Things almost got fraught in Prague today. I might have known something was amiss when Babicka said she would get up early to finish her packing. When I presented this morning, ready to leave, she announced that the packing regime for the trip was "simply impossible" and presented a larger case than we'd agreed upon in London. This was a strain on our friendship before we'd travelled a single kilometre together! Not because she wanted more luggage but because she couldn't see my issue. She insisted she'd intended to keep to the agreement, but had been mistaken in thinking she could. 

A male friend would have been informed he was taking the piss at this point - and then decked. As ever, relations between the sexes need to be more nuanced. The mistakes were mine. Firstly in inviting a female to be my travel companion and secondly in expecting her to have good spatial awareness. Perhaps I had been spoiled by travelling so much with Mrs P2, who always packed with verve and economy?

Fortunately, I'd been super-disciplined. My own bag was smaller than the one we'd agreed for her. I managed to fit her larger bag in the available space and her gifts for her grandchildren and medicines into other crannies unused as long as the roof isn't down. As there's no prospect of that with her bags on board, this wasn't a problem. I walked to the parking garage with my bags and came back to collect her - and hers.

The weather was dreadful and the going was slow. We escaped Prague soon enough, but the highway south varies from modern, EU-funded motorway to winding country road, for no apparent reason. The navigation map went red (indicating stationary traffic) several times.

Eventually, we found ourselves on clear roads and started planning a lunch break. We decided – imagining some quaint Czech inn on an ancient square – to lunch in Cesky Krumlov; a UNESCO world-heritage village on our route. It didn't seem keen to encourage this. The signage is so paltry that we drove by and had to retrace our path for 10 miles to get there. Then we discovered WHY there was no signage. Such is demand from coach loads of Asian tourists (mostly Chinese) that the town is crammed. So much so that the authorities are building new roads to steer visitors to massive new car parks from which you can walk to all the heritage. 

Caught up in those works we queued and idled for over an hour to reach the car park for the castle. We pulled in, only for the barrier to stay down and the machine to announce "car park full". This would have been more useful information if viewed from the road, to be honest. We found ourself trapped by other, irate motorists assuming we were somehow incapable of taking a parking ticket.

This was where having a fluent Czech-speaker on board came in handy. Once she extricated herself (not easy as I'd thoughtfully put her as close to the ticket machine as I could) she soon had the others agreeing this was poor design - and backing up to allow us out. Cesky Krumlov is no doubt wonderful, but we'd had enough and headed back to our route. 

We are both on 18:8 intermittent fasting regimes and had agreed to harmonise them so we could eat together. This meant I hadn't eaten for over 24 hours and lunch was a matter of more urgency than usual. I am proud of how calm I stayed during the Cesky Krumlov fiasco, but I was beginning to be hangry! We pulled in at a "saloon" full of Western memorabilia, but which turned out to serve very traditional Czech food. It was late but the charming sole member of staff agreed to cook for us. 

We had one of the best soups I think I have ever had - garlicky and spicy. B. said her mum used to make it and it's a Czech delicacy. Even allowing for hunger being the best sauce, it was wonderful.

Then I had a veal schnitzel and our hostess, remarking that I seemed hungry still, suggested these excellent sweet Czech dumplings with blueberries in them. I was definitely no longer hungry!

During the meal we made such friends with our hostess that we talked about our children and showed each other pictures. She was a hard working young mum in the countryside who reminded me of many girls I'd known growing up in rural Wales. She was visibly flabbergasted by our plans of driving around Europe for fun. She probably never leaves her village.

She came to the road to wave us off as we left.

Back on the road we soon clattered across the abandoned border crossing with Austria. The weather turned nasty again and we could only speculate at the lovely mountains and lakes we were missing in the spray from other vehicles. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the drive. Behind Speranza's wheel while her Modena-crafted V8 is playing fine Italian music is truly my happy place. 

After an uneventful journey through Austria, during which we agreed Czechia's roads aren't so bad after all, we arrived at our Salzburg hotel. B. declared it inadequate (though it's one of the more expensive on our route). Having secured a ticket to the parking garage, I headed off to secure Speranza, leaving her in reception negotiating a better room from the pretty Austrian desk clerk, who had earlier been very patient in dealing with a queue of grumpy old folks from various countries who were drenched and miserable after their various journeys.

Perhaps my proudest achievement of the day was to be the least grumpy of those international elders.

My TrackMyTour map has been updated here.