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