Update

Having returned from the Leger coach holiday, ‘Highlights of Eastern Europe’ and whilst the holiday itself, the places visited and the excursions provided were fine, there were problems with the coach itself.

The coach itself was a Silver Service vehicle operated by Hardings of Worcestershire. They are in fact a large coach operator in the Midlands who actually own the coach. Leger themselves do not own coaches; they just subcontract out to the coach owner. The owner/operator’s name is clearly displayed on the front or back of the coach. One of the attractions advertised for Silver Service is ‘extra legroom’, greater than any standard coach. Because I am 6 ft tall I book Silver Service as I need the additional comfort on long journeys and as my wife has had hip and knee replacements, she needs extra space as well. Now on the tour coach ( coach 20; registration BN17HZT)we were allocated seats 31/32, which was on the driver side of the vehicle behind the toilet access. To our disgust, we found that the seat leg room was in fact TWO INCHES LESS than seats on the left hand side of the coach and those on the driver side in front of the toilet access. In effect we had the same amount of legroom as on Easy Jet. I measured this difference properly as I always carry a small tool kit with a tape measure in it.

This reduced legroom also applied to seats 27/28, 35/36 and 39/40 on that side of the coach. In effect this a violation of the terms and conditions and tour description; hence not fit for purpose under the Consumer Protection Act. I immediately complained to the coach crew; they said ‘no-one has ever complained before’ (bearing in mind the coach was new this year) and that the ‘seat pitch legally conforms to that required for a passenger vehicle’. Leger themselves also stated that the ‘seat pitch conforms to the minimum pitch legally required for a passenger vehicle’. Now the expressions ‘extra legroom’ and ‘conforms to the minimum pitch legally required for a passenger vehicle’ are not the same thing at all, in fact this is gross deception and unfair practice.

As you may know the Leger practice is to have tour coaches transfer passengers to feeder/drop-off coaches at Calais on the way home at the end of the tour. Now we were transferred onto another Silver Service coach operated by Edinburgh Coach Lines, a Scottish coach company. Now on this coach, I checked and all the seat pitches were the same, there was no ‘crush zone’ as on the Hardings coach.  So something is seriously wrong with the Hardings coach and Leger have no right to advertise and charge for ‘extra legroom’ when there is none!

And that is not all. The air conditioning system on the coach seemed to consist of a very uncomfortable blast of air at head height from the front to the back of the coach when the coach got warm. As we were sitting at the back of the coach this gale brought with it all the germs from people sneezing and coughing at the front of the coach and after a week of this I developed a stinking cold……..thank you Hardings. The coach crew didn’t seem to have any other means of controlling the temperature in the coach, it was either full air blast or none at all.

And finally, at the Calais interchange, the cases are also transferred as well. It was pouring with rain at the time, there was no cover at all hence all the cases got wet. Even though we use polythene bags top and bottom of our cases, we still got some wet clothes. Not a major disaster on the way back after the tour but at the start of the tour it could well prove a problem.

Monday 18th.September
One of the things about a coach tour is that you are unlikely to have previously met any of your fellow passengers and it is pot luck as to whether you get on with them or not. And of course you will always get those who seem to be the centre of attention or nuisance and unwittingly or not, get most attention from the crew and tend to dominate activity on board.
This is the final post in the blog se we will summarise some of them:-
a) The Scottish Windbag: A little guy, travelling alone, reminded us a bit of Jimmy Kranky, was a prolific talker, managing to have hour long, or more, conversations on board with nearest neighbours with a totally irritating Scottish accent. The Scottish accent you can take for a while but hours of it is just too much. He was at the back of the coach and even those at the front cold hear him.
b)The Youngsters: Most of the people on a Leger coach trip outside of school holidays tend to be elderly/retired. We had a middle ages couple on board in their late 30's/early 40's who really seemed to be out of place. they did not go on the excursions, smoked a lot, drank a lot, got regularly drunk and argued a lot. The lady seemed to have a bladder problem, just about the only one using the coach toilet. The guy was also a phantom whistler.
c) The Teachers. Both retired. She was really creepy, he was like DLT with a beer pot. Had a really immature attachment to hard Rock cafes.

Sunday 17th September.
Final leg of the journey from the Brussels hotel to home. Leger have a transfer stop at a lorry park near Calais at which we arrived in good time for transfer to our home coach.
There were 13 coaches arriving that morning and it was raining hard so all the cases transferred between coaches got wet and as we found out when we arrived home, some of our clothes were wet despite covering the insides of our cases with polythene bags beforehand. Leger used to do the coach transfer at Dover years ago where there was cover and cases didn't get wet but the lorry park at Marck (?) they use is completely in the open but gated.
Anyway, once the coach transfer was done, we arrive at Calais port at 12.40pm. It was chaos. We were booked onto the 2.20pm ferry but the traffic marshals  in the parking area were letting coaches and traffic through at random and our coach didn't clear customs until 3.00pm. Last year we only had to get off the coach and go through British customs before boarding the ferry but this year we had French customs first then the British customs which all took time and there were long queues. Maybe this was the result of heightened security. We just got onto the 3.20pm ferry but were were late getting on so the boat was one of the large P&O vessels and it was heaving. We had to queue for 45mins to get a meal in the food hall. Once off the boat the driver made good time and we were only 20mins late at our drop off point.
However, on my first post I referred to the fact that Leger had abandoned their old pick-up/drop-off point in favour of a grotty lorry park because drivers moaned about being held up in the Chichester one-way system. Well our driver went through the one-way system this time in order to get to the drop-off point......how dumb can you get.

Saturday 16th.September
Today was long haul day, Prague to Brussels, 678 Km in 12 hours. A bit boring with regular comfort stops, 0.7 € a shot in Germany. The penultimate day of the holiday.

Friday 15th. September

Today a tour of the old town in Prague. Nice day but the place was heaving....far too crowded to enjoy properly but we did our best. The evening was a tour of the city on a 1931 restored tram. It was good fun, we had sparkling wine on board and music accompaniment from an accordionist.

Thursday 14th.September

Vienna to Prague. Not too long a journey, arrived at hotel about 1.30pm. Hotel is quite close to a large shopping mall, all the big names. M & S were a lot more expensive than the UK but Next and H &M were a lot cheaper. As in Poland, Tesco has a lot of supermarkets here.
Had evening tour of Prague by night, castle and cathedral, it was very cold but after we had a strong beer apparently brewed by monks.

Wednesday 13th September
Budapast to Vienna, not a long trip. Had a sightseeing tour in the afternoon, quite a big place with so much to see, only scratched the surface really, see images. Centre was very busy, lots of cafes and restaurants. Went in St.Stephens cathedral, very impressive.