Trip to Robert and Volker's

Andor, Roy and I finally managed a 3 day visit to Robert and Volker's after a hiatus of 2 years. We last saw the two of them at the wedding in May 2008, which seems a hell of a long time ago now. The weather was absolutely superb, it only rained on the way down and it stopped as soon as we got out of the car at Somlo. Before that we managed to see the Arboretum at Alcsut. It isn't very large or too well cared for, but it was still charming and very romantic. The house was bombed in the war, so there is only the front portico and a few other small parts left, but the park, even in its wild state is impressive. It is supposed to have been laid out in the English manner and there are some really ancient plane trees there. The frogs and toads in the central lake entertained us to a real concert, due to the amorous time they were having.

After a leisurely lunch at our usual restaurant, The Inn to the Two Owls in Varpalota, we arrived at the Somlo, one of the famous dead volcanos, called "witness mountains" just before 4pm. We managed to buy some wine at one of the vineries before they closed and then walked to the top of the volcano. The view was magnificent and even though the air was quite hazy, you could see the Badacsony, Szt. Gyorgy Hegy, Gulacs and a few other witness mountains in the hazy distance.

We arrived at our hosts just before 7pm, were treated to a delicious dinner and hit our beds after a pleasant chat and quite a few glasses of the product purchased earlier plus the local wine produced in our hosts' cellar.

On Wednesday the air was crystal clear and the sun shone with quite some heat. Our first visit took us to the Szentbekkalla "stone sea" as it is called here. You might think, looking at the pictures that it is a lime stone pavement, but this is sand stone mixed with silica due to volcanic activity at the time of the ancient sea that covered this area 8-10 million years ago. The rock formations were absolutely amazing and the middle slab of that high rock on which Andor and I were sitting was actually moving.

Then we went to see an ancient ruined two storey tower where we had our sandwiches. This was something that Andor was not satisfied with, so he rang a friend to give him directions to another set of ruins he remembered visiting some years ago. After getting lost a few times we finally found them in the middle of the forest and that was quite an experience. The only Hungarian monastic order, the Paulist monks, usually built their monasteries in the forest. They were teaching, nursing and even fighting monks, when the need arose and the order still exists after some persecution in the Stalinist days.

We went to a restaurant for our evening meal on Wednesday where I managed to put away a fairly large trout in breadcrumbs, with parsley potatoes and a salad, so my night's sleep was not the best, which did not surprise me.

On Thursday morning we took our leave after taking a few pictures of Robert and Volker's fantastic garden (see glorious tulip!) as well as partaking of their wine sitting in front of the cellar. First stop was at an unusual cemetery where some very interesting, 18th and 19th century heart shaped gravestones remained intact.

We had our picnic lunch in the park of the Chateau in Nadasdladany that we visited 2 years ago, noting with pleasure that finally they managed to get their EU money for restoration and are busy working on the exterior. The builders informed us that the money for the interior has still not been awarded, but they are living in hope.

This was a really fantastic outing in good company. We must do it again and mustn't leave it another 2 years.