Day 12 & 13 warming up as we move south and east to Romania

Day 12 & 13 Hot Hungary and on to A very hot Romania

Hungary had gone well to date – warm weather, nice people and all in all very beautiful...we packed up and as it’s never to early..we went to sample the ‘Tokaj’ wine.

Cellars chiselled out of the rock under the houses keep the wine at 10-12 deg C throughout the year, god knows how,but it does....the combination of the walls covered in mold, humidity at 95% and the temperature apparently makes for top notch wine....we tried a  random glass of their white which was all to similar to a weak sherry , not the best  ! lesson here is clear ...go to the supermarket and get the local wine as we did the night before...choice and price beats the singleton every time.

Hungary doesn’t have any real mountains – just the one above 1000m in height.. the east of the country is one massive fertile plain broken only by the occasional vast river – these rivers have huge levee’s ( massive earth banks either side of the water) built as a result of massive floods in the years gone by – top quality cycle paths that stretch for miles have been built on top which made for a cracking late afternoon ride followed by an evening of Hungarian beers and odd food.

Wednesday and we were off early down to the Hungarian border.....after a few km Charlie piped up that he was not sure where he had put mummy’s black purse,  a quick search of the van gave us a good indication that the boy had guilty knowledge – back to the campsite and the purse was on the grass right next to where we had left just 20 minutes earlier.

Romania was our 7^th border crossing and it was quite different , a proper border post as they were in the late 70’s as I can remember – we were certain that they would insist that Charlie went in the back of the van rather than between us in the front ...this is the law in most countries ( under 12’s no can do in the front)  in Europe but to date no-one had bothered to challenge us. The queue was unnecessarily long as they slowly looked through peoples papers ..the majority were Romanian cars so what it all was about I do not know. They liked the van, asked how many Km it had done and when it was made .....more confusion over ‘made in 2007, ‘ Brazilian import’  and only 50000km’ but they wished us all ‘have a nice day’ and we were on our way with Charlie still sat between us.

Romania is fantastic to date......we are in the North of the Country in the Maramures region full of horses, carts, peasants, hags ( Hot Fuzz), wizened crones, hayricks, sythes and small farms. Campsites in the ‘Ex-eastern’ block all have bungalows/huts for rent for pennies.....in the UK we would call them Yurts and charge everyone 80% of a hotel fee to experience ‘glamping’. 

We cycle down to the village to the ‘merry cemetery’    - an 80p entrance fee takes you into  a very different cemetery where many years ago a local carpenter decided to carve out individual crosses for those who had died to celebrate what they had done, how they had died etc.....the results are stunning when packed together ....if at times a little grim.

Road traffic accidents for the young are clearly plentiful in Romania and carefully painted pictures of ‘Dacia’s’ (a Romanian car maker)  about to impact a small girl or a carving/painting of a head on collision were more plentiful than you would expect. The Church is undergoing a full restoration – its wooden scaffolding structure in many ways as impressive as the church itself.


I love this 'miniature' effect on the camera I borrowed.

After the last 2 nights where we have been the only ones on the campsite this one is an international fest..a couple of Dutch campers, 3 Czech bikers, a German Landrover couple and us Brits plus some Romanian cows .which wander freely along the roads and in and out of the campsite.....

We opt to go authentic, eat in the campsite restaurant on the premise that we don’t often eat Romanian food...however it is all pretty grim ...it marginally beat the fired chunks of catfish we had last night in Hungary but all in all a lamb stew does need meat rather than knuckle and fat.

Day 11      Tokay ( H) to  Vasarosnameny (H)              89 km          Total   2302 km     

Day 12      Vasarosnameny ( H) to Sapantu (Ro)         158km          Total   2461 km