Steph outside the Heviz thermal baths. We spent several hours splashing around there, attracting occasional annoyed looks from the more sedate and elderly patrons.
Janos, Steph, Tobias and Pisti
Pisti, Steph, Tobias and Peter (a friend of Pisti's)
Hearty Hungarian lunch
Pisti had lots of edible delights in the garden of his villa, including a walnut tree. His villa is on the north shore of Lake Balaton, in a region called Badacsony-Tomaj (pronounced "Boddochon-Tommoy")
Walnuts on the tree
The building in the background is Pisti's villa.
A cute house in Badacsony-Tomaj.
In the region around Lake Balaton the trees were loaded with fruit. Hundreds of apples were just lying on the road.
Pisti told us that this church is actually quite modern, but built to look as though it's old.
Walking up to Badacsony hill.
View from part way up Badacsony hill
"Borrowing" a few plums from someone's tree
There are lots of natural springs around Lake Balaton. This one was half way up Badacsony hill.
Legend has it that if a couple sits on this stone on Badacsony hill, and faces away from the lake, they will be married within the year. We sat on it facing the lake, because getting married during the final year of Steph's PhD would be inconvenient ;-)
Janos and Pisti are just like two little boys when they get together.
Walking through the woods on Badacsony hill. It'd be wonderful one day to live near woods like this.
This rickety lookout was missing a few planks, but we risked it and climbed up anyway.
At the top of the lookout
Janos surveys the territory with his geologist eyes.
Look! Tobias suddenly grew into a giant!
Acorn (right) and gall (left). A gall is formed when an acorn is infected by parasitic wasp larvae. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gall_wasp
We managed to "peel" a walnut without breaking it. Tobs was so proud he took a photo.
Pisti demonstrating a traditional Hungarian nose-extender.
This tree is covered by a hops vine - the flowers of this plant are used to flavour beer.
Woods on Badacsony hill
Lake Balaton is huge, about 80km long and 10km wide.
This yellow sap of this Hungarian weed has been found to have anti-cancer properties. Janos likes to put it on his moles just in case.
Cycling around near Badacsony we came across an overgrown vineyard.
Tasty grapes!
Janos enjoys the sunshine and the grapes
Under-ground wine-cellar
View from one of the hills adjacent to Badacsony hill
Lizard in the undergrowth
This huge spider was on the handlebars of Steph's bike. We only noticed it when Steph got off the bike for a break. Lucky she didn't notice it while she was riding!
We walked up to the top of a hill where there were some people paragliding. Here's a video of the paraglider: http://www.videoegg.com/video/cUyIoP
Metallic green beetle.
Wildflowers
The lake cave in Tapolca. Tapolca is a city near Badacsony
