Shakespeare, new relatives, kids' hike, adults' hike and placing 2 new caches

A great deal have happened in the last week, so I'd better get on with it.
Last Thursday we relaxed at home, as we were suddenly without activity, due to Ros and Ian calling off the lunch and visit to the Róth Miksa Museum. We are going to visit it together when they are back in September.

One of his windows

Then on Friday we had a great lunch with our dear friends, Lois and Peter German, as well as another lady called Éva Forintos, whose family has connections with Peter's and whom Roy had invited. We went to the Regős, the food and service was excellent and the prices positively silly. Their three course lunch costs £4 and is absolutely adquate for a midday meal.

Two Gentlemen of Verona in Brighton Open Air Theatre

In the evening I had a ticket to the Globe travelling company's Two Gentlemen of Verona, at the Open Air Theatre on the island. It was pretty good, if somewhat modern. The weather was great, no sign of rain, I met up with my friend Eszter and a few hashing friends as well.

On Saturday morning I had a very funny tummy, which turned into great deal of pain, which was difficult to put up with, as well as worried me a bit.  As it happened, eating breakfast was the mistake, as soon as I started fasting, I got better.  I even managed Nata's party in the evening, although keeping to my fast was really requiring will power, as she had salmon amongst many other delicious things on the buffet table. The surprise news of the night was that Nata and Colin have actually been married since April Fools Day and now they have announced it. I suppose they had a trial run of 3 months, just in case it didn't work.  Well, they looked very happy to me and we both whole heartedly congratulated them on the night.

The Nagybaczonyi Nagy family with Roy

Because of my indisposition on Saturday, which made me quite fragile still on the Sunday, we haven't managed to place the Zila cache. On Sunday we had other plans, so it had to be put off until Monday, when we thought we might do it en route to the village. In the meantime, Sunday was the day we caught the train to our very distant, recently discovered relatives in the countryside for lunch. Hajnalka had invited her sister and her grandchild with partner for lunch as well. We had a delightful time with really nice and interesting people in the environment of her grandfather's villa. We parted by saying that they should come and visit us in Bér sometime, which they thought was an excellent idea.

A jubilant Lewis Hamilton

When we got home we realised that we forgot to program the satellite box to record the Austrian Grand Prix.  Booo!! Still, I watched it later on the internet and it was an amazing race. It is almost those races that I miss that turn out to be edge of the seat cliffhangers. Lewis should be an expert in winning races on the last lap. He even won a world championship like that once.  It happened again and I was absolutely over the moon. Rosberg, whom I can't stand, pushed Lewis off the track on the last lap and wrecked his own car in the process.  Lewis's car got damaged too, but he managed to limp in and win it. Divine justice, we all said. And Rosberg had the gall to blame Lewis! The Austrian fans booed Lewis on the podium, but he didn't let that affect him, and quite right too. As it happens Rosberg finished 4th and the stewards, while acknowledging that the crash was Rosberg's fault, still hardly punished him.  Obviously, no steward wants to upset a team as powerful as Mercedes!!

Short break on the hike, in a beautiful spot

Monday was the day when we placed the Zila cache, then shopped in Tesco's by the airport and got home in a very good time via the M0 and M31. The peas were unfortunately a bit old and hard, but there was at least life left in them and we have been having them as veg with our meals ever since. István, the Lutheran pastor called to ask if I would help with a hike that he is going on this week with the children in his summer camp. I said yes, so Tuesday was a day of some time in front of the computer first, watching the fate of the Zila cache unfold, followed by an interesting appr. 6km hike in the hills and forests around the village accompanied by István, his friend Sanyi and 6 noisy, but lovely kids, plus 2 dogs, one of them a 3 month old puppy. It was great, if somewhat full of thickets and jungle like vegetation, but we all came back very happy to a pile of pancakes and beer. (us, not the children for the beer!!)

Zsuzsi on the way up

Wednesday I went on another hike, this time with my friend Zsuzsi in the Pilis. She is on holiday from work, so Wednesday, (the day her boyfriend had to go back to work) seemed appropriate. I went in on the 5.45am bus and we went in her car together. I have not really been hiking in the Western parts of the Pilis much and one of the caches I wanted to catch had 4 parts all over that bit of the mountains. Apparently, until not so long ago, the post to one of the hillside villages had been delivered by an old postman on foot, over hundreds, if not thousands, of feet of climb every day. Somebody put out a 4-part cache which followed the route he took all those years ago. I can tell you, that postie must have been a fit old thing, as the route nearly killed me and we weren't doing all of it on foot, only 3 parts of it. We got the 4th part by driving round the hills on the road. We also picked one up on a very rocky hillside at the other end of the same range and finally a short, but brutally steep one on yet another rock pillar up from the final village of the postie's route.  The tally was 11.2km (7 miles) with 650 metres (abt 2100ft) of height climb. Thankfully the weather was not as hot as in the previous days, but we were still losing a great deal of water through our skin. As Zsuzsi was driving, she couldn't have a beer, and I abstained out of solidarity too.  I did quaff one upon arrival back at the flat with great delight though.

One of our spectacular views from the top

Finally, today I managed to finish the page of yet another cache that I am putting out and then placed it. The location of it is in the lovely newly renovated water mill at the Northern end of our village, surrounded by the stream on one side and the new Mill Court development of restaurant, fitness and games rooms and several peasant long houses on the other. This will take a lot longer to be found than the one in the Zila, which had already had 23 hits in 3 days. These parts are not long from anywhere, but somehow they remain undiscovered, which is, of course, one of their main attractions and what gives the area its special charm.

The restaurant at Mill Court

The fully restored, working mill at Mill Court

Must go now to have a look for Roy, as I have not heard a peep out of him lately.  Probably fast asleep, but he could also be in the workshop or in the barn or in the garden. Speak to you again next week, all things being well!