A caching trip, some more dental work and a chimney inspection

After 5 days in Bér, during which we did some more gardening, mowing, seeing the nurse for more prescriptions, visiting the pharmacy to get those prescriptions, listing the caches to be visited during our next trip South etc. we returned to town on Monday. Prior to that we had some guests from The Mill on Saturday night, who were really nice and quiet.

Kecskemét Lesiure lake

Once in town we had further visits to the pharmacy there for all those meds that the village pharmacy didn't have, followed by yet another visit to my dentist. This was the second root canal day and this time, amazingly I started hurting not in my teeth, but my neck, back and hip. The whole thing seemed a lot longer than last time, even though it wasn't, so perhaps I was either in a funny position or sickening for something. The good news this time were that the anesthetic has worn off quite quickly afterwards and there was no pain, unlike the week before. She says that one more go at the root canal work should suffice, after which I have to wait for weeks to see if the treatment worked or not.  In the meantime she will do some other, simpler filling work in other teeth and only return to put crowns on these two once she is sure there is no more work to be done on them.

Kecskemét Arboretum hibiscus

Wednesday was our day of departure South to visit our friends in Békéscsaba for a spot of geocaching as well as bagging a few en route down and back up on Friday. But before we could depart the chimney inspection squad had arrived and wouldn't start with us, even though we were in a hurry to leave. We left them to our friend Eva, who advised us later that this bunch came determined to find fault everywhere, including where there was none. Judging from the manner of the guy's response to me when I asked him to see us first, I was not surprised. On our return I saw the list of "faults" which are ridiculous and which are only calculated to generate income for them by putting the non-existent faults right. Last time we had the same problem, although with only about 2 or 3 "faults", rather than 6 or 7 as now, but I decided to do nothing about it and wait for them to turn up and complain, which I am glad to say they didn't.  So I think I'll stick with the same strategy and see if it works again.

The trip down on Wednesday was done in high heat and seemed long, but pleasant. We took in lots of different locations for caches in both the countryside and in towns. We managed to find 12 or so, perhaps the most memorable beng an arboretum, where I photographed some beautiful plants and flowers. Art Nouveau buildings in a city were also pretty and we discovered two new towns we have never been to and which pleased us no end. 

Hungarian Art Nouveau in Csongrád

Csongrád had a beautifully renovated central main square as well as a holiday area by an oxbow lake which in its atmosphere reminded me of my childhood summers by the Danube. Szentes also had a lovely main square, a very pretty big park and some lovely buildings. Somehow these towns on the plains had a laid back calm about them, with wide avenues, lots of trees and flowers and nice people that made them very liveable places.

Swimming in the oxbow lake

Once in Csaba we found our B&B, which was lovely and extremely cheap. Recently we have been staying in proper hotels using midweek special offers, so we got very comfortable and lazy having wellness suites, air conditioning etc. This place was more like the ones we used to use when I orienteered a lot and while the interiors were not nearly as posh as we have recently become used to, the atmosphere was very much to our liking.  Less impersonal, a lot friendlier and flexible than the big places.

In the Jewish Cemetery

On Thursday Roy stayed behind to find the Jewish Cemetery, as he has a friend in the US who has ancestors there. Unfortunately, the cemetery was unmanned, so he couldn't find anyone to look for the graves for him in the registers, but he still had a nice day out in Csaba and walked home along the canal finding a nice pub en route.

An estate chapel in a lovely park

Gyuri and I in the meantime did a  nice big circle from and to Csaba via a lot of lovely and interesting locations where geocaches were hidden.  The star event was the first one straight away, which provided me with my first red 1. These are very difficult to get because you have to be the first finder after it was published to get one. The rest of the day was spent visiting old ruined chateaux, parks, canals, various flood defences and waterworks, churches, big trees, memorials to now disused narrow gauged railways, and a few others besides.

Szarvas arboretum main gate

In the evening we took Gyuri and Eva out for dinner to a restaurant of their choice. It used to be an old roadside inn, which got renovated into a really posh establishment last year.  It was situated right next to one of the canals, so we stayed inside to avoid the heat and the mosquitoes. The food was first class, I had cucumber soup and trout, Roy had fruit soup and garlic pork, Gyuri had some local delicacy made from some weird bits of a pig and I can't remember now what Eva had. But we all thought it was quite delicious. The final punchline was the bill, which was £40 plus tip, which was amazing for the quality of food we had. I think I'll be back when next in that town.

Me, Eva, Gyuri and Roy in the pub

As it was still quite early we went to another canal-side place, this time a pub. The guys had beer and us girls had wine. I discovered a new light white which tasted heavenly. I managed to get the winery's name out of the barmaid, but that particular wine I haven't yet found on the net. The winery is called Frittmanns, but no bottles of DUETT for sale on the internet yet. I suspect that was a cuvee, i.e: a mixture of at least two different grapes, so it was probably Irsai Olivér and perhaps another light one with it. It tasted magical, even that it wasn't overcooled, which I liked too.

XVIIIth century Calvinist church

And then the following day we made our way back, but the bad news of the day (in fact of the previous day too) was that I somehow managed to damage my left foot, which gradually worked itself up from a slight twinge to agony by the late afternoon.  The following day, (the day of our return), when we were planning a bit more caching, the program had to be curtailed somewhat, as I was hobbling like a war veteran. Still, the weather was still good and I was swallowing paracetamol like there was no tomorrow, so we still had a good day.

Crossing the river on a little ferry boat

We found a new town which we have been through before but haven't yet stopped at, and we liked that one too. After that town and its two caches we decided to journey on to the next one via a ferry. The alternative route, which would have taken us via the nearest bridge, was 23km longer, so the choice was obvious.  The ferry was a cute old thing, which had a thick cable guiding it and as the river was not very wide we made the journey in about 5 or 6 minutes. Except just before we were to leave and cop boat came upriver and the ferrymen had to lower the cable while they were passing. So the trip ended up about 10 minutes long.

Roy at lunch en route home

The last town had the 47 degrees longitude through it, so that was quite interesting too. This was our last cache for the day and in the next bigger place we managed to find a lovely old roadside inn to have lunch in. Food was good again and even the group of about 40 high school kids who turned up were nice and behaving themselves.

Roadside Inn garden

We were at home by about half past four in the afternoon, put some money in the meter and tried to relax. We were both pretty much done in, so we had early nights and have not done much ever since. My time has been taken up by logging all my geocaching finds (about 35), uploading my photographs, catching up with e-mails and FB, while Roy had lots of family history messages and e-mails to catch up on. Hopefully we should be heading back to the village straight after my next dental appointment on Tuesday, this time via the cake shop to pick up my birthday cake.  News of my birthday weekend and the hike in next week's post.