Article Eight
Tuesday/ Hevis
Duly at 1200 a big ten seater van arrived at the pick-up point and we are away on our ‘Lake Balaton’ sight-seeing drive. This entails driving up the northern side of the lake…on our way here, we drove down the auto-ban on the southern side. Most of the scenery is high rocky table-top hills and neat rows of evenly spaced houses guarding endless vineyard rows of now ripe grapes. Large gangs of pickers are evident in many vineyards as we drive past.
We are impressed by the neatness, smart-as-a-pin appearance of al the Hungarian villages and houses. Everything appears freshly painted or cleaned down, there is no graffiti and new buildings are going up in every town. On we went until we could actually see the lake and eventually we were allowed out of the van for a ‘photo-op’ at a scenic high point. The lake is about 74 km long and varies in width from about 2 km up to 15 km. It is very shallow, fed by one river and there is a man made channel allowing excess lake water to be discharged into another lower river to prevent flooding.
Being shallow, there are often large waves whipped up by sudden storms. The locals have installed a series of flashing strobe beacons at strategic points around the lake so that a boat, no matter where it is on the lake, can see one or more of these beacons. If a dangerous storm is approaching, the beacons flash-rate changes and indicates how many minutes the boat has to get to a safe place. Very neat idea and should be considered for various waterways in Australia or any other area where storm warnings are needed.
ON, on and stopped for lunch for a typical Hungarian meal…vegetable and mushroom soup loaded with paprika, chicken drumsticks in a paprika flavoured (and coloured) stodgy gravy accompanied by some sort of potato based noodle…one comment from a diner was that he had the same noodles in Budapest with chocolate sauce and ice cream! Versatile people these Hungarians. Desert was a crepe with crushed or ground almonds inside under a splurge of black chocolate sauce. This was the best part of the meal for me! Besides the two pints of local draft beer which was excellent!
Down the lake further and we are off on a boat trip which we are informed is ‘extrs’ irrespective of what we were told or what was/is on the brochure…so like tourists everywhere, we simply paid the additional fee and road around on a 50 passenger river boat for about 30 minutes. The boat trip was supposed to be of an hour’s duration but we spent half of this time waiting for another tour group to make up a viable number for the boat operator?
What did we see? Well, not much other than the same villages, houses and vineyards from the lake and the few bigger towns we saw from the bus. On point of interest is a very high road bridge (which we drove over on the way down) which spans a complete valley and is over 50 metres high in the middle and, is about 2 km long! Very impressive either viewing or driving over it. I remember remarking as we drove over it, not to look down because the shock of its height could cause one to run off the road!
Just off the boat ramp is a little park and promenade with statues of the various famous people who have visited or lived at this spot. This spot being the site of a ‘Healing Waters Spring’ around which has developed Hungary’s famous teaching hospitals specialising in Heart and Lung complaints. Led by the Guide to a very ornate fountain next to the Heart Hospital and invited to ‘taste’ the ‘healing’ waters. This water tasted exactly like many of the outback Australian cattle-station’s artesian bore water I have had to drink! Sour and with a trace of sulpha and limestone…The guide filled his water bottle with this special water so that he could have a daily dose!
Boat trip done, we visited an ancient abbey where the first two kings of Hungary are buried. Of particular appeal to me were the photographs of the Hungarian Royal Crown(s), religious gold crosses, challises and goblets of solid gold studded with uncut gem stones. These artefacts date from the 10th century before artisans learned how to cut and polish gem stones. One such golden cross contains 6 kilograms of gold and hundreds of sea-pearls and gemstones of all varieties. It is recognised as one of the five most valuable religious artefacts in the world. This cross and the royal coronation crown now reside somewhere in the Hungarian house of Parliament.
Religious tour component completed, we again travel through vineyards and country roads to a wine tasting held at a vineyard still owned by the “Esterhazy”. This family were famous throughout history and during the reign of the Austria-Hungarian Empire for their support of the arts and artists including many famous composers like Bach, Handel and Mozart, etc. who were retained by the family as their resident ‘music-master’ to write and perform music for social occasions.
This vineyard produces only white wines. The first we tasted was a rather insipid even bitter white something! The second could pass as a reasonable Chablis. The third was definitely a chardonnay and the final taste, something called “Grey Monk” was a much sweeter moselle style wine which, the general consensus agreed would be very good with the addition of a few ‘educating-bubbles’ or sparkles.
Then the not so long drive home. We nearly won the delivery lottery this time. Usually, Pat and I, are for some reason, are always the last to be delivered back to our hotel after any tour anywhere! This time we were the second delivery. Bingo. Shock horror, the whole town has been shut down and it is only eight o’clock at night…there are a few bars still open and some restaurants but nothing else…luckily I bought some salami and beer earlier on in the day! So after a salami sandwich and a large can of something very nice…a local beer, twas off to bed.
