Lake Bohinj

Monday 13 June

The first order of business this morning was to drive to the nearby town of Bohinjska Bistrica to find a pharmacy.  After a short hobble around the town, we found the pharmacy and purchased some sterile gauze, a bandage and tape.  We also stopped at the supermarket and bought some plastic bags so that I could have a shower without getting my foot wet.  That accomplished, we headed back home so that we could change the dressing on my toe.  I was quite pleased to find that it didn't look quite as bad as I first thought although the entire right side of the nail has been detached from the nail bed so it is going to be a nuisance for a while.  However, I am walking more easily today so maybe it won't be too bad.

We then decided to take a boat trip on Bohinj Lake.  It departs about 700 metres from where we are staying and makes its way across the lake to a small town called Ribcev Laz.  The main attraction here is a church and a small stone bridge which crosses the stream at the end of the lake.

Our guide on the boat, gave us facts which we thought we would share with you:

Name:  Bohinj Lake - or in Slovenian, Bohinjsko Jezero
Length:  4.1 kilometre
Width:  1.2 kilometres
Depth:  45 metres
Water temperature:  Freezing in winter to 22 degrees in summer

Because of the number of streams running into the lake and the fact that the area has high rainfall throughout the year, the water in the lake turns over 3 times per year.  This also partially accounts for the fact that the water is so crystal clear.  The other reason for the clarity of the water is that it runs over limestone and so there is very little sediment to cloud the water.

The tourist boat that plies the lake was made  in Germany 50 years ago.  It has an electric motor as the Slovenian government has outlawed all petrol driven engines from the lake, which makes it a very quiet and serene place to be.

The scenery is awe inspiring.  Because the lake is so still, the mountains and trees are reflected in its waters and on the shores, trout can easily be seen swimming about.  Here are some pictures we took on the way there and back. 

Tomorrow we leave for Stuhlfelden in Austria and as beautiful I expect the scenery to be as we drive through the Alps, it will have to be very special to beat this place!

The best laid plans.....

Sunday 12 June

It is now 10:30am and I'm sitting here on our balcony while Derek has gone for a bit of a walk to explore.  The reason I'm here and not walking as well is because I very cleverly managed to kick my toe on the shower door track this morning and I've lifted one side of the nail  right out of the nail bed on the big toe of my left foot.  It didn't bleed all that much but Dr Derek had to do some emergency first aid by using one of his (clean) hankies as a bandage.  I will definitely lose the nail and walking very far is out of the question for the next few days which is such a nuisance.  I've just got to make sure that I keep it clean so it does't become infected.  Luckily my sandals are OK to wear with my makeshift bandage as it is the only footwear I have with open toes.  There is a pharmacy in a nearby town but won't be open until tomorrow so will have to make do with the hankie bandage for now.




Julian mountains



Walking track to Sap Savica (Savica waterfall)

One of the rivers flowing into Lake Bohinj



Pension Stare


However, if it had to happen anywhere, at least I've picked a very beautiful spot to do it in.  From where I am sitting I can see ash trees and fir trees plus there is constant bird song to listen to including the occasional cuckoo.  The cable car is working this morning and I can watch it gliding up the side of the mountain.  It was quite cloudy first thing this morning but the peaks have now cleared and I can look across the lake to the other side of the valley.

This afternoon we took the cable car up Vogel mountain.  The cable car lifts its passengers 1,000 metres in 5 minutes which makes it one of the fastest in the world.  There is a hotel at the top (which is only open in winter) and a cafe which was open to feed the summer tourists.  I couldn't hobble very far so we only stayed long enough to have some lunch and then took the next cable car back down again.  The views were spectacular and even though I have problems with heights sometimes, we both thoroughly enjoyed the short ride.  The pictures speak for themselves.

Slovenia

Saturday 11 June

We had a sad start to the day as we had to say goodbye to Daniel, Amanda and Iago (the dog).  It has been wonderful to be able to spend so much time with them and the next time we will see them is on their return to Australia in a couple of years time, except on Skype of course. 

We set our GPS for Bohinj in Slovenia and headed off.  We decided to use the toll roads as that was the quickest way to go but even so, the journey took us about 5 hours.  We stopped at a service station just over the Slovenian border to fill up with petrol and, just as importantly, to buy a toll pass for the car.  The cheapest we could get allowed us to use the toll roads in Slovenia for 7 days at a cost of 15 Euros.  At the border of each country we enter, we will have to buy a new toll road pass.

We made a quick stop at Lake Bled and had a walk around the lake and then carried on to Bohinj. 



Church on island in Lake Bled



Bohinj is only 10kms from Lake Bled but it took us 20 minutes to drive as the road is quite narrow and windy.  The place where we are staying is very nice and we have a view of a lake from our balcony.  We went for a walk beside the lake before dinner and the water is so clear that fish can easily be seen in the shallows. 

Pensione Stare at Bohinj

Lake Bohinj

Lake Bohinj

The area is designated as a national park so while there are a few accommodation places around, the traffic consists of either hikers or bicycle riders.  We are surrounded on 3 sides by tall cliffs which are mostly covered with trees but I would imagine in winter, everything would be covered in snow.

Dinner and breakfast are included as part of our accommodation package and it looks like we are going to be very well fed.  Dinner tonight was four courses with the main being fresh trout caught from the stream that runs into the lake.  Everything was beautifully cooked.

Tomorrow we plan to do some hiking to a nearby waterfall and also we are going to check out a cable car which runs to the top of one of the adjacent hills.

Early to bed again, as we were both pretty tired - not only from the drive but also because the 27 Slovakian cyclists had been partying at one of the bars on the lakeside at  Balaton last night and got back to the guesthouse after midnight and woke everybody up with their shouting and music.  The owner was very apologetic this morning.

Badacsony

Friday 10 June

After a slow start this morning, Daniel, Derek and I drove for about 20 minutes to reach the national park at Badacsony.  Amanda's essays are due by midnight on Saturday and as the internet connection is a bit unreliable, she decided to stay behind again and get as much done as possible.

After a quick stop at the tourist information centre to pick up a walking trail map, we drove up to the car park at the beginning of a four kilometre nature trail up the side of an extinct volcanic core which rises 436 metres above Lake Balaton.  There are much longer walks that could be done but we decided that four kilometres was enough for us to do.  Just as well really, as the first two kilometres were straight up and mostly steps ranging from little baby steps to giant steps that were a bit of a stretch for my short legs!

There were beautiful views of the lake to be seen at our frequent rest stops and we were all looking forward to the view from the top.  After about an hour, we finally made it to the top to discover that the wooden lookout tower was falling to bits and the first half of the stairs were missing and as the trees were still pretty tall, we couldn't actually see anything much at all.

We decided to take a different path on the way down that seemed to make its way through a valley which we thought would be a bit more interesting than taking the steps straight down again.

It probably took us the same amount of time to get back to the car but it was a lovely walk through quite heavily wooded areas and we also came across what seemed to us to be the remains of a village at the bottom of the valley.  There had been a stone quarry in the valley which had closed some time in the 1950s so we speculated that the village may have been housing for the quarry workers.

We were home again just after 4 o'clock and certainly felt we had earned our dinner.  The waitress told us they were expecting a group of 27 cyclists in that night so the place was going to be full up. 

The cyclists started arriving over a period of about 20 minutes starting at 6pm and seemed to belong to a Slovakian cycling team so they were quite a way away from home but they all seemed in pretty good spirits, so good in fact, they were toasting each other with shots of some sort of white spirit before they had even put their bikes away.

We were pretty tired after our walk so it was early to bed for us.

Szigliget fortress

Thursday 9 June

After all the beautiful weather we have had so far, we woke this morning to gray skies and rain.  Amanda decided she needed to put some more time into her studies, so we left her sitting on the terrace and headed off to Szigliget fortress which is about 20 minutes drive away.

Eldorado Fogardo terrace

View from the terrace down to the lake

The countryside is so green and there is obviously no shortage of water around.  The areas of Hungary that we have passed through are essentially agricultural with the main crops being sweet corn and wheat.  Cherry trees grow by the side of the road and at this time of year are laden with ripe fruit.

Our first sight of Szigliget was from the road and it was quite impressive to see the ruined fortress sitting on top of the hill.  We wound our way up the hill to the parking area and then donned our raincoats and set off up the cobbled pathway.

There has been quite a bit of restoration work done over the past few years and there are wooden steps and ramps to enable sightseers to get to the very top.  There were magnificent views to be seen over Lake Balaton and the Tapolca valley although it was very windy and wet and not too comfortable.

It was lovely getting back into the car and warming up.  From there, we drove south west to Kesztelly to have a look around the town.  The rain was easing so it was more pleasant walking around.  After a quick lunch, we walked up the main pedestrian boulevard to have a look at Festetics Palace.  The construction of the palace commenced in 1745, built at first on the foundations of a ruined castle, and tripled in size over the next century.  My favourite room would have to be the library which is housed in quite a large room with floor to ceiling timber shelving.  There is also a little hidden door leading to a smaller reading room.  The palace was very busy with lots of school children being taken on guided tours. 

Fireplace in one of the hallways

Library

Library

Reading room

Secret door

Main staircase

We got back here again by about 3 o'clock, just in time for an afternoon snooze.

Lake Balaton

Wednesday 8 June

Since our last post:  On Monday, Daniel and Amanda took us into Nyiregyhaza to buy our train tickets for the following day.  There was a lot of pointing and basic Hungarian/English happening but eventually we ended up with tickets to Budapest departing at 9:26 the following morning.  Now that we had our tickets in hand, we could relax.  On the way home, we stopped in Nyirbator at the mineral springs for another swim.  It is very relaxing.  Then we visited a supermarket with Daniel's recipe book before going home where Daniel made a goulash for us. 

We were up bright and early on Tuesday morning in time for Daniel to drive us to Nyiregyhaza to catch our train.  We made it in plenty of time and after a bit of advice, we found our way to platform 8 to catch  the train.  The train was only 15 minutes late in arriving which, although it caused us a few anxious moment, we had been warned could happen.  The train was very comfortable and there were only a few people in our carriage.  As the weather was mostly clear, we enjoyed the scenery through the large windows. 

Stations are often colourful, with flower beds on platforms

Public housing in a larger centre

The journey should have taken 3 hours to get to Budpest however ...... we were about 2 hours into the journey when the train suddenly slowed and came to a complete stop.  We asked the train conductor what the problem was and the best she could convey is that it was a "technical problem".  The technical problem took an hour to fix but eventually we were on our way again. 

At the unplanned stop - were bikes to be the backup solution?

Then we came to an area where there had obviously been very heavy rain so consequently the train slowed down to about 10kph.  So when we eventually arrive at Keleti station in Budpest it was 1:50 which made the journey 4 and a half hours long.

We decided to walk to the hotel rather than take a taxi or go by the metropolitan underground system.  It took us about an hour to walk but as we had left most of our luggage with Amanda and Daniel, it was not an arduous walk.

The hotel was quite close to the basillica and in a pedestrian zone, so it was very quiet.  We were unable to get in to see the basillica on Tuesday as the funeral of a former president of the Hungarian republic was being held there that evening .  Security people and sniffer dogs controlled the doors to the basilica, and rows of chairs were set up in the square in front where crowds could see the  inside on large television screens. 

So we took ourselves off to dinner and then back to the hotel for an early night.

This morning, we managed to get into the basilica for a look around and it was quite magnificent.  As such buildings go in Europe, it is almost new.  It was built over 60 years, and began use in 1905.  The interior stone is wonderful, with the polish still bright on great pillars of red marble.

By the time we came out, it was pouring with rain.  We had planned to go for a walk along the Danube however with no umbrella or coats, we decided to head straight for the car hire place and pick up our car.

We left Budapest at about 11am this morning and drove south for a couple of hours with a quick stop for lunch.  It is now 9:15pm and we are sitting on a porch at the camping ground.  It is quite pretty with hanging baskets of begonias along the edge.  The camping ground is right on the edge of the lake and Iago the dog has already been in for a swim.

Beach is not the right word for the aquatic attraction that is part of Balaton's fame.  The shores are all rocky, and the water is crowded with suspended minerals (that is:  very cloudy).
We have no firm plans for tomorrow as yet, I imagine we will discuss the day's activities over breakfast.

Hortobagy National Park

Sunday 5 June

Daniel and Amanda returned from Miskolc at about 1pm this afternoon and after a quick lunch we hopped into the car and drove south-west for about an hour and half to Hortobagy National Park.

Hortobagy is the largest continuous natural grassland in Europe.  The national park was created in 1973 and is the country's largest protected area of 82,000 hectares.  It was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1999.

One of its aims is to preserve native Hungarian animals which were in danger of extinction.  The tours that it runs for tourists are aimed at educating people about the traditional animals and the work that is being done to preserve the genetic heritage pool so that sustainable numbers of these animals can be achieved.

The tour is for an hour and a half and takes visitors across the grasslands in a cart drawn by two horses.  Our first stop was to look at some Raczka sheep.  These animals are long haired and are either black  or white.  They are kept indoors most of the year as they don't tolerate the heat or the cold.  They lamb in December and the mothers produce one cup of milk per day with which to feed their young.

Our transport

We passed a number of barns, one of which housed the sheep and others were obviously used for storage and, I assume, housing for the shepherds.  Each of the buildings was topped with a lightning rod as the thatch is obviously very flammable and the region often experiences lightning storms.

Barn roof

Thatched barn

After seeing the sheep, we continued on and the next stop was a cart being pulled by four Hungarian Grey steers.  They are quite impressive animals, especially their horns which grow quite long.  The cattle are directed by voice commands only - we think the whip is used only for punctuation.



Hungarian Grey oxen

 Next on the agenda was a riding demonstration by horsemen in traditional Hungarian dress.  The first exhibition was one of the horsemen had three horses harnessed together in the lead, with two more behind where one might expect a chariot.  He stood with one foot on each of the two rear horses and proceeded to ride at speed in a circle around our carriage.


Horseback riding

 They then demonstrated how the horses had been trained to lie down on command and then to sit back on their haunches - something that is not a natural position for horses to be in.

We then trundled on and came across a small herd of the Hungarian Grey cattle.  Quite a few of the steers had bells on so the herd could be heard from far away.   We carried on and next saw a herd of water buffalo who decided not to be at all photogenic.  The water buffalo which are originally from Asia, were brought to Hungary in the 19th century and are kept for their meat, milk and cheese.

Our next stop was to look at a small number of native Hungarian woolly pigs.  The pigs come in 3 colours - black, white and red.  They seemed a tad aggressive and when I asked our guide about their social skills, she said that there was no way she would get into the field with them.




Woolly pig

From there it was back to our starting point and at approx AU$13 per head, we all thought it was really good value. 

It is our last full day in Mariapocs tomorrow so I think it will be a quiet one.