A nice morning, the overnight rain cooled things down significantly and it was very pleasant outdoors. We had been invited for lunch by one of Maria’s cousins, so we strolled out to buy a nice bunch of flowers for the lady of the house.
We are only a couple of streets from the centre of Papa but the streets already have a lot of character, I don’t think they have changed for many, many years. I much prefer it to the newer more modern areas.
We had a lovely lunch, proper Hungarian food, and Maria had lots to talk about (doesn’t she always). I was starting to feel a bit bored, but then I made friends with young Hedi and had a nice chat with her. She was very interested in all my souveniers, bits and pieces I have collected on my travels. Maria gave Hedi one of her bears last Christmas so it was nice to catch up with him as well.
Later in the afternoon we went to meet another of Maria’s cousins (how many has she got?). She works in Ganna where there is the mausoleum of the Eszterhazy family.
A lot of stairs but fascinating, it is still in use, the last internment took place 7 years ago. The altar in the mausoleum is unique in that it has a figure of Christ on each side of the cross on the altar. When Mass is said, it is said by 2 priests at the same time facing each other, one in white vestments and one in mourning vestments, one dedicated to the living members of the family and one to the dead.Â
We then took a nice drive to Dobronte, a very attractive village. One of Maria’s highlights was seeing the grazzing goats (what is it with her and goats?)Â
… one of my mine was the rather picturesque ruined castle behind the cemertary
…and one of John’s was finding a stork’s nest with a stork in residence.
A nice day, polished off with a nice meal in the restaurant (Maria had strawberry soup??) and a drink of palinka in the bar.