Grand Tour of Europe

From the Bridge table to the Continent of Europe.

For some time I had been playing bridge each week at the Bridge club in Crayford. My regular partner was a long-standing member, Hilary Heffernan. She was a very good bridge player and we enjoyed each other's company. One week in the summer of 2004 she told me that she was longing to go to Croatia. Knowing that she was free to go and could afford to fly out there whenever she chose I asked her, "So what's stopping you from going Hillary?"
"Well Iain," she said. "It's difficult to explain what's stopping me."
"Well there are plenty aeroplanes, or you could go overland, ferry and train or coach. I can't see that you'd have any problem in travelling out there. I know you're not a young lady anymore," I smiled and laughed, "but you seem to be fit and healthy and you certainly have all your faculties. Short of some major problem I can't see that you'd come to any harm." I opined.
"I don't want to fly or go overland by train." she told me. "What I would like to do is to drive to Croatia and back." She'd put strong emphasis on the personal pronoun, then continued, "but that's not something that I want to do on my own and I can't find anyone who is interested in making such a long journey."
"How long do you think it would take? How long you want to stay there?" I asked adding, "I understand it's a fair hike to Croatia."
"Oh I don't know." Hillary answered as we sat at the table waiting for the bridge game to begin. "I suppose about three or four weeks really."
"Well that's certainly an ambitious project. Are you just thinking to go for the trip or do you actually know some people that you would like to visit or," I hesitated, "what would be your planif you were able to go? I enquired.
"I know some people whom I'd dearly love to visit in Zagreb. I have friends in Germany and Milan so the journey could easily be broken up into manageable segments."
"Well I think it's a trip that could be made in the summer, July next month might be a good time when you would expect to have good weather and it could be an exciting and interesting adventure.
"Well if I could find someone to share the driving with me I would be very happy to go in July but until then I just leave everything on hold." I could understand from the tone of her voice that she was very keen to embark on such an adventure. "Anyway we have to play bridge now so that's that." she finished dismissing the subject and preparing to start playing cards.

During the course of the first session of bridge I give the matter some thought and concluded that I would like to drive out to Croatia with Hillary so decided to mention it to her later.

When the Bridge finished that evening I chatted to Hillary and suggested that I accompany her on what I'd envisioned would be a memorable holiday for both of us. It turned out that she was delighted by my suggestion and clearly quite keen on the notion. Over the next couple of weeks we discussed the route, and made plans. Hilary contacted the people whom she wanted to visit and I made arrangements so that we would both be covered by the necessary insurances etc to share the driving of my car.

On the following pages you can read Hillary's account of our wanderings in Europe.

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