenceslas Square and had dinner at Starbucks with another couple from our tour.

In the evening we went on a waking tour of Prague followed by a cruise on the Danube. David came with us but he left most of the guiding to a local guide called George who was very entertaining. One of the highlights of the walking tour was going over the Charles Bridge which dates back to the 14th century.

During the walking tour, George warned us repeatedly to watch out for pickpockets - especially on the Charles Bridge.

The sun was going down by the time we started our river cruise and so I was able to take photos as the sun set and after dark. It was a good test for my new camera with its capabilities in low light situations.

The tour finished at 10pm and we walked back to our hotel.

Day 05 - Saturday 30th May

We enjoyed a very nice buffet breakfast in the Hilton Hotel's restaurant which is located on the ground floor near reception. I enjoyed my omelet and Suzy particularly liked the apple muffin because it was so light.

Back in our room, we tried to set up my mini WiFi device with the SIM that Insight had supplied in our travel pack but without much success. Later we tried two other mini WiFi devices but once again couldn't get them to connect to the internet.

Last night, Suzy had asked whether there was a guest laundry at the hotel. Unfortunately they don't have one and she'd given Suzy directions to a laundromat three stations away on the train.

When we went to the concierge this morning to confirm the directions, he told us there is a much better laundry about ten minutes walk away but we needed to get there quickly because they close at noon on Saturday. He also told us we would be walking past the place where Beethoven lived - the house where he had written his ninth symphony.

We reached the laundry at about 10:30am and they agreed to do my washing and said to come back in an hour. When I returned, the drier was still going. Eventually, just after 12 noon, they gave me the washing in a bag to take back to the hotel.

They'd done good job of folding everything but it wasn't quite dry and so we had to hang it up all over the hotel room before we set out. We turned the air conditioning temperature up high to help with the drying process.

At about 12:30pm, we set off on foot to explore the key attractions in Vienna. The Hilton Hotel is located right on the edge of the city and so everything is within easy walking distance. We hadn't gone far when Suzy disappeared into a clothes shop where she bought herself some clothes.

Our first destination was St Stephen's Cathedral which is a large church with very tall spires and vaulted ceilings. It has ornate carvings and other impressive ornaments. In the plaza outside the cathedral, there were street markets, coffee shops and large crowds of people.

We found a coffee shop for lunch in a nearby plaza and happened to sit next to a nice young couple from Brisbane who were reaching the end of their four week holiday. While sitting there, a demonstration passed by with a police escort. There were campaigning for freedom for Biafra.

Next we headed for the Hofburg Palace that contains many ancient buildings, archways and large open areas including a beautiful rose garden. This was the winter residence for the Habsburg dynasty.

Beyond this area, we walked past the parliament building with its ornate architecture and numerous statues.

We took a circular route back to our hotel passing by numerous other statues and grand buildings. The streets are very wide - wide enough for cars, trams and buses with pedestrian walkways and cycle paths on both sides. All lined with rows of beautiful trees.

Suzy was pretty tired by the time we got back to the hotel because she is not used to walking such long distances.

Our Insight bus tour starts tomorrow and tonight we were due to meet our guide, David, and the others on the tour. It was a good sign that everyone was there on time at 6pm. We even had an extra couple who had got confused - they are booked on tomorrow's tour.

We also met our bus driver, Ferrence. We boarded the bus and drove a few blocks to an Austrian restaurant for a group dinner. The food wasn't brilliant and the service was poor but we enjoyed meeting the people on the tour. There are several Australian couples plus others from New Zealand, USA, Singapore and other countries - 28 people altogether.

There was a light shower of rain as we walked from the restaurant back to the bus.

Day 04 - Friday 29th May

We had a good night's sleep. It would have been even better if we'd been able to work out how to adjust the air conditioning to make it a little warmer.

After I put on my hearing aids, I realised that the rooms are not particularly well sound proofed. This is partly because there is an interconnecting door to the next suite. Also there is no carpet on the floors - just a couple of mats.

The door locks are somewhat dated because it uses a key lock rather than the electronic systems you generally see nowadays in hotels. There wasn't even a way of locking the door once you are inside - except by using the key from the inside.

There was a buffet breakfast in the hotel restaurant offering a good range of options. The selection was quaint and probably reflected local customs. Unlike yesterday afternoon and evening, there were quite a few guests in the restaurant.

For this morning, we'd booked to go on a guided tour (Serbian Heritage Tours) of Belgrade with a guide and a driver starting at 9am in the hotel foyer. Our guide, Snezana, runs her own business providing customised tours of Belgrade. Her driver was parked in the laneway next to the hotel.

First they took us to the banks of the Saba River where we could see the junction of this river and the Danube River. Next we drove to the Belgrade Fortress which is located on a hill that overlooks the rivers.

The fortress has tall stone walls, gateways, timber bridges, churches, courtyards, parks and various other buildings.

When we went inside the first church, she wasn't sure if I'd be allowed to take photos. The priest was busy chatting to other people so eventually she said to take the photos anyway provided I didn't use the flash. It was a good test of the new cameras ability to take photos inside a dimly lit building.

In the second church, there was a service underway and so she said to look but not take photos.

The tour of the fortress ended at park where we had ended our walk yesterday afternoon. She took us along some of the plaza we walked down yesterday and then down side-streets to see other interesting buildings and churches.

Our driver met us there and took us to a national museum where Tito and his wife are buried. This is on a tree-lined park overlooking the city.

The final destination on the tour was St Saba Cathedral. This is a very impressive structure that is currently being refurbished. Next to it is another smaller church where the decorations have already been fully restored and maintained.

Our tour was due to finish at 1pm but it was close to 1:30pm by the time we got back to our hotel - mainly because of the city traffic.

Snezana was certainly a knowledgeable guide. She was keen to explain about everything we went past. In fact, I often found it hard to get a word in and so it was sometimes hard to get an answer to my questions.

Once again we considered other options for lunch before concluding that the hotel restaurant was once again the best option. I asked the waiter for a Serbian beer. He said the most popular beer is Jelen and I could see why because it was an enjoyable beer.

Our flight to Vienna with Serbian Air was due to leave at 6:55pm and so we'd organised for the hotel's driver to pick us up from the hotel at 4:45pm to take us to the hotel. Although there was quite a lot of traffic (mainly going the other way into town thankfully), we got to the airport in less than 30 minutes.

Once again check-in was quick. The gate didn't open until 6pm and so we filled in time have an ice cream and a glass of wine. We noticed that the aircraft was labelled Aviolet instead of Air Serbia.

All the passengers must have been punctual because the plane pulled away from the terminal ten minutes early. The flight to Vienna was only about an hour and so the flight attendant quickly distributed a snack and some wine. The snack consisted of a chicken roll, biscuit and water. Quite OK for a quick snack.

The Hilton Hotel's driver was waiting for us when we emerged from customs. He had a nice big black Mercedes for the 15 minute journey into Vienna. As you would expect the Hilton is an impressive hotel with good service.

The hotel has free WiFi in the lobby area but you need to pay for internet access in the room. However the lady at reception suggested we sign up to join Hilton Honors so we could get free access. It turned out that the internet speed was much slower than at the hotel in Belgrade.

We also asked her advice about sight-seeing for tomorrow.

After settling into our room, we came back down to the foyer. I ate a club sandwich for dinner an ordered a glass of Blaufrankisch which is an Austrian red wine.

Day 03 - Thursday 28th May

This morning we were due to catch an Air Serbia flight at 8:30am to fly to Belgrade. The hotel organised a car to pick us up from the hotel at 6am and so we'd set out iPhone alarms for 4:50am.

Although the bed was very comfortable, we didn't sleep very well - perhaps because we might still be on a Sydney time schedule or perhaps because we were worried about missing the plane if the alarm didn't go off.

The hotel had organised a pre-packed breakfast that we could pick up from reception at 5:30am to eat back in our room.

It only took 15 minutes to get to the airport and the check-in was very quick. So were there in plenty of time.

Abu Dhabi airport is poor compared with what we saw a couple of years ago in Dubai. Terminal 3, where we were catching our flight this morning, is undergoing reconstruction. It needs it. Let's hope they can organise air bridges. At least they should build it so the planes can park at the terminal. The gents toilet near the departure gate was badly overcrowded and filthy.

There was a shuttle bus from the departure gate to take us to the plane on the tarmac. It was a smaller plane than most jets - it took only about 60 passengers.

The plane was about half an hour late in taking off because they had to wait for a late-arriving connecting flight from (of all places) Sydney.

As you might expect, most of the passengers on our flight were Serbian. We were one of the few English speaking people on board. However all the announcements were in Serbian and English and the flight attendants all spoke good English.

Suzy had read online that the seats were cramped and so we weren't particularly looking forward to the 5hr 30 min flight. There was no entertainment but they did serve a meal soon after we took off.

Suzy pointed out that all the hostesses were tall, young and beautiful. On the other hand, the passengers were generally old, short, noisy and long way from being considered beautiful.

The plane reached Belgrade at about 12:30pm local time. There is a two hour time difference between Abu Dhabi and Belgrade.

Our hotel driver was waiting for us when we got through customs. It took about 15 minutes to reach the hotel which is located in the centre of town near the parliament building and a large central park.

Excelsior Hotel is a small boutique hotel with lots of character. From our room on level 4, we have a good view of the park and the parliament building. The hotel has fast cable internet in the rooms plus WiFi throughout the hotel.

After settling in, we needed to find somewhere to have a late lunch. After getting directions from Vladimir at reception, we decided that the hotel restaurant seemed like the best bet. It was a good choice.

Next we took a stroll through the streets of Belgrade. We headed towards the long pedestrian mall which had probably originally been a street thoroughfare and is now a very pleasant paved mall. There are plenty of shops and open-air cafes.

Most of the crowd seemed to be locals - we were probably just about the only tourists. There weren't many other people carrying a camera.

Apparently it had been raining for last couple of days. Although it was still overcast, we only saw a few drops of rain during our walk. However the temperature was a big difference to Abu Dhabi - we'd gone from 40C in Abu Dhabi to only 15C in Belgrade.

Suzy was tired and sore by the time we got back to the hotel and so she had a sleep before we went out to dinner. At about 7pm, we went out to look for a suitable restaurant for dinner based on advice we got from the hotel. They'd marked suggestions on a tourist map.

After getting lost a few times, we gave up and went back to the hotel restaurant. Belgrade doesn't seem to do tourism locations too well from what we saw. It also makes it hard to find out where you are if the street signs all have funny cyrillic characters.

The hotel restaurant was very good once again. I ignored the fact that I ordered rice with my chicken and got vegetables instead. There are frequently problems with language.

I found it strange that the menu did not include wine. There was almost every other type of cocktail, spirit or beer but no wine. When we asked, they said they could supply wine by the glass but not by the bottle. I ended up having a few glasses of wine while Suzy had a G&T.

The glasses of wine were 250 Dinar each which is about $A3 each - pretty cheap like the rest of the meal. Main courses were about $A10 each. Suzy finished by ordering a nip of plum brandy. Hopefully this will mean she gets a good night's sleep.

Day 02 - Wednesday 27th May

When we'd checked in at the hotel last night, we'd asked for a wake-up call at 8:30am. It turned out that we woke up at about 8am anyway. We'd had a good night's sleep - the bed was large and comfortable and the air conditioning worked well.

Breakfast in the hotel restaurant was included and, as you would expect in a Radisson Hotel, there was plenty of choice. The breakfast restaurant is on the ground floor next to the swimming pool.

The pool looked very inviting and so after breakfast we went outside to have a closer look at the grounds It was already pretty hot outside - the forecast maximum temperature was 40C. The pool is tastefully presented - timber bridges, palm trees, timber lounges, large paved areas and an expansive view across the golf course to the city in the far distance.

This morning, we intended to go to the nearby Yas Beach and then to Yas Mall. We'd missed the hotel's 10am shuttle bus and so we decided to go by taxi. Originally we thought we would use the same taxi to get to both destinations because we thought we only needed to stop quickly at the beach to take a few photos while he taxi waited for us.

The hotel concierge convinced us to get a taxi to the beach and a separate taxi to the mall. He was right because the beach turned out to a beautiful spot. We hadn't brought our swimmers with us but we sat on the beach at a table under an umbrella and admired the view. There was a slight breeze that made it feel not quite so hot.

Next we caught the hotel's shuttle bus from the beach to the mall. Each of these destinations is only about five or ten minutes from the hotel.

The mall is large and luxurious with tall ceilings and large concourse areas paved in marble. Many of the shops are western designer brands that you see in similar shopping malls all over the world. This mall is more up-market than most other malls we've seen. For lunch we found a Jamaica Blue coffee shop.

Suzy had booked a guided tour of the nearby Yas Marina Circuit. This is the race track that is used for the international Formula One race at Abu Dhabi. The tour was to start at 2pm at the Yas Central complex. On the way our taxi driver got lost but we still got there in plenty of time.

The tour lasted for two hours. Our guide took us downstairs to have a close look at the dozens of racing cars. We were even allowed to sit in one while people took photos of us. Then we went to various buildings around the track including the pits area. The final destination was the winner's podium. It was a good way to spend the afternoon.

Instead of going straight back to the hotel, we waited for a shuttle bus to take us the short distance to Ferrari World. This is another huge impressive complex they claim it is the world's largest indoor theme park.

We didn't pay to go into the exhibition. Instead we admired the shops and displays within the complex.

When the taxi returned us to the hotel, I asked the driver to give me change of a 50 Dirham note. I was still standing next to the taxi counting the small notes when the driver noticed I'd dropped the wallet on the back seat of the taxi. I'm glad he checked and I'm glad he was so honest.

This wallet contained my local currency. I've got a separate wallet for my Australian money and some of my credit cards. I keep these two in separate leg pockets of my cargo pants and I have an empty decoy wallet in my back pocket. Last, I've got a pouch under my shirt around my neck where I keep Euro currency, backup credit cards and travel debit cards. I've got everything spread in so many different places, it's sometimes hard to keep track of them all.

By the time we got back to the hotel, it was too late to go back to Yas Beach and so we went to the hotel pool instead. A relaxing way to end the afternoon.

We'd heard there were good restaurants at the Yas Marina and so we caught a taxi there just in time to see the sunset at about 7pm.

The restaurant we selected was a seafood restaurant called Aquarium. They take you through the restaurant to a display area where they have the fish in ice-filled displays (and live fish swimming in huge tanks on either side of the passageway. You pick out the fish you want and tell them how you want them to cook it. I had Sea Bass and Suzy had a lobster.

It was a very pleasant meal with very good service. However it was expensive. When we looked at the wine prices, I decided to go for beer instead - the cheapest bottle of wine was about $A70.

While we were waiting for our food, I took photos of the illuminated buildings and the coloured fountain - a good test for my new camera.

By 9pm, were well and truly ready for bed - especially considering we had an early start the next morning.

Day 01 - Tuesday 26th May

For the first leg of our trip, we'd booked a 14-hour flight with Virgin Australia from Sydney to Abu Dhabi.

Suzy prefers Virgin to Qantas. While she'd been working for MYOB, she was a regular traveller with Virgin to head office in Melbourne and elsewhere. Her Velocity membership still gives her access to the Virgin lounge. Besides if we'd flown with Qantas we would have gone to Dubai - we've been to Dubai on a previous trip but we've never been to Abu Dhabi.

Originally we'd booked to fly premium economy but later realised that we had enough points to upgrade to business class. This would make the long trip more comfortable. The plan was to stop over in Abu Dhabi for a couple of days to break the journey up. Then we will be visiting the following counties:

• Serbia (Belgrade)
• Austria (Vienna)
• Czech Republic (Prague)
• Slovakia
• Poland (Krakow)
• Hungary (Budapest)
• Romania (Bucharest etc)

The Virgin flight was due to take off at 3:15pm. We'd booked a Silver Service taxi to pick us up at 11:45am so that we had plenty of time at the airport to check in and then have lunch at the lounge.

It was an easy trip to the airport and the airport wasn't busy. It was a good time of the day to be flying out.

At the Virgin check-in, the clerk was very helpful and asked which countries we would be visiting. She then proceeded to check whether we needed a visa for any of those countries. It turns out that this is now part of what they need to do at check-in. As we suspected, we didn't need any visas because we were only staying for a short time at each destination.

After going through customs, we went to the TRS counter to claim back the GST on the new DSLR camera I bought a few weeks ago. This proved to be very quick because there were three or four staff at the counter but no queue.

Virgin co-shares with Etihad and so we went to the Etihad lounge (which turned out to be close to our departure gate). This lounge was amazing - by far the best airline lounge I'd ever been to anywhere in the world.

Staff at the lounge greeted us with a tray of dates and then escorted us down the lift to the lounge and explained the services they offer. At most lounges, you struggle to find a lounge seat. The lounge area was not crowded at all.

More importantly, they have a table-service dining area. This wasn't just cheap airline food - it was fine dining with beautiful food and wine. The portions were not too big - just what we needed for a lunch before our flight. If we'd wanted more, we could serve ourselves from the buffet and bar. This was really impressive. A great start to our flight.

The flight took off close to schedule. Suzy had booked seats at the front of business class because she'd read online that these were the best seats. They served a very nice lunch soon after we took off and a supper just before we landed.

After lunch, they offered to make up our beds for us. You could adjust the seats so they were flat and horizontal. Then they pulled out mattresses from the overhead lockers to make it even more comfortable. They provided pyjamas too - Suzy changed into her pyjamas but I didn't bother.

Suzy can sleep anywhere at any time and so she managed to get a few hours sleep and then some more sleep later in the flight. Mine was more like a cat nap for a couple of hours.

They had an extensive choice of movies and TV shows to watch on touch-screen monitors that were built into the seats.

It was close to midnight local time in Abu Dhabi by the time we landed. Surprisingly, the plane parked on the tarmac away from the terminal building and we had to walk down the stairs to a shuttle bus.

Our hotel driver was waiting for us after we'd got through customs and drove us to the Radisson Blu Hotel on Yas Island. This only took about 15 minutes.

As you would expect, this is a very nice hotel with a spacious foyer, large rooms and excellent service. By the time we'd got to bed it was 1:30am local time and 7:30am Sydney time - more than 24 hours after we'd last been to bed.

Our holiday adventure was underway and the first day had been a great start.