Deutschland returns

Eventually. I had to go around what I suspect was the Warsaw M25 in the rush hour. Then about 5 more hours, nearly all motorway. Mostly 2 lanes, mostly busy, big differnce in people's preferred speeds (not a lot of interest in speed limits) so a touch stressful compared with earlier days.

Actually, I don't really want to moan. Still mostly enjoyed it: listening to podcasts - poltical, football, funny ones, plus BBC Thinking Allowed, a show I have enjoyed for decades but usually don't get around to it. Hundreds on i-player and I can just listen to a lot of them.

Lots of reflecting about politics, Labour party and the shocking mess they are making of it (I'm referring mainly to the internal processes which I suspect will hit Hounslow very hard). As it happens, they are making a decent fist of a number of things, both locally and nationally, because there are still a lot of solid, dedicated, Councillors and MPs getting on with what needs to be done.

I will be speedy today because it's late. Day's disaster is I forgot my precious Thermos cup (made in China) in my hotel on Gora whatsit in Poland. This reduced me to horrible paper cups as none of the Polish motorway services sold them. Life can be cruel if you're an idiot.

I couldn't face being a Warsaw tourist and I treated Poland rather poorly. One day, maybe...

Their motorways mostly have something I think we should do a lot more of in the UK

They are not unattractive, and most of them have creepers all over them after they've been there for a bit. Most of the Polish roads I used today were too new to please my 7 year old car which kept telling me there is no road there and I should take care. Reminds me of flying to Vienna with Ryanair years ago; Ryanair's version of Vienna was Bratislava. This is of course in Slovaokia (albeit not far from Vianna and used to be on Austrian signposts as Pressburg, which it was under the Austrian Hungarian empire). Slovakia had joined the EU and had received some investment, such as a motorway between Bratislave and Vienna. My hire car was apparently driving over ploughed fields.

In the end I got to Meissen. The name was familiar and I now know it was about porcelain - the kind of think Arthur Negus used to revere. Whether they make any in Meissen today I don't know. They do have a ceramic museum which I vaguely tried to visit but didn't. It used to have a piano factory, but that has been turned into a niceish hotel with pianos all over the shop.

I tried to get dinner in the half-empty restauraunt in the hotel. They asked me if I had booked. They refused to serve me because I hadn't. Hmm. They also asked me what time I wanted to book breakfast. It is like EuroDisney without the waiting staff bursting inot song and dance. HAd a nice schnitzel in the town instead.

Meissen is rather fine. Starts with an outstanding river, the Elbe

This winds through the town as this little map from my lift shows

Also has some really cool buildings

There are a lot more where that came from.

There is also, of course, an Irish pub

Looks about as lively as the one on Kew Bridge Road.

Also a showroom with a pre-war Harley Davidson

And a DKW (early Auto-Union/Audi)

The pictures obviously are pants and some fat ghost bloke haunted the pictures - ooh, scary.

That's all you're getting.

Long trip again tomorrow to Dusseldorf and another on Sunday to Dunkirk/ferry/Dover/home.

Hope you missed me a lot more than I missed you.