(Written Thursday August 16th)
The weather has certainly turned hot, thank goodness for air conditioning in the car. We left Budapest without any incident, even the traffic wasn’t too bad, heading for Eger via the town of Mezokovesd.
This is a town famed for it’s folk art, embroidery, costume, painted furniture, pottery… if it’s possible to decorate it, they do. We started at the Folk Museum and marvelled at some of the costumes in particular. There was a lady called Kis Janko Bori who was famous for her embroidery designs (she designed 100 different roses) and her little village house has been turned into a memorial to her work and life in her time.
In the houses around hers a small folk art community has grown up, so despite the heat of the mid day sun we went for a stroll.
John thought he was doing ok; we’d only bought a tablecloth and some honey cakes, when we came across a furniture painter. Apparently he was 4th generation; he learned furniture painting from his dad and egg painting from his mum. He obviously loved his work and it showed, the quality was superb. I think John did pretty well to get away with only 2 eggs, a little chest and a little stool, (mind you Maria did also get the web address). Luckily the doll maker was shut.
We made it to Eger safe and sound and found our hotel in the Valley of the Beautiful Woman, right in the middle of the wine cellars. The room is lovely, light airy, nicely furnished and with balcony overlooking the wine cellars. IT HAS NO PHONE? Also, although it is supposed to be in an internet Hotspot, that seems to be broken, however it does have fully functioning air conditioning. So we decided to take a siesta until the cool of the early evening and then explore the wine cellars.
We had a lovely time working our way along and sampling wines and eating bread and dripping (to clear the palate), I was a bit of a hit with some of the girls offering the wines. John made copious notes and we intend to come back tomorrow (with the car) and load up.
It will have to be in the afternoon ‘cos it’s harvest time and a lot of people are busy with the harvest in the mornings. We saw grapes being delivered by the skip load and being pressed.
The hotel has a lovely vine covered courtyard with a gipsy band, so we had a lovely leisurely meal before retiring for the night.
Breakfast on Thursday was lovely and then we headed off to Eger before it got too hot. We had a nice stroll round had a look at a church and the town centre streets,
stopped for some cake and drink at a cukrazda, then headed back to the hotel for a quick siesta.
I like this idea of spending the hottest part of the day snoozing under some vines with a nice cold glass of frocs (wine and soda). At the end of the afternoon we drove around our favourite cellars and picked up a few (!!?!!) litres of wine. We’re now looking forward to another nice meal (with wine) in the courtyard and then tomorrow it’s on to the Hortobagy (via Tokaj, apparently another wine area, in fact apparently the best and most famous wine area). Hopefully there’ll be internet access and I can post this.