Sleep is still avoiding us after about 3:00am. This is just part of the routine now. It is not really impacting on our day, it just means we are waking up really early. The breakfast is very good, so its worth getting up early for.

We left the hotel in Prague at 9:00am. We met our guide Titiana (female version of Titus, nickname Titsy) who is to take us on the rest of our journey all the way to Paris in 13 days time.

We climbed aboard the bus driven by our driver Josef. We immediately headed out of Prague and onwards towards Bratislava. We travelled through the Czech region of Bohemia (western Czech Republic) towards Moravia (eastern half of the Czech Republic. Brno is the capital city of Moravia. We continued on through Moravia and then crossed the border into Slovakia, the capital of which is Bratislava.

Bratislava is a quaint old town with amazing historic buildings and a great array of food and tourism options. We had a walking tour around the old city, including the old Cathedral, St Martins, in which the Czech Kings and Queens were crowned in the 17th and 18th centuries.

We then travelled by bus up to the Bratislava Palace, the residence and palace of the Czech monarchs for centuries. The view from 800m above the town is fantastic. The Danube looks like it is within touching distance and just beyond that the wind turbines that can be clearly seen are actually across the border in Austria.

Bratislava provided our first glimpse of the Danube. This famous river was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire, and today flows through 10 countries, more than any other river in the world. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows south-east for 2,860 km, passing through or touching the border of Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine before emptying into the Black Sea.

The array of boats of all kinds travelling down the Danube demonstrates that it is quite a popular mode of transport for tourists in this area of Europe. It is easy to travel from Vienna to Bratislava (or back) in about one hour by boat. Our final destination today was Budapest, which is also located on the Danube further downstream as it winds its way to the Black Sea.

Today is Jenny Higgs birthday. It is also Steve and Sandy’s 30th wedding anniversary. Travelling through Czech Republic and Hungary is a nice way to spend such a special day.

As we travelled on by bus, we crossed the border into Hungary. Magyar is the local name for Hungary. About 10 million people live in this central European country that was formerly part of the Soviet-controlled Eastern block.

Budapest the capital city of Hungary and is a combination of cities on each side of the Danube - Buda and Pest (pronounced Pesht). The city of Budapest was formed in 1873 through the joining of Buda, Pest and Old Buda.We arrived fairly late into Budapest and went straight to our hotel. We stayed in the Ibis Hotel Heroes Square. This hotel derives its name from the amazing city square that is just across the road from the hotel. The square features some amazing statues of the seven tribal chieftains that came from the east and conquered Hungary in 896AD. There are also statues of successive Hungarian monarchs. The square features columns and archways of striking neoclassical design. The square was built in 1896 for the 1000 year anniversary of the Hungarian nation. We are talking such huge epochs of time that is makes one's head spin.

In 1989 a crowd of 250,000 gathered at the square for the reburial of Imre Nagy, former Prime Minister of Hungary, who was executed in 1958. The square was significant in the protests and public demonstrations that led to the breakdown of the Eastern block in 1989.

After settling into our hotel, we all went for a walk through Heroes Square and then found a restaurant close by for dinner. We all had Hungarian goulash for dinner just so we could say we have sampled the local cuisine. It was delicious.