Thursday 12th June Off to the bus station at 9.00 to catch the 10 o'clock bus to Riga. The weather looked threatening & about 2 hours out the rain poured down. Luckily for us by the time we had reached Riga it had all cleared up & we had a short ride from the bus station to our hotel. The countryside was mainly grain growing areas intersperse with forests & the occasional farm complex. We were surprised how few towns & villages were passed throug...

Tuesday 10th June A very early start today as our bus left Warsaw at 6.05 & we had to be out by 5.30. The bus was comfortable & the countryside was quite pleasant although the roads aren't as good as Germany & it was slower progress than before. After a 100km of flat country we moved into rolling hills & gradually the housing looked poorer & more dilapidated as we moved east. The border crossing buildings were quite substantial but empty as w...

Sunday 8th June We had breakfast & went off to find the local Aldi closed but singing coming from the church next door to the hotel. We went in to find a choir, 2 soloists & a baroque orchestra part way through a Bach Cantata so we sat down. The music was very moving & the players must have been professionals or very experienced amateurs. A Eurasian young baritone soloed on one part & then the complete ensemble finished the work. The church was l...

Thursday 5th June Out of the hotel by 7.30 to catch a bus for Berlin. For the next 11 hours we travelled east to Berlin via Leipzig, complete with 4 bus company operatives. Apparently it was its first run on this route & it was quite a journey, all done on autobahns except for about 20km. It was quite noticeable how run down some of the buildings were in former eastern Germany although there has been quite a lot of redevelopment in some parts. Finally we arr...

Monday 2nd June Monika took d*** to her doctor's surgery as he has been getting very swollen ankles each evening. The doc diagnosed that he wasn’t drinking enough water & with the medication his kidney wasn’t working fast enough so he must drink 3L a day of water. Had a lazy afternoon & in the evening we went to a Greek restaurant where we had a gargantuan meal nominally for 3 people but enough for the 5000 in reality. We took home 2 large pi...