Guests, Sárospatak, Roy's birthday and the pálinka

The first item in this blog post has to be the great news that happened right after I posted last.

Sandos Caracol main pool

Sandos Caracol Beach

I booked next spring's trip to Mexico!!! We will be there for 11 nights, 7 of which will be together with Alex, Meaghan and Callum, which is fantastic. They have been to that resort already and loved it. Let us hope that we will enjoy it too. In fact, I am sure we will, because judging from their website and the family's recommendations, there is nothing to not like there.

Warm weather, lots of pools, gorgeous food and drink in unlimited quantities, activities, outings (if you want them) and as much rest, reading, sleeping and just generally relaxing as you can take. I am looking forward to it already.

On Wednesday, 19th September I went geocaching with my friend Mariann and had a really good time. We travelled West and had some easy and some less than easy caches to gather. We had a very long day, but our tally was quite high, 17 caches in fact, which is pretty high for me. We went in my car, as Mariann admitted that in spite of the higher petrol costs, there are times when you need the high ground clearance and the four wheel drive.

One of the lakes I visited with Mariann

On Thursday we went back to Bér and en route had the car serviced and while they were doing it we shopped for food at Lidl. In the meantime, just the day before we had a phone call from the guy whose plums we usually buy to fill up all our barrels with fruit for the distillery. We needed 200 kilos this time and he said that the only day he is in his orchard is on Thursday. So we ran like the wind and fetched the two barrelfuls of plums on Thursday afternoon. They are a new type of plum, called Elena, but as long as it has high sugar content I don't care what they are called.

Klári and Gyuri up the mountain

Friday we did a bit of cleaning and titivating, as long lost friends, Klári and Gyuri were due to arrive on Saturday late morning. We had a small crisis before they arrived, in that the cefre had boiled over and frothed out of the barrels, which promises a lively brew and a lot of pálinka later on in the season. We managed to clear it up in time for Klári and Gyuri's arrival. This they duly did and we sat down to catch up on several decades, as other than a quick meeting for a cup of coffee about 15 years ago I have not seen her since our university days and I have never seen her husband before.

The four of us at the Mill at dinner

Klári has not changed one iota since her youth> still a great talker and has an opinion on everything which she most certainly does not hide under a bushel. They brought some lovely presents: a little rose plant, Belgian chocolates, malt whisky for Roy and a few other delights. On the first afternoon we didn't do much, but on the Sunday I frogmarched them up to the andesite, which nearly killed them, but they insisted that they loved it. We also took them to the Mill for Sunday lunch which was delightful.

A gracious swan on one of the lakes in Miskoltapolca

On Monday Roy and I were planning to go out to check and/or place caches in my spring series, but the weather didn't look good enough, so we went on Tuesday. We found another one missing, so we replaced it, and we placed the one at Virágos, which was never put out in the first place.  Perhaps that's what I should have done with all of them, that would have been cheaper. We also went and fetched a roll of cane walling, which will be placed on top of the pavilion, as the old roof leaks and is now quite ugly.

Diósgyőr Castle

And then on Wednesday we departed Eastwards, for yet another 3 days/2 nights trip for some sightseeing and geocaching. This also included Roy's 77th birthday, which we celebrated with a wine tasting of lovely Tokaj wine in our hotel.  This hotel looked a bit scary from the outside, reminding me of the bad old days decades ago, but inside it was lovely in every respect.  Nicely renovated, refurbished and very clean. The staff was delightful and we really had a good time. The food was OK too, although some things I couldn't eat, but we always had alternatives, so I didn't go hungry.

A "dongó"

The great plum explosion

We visited lots of interesting caches, but the most dominating features were war cemeteries and castles. We had three of each. Out of a haul of 25 caches, that took care of 6. We had some ordinary cemeteries too, a very large look-out tower slap bang in the middle of Miskolc, a large industrial town, plus a wooden church and a fantastic trip up on a cable car to visit two caches at the top. Roy, due to his vertigo gave this bit a miss, but he had a nice snooze in the car instead.

Az avasi tmplom tornya

One of the funniest aspects of this trip was the amazing coincidence about Mariann, my good geocaching friend and Gizi. my geocaching ex-friend going away for the same three days in the same area, totally by fluke. We thankfully did not run into each other, but they saw us on our way home going South on the last day, while they were still going North. Mariann swore to me that she wanted to enjoy the wellness suite at their 5-star hotel, rather than caching every day well into the evening, but I very much doubt that she did. I read on her profile page that she logged 62 finds for the 3 days, which is some sort of record, I reckon.

First World War cemetery in Miskolc

Since we came back to town directly from our trip, we have been mostly resting, but tomorrow we are off to the memorial to a friend of ours that passed away in July. His partner has arranged a garden party in his memory, as he was the gardener of the two of them and it is really considered his garden. We are not to wear black and it will be a celebration rather than a wake.

Wooden church in Miskolc

We are staying in town for a couple of weeks and the list of things for me to do is so long I dread looking at it. I have also promised Alex to transcribe one of his speeches, which is taking me forever. I am slowing down in all respects, so this will be hanging around for a while yet. In the meantime the American TV serials have started and I am already about 8 hours behind watching them. Ahhh, if I could find a way to extend a day to at least 34 hours, instead of 24, that would be great!

Volker in his youth

PS.: The memorial gathering for Volker was fantastic.  It was moving, touching and sad, while the atmosphere was happy and the people smiley. Occasionally there were tears, but it was a celebration, rather than a good-bye. We haven't been there for three years and the garden has really become a jungle. All the trees have grown up greatly and everything reminded everybody of Volker.  He was 65, which is far too young to die nowadays, but the 70-80 people there had a good time, exchanged lots of memories of Volker between them and will, I'm sure, hold him dear in their hearts forever.

Volker in his 40's

Next post sometime next week or the one after. I have so much on my plate I really don't know if I am coming or going. Love to you all and I'll write something again soon.

Robert and Volker's house

Volker with the grandchildren

Another eventful week (and a bit)

Our 5-day stay in Bér went past in a whizz. We concentrated on tidying and mowing the garden, pruning roses and generally catching up with the happenings of the previous 5 weeks. First shock was that we found the shutters open in the Bunkhouse, as well as a couple of windows open in both the Bunkhouse and the Kottege. Apparently, Anna thought that it would be nice to air the buildings and didn't realise that so far from her place that would not be safe. She said she would turn up with the money, but we pre-empted her by having lunch at the Mill on Sunday and she could hand it over then.

The Guesthouses at the Mill

The new table and benches by the rocks

We gave Irénke a small present for her trouble over the errant alarm and then found out that finally, after we last talked on the phone, the alarm started up again. However, they then rang the alarm man on the telephone number I gave them and he guided them through what to push in the control unit to disconnect the battery. Obviously, he agreed with Roy, who also thought that the trouble was caused by a dying battery. No more alarms since and I don't think we will bother ever again as we don't intend to use that alarm again.

On Monday we drove to Palotás, primarily to shop at the supermarket for food and the hardware shop for screws and things.  We wrapped that trip up with a lunch at the Sandos, one of only a few restaurants in the area. Tuesday we spent at home, but Wednesday I felt I had to go and recheck those caches of mine that went out many months ago, whether they are still there and also to install alternative virtual passwords as well.

Here the box was in its place

Out of the 4 caches we visited, 2 were missing. One for absolutely sure, as even the fallen tree trunk I put the box in was missing, the other probably, but by that time Roy was very hungry and tired, so I gave up looking for it after about a quarter of an hour. We replaced both and put out small screwed on keyfobs with the passwords on, just in case it happens again. In the case of the missing box in the tree trunk, I think that fell foul of people scavenging for logs to burn, the second one was probably taken by a boar, as I saw lots of wallows in the area.

The Rózsakert in Bercel

This day was rounded up at another restaurant, this time in Bercel, where not only the food, but the service was good. Last time we were there, the service was decidedly slow. Thankfully, it was a lot better this time. Their chef must be very talented, as he made me a gorgous bone soup, which I needed desperately after all that walking, followed by a beautiful piece of trout. In a village in the back of beyond, you don't expect such excellent cooking, but this place is ace.

Roy enjoying his gypsy roast

An old thatched shed near one of the springs

My glorious trout at Bercel

And then on Thursday we came back into town. En route we did three caches: one to place and two to find. The one we placed was a new method of hiding it for us. We dug a small hole in the ground under a walnut tree, whose branches nearly reached the ground, thus hiding it well. We then put the box into a piece of sewer pipe (brand new, of course!) and fitted that into the hole, complete with box.  It had its own lid and then we put a piece of concrete on top of it to totally camouflage it. Hopefully that should also last for a while, although I am not sure, as I have just had a phone call saying that one of my caches in Slovakia is gone again.  Let's hope it is there, just the guy looking for it was a bit of an idiot.

The other two caches were really close to the main road we usually take, one at a spring, the other by a weird sylvan spring in a bit of a hollow, on the side of an embankment. I nearly twisted my ankle hanging on there, I don't think these caches by this cocky young man with the caching name of sokoto5 are any good really. He has only so far found less than 200 caches and still thinks he knows it all. Takes no advice from experienced cachers and therefore finding his boxes is very rarely pleasant. I think I will stop looking for his boxes in future.

The poster of the Polish Film Festival

We also visited Decathlon, a sportwear shop, where we looked at folding bikes. I don't think I liked the one they had and will probably stick with the one in the bike shop in the apartment block where we are. In the late afternoon I had a cinema ticket, bought by Bozsa in the Urania cinema. There is a festival of Polish film, and being Polish herself, Bozsa was keen to go.  She brought Árpi as well, so we had a good time together.  The film was interesting and a bit sad, about three young men and the story of their friendship in the Second Word War. The Festival goes on until mid-December and there are several exceptional films on offer. This is the link to its program:
https://urania-nf.hu/esemenyek/1261/2018/09/13/fuggetlenul-lengyel-tortenelmi-filmsorozat

Waymarking on my Sunday hike

On Friday, Ian came round with my post, phone and camera. I was a very happy bunny indeed, although I then had to go to the phone shop to have the SIM cards exchanged again and to sort any problems. Initially everything was OK, but soon after I left the shop I realised that data traffic did not work on the phone. It was too late to do anything about it then, because I had to go to the dentist.

One of many glorious meadows in the mountains

This was the appointment when my dentist was supposed to fix the porcelain inlay into one of my back teeth, but as she was clearing out the temporary filling, she realised that there was some decay in the next tooth. This was the ideal opportunity, with most of the other tooth not there, to get to it and do the filling.  So I ended up more than an hour in the chair again. Honestly, I think the real agony is not the drilling, injections and other stuff, but the jaw ache one gets from keeping one's mouth wide open for over an hour.

An ancient oak tree by a picnic spot

After coughing up the balance of the inlay plus the cost of the filling, I tore off to the phone shop again, where the clever little chap fixed the data traffic problem in a jiffy. The API settings were incorrect or incomplete, I can't now remember which, but I was just so happy, I didn't care. Apparently, these settings are sent out automatically to all those phones that one's service provider recognises, but WileyFox is not one of those, so it had to be done manually. I could have kissed the fella, but I controlled myself and left with profuse thanks and a promise of buying my next phone from him.

A view down to the river through the trees

Saturday was not particularly eventful, we had a fellow geocacher call for the Event bucket, which I still had ever since my birthday hike and in the afternoon we had a big 4-way family chat on Skype with Alex and Meaghan. And finally on Sunday, having waited for my friends to say yay or ney, (one said ney with the others saying nothing), I went on a long hike in the Visegrád Mountains on my own.

Dilapidated missile silos near one of my caches

I had to visit 8 places: five of them were single caches, two of them were a 2-parter multi and another one a part of a large multi, other parts of which I hope to collect over the next few months. The weather was fantastic, mild and sunny with a slight breeze, the traffic was not too bad on the buses, so I started my hike from the highest village in those mountains about 8:30am.

Lovely bunch of autumn crocuses

The first two were quite easy, the third was an abandoned Russian rocket base on top of a mountain a long way off and once there the jungle that had grown up since it was abandoned was not easy to get through. Unfortunately, that one was not there. I had to jump through lots of hoops before the owner gave me the password. I don't think it was where it was supposed to be, although my arms were not long enough to reach it if somebody pushed it a long way in.

Signs of active forestry works everywhere

After this cache I had to descent on a really steep, windswept bit of forest onto the correct path. That descent gave my right thigh a serious bit of pain, which is still with me. To have a rest and my sandwiches I found a really nice big meadow with a bench under a wild pear tree. Once I finished I carried on and found the place where my next cache was. Unfortunately, the coordinates were way out and the terrain positively lethal, so I turned back. Since then I found out that I must have stood right next to the place where the cache was, but due to the inexact coordinates I was thinking that it was another 15 metres below me,  so I stopped risking my neck on the very steep, dangerus, rocky slope and therefore I missed it. Eventually, I managed to get the password from somebody, but I wish the coordinates were correct, because I like to find the box and stamp and write in the logbook.

One of many panoramic views to die for

After this cache came a really long and arduous descent again, but this time on uncleared and unmarked forest paths, that finally got me out onto a road about a mile off my route. Here I had a bit of luck and a nice young couple gave me a lift to the location of my next cache.  This was in the Bertényi Miklós Arboretum, which was lovely. Very well kept, nicely signposted and the cache itself was in the side of a ravine, which was exciting.

I took this hanging on a rock

After this one I had another rest by the bar in the Arboretum, where I bought two more bottles of water and ate my last banana. The walk down to the road by the river to catch my bus was about 5 more kilometres whichever way I went, so I decided to go East and take in another cache which had two parts.  Unfortunately this one was also missing. I found where it should have been, but the box was on the ground about 10 metres away. It had some little toys in it, but no logbook and therefore, no password. The cache owner didn't pick up, but finally I managed to talk to the club president, who looked up the password for me, so I could replace the box. I did that and then hightailed it down off the mountain to the bus stop.

The Arboretum map

The trip home was uneventful, although due to traffic disruption, the last leg had to be done by taxi. It cost me about £17 from Szentendre to the flat, which was a very reasonable price. I would not have been at home before midnight, had I not flagged that taxi down. I am glad I did.

A cairn in the middle of a ravine

Today I was hardly mobile. The lactic acid is very slow dispersing from my right thigh, but I still managed to hobble to our favourite local restaurant for lunch. In the late afternoon my friend Eva came by with my complementary T-shirt from the Hungaria Cup that I did all the English translation and correspondence for. We chatted for a while and then she went to her doctor's.

Visegrád Castle from my last cache

The meadow full of crocuses where I photographed the castle from

Tomorrow is another rest day, as Wednesday is another caching day with Mariann, my good friend.  Thursday we are going home, via the garage where Dusty is having his third yearly service.

A traumatic week

Last weekend was a brilliant one, as it usually is in Laci and Márti's company. We went out to Csobánka on public transport and they fetched us from the railway station. We had a second breakfast, which was great, but as I was already on a restricted diet for the colonoscopy the following Thursday, I had to miss some of the delicacies Márti had prepared. Then we left Roy with the computer and Márti and departed for the hike.

The Highwaymen's rocks

The reason why Márti wasn't coming was quite sad. She has had many niggles in the past year with her back, but lately it has become so painful that she will have to have an MRI and rest until then. So it was only Laci and I that took off to Dobogókő, although Márti played chauffeur, so that we would not have to go back for the car later. The weather was perfect and with the exception of a small, but steep uphill at the end, it was entirely downhill or level.

Pretty thistles

First cache was at the Highwaymen's Rocks, which were impressive. Having got that, we continued downhill into the valley, crossed the road and started climbing slightly on the other side.  That path went past a memorial to a fallen forester and a cave, until we got to the start of the steep hill, which led to two more caches.

Laci on Laci's knoll

The first cache was by a spring, which apparently has very nice taste and totally safe drinking water.  We filled our water bottles, had a swig and confirmed its great taste. The third and last cache was definitely the highlight of the trip. Its name was Laci's knoll, which was very apt. It consisted of a good few rock pillars, top of some we actually managed to climb. The panoramic view from the highest one was breath taking, but unfortunately there was a haze which made photography not at an optimum.

Muggins on the peak

Starting the descent to the nearest village we rang Roy and Márti and met them at the restaurant at the bottom. We had a lovely lunch. We stayed the night, as we usually do, and were ready for another hike when the weather forecast warned us of some rain coming.  On Sunday morning, however, it didn't rain, so Laci and I left, this time for a hike where we were to return to base, so we didn't need chauffeur. It was overcast, but nice and warm with a slight breeze. Until it started to rain.

The panoramic views from the lookout point

We definitely looked like a couple of drowned rats, and just as we dried after the first big shower, there came a second one.  Thankfully, that was a lot shorter, and we didn't get too wet.  The caching was interesting, although the last one was definitely gone as we found the right tree and the big hole in the tree, just the box was missing. Blue Mali, my good friends, whose cache it was, gave me the password to log it and said that he would have to go out there to replace it some time.

A pretty wild flower

After a quick lift to the railway station we departed and I must admit I am so very, very pleased that these two have found each other at their time of life. She is in her forties, he in his fifties and they look like two lovesick teenagers, which is touching.  I hope they will be together for a long time in great happiness.

A rare reasonably photogenic picture of me

In the meantime, some time before I broke a tooth while trying to crack a frozen hard chocolate bar. Happily, my dentist could squeeze me in on Monday morning, so I had an appointment at 8am. Town was a complete nightmare. Probably because of the rain, but also as that was the first day of the new school year. I was nearly late, but I was still earlier than the dentist herself. She was on the next bus after me. The tooth and its filling are a bit ancient and I will have to have an inlay. Another £300 gone again. I have to see her next Friday, by which time, hopefully, the inlay would have been made and she can put it in.

Lewis has just shoved Vettel out of the way

On Tuesday we watched Sunday's Grand Prix, which turned out to be an absolute classic. Monza can be a boring procession, but this one was anything but. The Ferraris dominated qualifying, so they were on the front row. Lewis was 3rd on the grid, but due to a first lap smash up Vettel got damaged, so Lewis was second. However, Vettel was fighting his way back to the front and Raikkonen, who was leading most laps, finally had to look after his blistered tyres and Lewis took him in a masterly move and won. He is now 30 or so points ahead in the championship, but as there are another 7 races left, anything can happen in the next 2 and bit months.

Roy's hand and wrist

My stomach in frightening close up

After these events, the rest of the week was unfortunately dominated by accidents, illness, doctors and hospitals.  Some of this was unexpected, like Roy slipping in the courtyard, falling over and hurting his left wrist and hand; others were scheduled, like my repeated gastroscopy/colonoscopy.

Roy's slip was really annoying, because it was mostly caused by an uncleaned courtyard with green slime on and a stupid neighbour blocking the only dry bit with her enormous house plants. Part of the responsibility was also Roy's, as going to the shop in your slippers and then politely going round the stupid plant into the slimy bit, instead of shoving the pot aside, was not one of his better decisions. Thankfully nothing broke, but I got fairly worried when all his fingers swelled up a lot in the first 24 hours.  Later I had them X-rayed and as that had not come up with anything untoward, hopefully he should be back to rude health soon.  The swelling is going down, but very slowly.  I suppose his years, in spite of him being a very sprightly 76 year old, don't help.  He'll have to be patient and wait for the swelling go down and the strength returning to his grip.

Small bit on the right is the polyp they took off

My repeated procedure had me visiting the hospital three times this week.  First to have a checkup from the anesthetist, next day to pop in for the prescription for the horrible stuff you have to take to clean your innards and finally, on Thursday, to have the procedure done. I am glad to report that other than an unpleasant reaction to the laxative, all went well and as I had several bagfuls of saline in my arm, even the nausea caused by the laxative went.

My lovely Dr. Demeter

Dr. Demeter is an absolute gem. He is really first class in his field, a nationally respected consultant in gastroenterology, but that is something you would expect. However, his nature, his manner and his lovely persona were definitely a great plus and made the whole thing this time a breeze. He has even taken pictures of my insides, which he then shared with us. That was seriously interesting, even fascinating. Even Roy, who is normally very squeamish about stuff like this, was glued to the computer screen where various bits of my innards appeared in full colour, accompanied by copious explanations from Dr. Demeter.

Better apple crop than last year

Currently we are now back in the village and we are both quite tired.  I think Roy went through a fair amount of stress in the last few days: first his accident then my discomfort prior to the hospital and then the procedure itself. So we hope that we can have a little rest this week, although the outstanding chores here are probably going to put an end to that.

Our gorgeous apples in close up

To be honest, they already have. Within half an hour of our arrival home we were both out in the garden mowing, pruning, watering, harvesting etc., etc. The grass was amazingly short, considering we were away nearly 5 weeks. The roses needed a severe prune, the apple trees a quick harvest and Roy even picked our white grapes today, and they are deliciously sweet.

The tractor jockey at work

One more thing has happened in the last few days, which is worth a mention. Stephen put a link (see below) on his FB page, in which he and his colleague, with whom he runs a series of cycling podcasts, are interviewing Gordon Ramsey about his triathloning and generally all things cycling. That was probably the best podcast I have ever heard in my life.  Fast and furious, very funny, unscripted gags galore and I nearly weed myself laughing all the way through it. Have a listen, you might enjoy it. Beware of the swearing, both Ramsey and Stephen are noted for it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpUkil8YQX4&feature=share

Stephen with Gordon Ramsey

Today, just before we caught the bus, I visited my hairdresser and for once, she really did as I asked. I always say: "Short please!"!, but this was the first time she really listened. I am almost as severely shorn as Roy is normally when he gets back from his barber. And that is done with shears!

A glorious view down the courtyard

I must go and have a nap, or I will fall off this chair.

The apple harvest so far

I have just got back from my nap, God that was lovely. I feel a bit more alive now.
That's all for today. Talk to you next week!