Weather.com is retarded, and so is GoogleMaps

And I do not care if that is not PC.

In the pre-dawn hour today while enjoying our coffee, we checked weather.com to decide on a plan for the day. The forecast for Prague was "65˚F and Sunny," so armed with a 2001 guide book (from our last visit--really, the castles and old stuff aren't going to change) we piled the children, Clayton Theodore, and the bag full of junk food that in a moment of weakness at the Spar we allowed the children to buy into the Mighty Opel Station Wagon, and were out the door before Official Sunrise.

Clayton Theodore now has his European Union Pet Passport. He can now travel freely with us throughout Europe without restrictions.

About 45 minutes into the drive we started to rethink our plan.  The fog was thick, in spite of weather.com telling me that the current conditions were "50˚F and Partly Cloudy."  So we turned around and headed back toward Vienna, deciding instead to drive to Neusiedl am See, the largest steppe lake in Europe and one of the Viennese's favorite summer destinations.  Having enjoyed numerous grey and cloudy and hurricane-ish days on Cape Cod, we were actually excited to walk the beaches on a grey and foggy day.  EXCEPT. Hunde Verboten! Everywhere we went. We don't care that the area is a UNESCO World Heritage site, we'll probably never return. We did sneak past one of the beach gates to allow Cletus to walk along the shoreline for a bit, though. So there, UNESCO World Heritage Dog Haters.

It being that Neusidl See traipses into Hungary, we followed the picturesque road (or, it would have been if that FOG had burned off, in spite of what wrongweather.com had to say) and after passing a most forlorn former Communist checkpoint, found ourselves at Esterhazy Palace, a frothy pink Schloss worthy of its "Hungarian Versailles" accolade.  

 We did not tour the inside because, in all honesty, it is so hard to keep track of this gilded stateroom and that Chinese drawing room here in Europe that it was simply enough to stroll the sculpted garden and stand on the balcony waving to our subjects. The Schloss has a hotel component now, which I think would make for a lovely overnight (hint, hint, Tony, if you read the blog.)

Thank goodness for us that the parking lot attendant accepted both Forints (of which I had none) and Euros (of which Tony had plenty), so I was able to stroll about the touristy ad hoc market near the Schloss.  Along the drive through the National Park we had spotted buffalo (and lots and lots of vineyards), and wondered what became of the bounty from the land. 

Ergo, buffalo salami.  And some really cute packaged Hungarian Paprika. Plus, I learned how to say, "Thank You" and "Goodbye" in Hungarian from the very kind shopkeeper.

Moving along with the realization that our planned lunch in Prague was not going to happen, we drove through eerie towns that still haven't shaken their Communist dust (or electrical poles) and found a roadside "restaurant."  

The owner's daughter and I mangled our German together and came up with lunch for everyone. Cletus, in the meantime enjoyed the fire while begging for table scraps.  The bill came to 2,450 Forints, about €9 for the four of us.

Sopron was our next target, a pretty medieval town worthy of a stroll. We moved through the Hungarian side of the Neusiedler National Park, being every so mindful for frogs before enjoying a brief visit to the city.

Back in Austria, the Burgenland capital of Eisenstadt stakes a claim to one of the other Esterhazy Palaces, which was ho-hum boring to us. 

With daylight still available, I sought directions to a pumpkin barn that I had read about on another blog. The barn was near to our house, but GoogleMaps sent us down wendy and winding roads in the peasoup late afternoon fog in the absolute wrong direction. 

The Mighty Opel Station Wagon could barely climb the hills in third gear, and the roads were so narrow that I was sure we would become a sequel to the Donner Party Story.  But we prevailed and were rewarded for our effort.

Cletus is locked on to his pumpkin.

Oh, wait.  Make that his chicken dinner.

The gourds put on a wonderful show for us, and we brought several home.

 So, all's well that ends well. I am fortunate to have well-traveled children that know to turn up their iPod when the front seat conversation between mom and dad gets a little loud; to "just eat" the "Amerikaner" hot dog from a roadside cafe in Hungary even though it contains lettuce, red onions, and a funny-colored brown sauce; and to otherwise go with the flow. And an awesome husband, who always has exactly €0.50 when I need to use a public WC.