After two months nipping through various countries across Europe, the Hungarian authorities have finally caught up with us! Our daughter Elin is at home, checking our mail in case something important arrives, and today it did. Our very first fine of the road trip- for very slack purchasing of a vignette to cover tolls in Hungary.

Fugitive, hiding from the law

Now, I’m not one to apportion blame, but Mr G really is officer in charge of vignettes. The problem is, in his eyes the teal-mobile is a passenger vehicle that carries less than seven people. In the eyes of the Hungarian po-po it’s a van. It’s much more than just a van, but it’s probably not worth arguing the toss. We have an £18.91 fine for driving with the wrong vignette PLUS £44.45 for administration in the UK. So very annoying.

I’ve rearranged the spreadsheet, so that the ‘Tolls and péages’ column is now ‘Tolls, péages and fines.’ We’re all ready for the Czech, Austrian, Bulgarian and Turkish summons to arrive!