Around Lake Balaton

I got up really early this morning and went to the sea. I had a great time clambering over rocks and avoiding getting wet. I came home with many pictures and an idea for today's photo blog, but then I got to thinking. Our trip to Hungary is slipping away into the mists. So I decided to rather document the time we spent around Lake Balaton. I will cover Budapest one day in the future. As always you can click on any picture to get it full size.

Club Dobogómajor is situated on the outskirts of the little spa town of Heviz. It's close to Lake Balaton, a huge 70km long lake near the Hungarian border with Austria. Our unit was very nice, on the third floor, we had a great view of the town in the distance .

Heviz itself is a picturesque little town. It has a single main street dominated by the town church
it's especially pretty in the evening . As in any resort town there are many stores selling goods to tourists . Never fear my family can always find stuff to buy. The public gardens in Heviz were all extremely well cared for and very pretty


Heviz is famous for its hot water lake and spa . The water is a constant 30 degrees, the outside air was considerably cooler in the early morning when I took the picture. We enjoyed a morning at the spa, the hot water, filled with lily pads, was soothing enough that even bwo took a dip .

Lake Balton itself is huge and surrounded by castles. We climbed up the castle at Szigliget and the view of the lake was spectacular . We enjoyed the sunshine on the mountain top . Surprisingly there was almost never anyone about in any of these castles . A little up the road from our hotel we exlored this weird wooden tower Entrance fees to all sites were usually minimal, it cost a $1.50 to get to the top of the tower.

One morning we took off to Vienna. All I wanted to see was the Kunsthistorisches Museum . It's a spectacular place and home to one of my favorite paintings, "The Towel Of Babel" by Pieter Breugel The Elder .

Foodwise, the vegetarians amongst us ate a lot of bread, cheese and potatoes, the carnivore ate a lot of goulash. We cooked a lot of our own food in unit's kitchen , and enjoyed interesting drinks and cakes (the Hungarian lemons are excellent) . We made our own seder complete with fake chicken soup and matza balls, check out our seder plate .

All in all we have a wonderful time. The Hungarians are friendly and kind to visitors, the country is beautiful, the weather was perfect and it wasn't even too expensive. We were sad to leave.