I have to get going with these last few road trip reports. This as we are about to get to the point where the road trip was almost a year ago, already!! Therefore today the 9 Week Road Trip Report – Part 4. This includes the last 16 days of our trip. The next post will be about the finances and the Airbnb experiences (as guests and as hosts).

Want to know how it all started and what we did so far? Check out these posts:

• The original Itinerary
• Part 1 – First 15 days of travel (Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and France)
• Part 2 – Day 16-30 of travel (Southern France, Monaco and Italy).
• Part 3 – Day 31-46 of travel (Italy, Croatia, Slovenia and arrival in Austria)

9 Week Road Trip Report – Part 4

Ok, in Part 3 we just set off from Lake Bled (Slovenia) and were driving towards Austria.

Day 47 – Horseback Riding in Austria + a BBQ

After the long drive to our Airbnb place in Austria, and due to poor weather, we decided to take a slow day. We walked around the local village (done in under 15 min). Wrote a blog post. Our daughter also got horse back riding lessons later that day from the daughter of the owner (whom rode horses professionally herself).

We actually were intrigued by the owners of the place and asked it they would consider having dinner together. The agreed and we had a great BBQ and fun & interesting night with 6,5 folks that night (our daughter fell asleep pretty soon, riding horse appears to be tiring). This is where Airbnb’s can be quite surprising and fun! You never now what kind of people/hosts you meet.

Day 48 – Rust & Brastislava

After a good night sleep it was time to drive towards Bratislava (Slovakia). On our way over we hoped to have some interesting places to see. But we were mistaken. We ended up in Rust (Dutch word for “rest” / “peace and quiet”) where we enjoy the lake side for a short while. But after our visit to Bled, this Lake Neusiedl was a bit underwhelming. So, we moved on, crossed the border and found our place to stay in the hills of the city of Bratislava.

Day 49 – Break Day in Bratislava

Part of the deal that Mrs CF got to be able to take 9 weeks of from work (part paid, part unpaid) was that she would work the occasional day. This allowed her to stay up to speed, help with reporting and tackles questions that might arise. We therefore booked a bit longer stay in Bratislava to be able for her to get this out of the way.

While Mrs CF was working, Miss CF and I were playing with the resident dog. Did some games. Watched a few movies. Did some shopping and walked around the neighbourhood. In short, a quiet day where we were also able to enjoy the great views from the apartment we rented.

Day 50 – Sightseeing in Bratislava

After Mrs CF had finished her work, we had the time to explore Bratislava. So we walked down the mountain and straight into the city. We hiked up to the castle on the hill & back down through town. Got some ice-cream and walked back up the hill to our apartment. It’s an amazing city, we also had amazing weather, so it was a perfect day for us. The kid was tired obviously, but she definitely got beter at walking longer distances (and complained less)!

Day 51 – Driving to Vienna and Opera

Today we had a short drive from Bratislava to Vienna. Vienna had been on the top of my list of places to visit and boy, was I right about that! Vienna is an awesome city, beautiful buildings everywhere, nice folks, great food markets, fantastic atmosphere, you can bike everywhere too! We felt right at home 🙂

Only minor issue we had was that the (newly delivered) Airbnb apartment was not actually quite ready for occupation…. Many faults, missing items, things not working great. Told everything to the host who was very sympathetic and actually refunded a large portion of the money. Too bad, because the apartment was actually quite nice, well located and could be a gem if everything works. You cannot win them all!

In the evening we walked around Vienna and ran into an outdoor area where a opera was broadcasted. So we settled in on the pavement and watched for a while, until Miss CF got bored.

Day 52 – Vienna

Today we had the whole day to explore Vienna (which in hindsight was too little – we got to go back some day!). We did this again by foot, using a map we had found in the apartment. Next time I would actually get a (folding) bike to get around town. We still missed so much because we just walked, albeit that way to you really got a good feel for the city and have time to look around.

Day 53 – Travel to Prague

After the beautiful day in Vienna we ran into bad weather and a rather boring (and sometimes uncomfortable) drive to Prague. Fortunately when we got there it was dry! Unfortunately, Miss CF was dead tired from the day before an didn’t want to do much. So while Mrs CF explored the city in the evening, I looked after the little one (and watched another movie + had a good beer). Mrs CF also gave the night off the…

Day 54 – Sightseeing in Prague

After a good night sleep, Miss CF was back up and running. So we were ready to attack Prague. After Vienna I was afraid that Prague was going to be a bit disappointing. But nothing was further from the truth! Prague is an truly gem of a city. It’s city centre is very unique and it’s a lot of fun to explore. It certainly is not as clean or well restored as Vienna, but it’s got a lot of charm.

Day 55 – Pilzen Brewery Tour and Travel to Germany

As Prague was the last “big” item on the to do list for the road trip, so we scrambled a bit to find interesting things for the last stretch to home. However, I had been tweeting about many different beers during the trip. So what better thing to do then stop at the Pilzen brewery on our way to Germany?!

Day 56 – Wild Park visit

Once we arrived in (rural) Germany, we found a great but small wildlife park with tons of wild pigs, deer and other wildlife. The little one got very excited, but still it was a place that really brought us some relaxation and fresh air. It was such a contract with visiting cities in the days before.

Day 57 – More wild animals and travel towards Frankfurt

Because of the big succes yesterday with the wildlife park, we visited it again in the morning before taking off in the direction of Frankfurt. We actually didn’t make it to Frankfurt itself, but stayed the night in a small town to the east. Along a big river where we spent some time relaxing.

Day 58 – Frankfurt & Business + Nürburgring

The reason for the visit to Frankfurt was purely business. Mrs CF’s got colleagues working in the city. So we drove to the city center and had a quick visit and then another business visit close to the airport. Not the most exciting day up to that point, but it was fun chatting about the trip.

Next we drove to the final Airbnb location we had arranged in the Eiffel area of Germany, which is pretty close to the Netherlands. What we initially didn’t realize is that, with a small detour, we could visit the Nürburgring! Fortunately we saw the signs and headed into that direction immediately! As a petrolhead, I had to take a look obviously.

Day 59 – Barefoot Park

Since Miss CF was bored our of her mind yesterday (cars and business are simply not interesting!). We looked up a play area in Schmidtheim (“Barefoot and generations park”) for the little one and gave her tons of attention she missed the day before. Oh, and we bribed with some snacks too….. I know, bad parenting!

Day 60 – Adler & Wolf Park + Castle

When we browsed some leaflets we found at the place we stayed, we found the Eagle and Wolf Park in Kasselburg. Now this turned out to be a bit of a gem too. It’s a reasonable sized park with lot of animals and a castle that you can visit. How good is that? So we watched most “shows” and feeding moments. Enjoyed the views from the castle towers and simply had an amazing day.

Day 61 – Play time!

Miss CF was pretty much done travelling at this point and just want to go back to school and her friends. So we decided to take it easy on her and make sure we spent some quality time with her…..on the mini golf course!

Day 62 – Heusden & Travel Home

The last day….. I was ready to cry at this point. Mrs CF and Miss CF on the other hand had enough and were ready to go home. But I just love travelling and could have done this for many more months!

So, on the last leg of the trip we visited the small city of Heusden and some family that lived in the area. I was a good day, except for the massive traffic jam we got ourselves into…. yes, we were home! We were back in the Netherlands.

In the next post I will focus on the money again, I promise! In the mean time, happy travels and happy travel planning to you all.