2010 Holiday Part 1

Left BP just before 8am on Sunday 11th. This being the first time we did this trip in an air conditioned car, it turned out to be the easiest, most relaxed journey we have ever had. Thankfully, we needn't have worried about it taking ages and Roy managed to drive nearly 900 kilometres all on his own without getting at all tired. The only excitement en route was occasioned by my stupidity in losing my purse in one of the service station loos. Thankfully, one very honest cleaning lady has found it and handed it in. I gave her the biggest hug and kiss plus 10 Euros for her trouble.

We aimed at Wurzburg as we have camped there before, but this time we couldn't find the campsite. Finally somebody suggested one 24 km's away in Karlstadt, which turned out to be a real gem. Large swimming pool, friendly people, right down on the banks of the Main and very cheap as well. The view across the Main was very pretty with rock walls, abandoned ruined castles and pretty palaces. Had good night's sleep, packed up and left by 9am. The Tom Tom sent us over the gorgeous wooded hills to join the motorway again and we got to Alan's near Brussels by 3.25pm.

Last night we had a couple of games of Scrabble and after yet another good night's sleep, this morning went on a little walk with Steph and Marcus the African Grey parrot for a little walk in the park. The weather is still hot and we are having a really nice time with Alan and Steph until Thursday morning when we are off to Dunkirk to catch the ferry.

Winter fuel

The day before yesterday I asked one of our neighbours if he could help me get some firewood for the winter. It took us 4 winters to use up all the old beams, rafters and other scrap wood we were left from the renovations, so we need some new wood for the winter. He said that he could bring us a lorry load the following day, so there it was. Dumped into the middle of the lawn in front of the barn. Since then we have been cutting it up and stacking it in the back of the barn (as you can see) but unfortunately yesterday it rained in the morning and Roy's usual helper had to go to his doctor's today, so we will not finish it before departing for BP later on this afternoon. Hopefully nobody will help themselves to the pile still uncut while we are away.

The other pictures show the one and only window box of pelargonia that survived the winter and the grapevine over the patio getting ready to give us some grapes this autumn. Yum, yum!!

Canada Day

I have just found this lovely picture of Callum on Facebook. He looks a happy soul waving his little flag.

Computer problems are in the process of being solved, although the new operating system is having its hiccups. Apparently it thinks that it needs to boot off peripherals and it doesn't start or power down unless the only lead in it is the power lead. Weird!! I will have to take the laptop back to Dylan, who mended it, to sort it later, but it is not urgent now. The place we found to mend the laptop seems full of lovely people. They are called ExpatTech. They were formed to do the crooked, useless, grossly expensive and hopeless Hungarian outfits out of business. They are reasonably priced, quick and very friendly. Shame about Windows 7 having its hiccups, but I am sure Dylan will fix it when I take it back.

The only other bit of news is that somebody must have seen us taking the video footage of the potholes between Szirak and Dengeleg last week and worried about them, because on our way home today we noticed that the very combination of enormous holes that I took the video of has been filled in. None of the others, just those. Fun, innit?

The Szirak to Dengeleg road

I have been meaning to video this awful road for ages, but this time we managed to remember to bring the camcorder. Roads in rural Hungary have always been a bit dodgy, but after last winter it has got ridiculous what is still called a road around here. The car sticker which I am still looking for to buy goes like this: "I am not drunk, I am just trying to avoid the potholes!"

The silly thing is that quite a few villages on our route between BP and the village have actually managed to get their hands on some EU cash and built some really good roads. It is now pretty OK for all but the last 10km of the route. However, this last 10km and especially the 5km between Dengeleg and Szirak is atrocious and designed to break your driveshaft as well as ruin your tyres and suspension. As Roy always said: two surefire business opportunities are getting better by every year in Hungary: tyre suppliers/fitters and suspension repair yards.

The heatwave is still going, although today we had a small amount of breeze, so it was not so horribly muggy as earlier in the week. The car had its 24 month service, it cost 130 quid and they didn't find anything wrong with it. Hopefully, it will carry us with no troubles across Europe in 10 days' time.

Some more Callum piccies

Cute, innit?

Callum's latest hits

Meaghan's latest pictures of Callum appeared on Facebook. He seems to very much love his paddling pool, a present from his Canadian granma.
Enjoy!!

Visit to Zsambek

No orienteering this Sunday and all my friends are doing something else, so we decided to go out for a little drive. Where we went was prompted by a book I bought the other day about village churches. As I was reading it Roy said, why don't we visit one of them, but I said that they were all a long way away. Until I got to the very last one (they were in alphabetical order) which was only about an hour away. So today we went to see it. It was built in the early years of the 13th century. It was a monastery church, later a village church, damaged by all kinds of invaders from Tartars to Turks. Burnt down more than once, finally abandoned and then further damaged by earthquake. For a couple of centuries its stone was robbed and used for building houses in the neighbouring villages until it was saved from complete ruin by a benedictine monk/teacher, who saw its beauty and suggested that what is left is restored and safeguarded for future generations. It was even damaged in the Second World War by cannon and small arms fire.

There is very little left of the monastery buildings, but the church itself, even in its ruinous state is majestic. It was lovely, peaceful and very photogenic. We drove back a different way across the hills and enjoyed every minute of it.