The invalide's third week.

Well to be truthful, the invalide is hardly an invalide any more. Mid-week there was a sudden improvement, the bruises started getting paler and paler and the knee started bending and taking pressure.  I can now walk not only up but downstairs as well, while my knee is under stress. I can even run a bit, although the slowly disappearing bruises have started to hurt a bit.  That is really funny, as in the days when they looked frighteningly black and painful, they weren't. I suppose one's body produces all sorts of funny reactions, you just have to go with the flow.  Talking of bodies, one not so pleasant event of the last week was both Roy and I catching a lurgy, which gave him the runs and me headaches, a bunged nose, queeziness and the runs.  It seems to be going now, so hopefully we should be able to report next week a substantial improvement in  our health state.

Imre Nagy's statue near one of the corners

Getting back to last week, I think I left it off before we went out to do a bit more geocaching last Tuesday. The weather was pleasant, my leg didn't hurt too much and I thought of bagging a 5 parter multi (we both hate them!!) that had escaped me in the  past.  This time it went like a dream. Once upon a time there was an enormous building in the middle of the city that was built to be a hospital and ended up as a military  barracks. It got demolished less than a 100 years after it was built and replaced with those buildings that are now there. The cache commemorated the old building (which for some weird reason had the name "The New Building") by having 4 virtual caches at the places where the 4 corners of the building were and then a small box for the last one.  It was great and even Roy enjoyed it.

The eternal flame for Batthyanyi Lajos at another corner

This was followed by one which was supposed to be difficult because there was no satellite reception near it due to the narrowness of the street and the height of the buildings on it.  We still got it, even though we walked around and around for a while. This second one was pretty near our trolley bus line, so we caught it and got home by the time my leg was giving up.  We enjoyed it and it was definitely better than sitting indoors all day.

The following day, which was Wednesday, I suggested that we might do some more geocaching in the city, as I still have loads that I haven't got. Roy agreed to no more than 4 and only one of those could be a multi. I agreed.  We started with the multi, which had 5 parts again, this time down the central avenue of the city between the park and downtown. Normally one is supposed to walk everywhere, but we cheated by using public transport on and off. Roy was really clever, it took him 5 seconds to find the micro cache inside the base of a candelabra by the Opera House. The others were all virtuals, so not very difficult.  Having done all these we took a tram, the metro and a bus to the next one, a lovely old water tower in district 4.

Heroes' Square - Part 1

The Water Tower in district 4.

After that we went to the Railway Museum in district 13, where we saw some lovely old track and wheels and where it was definitely not easy working out which blooming number on them was the serial number of the wheels, but we did it.  Finally, we went a bit further South where one of the funniest caches I have ever +done awaited.  You had to get to a railway station with a level crossing.  The cache was a two parter virtual which was written by a permanent pen on the two ends of the railway crossing barrier. In other words, you had to be there both when it was open and when it was closed, otherwise you couldn't see it. Especially that the one on the pivot end was partially hidden when it was down and could only be seen fully when it was open.  The other end, of course, could only be seen and read when it was closed and therefore close to the ground. That was really fun and to round our trip off, we waited for the next train and took it to get home.

In the train en route home

The last three, being in districts 4 and 13, had a real charm all of their own. Those two districts are part of the old, working class, industrial part of town where nowadays dereliction is the default setting.  Not everywhere, but near the railway definitely.  The whole thing felt like travel in time, back to the 1960's, to my childhood, and I loved it for that reason too.

Considering that between Sunday and Wednesday my knee was still just about sufficiently recovered to walk short distances with a fair amount of resting in between we managed to get 10 caches if you include those we got after we delivered Felicia to her relatives and the one in the rain on Monday. I must be suffering from geocaching withdrawal symptoms, so I am glad the leg is getting noticeably better, otherwise I will go stir crazy staying at home too much.

One of the records mentioning the miller in 1890's Bér

Having said that, I have used the time stuck indoors quite well, including finishing the transcription of my village's birth register from the late XIXth century for the Family History Society. It turns out that the end of the film was not the end of the birth entries, so I recently got another film downloaded with 925 entries and therefore that job continues.  Apparently, this film has marriages, as well as births, so that should last me for a while methinks. Talking of lasting for a while, the download took about a couple of hours, but the upload to Dropbox with the syncing took two whole days.  It was a nightmare waiting for it to finish, as both our computers slowed right down while it was uploading and syncing.

And then on Thursday we departed for the village via Tesco and the DIY store, as Roy has been planning some DIY work in the bathroom, about which a bit later. In the meantime we also had an e-mail from Robert that they are en route to the East for a short holiday and could they pop in for lunch on Friday? Of course, we wrote back, especially that we have not seen them for over a year and happily trotted off to Tesco to buy some goodies for the meal with them.  Plus lots for ourselves as well, considering we were planning at least a fortnight in the country where the nearest decent shop is nearly an hour away.

We barely got home with all that food when the e-mail came with the news that Volker had caught a lurgy and was in no condition to travel.  This must have been the same lurgy Roy and I caught a few days later, so we decided we should stay a bit longer to finish off all the contents of a rather bulging fridge.

Muggins is chopping a bit off on the lounge floor

As for the DIY project Roy had in mind: the first store where we looked back in town, told us that they can't sell us just a shower cubicle door, it has to be the entire cubicle.  Unfortunately, we only needed the door as we had the rest built of bricks and glass all those years ago and used a curtain since then.  This, unfortunately has just recently started getting on Roy's nerves, as the curtain is rather unsightly as well as not used properly floods the bathroom with ankle deep water. So, we went to another DIY store before visiting Tesco for our food items on Thursday and amazingly not only found a really nice glass door with a sturdy aluminium frame which was reasonably priced, but the woman behind the counter said totally nonchalantly that, of course, you can buy just the door!! Yippee, we went and then proceeded to try to squeeze an 80cm by 185cm + 5cm all round packaging into the back of the car.  It wasn't easy, but we managed it.  And not only that, but all that food around it too.  It was under it, above it, next to it and in lots of other nooks and crannies, but we even managed to fit ourselves into the car, so that we could drive home, which we duly did.

Ditto, just with his left hand

Shower door in place

And after we unpacked and stashed all that food, we then removed the door and nearly broke our backs carrying it in.  It weighed 18kg (nearly 3 stones) and we are far too old and weak now to cope with such weights any more.  Still, it ended up on the lounge floor and looked enormous. When we finally unpacked it and we lifted it into its place it turned out at least 1cm too wide.  It was supposed to be adjustable between 76cm and 91cm, but we could only get it down to 77.5cm. There was obviously something obstructing it inside, so it wouldn't slide all the way as it should have done.

Roy came up with the brilliant idea of cutting 1cm off of the frame both at the top and at the bottom, which we then duly did with a little hacksaw.  Roy did it at the top, which favoured a left handed person, and I did it at the bottom where my right handedness was an asset.  Roy only had to finish my bit at the end, as there the aluminium was too thick for my wrist to cope with. After this we had to push it upright again and fit it with a little bit of jiggery pokery, but managed it finally.  It felt really good, as we were slowly losing faith that we could do it ourselves. Currently Roy had painted the bit of wood he used as a filler with yacht varnish and once that has dried he might apply a second coat.  The only bit awaiting to be done is the caulking round the edges to stop the water escaping. Definitely a job well done and we saved a shit load of money on not having to call a professional.

The lecsó cooking on the hob

This was on Sunday when I also cooked all the onions, tomatoes and paprika we bought in Tesco into one of our favourite dishes called lecsó for consumption in the winter.  All that stuff made only 4 1litre bottles, but I am already looking forward to eating it in the winter.  There is nothing nicer than opening one of your own bottles of lecsó for lunch in January, knowing it is organic with no chemicals.

After all this, Roy said that we deserve a lunch out and we walked up the hill to the Mill to have a lovely Phillippino meal. I started with a small cup of Sotanghon soup, followed by a Pinoy plate for two, where Roy had all the chicken and a bit of the shellfish and I had the rest of the shellfish and all the fish. It was served with noodles, vegetables and a wicked, tangy and rather hot sauce which was delicious.

Roy at the Mill

While at the restaurant, we started chatting to the people at the next table who were the owners' friends and whom we got to know a bit.  We even got onto the topic of family history and the owner asked us where we got the copy of the register entry about the miller in the 1890's which I have sent him via FB the day before. I explained that I am doing the transcription, but if he wants any researches done, the Internet is a good place to start.  By the end of our visit Roy took it upon himself to look into the family history of Adamus Barsuta, the miller from 1764 whose name is on a stone plaque by the door of the Mill. He also asked if we could try to find his own ancestry, as there are a few large gaps in it and Roy said that he would look at it if he sent him all the information he already knows. That was really an enjoyable visit, both for the excellent food and for the delightful company.

Ahhh, those big eyes!

Another lovely thing about yesterday was that about 5 minutes after we got in there was a Skype call from Toronto with my little monster being more talkative than usual.  We somehow got onto the topic of Pokémon Go and the conversation got rather animated.  I managed to take a few reasonable photos, probably due to Alex's new phone.  Or just Skype being a bit more with it than usual.

Mummy looking for Pokémon Go locations on the tablet

Callum playing Minecraft on his tablet

And then this morning, having missed the Belgian GP on Sunday afternoon, I watched it on the net and had a fantastic time. It was a terribly long program as Ch4 actually had the entire race live on Sunday afternoon. With the preliminaries, the race plus the extra 20-25 minutes due to red flagging it to rebuild a barrier after a crash, followed by the result ceremony and the interviews at the end, it was nearly 4 hours long.  But it was well worth it.  Lewis started at the back, due to some idiotic rule of having to penalise people who are using more engines and engine parts than it is allowed. He had a lot of bad luck with engines this year, so he had to take a shit load of penalties and started from the back.  And guess what? He is so utterly brilliant, that he actually came up to 3rd place from 21st. What a genius of  a guy and a nice one to boot!

Lewis with trophy for 3rd at Spa 2016

Now I am getting a cup of tea from Roy, who very kindly offered to make me one. He had just done some mowing and later we will watch a bit of TV before tea and have an early night, as we have decided to go out tomorrow, provided the weather is clement. If it rains or if it is too hot, we'll stay at home, but otherwise, hopefully a nice outing awaits us tomorrow.

The invalide's second week

As I have written last week, Felicia was due to arrive from Austria on Tuesday, which she has duly done. She was dragging an enormous suitcase, which prompted Roy to ask: "How long is she coming for?" I had no idea, but I assumed she wasn't going to stay more than a week, which eventually turned out to be only 5 days.

Felicia in the garden pavilion

Due to my incapacity, my planned hikes in the Bér hills have never materialised, but we still managed to  occupy ourselves sufficiently not to be too bored. We were talking a fair amount of politics, had done some reading, I helped her a bit with her essay in Hungarian, sat out in the pavilion, where I have discovered recently that the WiFi just gets to, so there is no point in sitting indoors in good weather with the computer.

Roy mowing the grass

Roy managed to conjure up the most amazing meals out of very little, we also did some gardening, mowing (partly with the push mower and some on the tractor), washing and other household chores.  Janó and Marci were around some of the time, doing mapping in the nearby forests.

Finally, we decided to come into town on the Saturday, thinking that we might go and see the fireworks on the river. To be quite honest, I have seen them so many times before, that I was inclinced to stay in and nurse my knee, but Felicia thought she might go out for it.  As it happens, she didn't, so we were indoors for the rest of the day.

I watched a bit of TV as well and Felicia joined me in enjoying NCIS Los Angeles, which she has never seen before.  Interestingly, the actual episodes that were on were new to me too.  They were rerunning the very first series, of which I have never seen the absolute earliest ones, including the first one.  Chris O'Donnell, LL Cool J and Daniella Ruah all looked a lot thinner and a lot younger, and I loved them just as much as in the later episodes.

A youthful Callan and Sam

On Sunday she rang her relatives to ask if they were going to be in during the day and they said that even if they were not, they would leave the key somewhere, so that she could get in.  Therefore, we decided to drive her to Dunaharaszti with a bit of geocaching built in.

Ervin Baktay museum in Dunaharaszti

We stopped in the middle of Dunaharaszti to get a two parter, with Roy being his usual clever self finding part 1 in a bush and I found part 2 on the back of a bench in front of the Ervin Baktay museum. After that we travelled through some rather weird, unmade up roads to get to her relatives' house, who, needless to say, were out and there was no key anywhere either. We hung around for a while, but she looked OK in the garden, so we left her there. She later rang to say that her relatives have turned up and all was fine.

The Water Tower of Soroksár

Dr. István Túri memorial

En route home we did a bit of geocaching in Soroksár, around a water tower and near a botanical gardens.  We didn't find the first one, but the second one was easy. I also wanted to get one near the National Theatre back in town, but Roy got into the wrong lane and couldnát turn left, so we did that the following day.

On Monday the weather changed, but we couldn't avoid having to go out, because I had to see the doctor in the A&E hospital again with my knee.  He was pleased with its progress and told me I didn't have to see him again. The leg proved quite OK for walking, as this time we went by public transport and did some shopping afterwards.  We did get soaked in the rain, but otherwise the day wasn't too bad. The leg held and we even went back for the cache we missed the day before.

Actress Hilda Gobbi's bronze statue

Today we stayed in so far, mostly to rest the leg, but I think we will have a little outing again, just to stop going stir crazy from staying indoors too much. Roy has just told me that the weather looks good, so I think we should be off soon. Talk to you again next week!

The invalide's first week

Soon after I last posted my knee started really bothering me. I was concerned that it has not seen a doctor yet and convinced Roy to accompany me to the Accident & Emergency Hospital not too far from the flat. It was a £3 taxi fare both ways, so it wasn't going to break the bank, so we got going.  The last time I was there was over 3 years ago when I fell down the stairs.  The experience I had then was fairly positive: I was seen quickly, efficiently and the diagnosis was quick too, so I had no fears. The hospital repeated its last performance, even though the lobby was full of people in various states of distress. Dr. Vegh was an absolute sweetie, treated me like an equal (very rare nowadays), quickly and with good humour engaged me in conversation and told me what's what. The X-ray showed no cracks and/or breaks, although it was very puffed up all round. He told me to ice it as much as I can and that I could walk on it to the limit of pain - whatever that meant. I also had to buy a knee brace, which even on the National Health cost £20, but he said it was important.

The A&E Hospital

At home we discovered that I got the wrong type of brace, so we had to go back to get another one, but that is now fine. It wasn't until a couple of days later that the most horrible black and blue marks started appearing around my knee, but more about that later.

The swelling and the start of the bruises

We had to cancel our dental appointments on Wednesday, which is a pain, but we rescheduled them for mid-September, hopefully nothing will hurt until then. Early evening Zsuzsi appeared with her pendrive and copied the photos from the last three hikes/holidays we had together. And then just after 7pm our Belgian friends, Erik and Eva arrived. I always liked Erik, but it didn't take too long to grow fond of his girlfriend, Eva either. Lovely couple, so nice, interesting and chatty, they were a delight. We had thrown a salad tea together in the evening, so that we could stay in.  I didn't feel like going anywhere with my gammy leg.

The following day Eva and Erik went to Eger by train, as they were not only on holiday, but on a wine tour of their own making. When they got back in the evening, they reported that Eger was lovely, they went to the thermal baths, walked about in town and found a winery or two as well.

One of my new roses in full bloom on our arrival home

It was on this day that a few nasty looking dark marks have appeared around my knee, but I didn't take much notice of them. They didn't look too bad on the first day, but later on the week they started looking pretty frightening.  They covered an enormous area around my right knee and went from pale blue to dark blue and then black. The knee didn't hurt any more than before, but it was worrying. I started suspecting that my blood thinner medicine might be the cause of its large extent and ever increasing volume. A friend on FB, who seemed quite knowledgeable about these things, suggested that perhaps I could temporarily half my blood thinner dosage, but I wasn't going to do it without a doctor agreeing to that.  I tried to ring my cardiologist, but he was apparently on holiday, so we just carried on.

On Friday Eva and Erik have departed for the Island Festival and we left for Ber. We did some shopping en route and arrived in good time. The roses were in glorious full bloom in the yard and the rest of the garden looked totally covered by fallen plums, as we managed to be away the 10 days they were almost all due to fall off. In some places the grass had grown quite a lot, so extracting half rotten plums from overgrown grass was not exactly easy and/or enjoyable.  Still, we set ourselves the target this year to pick absolutely everything possible in the garden, so we should not have to buy any fruit for the first time ever. I am happy to report that our target was achieved, although that happened a good few days later.

Picking plums sitting on the ground

I also had a moving cache to place at the Mill, which I brought from the Orseg and which finally was done on Saturday by placing it under the same rock where I put another moving cache some months ago. This one has the theme of mills, so the placing is totally justified. Saturday also had a lovely, if not too long, Skype call from my two little Hassocks monsters. Elian and Xander were playing on the floor, trying to put together a puzzle. They are seriously cute, as always, and I even love Xander's lisp. It multiplies his cute factor 10fold.

Roy mashing the cefre

On Sunday morning I had a telephone call from a cacher asking for help in finding the box up at Viragos, which is the third part of my multi around the village and Viragos. I was up there a few months ago replacing the top of the box, which was broken and it was then that I found the interesting and somewhat puzzling fact that my box was not where I originaly placed it.  What was really puzzling that not only the place has changed, but so have been the co-ordinates. I couldn't understand how, but since then I realised that whoever it was must have been a member of the leadership of the club, because the executive has unfettered access to the entire website, even cache pages and personal pages. Anyway, I thought, that if the box is gone I might as well replace it and find another hide for it, so Roy and I jumped into the car and drove up there to see what's what.  Thus we met a nice couple, with whom we tried to find the old box, but it was obviously gone.  The tree trunk it was in seemed to have fallen apart, only bits of it were left, so the box must have been taken as well.  Together we found a new place for it and let us hope this one lasts a bit longer than a few months, otherwise this cache will end up being rather expensive in replacement boxes.

Xander the cutipie

The couple didn't know about the moving cache, so I told them about it and they went back to get that as well.  Since then there have been quite a few people at the Mill, looking for and finding the permanent cache, but none of them looked for and/or found the moving one.  That makes me think that I am not the only silly twit forgetting to check for nearby moving caches when I go geocaching in the countryside.

Cheeky little Elian

We also had a quick, but lovely Skype call from Toronto on Sunday afternoon as well  This Sunday Callum turned 7 and he was on his way to a smashing party at the Aquarium with 11 friends. That must have been a bit of a job for the adults, but judging by the photos on FB they had an amazing time.

Callum the birthday boy

And then yesterday was yet again an eventful day. The black bruises were taking over the entire leg, so I got a bit worried. I decided to get back into town and try to see the A&E doctor, whom otherwise I was only due to see the following Monday.  This time we had to go to the other side of the hospital, which is like an outpatient clinic and there the waits are always hideously long. Still, as I knew that, I took a book and happily read it for about a couple of hours before I was seen. He was just as lovely as last week, assured me that there is no need to worry about the bruises, they are fairly common and that I was right in suspecting that my blood thinner is reponsible for their extent and slow disappearance. He was of the opinion, that while halving the blood thinner dose would help them go sooner, the risk that would represent to me was not worth taking.  So, I am going to have these horrible marks on me for weeks, possible months, which is not fun. Still, as long as they are not harmful, I don't care.

Once we finished in the hospital we quickly got back to the car where we found a parking ticket on the windscreen. Bloody annoying when we both looked everywhere for any signs for the need to pay, either in the form of a traffic sign, mark on the tarmac or the existence of machines where to buy the permit.  We found nothing, so we assumed it was free.  There went another £10, but Roy said it was only about £4, because the taxi would have cost £6, so there was no need to get annoyed. I have long ago given up getting worked up about stuff like this or fighting my case about it, as life is too short to ruin your day because of stupid people or systems.

My brand new Boscobak pear tree

We hurried back to Ber, as in the late afternoon we were expecting the chief mapper of my orienteering club, as he is doing a lot of mapping work close to us in readiness for an event in October. We offered him the Kottage, so that he doesn't have to go home every night, which is a round trip of about 125 miles. He rang that he was running late, so he'll come this morning which he did with his brother who is helping him. We are also expecting another visitor, Felicia, this afternoon, who is Austrian and whom I met at a conference last summer. She is coming over for a few days, I hope she won't mind that I am not too mobile.

Roy is still picking plums as they are still dropping off the trees, but in much smaller numbers now. The four big cefre barrels are full, so we won't have to buy any fruit, but the few that are dropping now will still fit in. Currently he is mowing the grass around me, which is rather noisy, but provides me with company. You may have deduced from this that I am in the garden. The laptop is on the table in the pavilion which is just close enough to the house for the WiFi to reach this far. Why didn't I think of this sooner I'll never know.

A heavily laden plum tree

Bye to you all for now, my next post will probably wing its way to you this time next week,

Success and disaster

Damn long gap again. Well, I sort of tried to fit in the blog last week before we disappeared South Westwards, but didn't manage it.

The XIIIth century church at Csempeszkopács

The main event of that week was a visit to the Police Station in Pásztó. Some time before that there was a mysterious phone call from the Police that I have to attend as witness on that day, but other than it concerns a minor traffic violation, they wouldn't say.  Not even WHOSE TRAFFIC VIOLATION??? Finally we went in front of a really nice middle aged lady who explained that our car was photographed in some unpronounceable little village in the East of the country last April doing 61km/h in a 50km/h zone. It was a picture from behind, so they wanted to know who was driving. Then she helped me by pointing out that according to the law pertaining to cases like this, I can avoid giving evidence by saying that I do not want to incriminate myself or a close relative. I did that and that was that.

Roy on the bench outside our room

I must say I was very happy and relieved and even found out that more serious consequences of speeding only come in at 70km/h or above, hence this having been classed as a minor infraction. I know that this country is populated with a high proportion of the complete headcase allocation Europe has, but this just about took the biscuit. All that paperwork, our effort of travelling 30km twice and the time of all concerned just for nothing happening. Insane!!

Old thatched house in the Ehtnographic Museum in Szalafő

We also had a letter threatening all manner of things why we didn't pay our road tax. I was positive that no letter came demanding it and it varies every year, so how would I know how much to pay without a letter? Still, I suppose I should have gone to the council to ask, but I forgot.  Guess what? The usual illiterate, bone idle and lazy git that they send out to deliver the letters, put it into next door's letter box, which is a house we also own, but never look in the letter box of. I suppose those few meters to our actual letter box was far too far to come up our little rise. Ahhhhh!!##

A tumulus in the depth of the forest where there was a cache

At the weekend we were supposed to have 13 guests from the Mill staying overnight on Saturday as they were having a wedding. One bunch were lovely, but another woman so got up my nose that I told Anna I don't want them.  Apparently she agreed and told them to bugger off, which I felt very happy about. One of the nice bunch gave me information about a lovely B&B in the East for next spring when we go again. That was lucky, as I like to stay locally, catching the real flavour of the area and its people, as well as cutting down the travelling daily.

Lewis wins at Hochenheim in 2016

On Sunday it was the German GP and Lewis won again, which made me very happy indeed.  He went into the summer break with a reasonable lead and hopefully has a good rest and comes back in winning form.

A 3 week old foal at the farm we stayed at

On Monday we went into town as we had a few things to do before leaving on Wednesday for the Őrség. We fetched the clock ordered in the Corvin, collected the pro-biotic I ordered online and I had my VPN sorted which I couldn't do myself. And then Roy dropped a bombshell: he had toothache. Luckily, the dentist was in her surgery (I only have that number) and even had a short gap in her schedule to have a look at Roy's tooth. Again luckily, it turned out nothing too untoward and she gave him a little aenesthetic cream to settle it, which it did since. While there, we made appointments for this week for a clean and polish which were long overdue.

St. Peter's church in Őriszentpéter

And on Wednesday the Őrség geocaching holiday started. Koxi decided not to come this time, but Jutka did and we gave her a lift in our car. We left quite early, so that we could stop and find caches and shouldn't have to rush. I also picked two moving ones which I haven't yet got, keeping my fingers crossed that they should still be there when we arrived in the area. By the way, the photos in this post are mostly from this holiday, as I took nearly 500 of them, so there was no shortage of choice.

Mary with the Child, one of the XIIIth century frescos in Velemér

This part of the country is full of beautiful medieaval churches, some of them in amazingly good nick with original 13th century frescos on the walls. One of them apparently changed hands between religions over the centuries and when it was in protestant hands they whitewashed all the walls over the frescos. When the church fell into disrepair and the roof was leaking hundreds of years later, the early medieaval frescos reappeared. They are really famous, not only because they are so old, but because the guy who painted them adjusted their place to the light coming in through the windows at certain times of the year to light up certain figures, like the Star of Bethlehem at Christmas etc. Amazing little building and it was an event to visit it.

The church at Velemér

Other than the churches, we had quite a few little hikes, first with the moving ones which had to be moved at least 1km, then for those that were away from the roads.  We took in a few lakes, some absolutely glorious, full of wildlife and/or a place for swimming, others unfortunately a bit more neglected, but still romantic and pretty to look at. All in all I collected 26 geocaches over the 5 days and even managed to run twice in an orienteering event.

A belfry with a thatched "skirt"

In many ways, the success mentioned in the title was the beautiful weather (possibly too hot on some days), the good friends we were with and the lots of lovely places we've seen and caches we've collected.  However, the disaster mentioned above had also arrived, as usual on the last day of the orienteering. I managed to fall over coming down on an embankment about 200 yards from the finish.  As I was falling I did look around briefly and everything was green, so I thought that should be OK.  Oh no it wasn't! I hit my right knee and my head on rocks that were camouflaged by moss, although I didn't actually knock myself out thankfully. On the day it happened I was more worried about my head injury, as I know they can be unpredictable and lethal, the knee didn't bother me at all. Roy took me to the nearest hospital with an A&E about 40 miles away and after hanging around for a few hours, they said my head showed no changes.  Very diplomatic language, wouldn't you say? Nobody said I was OK, just they saw no changes on the CT on a computer screen.  Let's hope they know what they are doing. After nearly 3 hours I declined an X-ray for my knee and we departed. Picking up another cache en route back to our accommodation, which was the mother of all 13th century churches, the most famous in the country and which I have never seen before.  My knee was begin to hurt a lot, but the sight of that place made me forget it.

Borostyán lake

We came home yesterday, picking up a couple of caches en route again, depositing Jutka at her house and then came a serious look at my knee.  I have never seen a balloon made of knee that big, so we were putting first frozen little bottles on it, then frozen peas and now I am putting all sorts of creams on it hoping it will go down. I am moving it a bit, no matter how much it hurts, as I don't want it to cease up. I would say the balloon is only about two thirds the size of what it was yesterday, so hopefully it should have gone down by the end of the week. Good job we have planned a few weeks of rest in Bér starting on Friday, but before that we have dental appointments and a Belgian friend with his girlfriend arriving tomorrow. They are only staying two nights and they are the independent types, so hopefully I can stay in bed and rest.

Hopefully no more two week gaps in posting and that both my head and knee will be much better by the time I post again.

The greatest XIIIth century intact church I have ever seen!

Our happy band of travellers in a close-by inn

Sunset on our last night from our bedroom window