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.

Tuesday 12th.September

Came down with a severe head cold the night before, didn't sleep at all last night. Had to give the tour a day off. The problem with coaches is that they can be a travelling germ factory as people come on board with ailments and start sneezing or coughing and it spreads, especially if the aircon is on wafting air about.
Went for a walk around the hotel to get some sandwiches for lunch and the slept all afternoon....was exhausted. Didn't think much of Budapest in the daylight, it was scruffy and dirty and a lot of buildings were poorly maintained.

Monday 11th.September

Krakow to Budapest. Not so many motorways this time but a long day nevertheless. On the way to Hungary we passed through Slovakia, quite a picturesque country but a bit run down on the route we took.......mind you spirits were very cheap, the cheapest booze we have found so far.
Had a night sightseeing tour of Budapest....see photos.

Sunday 10th.September
Krakow is a great place, it has been described as a lovely place with Warsaw as an ugly place. Plenty to see, we had a guided tour of the old town but quite a lot of information to take in. Most of the old town is restaurants and cafes but none of the old buikdings were damaged in the war
The afternoon was a visit to the Wieliczka salt mines. This is very impressive, huge underground caverns, some lakes and sculptures all from salt. Need to be quite fit to be on a tour, it's 2 and a half hours, plenty of walking and many many stairs

Saturday 9th.September

Another day another motorway, this time to Krakow calling at Auschwitz and Birkenau. This is a tourist attraction for all the wrong reasons really but nevertheless a sobering visit. Our guide was very interesting with huge amounts of information but difficult to take it all in and try to understand what happened there. See the pictures, they say it all. The Nazis flattened Birkenau but it was rebuilt after the war from photos and personal recollection.
Visited Krakow old town at night, well worth a visit. Churches and buildings illuminated and many places to eat

Friday 8th.September

Today Warsaw. Taken on an historical tour of the city, our guide was very enthousiastic but Warsaw has such complicated past that it was difficult to get a grip on all the history. We saw lots of statues, memorials and exhibition venues but the Germans flattened a fair chunk of the city in WW2 so most of the city has been rebuilt so it is difficult to join up the present to the past. The old town part was rebuilt by the Soviets to what it was beforehand from old paintings and drawings.
Warsaw is a very busy place and mostly full of restaurants and cafes.
Having trouble uploading pics so will have to do later.

Thursday 7th.September

Today we drove the 550 km from Berlin to Warsaw, all motorway. So far on this holiday, out of 4 days so far we have spent 3 days on the road. Why are we doing this?
Apparently Poland is 50% farmland and a fair chunk of the rest is woodland. The A2 motorway is new, thanks to EU funding and there are miles and miles of acoustic walling along the motorway, only a couple of houses get a mile of acoustic barrier......all again thanks to EU funding.......no wonder they don't want us to leave. We don't get this quality of motorway in the UK.
All th way from the German border there were green feilds, not a lot of housing, not an overpopulated country like the UK. No sign of the feudal farming we have been sold, plenty of mechanised equipment and good quality houses.....their agricultural subsidies from the EU must be enormous. Poland is a lovely country.....why on earth do they want to come to the UK.......must be our taxpayers money.

Wednesday 6th.September

Today was Berlin. It is a  big city, we had a bus tour, too much to see just on foot. Our driver did very well but there is a lot to take in, our guide was very enthousiastic about the city.
There are loads of big construction projects underway in Berlin, no wonder the EU is making it hard for us to leave with a huge Brexit bill, we are probably paying fo a fair chunk of these construction projects.
The odd thing about Berlin, and this may not go down well with some, we did not see a  single black face  and only a handfull of coloureds. I only saw one Indian/Pakistani gentleman......so where are all these thousands of immigrants that Germany is supposed to have taken in?

Tuesday 5th.September
Long day, Antwerp to Berlin. Early start at 7.45am, got to Berlin at 7.30pm. Big accident on one of the motorways caused long delays. Stopped off at the Mohne dam (Dambusters fame) and Checkpoint alpha on the old East German route into Berlin.

Monday 4th.September

Feeder coach picked us up at coach/lorry park on time. It was a Silver Service coach so we were seeted towards the front with plenty of leg room. Crew very efficient. Transferred to our tour coach at Stop 24. And then on to the ferry.
We were allocted seats 31/32 and too our disgust we found that the seats on the driver side behind the toilet to the back of the coach all had 2ins LESS legroom than the rest of the coach. We are quite tall so in effect we ended up with the same amount of legroom as on Easyjet! We complained to the crew but they were initially not that interested and said they were 'regulation distance' and 'no one had complained before'. We paid a premium fare for extra legroom and we didn't get it. TBC.
Hotel overnight was the Crowne Plaza in Antwerp. Nice hotel, we were on the 7th floor facing 2 very busy 24/7 road intersections. The noise was like thunder all night.....had to use earplugs.

Pick-Up Point

A couple of years ago Leger used to pick-up in the centre of Chichester at a purpose made bus stopping point next to the bus station and train station where it was very convenient for passengers to get to. Most coach companies still use this pick-up point.  According to Leger, when the crossing gates are down this leads to delays in their schedule so the drivers didn't like it although personally we have never experienced these 'delays'. Last year they changed it to another purpose built bus pick-up point at Chichester Gate which was fine, a little further from the bus and train stations but still easy to get to. The only problem was that some careful manoeuvring of the coach was necessary apparently and drivers didn't like it but we did. This year they have changed to a far less accessible pick-up point, a lorry park near to Waitrose. Leger say this is across from Waitrose but in actual fact it has nothing to do with Waitrose. It is three quarters of a mile for the bus and train stations and is not that easy to get to. It is basically rubbish bins and a disused toilet, not a very nice collection point at all and it is not intended as a coach pick-up point at all.

Outline

This is a 13 day tour of Eastern Europe going to Berlin, Warsaw, Krakow, Budapest, Vienna and Prague. Only a couple of days in each place but hopefully long enough for some adequate sightseeing.