For the last 3 nights we have been wild camping at
Lake Balaton. One night at Balatonbereny (N46.71560 E17.32806) and 2 nights on the Tihany peninsula at Balaton wetlands besides Belsó-tó (inner lake) (N46.90857 E17.88792)
Balatonbereny is a sleepy little village near Keszthely, the capital of the lake. There are a couple of restuarants that are closed down this time of year and pretty much nothing else here apart from the beautiful lake. Our free overnight parking spot was lovely, with only a small patch of grass between us and the lake - plus our very own bench!
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| Sonny (the motorhome) enjoying his peaceful spot by Lake Balaton |
Balaton is a natural lake, 78kms long, 596 km² surface area and at its widest 12kms. It's only about 3m deep and you can wade out for for miles and still only be up to your waist! We gave it a miss though as the bottom is quite sludgy! We watched lots of yachts sailing on it and fishermen go out in their little wooden boats, as the lake is full of
carp, pikeperch, silver bream, eel and sabre-fish.
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| Standing on the muddy bottom of Lake Balaton! |
Before leaving Lenti we spent a day at the Thermal
Spa and Saint George Energy Park. It has
5 open-air and four indoor pools, spas and medicinal and wellness pools and a
restaurant/café in a 3500m2 complex – it is massive! The pools are all heated and range from 28°C to 38°C. The 40,000 year old
sodium-hydrogen-carbonated thermal water is used for the treatment of all sorts
of ailments. We spent a fabulous 4½
hours in here (cost us only €18 for 2 tickets).
Hopefully we are now cured of all ailments… ha, ha, if only!
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| Mel enjoying the outside pool - temperature was a whopping 38°C in this pool |
In the grounds is the George Energy Park, with its meeting
points of energy lines with beneficial effects.
Several intersection points can be found here belonging to the Earth
energy network. It was very stony underfoot, so Mel and I only walked around for a short while hoping to get injected with some energy!
According to bio energy nature therapeutic
practitioners, every disease proves to be the consequence of energy-lacking
states. These energy waves are supposed to restore the body’s energy balance
and induce self-healing processes, which restore physical and spiritual
balances. In ancient times these types
of earth lines were worshipped as saints and at the intersections of such lines
sacred places were built, such as Stonehenge. Lourdes. Fatima. Machu Picchu,
the Egyption Pyramids. Mmm, I'm a bit sceptical about it all if I'm honest.
Time
for the Hungary sticker to go on the motorhome map - Hungary is our 15th country since setting off in December 2016. It's a fairly big country but only has a population of 9,800, so hopefully that means there won't be a lot of traffic on the roads.
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| Another country, another sticker! |
The capital town besides Lake Balaton is Keszthely. In the centre of the town is the beautiful
baroque Festetics Palace, once owned by the Festetics family for over 200
years.
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| In front of the Festetics Palace |
When World War 2 broke out the family fled
and the Russian army moved in. Miraculously, the palace wasn't destroyed during the war, although some of the valuable items were looted. After the war all wealth of whatever nature was taken from Hungary, as
they were ruled over by the Russians and in 1947 Aristocracy was abolished, following the
declaration of the Republic of Hungary and the house became nationalised. It has been lovingly restored over the years and the rooms laid out how they used to be. The most
valuable part of the palace is Hungary’s sole intact aristocratic private
library with over 80,000 books.
They have people in every room to ensure nothing is
touched and no photos are taken but I did a sneaky one - tut! tut! I hear you say! However, the photo
doesn’t do justice to this magnificent room and the volumes of books it houses.
The Amazon House next to the palace houses the exhibition ‘Travelling
Aristocrats’ during 19th and early 20th century. With
lots of items and vehicles of travel, including this old Harley.
Men’s and Ladies travel luggage. Mel took one look at the ladies and said why
can’t you travel this light!
If you love museums then Keszthely is the town for you! We spotted museums for:
Cadillac cars, nostalgia, railways, dolls, toys, TV
and radio, torture, a parliament building of snail shells, erotic wax works, stoves and marzipan - a strange collection indeed!
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| Keszthely Central Square |
Leaving Keszthely, we headed around Balaton Lake to Tihany peninsula.
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| Panoramic view of Balaton Lake |
The little town of Tihany is lovely, with their intact folk houses.
Paprika House - the Hungarian’s love their paprika for their Goulash!
And beautiful views over the lake up by the Abbey
We took a walk around the wetlands and the Szarkad
Wood, that in parts have formed hot spring cones, as a result of the heat from
the hot molten rock from the volcanoes that were active in these parts a few
million years ago. We got a lovely view from the top of this rock over Tihany.
Sally x
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