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| Relaxing beside Lake Balaton in Siófok |
After our lovely time in Budapest, we drove south-west to Siófok,
about half way down the length of Lake Balaton.
In Siófok, we found camping Aranypart. This is a very large
campground, right on the lake, and about 5 km from the centre of Siófok
village. There were hardly any other campers there, which is one bonus of
travelling before the tourist season has really started.
Our site is large, with plenty of trees, and a beautiful view of the
lake. The sunsets have been lovely.
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| Our campervan after its wash in Siófok |
We ended up staying there 4 nights just to chill out, and spent most
of the day sitting in the sun/shade reading.
We did leave the camp once, taking the short walk to a local store
to buy the essentials (beer and wine), to help get us through the hot days. We
also had time to wash our large van - fun water-play in the heat.
Siófok seems to be mainly a tourist town and would really hum when
full of holiday makers. However, while we were there, it was very quiet, and
that suits us just fine.
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Early
Christian burial chamber in Pécs (UNESCO)
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When it was time to move on, we continued on the lakefront road
until we reached Balatonboglár, where we turned south. We were heading for the
Villány wine region.
On the way, we passed through pretty lakeside villages, quaint
market towns, and places with lovely citadels and interesting architecture.
One of these was Pécs, a town settled by the Celts more than 2,000 years ago. After centuries of being re-developed by various
conquerors, its architecture reflects the culture of the various times.
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Mosque
of Gazi Kasim Pasha in Pécs
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On our visit, we saw the remains of a 4th century AD Paleo-Christian
Church that is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. A burial chamber there, shows
beautiful frescoes depicting historical characters such as Adam and Eve.
We also saw the 11th century cathedral, the Mosque of Gazi Kasim
Pasha with its green copper dome, the Ottoman-style buildings in the
University, and more.
Leaving Pécs, we kept driving south. On the road, we passed an
interesting road sign pointing to “Bóly”. It reminded us of our friends Karen
and Nicky in Auckland. They are the best “Bolly” drinkers we know.
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| At Csiki Pince Villány's
cellar with a bottle of portugieser in hand |
Not long after, we were in the Villány Wine Region, the southernmost
wine region in Hungary. It stretches for around 25 kilometers across the
south-facing slopes of the Villány Hills, near the border with Croatia. It is
known for its red wines.
Villány village is very small and rather lovely, and devoted
entirely to wine. We found several cellar doors and did a lot of tasting. We
particularly liked the Csiki Pince Villány label.
We decided to make a purchase. Thinking we would get a standard 750ml bottle, we were greatly surprised when the vendor emerged from his cellar with a 2
litre plastic screw top bottle !
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| Checking wine quality with no cork to sniff ! |
Back at the camp that evening, we opened the wine, a portugieser in the merlot style. This opening was accompanied by a
fun commentary by Marg, describing the characteristics of the wine based on
smelling the cork – oops – plastic screw top !
Leaving there quite happy with our purchase, we drove onwards to
Harkány, where we settled in at Termál Kemping Harkány. The campsite has
saunas, whirlpools, steam baths and spa baths and we looked forward to staying
there for a few days.
Harkány has been inhabited since medieval times. It’s famous
now-days because of its healing spring waters, discovered over 150 years ago.
The water is supposedly good for rheumatic related illnesses.
The campsite seemed to be inhabited by mainly elderly Germans and
Austrians seeking treatments from the healing waters available at the camp.
We regularly saw them walking around the camp in their terry-toweling robes.
Our wellbeing was obviously helped by the local wine, and an evening nip of Hungary’s traditional plum palinka (fruit brandy).
We are enjoying being in Hungary. The people are really friendly,
the roads are a better quality than we’ve been on so far, and enough people
speak English (which is helpful, as Hungarian seems to be a challenging
language).
Tomorrow, we head over the border into Croatia.