The seventysixth week of the pandemic

The cool weather that has arrived just as we came down to Bér, continued. We even had nights when I was positively cold and had to shut the window. Unfortunately our small pear tree is still too week to carry too much fruit, so two branches broke off with about 8 pears on them. It is really heartbreaking, that in a year when hardly any trees produced any fruit, this one is working hard, but then the weight of them ruins the crop. Still, I didn't waste them, I made pear compote out of the unripe pears and it was gorgeous. We have already eaten them, we were so curious about what they would taste like. It is difficult to gauge it as they were all very unripe, but being Boscobak they tasted fantastic, even unripe.

The wall is definitely straight in the back

Later on in the week, while it got a bit warmer again, but not to heatwave level, Roy decided to do some building work. He has been planning to make a wood shed close to the house, so that we don't have to go far for it. He dragged the frame of the old swing out of the barn and decided that it was going to form the base of the new shed. The roof will be made of a wooden frame, topped with thatch. You can buy thick rolls of thatch, a bit like we have on top of the gazebo. 

Miki's work is pretty good

 

To rest the back on the wall, he needed a level top. So he went to the gathering place of the guys in the village and got Miki promise that he would come and mix some concrete for the top of the wall at the weekend. He was as good as his word, lovely guy Miki is, and now we are proud owners of a level wall top, onto which Roy will have to somehow magic the roof. That'll have to wait until we come back from our trip to BP and the Balaton.

My booster shot

Yesterday we returned to town. I was due for my Covid booster shot, so we travelled in the morning, via Kálló, where one of my caches had disappeared.Within a few months I have replaced it twice and it is missing again. This time we put it on the other side of the road where there are no people, as it is very overgrown. We'll see what happens.

Cantilever well by my cache

We arrived at the flat at 10 o'clock, unloaded the car, just managed to catch the yearly electricity meter reader, had a bit of melon and a drink and then departed to deposit the car at its usual parking place in the XVth district. From there we took a trolleybus and a tram to the Military Hospital for the jab. We got very lucky as we were very early, so we just tried to identify which of the many entrances we will have to go through later for the appointment at 14:20. There was a very friendly, helpful soldier on guard at the gate, who hearing that we are speaking English, tried to help us with his pidgin English and mime. I told him that we have indeed come to the vaccination centre, but are far too early. No bother, he said, you can go in whenever you want. 

Hungarian soldiers

I was just explaining to Roy that he would have to stay out there and wait for me, when he said that Roy can go as well, no restrictions on visitors. So we got in. I handed my bit of paper in at the door, they gave me another one to fill in and we went to Registration. That was over in 2 minutes as well and while I was looking for a dispatcher to find out where exactly I have to go, I met up with Bozsa, whose appointment was at 12 noon. She looked distraught as the doctor refused to vaccinate her, due to not having brought along the bit of paper from her doctor to prove her previous shots. Oh dear, I said. I haven't got it with me either as nowhere in the information, be it online or on paper did they mention that you have to bring it.

A happy Roy with his pint

Door 12 was supposed to be the one where you had to queue and once they let you in, somebody was going to look it up online and give you the all clear. I have been hanging about for ages, when a young couple banged on the door, it opened and they went in as if I wasn't there. I was getting pretty pissed off by now, at which time the assistant of the doctor in room 11 came out. I asked her if 12 is the only one for verification of previous vaccinations or I might be able to get that elsewhere. At this point she suggested I went in. The doctor within asked for my papers, when I had my last jab and what it was. I answered faithfully, she believed me and then asked what I would like. I said Pfizer, she asked why? I recited the fairly long list of my medical conditions which necessitate to have Pfizer, she said OK, whacked it into my arm and I was out in 5 minutes.

Muggins with her spritzer

 If you read this far, you might just get the degree of chaos prevalent in state hospitals in Hungary. No checking of appointment times, unforeseen conditions demanded, suddenly they don't matter and you are through. I worked it out that it was anarchy in terms of every doctor making up his or her rules as he or she felt like. Poor Bozsa must have come across a jobsworth, I was lucky with a more laid back lady. After 15 minutes rest we met up with Bozsa and Árpi, had a little chat and left for some food somewhere.

Roy attacking his beef and onions

Roy came up with the idea of going to the Paprika, which used to be our regular haunt many moons ago and which we would have liked to see again. We got really lucky as not only we had a table within 5 minutes of arrival, but it was outside on the terrace. Roy had beef and onions, I had trout in breadcrumbs. Roy had 2 pints of lager and I had a large spritzer. It has been years since I put away this much food and drink in one sitting. It was so gorgeous, it would have been a crime to leave any of it.

My fish and potatoes

As for the reaction to my jab, this time I think I am having the strongest one out of the three. The first one I had an aching arm and aching joints, but only for 24 hours and that was that The second one went by with no reactions whatsoever, but this third one is making me feel a bit head achy, shaky, hot and bothered. I have no temperature, so that's OK, but feel quite weak, so other than a couple of errands this morning, the rest of the day is spent reading, on the computer or napping.

Fish, cucumber salad and beef with onions

Close-up of a mountain of fried onions

The only other significant news of the week is that if all goes well Covid-wise, Stephen and the kids are coming over for October half term. I am keeping my fingers crossed. Having had to call off the Canadian trip due to Roy's ops, this will be lovely, but I am not celebrating yet. Many things can scupper it, so stay calm and it might happen. 😀💓

The seventyfifth week of the pandemic

First bit of news is really good. Feri did not have Covid. The PCR test was negative too and he started feeling better, his temperature went down and he was quickly recovering. I told him to stay mostly at home and rest anyway for the next week or so, but I am not holding my breath. He only feels like being alive, if he is on the go most of the time. Like most men, I should think.

Feri in brute health

Since then we both worked out what was the problem. Basically, he had a low level cold, which he ignored. Then came Brigi's accident with a lot of stress, followed by giving blood, which has really taken it out of him. This type of blood donation, when they take quite a lot, take those parts out that they need and give the rest back to him, is usually only expected from guys a lot younger than him. On the other hand, because it puts such pressure on your body, not too many are prepared to do it, so he gets called for it all the time. I am glad he decided that he will no longer do it, which is fair, as he is over 50 and no matter how healthy and strong he is, let the youngsters put themselves through it from now on!

The last 7 days had a great deal in them, but the worst of it was the heatwave. It has now been about so long that you would think we would have adjusted to it. I'm afraid, we are too old to cope with heat this high for this long, so we couldn't wait for it to go down and/or us being able to go home to Bér, where the climate is always cooler. Well, this latter hope has happened as of yesterday, but most of the last week was still like a desert. 

Bye, bye Vivien.

On Thursday we had an appointment with Vivien, our delightful dentist whom I am exceedingly fond of. The bad news was that she is really leaving to work in Italy, so this was a farewell visit. She was so nice to both of us that I nearly cried when I said goodbye to her. She suggested that we should transfer to Daniel, a young man, whom Roy has come across last year when he extracted three of his teeth, but he was new to me. We managed to get an appointment for today with him and he made a  really good impression on both of us. Nice young man, I'm sure we'll get along fine.

Welcome to Daniel, our new dentist.

Last Thursday I also managed to get myself an appointment for next week, when I will receive a third Covid jab, to boost immunity, which has declined drastically, even in the case of Pfizer. My level was just over 1000, which is still pretty good, but Roy's being 8000, with having had the second dose only 5 weeks ago, while I had mine over 4 months ago. Boosters are always a good idea, although this time you can't choose in advance which one you'll have. We are all sure that they want to foist Sinopharm and Sputnik V on us, but I will only take a third Pfizer or AstraZeneca, or nothing. My appointment is for next Tuesday, 24th August, at the military hospital in the 4th district of BP.

The Military Hospital from the air.

Last Friday, which was the 13th, (good job I'm not superstitious!), Roy and I had a double appointment to the ophthalmologist at the Duna Medical Centre. I have no cataracts, no macular degeneration or any other sign of serious disease, but still have some double vision when I'm tired. She suggested that I see a neurologist, just in case the trouble is with my brain, rather than my eyes. We'll see. I think I will try some eye muscle exercises first, as that could also be a cause, especially that the double vision usually comes up when I am tired.

Roy, on the other hand has cataracts in both eyes, the left one is very bad, the right one is less so. He has to have two operations, (one in each eye), and you can imagine the response I got from him, the man who hates doctors, hospitals and avoids them like the plague. I think I have got the quote for the first operation amongst my e-mails, but I have not read it yet. With all this stuff with the dentist, now two operations in Roy's eyes, etc., etc. this is going to be a seriously expensive medical autumn, methinks.

The Birthday boy with Mickey.

Saturday was Callum's birthday. He is 12 years old, and is already looking like a young man. He is building his own computer, so we sent him some cash towards the parts. Alex (or maybe Meaghan, I can't remember which), posted a gorgeous FB photo of him, grabbing Mickey in front of him and slightly hiding behind him. I put it up on my cats group and it has gone past 50 likes in a few hours.

Alex and Meaghan's trailer

 

Lovesick Lake from above last autumn

I am really heartbroken that we can't travel to Canada this autumn, but Roy's eyes and teeth come first, so we'll have to wait until next year. Alex was quite upset too, but he at least now said that we can come any time next year when we want. I hope we can go in the spring, although that will be subject to reasonable health on our part, and reasonable Covid regulations by Canada. The only consolation was that it is very likely that the fourth wave is going to hit Canada fairly soon, due to the wide spread of the Delta variant in the US and spreading into Canada. In that case, we could not have gone anyway.

Saturday lunch: Roy eating chicken

Last weekend was spent with our good friends Laci and Márti, who also live in the same village as Bozsa and Árpi. Laci and Márti have spent most of the last two years building their house and I am glad to say that it turned out gorgeous. They are still struggling with finishing the renovation of the guest cottage, as well as laying down all the plants for the garden, but the vast majority of the work is now done.

One cosy corner in Laci and Márti's house

The front of the house

On Saturday, it was still so hot, that we didn't feel like going anywhere. Márti cooked us a beautiful lunch: chicken for the boys and trout for the girls. It was delicious. On Sunday, Laci and I got up really early and we went to walk round a nearby mountain picking up the points of a multicache. We were lucky that we had nice and cool weather, including a breeze, and enjoyed some lovely views and interesting bits of forest.

Laci by the triple cave

Muggins by the cave on the hike

For lunch, we went out to the Emma Restaurant, which we have been to before, and this time everybody enjoyed themselves, having got what they ordered and it was very nice indeed. These two are such relaxing company, their dog is a lovey old boy, and even Márti's daughter Zsani and her partner came visiting in the afternoon with their two border collies, which was very pleasant.

Lunch at the Emma

Roy looked like he was enjoying himself. He was alone with Pedri, the boxer for a while, as Laci and I were up a mountain and Márti was at yoga. As the photo shows, he has a relaxing time on the terrace with the glorious views to the mountains across the valley.

Roy at his leisure on the terrace

Monday afternoon Roy and I went to pick up a multicache in the Northern district of the city. Unfortunately, the weather was hellishly hot and had we known that my appointment with the cardiologist would be postponed due to her illness, as well as the weather would drop about 15 degrees, we would have waited till Tuesday. However, as we did, we got to know Ujpest, as that district is called, and realised that it has been improved a great deal since we have been there last.

The swimming pool in Ujpest

Yesterday was spent trying to rest up as we knew that today would be quite busy. It started with an ultrasound of my neck, looking at my arteries and thyroid gland. Upshot this time is that I need to go and see an endocrinologist, but the earliest appointment was in about 5 weeks, so not yet. We have already packed up, locked up the flat and Roy hung around outside in the car feeding the meter. After that we went to Tesco to do a bit of food shopping and then departed to the new dentist. Well, he was in the same surgery, but I have never been to him before.

I found him very personable. I will have to have two things done: an old filling will have to come out and an inlay will replace it. We are starting with this one, while the second one concerns my ancient baby tooth, a tiny part of which is still in place, albeit rather wobbly. This one can either have a bridge or an inlay bridge. Former is brutal in terms of grinding down 2 perfectly good teeth to hold the bridge, the other solution is less invasive, but is less lasting and secure. I am still thinking about it, either I will do nothing, like I did for the last 60 years, or choose the inlay bridge, but definitely not the traditional bridge. As for Roy, he has gone for the basic traditional bridge, and as a safety fall back, one inplant and the bridge, if necessary. He thankfully found the young man very much to his liking, so hopefully he will have a reasonable relationship with him in the future.

Roy mowing the grass on the front lane

After this we came home, with me driving, as he is currently not allowed to drive, until his eyes are providing him with good vision again. I am not glad that he has cataracts, but I am definitely pleased that he can rest while I am driving, as he gets so tired nowadays. In fact, today, once we were at home, instead of flaking out, he started mowing the courtyard and the front, instead of sleeping.  It is so nice to be at home, it is really lovely, and I'm also happy to report that the weather has gone lovely and cool, which is also refreshing.

Half a bucket of plums

 

PS.: I was looking for him this afternoon, as he seemed too quiet upstairs. Turned out he was outside picking up plums. Typical Murphy, as soon as we are away, the damned things start falling like there was no tomorrow. Amazingly, one type of plum tree is producing quite a lot of fruit. Most of them: the large blue ones, the small blue ones, the old tree at the back and the new ones we planted, in fact almost all of them, produced nothing, nada, zilch. These big yellow ones, of which we have about 4 trees, they seem prolific. If all goes well, we will fill one barrel with them, which will leave only 3 to fill from bought in plums. 

Carpet of plums on the ground

Next post sometime next week, subject to medical and other appointments.

The seventyfourth week of the pandemic

In order to get back on schedule, I decided to write this short post, as Wednesday is my original day of posting. As you may have read in the postscript of the previous post, due to Brigi's accident we were not going geocaching this week, as well as my friend Zsuzsi acquired a cold, so she cancelled as well. Unfortunately, we had two more developments, one of which is quite serious, the other not so much. 

Cute little chapel on Szentendre-island

The worrying event was a message from Feri, that he thinks he has got Covid. Since then he had a fast test, which was negative, but I have not heard the result of the PCR test yet. I am keeping my fingers crossed very tight, that the temperature and runny nose that he has are due to some other virus and/or the stress over Brigi's accident. Will let you know when I know more.

The pub near the tip of the island

 

The other piece of news was that our weekend of stay with our friends Laci and Márti had to be brought forward to this weekend, so our stay in town has now been extended to next Wednesday. Thankfully I brought all my medications with me, so no rushing back to Bér for them.

Magnificent fungus on one of the ancient trees

 

As my hopes of going geocaching with friends were dashed, Roy and I decided to have an outing to the Northern half of Szentendre-island, where we have never been before, and which had 5 caches presently. Some were pretty much drive-in, others needed a few kilometres of walk to get to.

Views out of the forest across the river to the Visegrád hills

The first one was a 2-parter hidden multi, where you had to get the coordinates of the second part at the first part. I don't like these, partly because I don't like multis at all, but mostly, because if you can't find one part, you are stuck and can't carry on. This one was OK, though, but not in an interesting or pretty part of the island at all.

Bathers on one the banks of the river

Next we went and caught a moving cache, which has to move about, instead of being hidden in one place. Moving caches have either a compulsory route, or a theme. The one we found yesterday was travelling on a compulsory route around the island and one is supposed to do it on a bike. As I don't have one, I did it using my scooter and for support, I had Roy in the car. It was fun and we moved it just over 2km up towards the top tip of the island.

Getting ready for my ride

The next three caches were all in or near the little village which is very close to the Northernmost part of the island. We started with a 3-parter multi, introducing us to the village. Part one was by a fishing lake, part two by the river and part 3 by a cute little chapel, which you reached up some stone steps with stages of the cross on either side. I liked this one, in spite of the fact it was a multi.

A memorial to the river sailers

 

Next one was the biggest walk, as there was a parking fee of £5 to drive in to the top tip of the island. And then there were compulsory car parks, all of which were still 700-800 metres from the cache. So, Roy stayed in the non-paying zone, under a large tree in the cool and had a nap, while I walked about 3km round trip to the cache and back.

The ferry boat to the other bank

This part of the island is mostly forested, with some of the trees under water when the river is up. There is a rather tatty, Soviet era campsite, which I'm told is a health hazard, but the environment is really pretty. Some of the trees are hundreds of years old, the little bits of sandy riverbank were full of swimmers and sun worshipers and generally I had a lovely walk.

Looking North to the Visegrád and Börzsöny hills

 

After this came the last cache, which was at the far end of an enormous, but very photogenic meadow. We parked near the middle of it, so I only had to walk about a half mile to the cache. It was hidden in a thick forest, infested with millions of mosquitoes. I still enjoyed the lovely quiet walk there and back, having only 4 cows in the distance for company.

 

Our inn

The weather got over 30 degrees Celsius by then, so we were both extremely thirsty, as well as hungry. The cache page on the net provided the coordinates of a recommended eatery, so we hastened to the place. It was a beautiful old inn, with a large terrace, slightly high prices, but glorious food that was well worth paying those prices for. I ate a lot of chicken, which worried me a bit, as I hardly eat meat and it is at least 30 years since I ate that much. It was the true Hungarian dish of chicken paprikash, with three pieces, but I cleared my plate it was that good. Roy had barbecued chicken wings, and his plate was even fuller than mine. Yum, yum!!

My chicken paprikash

We got home before 5pm and collapsed in front of our fans. That damn air conditioning, installation of which was scuppered by the pandemic, will have to be installed before the year is out. There is no way I am prepared to put up with these temperatures, which due to global warming, will only be going up year after year, any longer.

Roy with his chicken wings

Today we only made a short foray into the great desert-like outdoors, to get some artisan bread, get Roy's gout medicine, buy a few things at a stationers and a few litres of my oat milk. Since our return, still in the cool of the early morning, we have been eating, drinking, doing paperwork on the computer and napping. Good program, wouldn't you say? Next post next week, around Wednesday.

The seventythird week of the pandemic

Apologies for the delay in posting, but hectic would not even start to describe my last few days. I actually started writing this 4 days ago, but fate intervened. Let us start with the weekend before last!

Joop and Margreet

On the Friday we had a gorgeous farewell lunch with 4 Dutch friends at the Mill. Joop and Margreet came over for a fortnight to have a holiday and Manet with Heino were already here. In fact they went home after a month straight after the lunch. Since then they arrived home safely with no troubles en route, so their plan to travel mostly overnight was a very good one.

Roy, Joop and Margreet at lunch

 

The lunch was gorgeous, their company a hoot, so a very good time was had by all. The only great shame relating to that lunch was that my slowly dying camera chip chose that particular day to expire. So all photos taken at the Mill were lost. Initially it looked like everything was for the dustbin, the camera included, but since then I managed to reformat the chip, so all's well for a while in the photographic world. In fact, I have decided that once the camera is kaput, I'll never buy another one. My phone takes such good pictures, that for the sake of the 30x zoom, the only feature the phone doesn't do, I am not going to spend that much money ever again. And, to be honest, the phone takes better pictures, as its software manipulates the raw photo so well, that it looks a million dollars.

Joop is such a lovely man, it was great to see him

En route home from the Mill, Joop and Margreet invited us for a visit to their house sometime the following week, as they were going home on the Friday, and we were planning to spend about 10 days in BP, starting on the Wednesday. So we went for 11am on Tuesday and never returned home until about 3pm. We ended up having lunch with them, which was delicious, I have forgotten what a brilliant cook Margreet is. Her courgette soup was heavenly. They are still as good company as ever. I have a feeling they will not be back for a while, but it was nice to spend this extra time with them.

Lewis with a small Hollóháza pot for 3rd place

 

Sunday was the day of the Hungarian Grand Prix. It was a weird race, which I have only seen the last 50 minutes of. My VPN is dying again, so I am not likely to renew the subscription when it comes up in the autumn, that's for sure. Apparently, it was full of accidents and various other cock-ups. Poor old Lewis was the victim, yet again, of a cock-up by his team, so he ended up 3rd. He is now leading the Championship again, as in the initial crashes, where Lewis was OK, his main rival's car was so badly damaged, that he struggled to keep up with the rest of the field and scored only one point. They are now all on furlough until the Belgian GP at the end of August, but I hope Lewis has a good rest, as he is now suspected of having long Covid, which is not good news.

On Monday I had a medical appointment in BP, so I thought that as I had to travel in, I'll spend some time on both travelling in and back home, geocaching. I was most successful, and got 3 North of town and 3 South of town. The appointment went quite well, this new doctor lady was even nicer than the previous one and said that there is unlikely to be further complications, which was good news. She still wants to see me in 3 months' time with the results of an ultrasound of some glands, which is fair enough. I managed to book an appointment to see her, but there were none in the book yet for the ultrasound, so I must try and remember booking that this week.

Where they took our blood samples

On Wednesday we departed towards town, en route visiting a surgery where both of us gave blood for a Covid antibody test. The results are due in about 5 days, let us hope we are still protected. As I had a couple of caches in and around the Buda Hills still outstanding, we decided that a little drive in that direction would make us spend the time more enjoyably, than sitting in the flat and paying through the nose for parking.

Muggins in the Buda Hills on her own

The first cache was a really lovely one, which Roy enjoyed sitting out, in a lovely suburb of posh villas, right next to the car, in a camping chair, dropping off occasionally. I, on the other hand, was walking about 500 metres up into a nice wood, where a memorial event cache, popularising the Rotary Club of the area was hidden. I found it  easily and enjoyed my 1km hike tremendously. It was hot, but the woods were cool and very empty. I imagined that the forest is all mine and loved every minute of it.

János Drapál memorial by his house

The second one was about 10 miles out of town, in a nice commuter village and it was dedicated to a Hungarian world champion motorcycling competitor who died tragically while racing some 30-odd years ago. There were two parts to it, one outside his house where he lived, the other one in the cemetery, where the community declared him an honoured citizen of the village and erected a lovely memorial over his grave.

... and his grave in the village cemetery

The star event this week happened the following day, which consisted of something that was potentially very stressful, but I am happy to report that it was pretty easy and devoid of stress. We had to visit the Immigration, Nationality and Aliens' Control Office to kick start Roy's application of permanent settlement in Hungary. All this is courtesy of the corrupt criminals, aka the UK government, who with their lies and other crimes made sure that enough of the suggestible idiots who have very few grey cells between their ears, voted for Brexit 5 years ago.

The Aliens' Policing building, Budafoki út 60

Well, I am not very often complimentary about officialdom in Hungary, but I have to admit, this office was ace. We arrived roughly at 8:15am, the lovely young man with perfect and fluent English on reception asked how he could help us, we said we were British and came with all our documents, cards and an application form fully filled in and a photograph attached, at which point he gave us a number and told us to sit down somewhere. No sooner that our behinds hit the chairs, our number was up, followed by a lovely young lady doing the efficient paperwork, with helpful suggestions, what to add and/or correct on the form, then took Roy's fingerprints and photograph, and we were out of there in less than an hour.

I think this is a record and I have to be completely and utterly grateful to Ros and Ian, for the suggestion that this is how it should be done. Back in May, soon after they arrived, and as soon as they were allowed out of quarantine, they went there and had the equally fast, courteous and efficient service as we did. Now we are waiting for Roy's Settlement Permit which could arrive in anything between a couple of weeks and 3 and half months. I am on 3 FB expat groups and reading those proves to me that there is no such thing as a "standard" procedure. Some even had police snoop around their flat or house, asking their neighbours etc. just like in the communist days. Unfortunately these bad habits die hard. Ros and Ian had their letter of approval in 4 weeks and the cards in another 2, so we're hopeful.

Muggins at the Hanger Bistro

5 Danube bridges in the distance

We were going to have a little outing with Ros and Ian before they go home this Thursday, straight after the visit to the Immigration Department, but the skies opened and we postponed it to Friday. It was absolutely brilliant, even though we have not seen each other for a full year, we fell into banter instantly, as if we last went out together the week before. We had a drink and lunch at the Hanger Bistro on top of Hármashatár-hegy, (Tri-border Mountain), followed by a short walk to the recently built lookout tower on top of that mountain. The views were magnificent all over the city, although it was hazy in the distance for totally sharp photography.

Roy, Ros and Ian on the lookout tower

Roy, me and Ian on the lookout tower

After departing we went home, packed and got ready for another set of friends we haven't seen, this time for 18 months, Bozsa and Árpi in Csobánka. You probably didn't believe me when I wrote last time that we will try to squeeze 3 months' activity into 10 days, but we were and still are trying to do just that.

4 lovely old towers quite a few km's away

The lookout tower

 

We were spending the whole weekend with Bozsa and Árpi and their kind, clever, well behaved and beautiful border collie, Glenn, aka Nyunyi. We usually eat and drink a lot, some at their home with them, some going out to restaurants, then we go for a bit of hiking, or in my case, geocaching. All of this was in the program this weekend as well, especially the eating and drinking, so I think I'll have to starve for a week to get back into my clothes again.

Roy, Bozsa and Árpi at the Schieszl

The 300 year old cellar at the Schieszl

 

We arrived at their place around 10am on Saturday. We sat drinking, munching nuts, fruits and chocolates and chatting on their terrace, which has a million dollar view over several large mountains, which encircle their village. Then we departed in the direction of Budakalász to a restaurant we have never been to. It is called Schieszl and it was a truly sensational revelation indeed. The Schieszl family have arrived in Hungary 300 years ago, when Maria Teresa, the Hapsburg Empress invited a lot of ethnic Germans to come and improve the state of the country with their knowledge of industry, commerce, growing vines, making wine etc. This family has been here for all those years, and even managed to evade deportation back to Germany after the Second World War, as well as the loss of their property in the communist days.

Árpi's duck leg

... and Roy's fillet of pork

They have 3 large vineyards, in three significant wine regions of Hungary: one in the Balaton Highlands, one around Gyöngyös, near Eger in the North, where Bull's Blood is made and in the South,. near Villány, which is  a famous area for quality red grapes. They make 60,000 bottles of all kinds of wines a year, but sell only in relation to their restaurant or privately to customers on the estate. I am grateful for having discovered this place, it was such a fantastic lunch.

A lovingly renovated meat slicer

... and the current owner of the winery

I had a salad with bits of duck breast, Roy had fillet of pork and Árpi had duck leg. I apologise, but I can't remember what Bozsa had, but we all stuffed ourselves silly and cleared our plates. As none of us is yet prepared to eat indoors with strangers, we booked a table outside, in an enormous marquee, they erected in the place of the car park, which was in the courtyard, and which was perfectly well ventilated, while protecting you from the occasional shower. Roy and I are sure we are going to go there for lunch sometime in the future, as it is a first rate place, with fantastic food and drink, elegant, pleasant environment and super service.

The Clock Tower under repair

A cold tea in the evening on the terrace

After lunch we had a little rest at home and around 6pm, when the heat subsided a bit, Árpi and I went up the Oszoly Mountain, one of those visible from their garden, to find an interesting new geocache up on some rocks. Árpi was leading, so we got lost, of course. Still, I love going with him into dangerous places, as without him I wouldn't dare. We first went up to the rock climbing wall of about 50 metres in height. We even exchanged a few words with a guy climbing, but the path we were on suddenly ended. So we had to backtrack a bit, and then descend on some really steep, rocky, slippery forest ground to the famous "Clock Tower Rock", where the cache was. It wasn't easy, but finding a cache in an environment like this was ten fold more exciting and satisfying than anywhere else.

The upper opening of the cave

On Sunday, we got up quite late, after a lovely and cool night's sleep. Had breakfast and this time we only left Roy behind, the three of us went on a short hike to another cache. Roy found himself a lovely shady spot in the garden, and went to sleep in a comfortable lounger. Árpi, Bozsa and I headed up the valley to Pilisszentkereszt, where we even encroached a bit into the forest where we parked. The walk was uphill, but not particularly steep, definitely nothing like on Saturday. The cave, where the cache was, looked amazing. It is literally a vertical cave, although it did have some side bits, which could, if you can, be explored on foot. All the rest is usually done dangling on a rope. For this reason, you need permission to explore it and professional cavers for guides. We peered in, but that was all.

Glenn, aka Nyunyi

A lovely shelter in the woods

On both walks, the dog was with us and even though she is now 11 years old and a bit arthritic, she was ahead most of the time. She is such a beautiful creature, I love her and it was amazing to see, how she remembered both of us, after all this time. I dread to think the time might come when she will not be with us any more. Árpi said that border collies live 15 years on average and that is not far.

Gorgeous flora in the forest

On Sunday afternoon we got home extremely quickly. It was about half an hour, which is unheard of in this city for such a journey. I think everybody is still on holiday somewhere else, otherwise the traffic would not have been this clear and fast. Today is Monday and I am trying to catch myself up with e-mails, messages, FB and such like. I also have to prepare the list for the next geocaching trip; which will either be with Zsuzsi or Feri and co. Or perhaps just Roy and me on Szentendre Island, if the others can't make it.

Szentendre Island map

 

PS: Brigi had a nasty accident, and therefore Feri is not caching for a while, and the weather is in the high 30's Celsius again, so Zsuzsi has cried off our hike. Therefore, either tomorrow or the day after we are off to Szentendre Island to find some caches and perhaps visit one or two pubs or restaurants. Next post sometime at the end of the week, hopefully by then back in Bér.