Hellingblut and the Hohe Tauern National Park

 Wednesday 26th June, Krumpendorf to Helligenblut (Hohe Tauern National Park).

We were up early as otherwise we would have to pay for car parking again after 8am. We used the adjacent public toilets to empty our loo and fill with water. Our destination today was the Hohe National Park via the Glossglockner National Park. We left Krumpendorf and followed the lake to the end. We took the 100 road, green route of course, and then dropped down to the 111 via a lovely mountain road. This time the mountains to the south were following the border between Italy and Austria. 

Mountains separating Austria from Italy

The route was so picturesque. We stopped for coffee near Hermagor and while Mike made the coffee Jacqui went to the field below which was a 'pick your own' strawberry field. Jacqui picked a small 500gm punnet - no facilities for Jacqui to make jam here. 

Strawberry fields

We then continued our journey driving north through the Iselsberg pass to Winklern were we stopped to pick up some maps from the tourist information centre. We were now on the 107 'The Grossglockner High Alpine Road'. It was stunning. We stopped for lunch where we saw a sign for a waterfall, the Jungfernsprung Falls. After our rolls we walked up to view the waterfall which was lovely. It is very hard to capture the power of the water as it cascades down the mountain.

Jungfernsprung falls

 This car park had a 'no motorhomes' sign for overnight parking so we decided to stop on a campsite in Heiligenblut.

Picturesque Helliganblut

 This was another picturesque mountain village with snow appeal mountains above. From here there was a 2 hour walk to the Gossnitzfalls. It was an easy trail through lovely alpine pastures and pleasant woods. The waterfall was very impressive, thundering noise and lots of spray.

Helliganblut Church

 We also passed Kachlmoor which is a swampy area formed due to an avalanche after the the receding of the late ice age, plasterze glacier (12,000 years ago). All along the trail were little notices forming 'Natura Mystica' they were all interesting notices about how important it is to accept biodiversity and protect nature. That evening we went out for a drink into the village but found everywhere deserted, spooky!

Our peaceful campsite in Helliganblut

Thursday 27th June, Hohe National Park.

Hohe Tauern National Park

It was a beautiful clear morning and looked good for a day in the mountains. We packed our lunch and paid the campsite fees and set off. We left  Helligenblut and set off for the Kaiser Franz Josefs Hohe visitors centre in the Hohe Tauern National Park.

Kaiser Franz Josef

 It was a beautiful drive up the mountains although we were a bit surprised to have to pay 33 euros for the toll road in the park. Our plan was to walk the Gamsgrube Trail which takes you along the route of the largest glacier in the Austria and the Eastern Alps, the Pasterze.

Pasterze Glacier

 It also gives wonderful views of the Grossglockner, the highest mountain in Austria at 3798m. There are also other peaks well over 3,000m. 

Mountain peaks in the National Park

Unfortunately the path was only open for a couple of kilometres which consisted of 5 tunnels through the mountain. We took the path and then retraced our steps back to the visitors centre and then decided to head down to the glacier itself for a closer look.

Pasterze Glacier close up

 The walk was marked difficult, for professionals only but Mike forged ahead and Jacqui followed. The trail was very steep and contained a lot of loose shale - down did not seemed to bad but Jacqui was a bit worried on how she would cope with the accent. The scenery was very desolate, large expanses of dirt, silt and stones littered the landscape where the glacier had been in the past. It was very interesting to see how much it had receded since 1980 with markers showing you previous levels at 5 yearly intervals. 

Walking on the Glacier

At the bottom, next to the glacier, you could occasionally here the glacier creek as it slowly moved down the mountain. 

Walking on the Glacier

The other highlights of the day were the beautiful flowers including 'spring gentians' the marmots which hibernate 6-7 months each year but were out enjoying the sunshine and seeing the Ibex briefly on top of one of the closer mountain tops. 

Waiting for Jacqui to catch up

Spring gentians

Cheeky marmot

We walked for 5-6 hours and were pleased to get back to the van at about 4.30pm. We continued on the Grossglockner High Alpine Road and were surprised to see a lot more snow on the other north facing side. We followed the road down through deep areas of snow to Zell de See which Jacqui had last visited skiing 25 years ago and we found a suitable overnight camping spot near a sports centre where we could stay the night. We then drove round the lake and visited a few camp sites for ready for tomorrow's night stop over.   

Leaving Hungary for Graz and Worthensee

Monday 24^th June

Lake Balaton to Graz

We packed up but decided to have a coffee before we left so it was nearly 12 before we were on the road. It was a very windy morning and so it was also raining heavily. The rain stayed with us all day and the temperature had dropped by about 10C. Not a good omen as we left Hungary for Austria.

The roads were good if a little wet and we made good time. We decided to stop for lunch and both had a Hungarian goulash as it would be our last chance. The goulash tends to come either as a soup in a ‘kettle’ or as a stew normally with dumplings or noodles.  We had the latter and it turned out to be a very filling meal. It also used up most of the last of our Hungarian Forints and we were left with the equivalent of about £30 for fuel.  We wanted to fill up before we crossed the border as fuel was more expensive in Austria.  For the same reason we also did a shop at Tescos and were rather surprised to see a large elephant next to the store.  It turned out to be with a travelling circus and it looked as pleased as I did to be getting soaked in the rain.  Although our shop was just for basic things we also stocked up on some Hungarian wine which has been rather tasty.

We crossed the border with no formalities at all at Furstenfeld. In fact there was no one there so I just waved our passports at the empty kiosk.  Neither were there any queues of lorries which had met us at other border crossings perhaps there still remains a bit of Austro-Hungary which is why no-one bothers to check anything. We had our Austrian vignette so were set to go.

Our first stop in Austria was at Graz. It was still raining when we arrived late afternoon but we needed to stretch our legs so we put on waterproofs and set off.  Graz is Austria’s second largest city. It was a real mixture of Baroque and modern designs. This was typified by the Kunsthaus Graz which is a contemporary art space.  It has been described as a submarine and as a slug. I prefer the slug view.  

We walked through the City centre with its commercial streets and up the wooded path to the Schlossberg which had once contained the city’s fortress. This was razed to the ground by Napoleon but the medieval clock tower still remains and was duely photographed. From here we walked back down a winding staircase to the very fast flowing river Mur where we could see the Murinsel. 

 This is an artificial island cum bridge made of glass concrete and steel and was designed by the New York artist Vito Acconci. We made our way back to the van and decided we would stay in Graz for the night but we moved a little further out from the centre but still on the banks of the River Mur.

Tuesday 25^th June Graz to Worthensee

We were pleased to see that the rain had stopped although the weather was not as warm as we had been used to.  After breakfast we headed off to Klagenfurt and then to Worthensee.  The drive was lovely – so typical of Austria where even the fields appear to be well groomed.

As the weather was not brilliant we decided it would be great day for a cycle. There is a 50km cycle path around the lake we decided to tackle that aware that it would take most of the rest of the day.  We found a good car parking spot at Krumperdorf just a few miles outside of Klagenfurt and adjacent to the lake. We packed a lunch and some water along with our waterproofs and set off  along the R4.  We made good time at were at the end of the lake at Velden by 2pm. I wanted to stop then for lunch but Mike wanted to keep going so we agreed another half an hour. However somehow we lost the R4 and found ourselves on the R1 which goes out to another lake south of Worthensee on the road to St. Jakob im Rosental. We stopped just pass Rosegg realised we weren’t going to pick our route up without back tracking and had some food. It was now 3pm!  As we headed back to the R4 the heavens opened and we got soaked. We realised that we had picked up the R4 but were now going back in the direction we had started off in. As we were now thoroughly wet we decided to just get back to the van asap and we were back there by 4.30pm – 3.5 hours after we had started. We were both a little disappointed that we hadn’t made it right around the lake but we had cycled quite hard and must have covered at least 40km. 

Typically once back at the van the rain stopped and the sun shone for the rest of the evening. After a cup of tea and a bit of a rest we had a gentle walk to admire the lake further before heading back to the van for spaghetti bolognaise. It’s the first time I have made something other than salad for supper for a good few days and we both enjoyed the meal.

Lake Balaton

18th to 23rd June 2013

Unusually for us we haven't moved very far over the past few days. On Tuesday we packed up the van and left Budapest and headed out to Lake Balaton where we understand most Hungarians spend their holidays. It was our intention to find somewhere good to stay so that Jacqui could catch up with some Keele work as some deadlines were looming. After two to three hours of very hot driving conditions we turned off to stop for some lunch. We saw lots of people cycling in their swimwear all heading off in one direction. We followed and found ourselves in a grassy park from which a floating pontoon had been built so that you could access the lake without wading through the mud at the edge. Jacqui had a quick dip to cool off and then we sat down to eat under rolls in the shade of the trees. We could have spent all afternoon there but we did want to find somewhere to stay for the night so with ice creams in our hands we made our way back to Buster and soon  found ourselves on a large campsite at Balatonfured. This 'Balaton village' is on the quieter north side of the lake and although it was a large campsite it was still early enough in the season for it to be less than a quarter full. The campsite was set right against the edge of the lake and being a large campsite it offered lots of watersports (which we didn't need), large swimming pool and boasted it was the most eco/C02 neutral camp site in the world. Although we noted most of the other campers were using the lake to swim in. We had found a lovely shady spot to park Buster in and the rest of the afternoon we just relaxed glad to have some respite from the heat.

The following day Jacqui got up early and was working before 7am. Mike not to be outdone cleaned the van which had got very muddy when driving through the recent thunderstorms and then he did a large shop using the bikes. he came back looking very hot. By then the van had heated up a lot as well and jacqui wanted out so we spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool (which was a much better temperature than the lake for swimming in).


 We explored the campsite and were intrigued to see a zip wire/pulley system that was used to tow people on waterskis, wakeboards etc without the need for a motorboat. There was a large circuit that went out into the lake for 2-300 metres. I should think the whole circuit was a couple of Km. It looked great fun to do and was also fun to watch as this was where most people fell off!  We had a BBQ for supper as it was too hot to cook in the van (chicken kebabs with salad) and then walked down to one of the bars where Mike had ice cream for pudding and I had a pancake.




The night had been very sticky and we had not slept well so Jacqui got up even earlier and started work shortly after 6am so that she could get a few hours done before the van got too hot. Five hours later Jacqui was melting (it was 38C) and we both went to the pool for a dip before lunch.  We went back there after lunch and then when the pool closed ridiculously early at 4pm we got the kayak ready and headed down to the lake.

We had to manouvere around the many adults and kids who were swimming/playing in the lake.  We had not used it to swim in so far because the water was so warm it was not very refreshing so we preferred the pool. But it was good to take the kayak out on as there was a lovely cooling breeze. We paddled off to see the waterskiers in action again and generally mooched around on the water. On the way back Mike jumped overboard and swam back in leaving me to bring the kayak home.  That night was very hot again and we repeated our BBQ of the previous night.  We sat outside till quite late in our swimwear and then had a shower to cool ourselves off before bedtime.

Friday was a repeat of the previous day. Jacqui again got up early and worked for a few hours. We then went by the pool till it closed and then put the kayak on the lake paddling off in the opposite direction towards the marine where there were many small yachts moored. There were quite a lot of boats on the water but there was so little wind they were not moving very fast. That night we didn't bother to get the BBQ out and just had salad. If it wasn't for the cooling beer and ice creams I am sure the weight would be falling off us.

After four nights here we felt we had better move on although it was still our intention to stay near the lake for another couple of days. Lake Balaton is the second largest lake in Europe outside of Scandinavia so there was still plenty to see.  It felt a mistake as we packed up to go.  It was so hot in the van that driving was not that comfortable. We drove for about 60 kilometers and ended up at another campsite near the village of Vonyarcvashegy. On the way we saw various locals selling their produce and we bought tomatoes, cucumbers, spicy pale green peppers and an enormous bag of cherries. The cherries had been sitting in the sun and were so hot that when you bit into them their juice spurted out - delicious.  We had considered wild camping but to be honest with the high temperatures it was lovely to have a shady spot for Buster and to have easy access to the lake and to proper showers which we were using about three times a day plus when ever we got out of the lake. This was a smaller campsite and was a lot more 'natural' we have had lots of birds singing their hearts out, seen green woodpeckers and some large terrapins wandering around. That night we decided to go to the camp restaurant for food. We were going to have a Hungarian dish but found out that they had only a limited menu available. We both had a pleasant chicken dish washed down with some good local white wine. We were still sitting outside on the terrace when they came to close up but they didn't mind us staying so we carried on chatting to each other.  As we left we could tell the wind had got up and we saw some lightening flashes but at this point no rain. Later at about 11.30pm the storm arrived and we had to rush outside to get the awning down before it blew down and to bring in our rugs and other bits we had left outside. We weren't too sure the insurance company would believe another storm disaster story and fortunately everything was in place before any damage was done.



The air felt much fresher and the temperature had dropped by about 10C by the following morning. It was cool enough for us to consider a cycle ride.  There is a cycle track that goes all around the lake; it is about 200km long but we were only going to cycle a few km to the town of Keszthely. This is one of the largest towns around the lake. We left the cycle track and headed through a shady park which contained a statue of Bela Bartok, went up Kossoth Utca which was full of cafes, buskers and tourists and up to Festetics Palace. This was a beautiful building founded by Gregory Festetics in 1745. Our guide book tells us it attracted the leading lights of Magyar literature from the 19C on-wards but today it houses a couple of museums with a palm house in the garden.  We ate our lunch in the shade in the garden as despite the cooler start to the day it was now quite hot again. After cycling through the town we our way down to the lake where their were various boat tours etc. It all looked very picturesque.  We cycled along the lake for a bit before picking up the cycle track that led back to the campsite. 

 It was lovely to have been out on the bikes again. The rest of the afternoon Mike sat by the lake reading his book and Jacqui typed up this blog. She was interrupted a few times by a large rustle in the bushes in the bank on opposite.On investigation it appeared that the terrapins were attempting to climb the bank and kept rolling down.

Oh and one more thing check out this sign on the campsite which is asking you to keep the sinks clean after washing up.  It is the first time we have heard of a constipated sink. How we love translation!

Budapest

Saturday 15^th June

We were keen to back on the road early and to leave Romania for Hungary. In the past few weeks we have visited two countries we have never been to before (Bulgaria and Romainia) and Hungary would be our third. The population of all three of these countries is significantly lower than that of the UK and we have realised how overpopulated our little island is.

 We stopped for our usual morning coffee just passed Drobeta-Turnu Severin on the edge of the Danube which here forms the border between Serbia and Romania.  All signs of last night’s storms had disappeared and it was a beautiful morning to sit in the sun and drink coffee. However we needed to keep driving and so we headed on north to Timisoara.

Timisoara is famous for the role it played in the overthrow of the Ceasescu regime. A local Hungarian minister stood up for the rights of his local community.  When the police came for him on December 16^th 1989, his parishoners barred their way. A 5-day battle ensued which gave inspiration to the people of Bucharest.

We only had time for a short visit here and we went to the attractive Piata Victoriei with its flower beds and fountains. There were also a lot of cafes and many of these had ‘misting’ systems in place to cool down the air and their customers. Mike and I tried a couple of times to get under them to cool down. At the end of this area was a huge Romanian Orthodox Cathedral. We went inside but there was a wedding service being performed and we did not want to intrude too much.

We rescued Buster from his very hot car park and headed to the Romanian:Hungarian border town of Nadlac. Somewhere along this route Mike was pulled over for speeding. We were issued with a penalty notice which we think was a verbal one but we did not understand what was being said to us or what was written down. The policeman spoke no English other than ‘go’ once he had completed his paperwork. So we went. We wondered if it had been logged on some computer system and we would have to pay a fine at the border but we crossed over without any problems.  We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.  Once over on the other side we wanted to get ‘legal’ immediately so we bought a motorway vignette. (Just as well as we spoke to a German couple later who were fined 150 Euros for not having one).  This caused some confusion as we were asked if we wanted a vignette for Austria too. We did, so we said yes and the woman duely marked it with todays date. The problem being we would not be in Austria for another 10 days by which time it would have expired. With a lot of gesticulating we got our message across and the vignette was reissued.

Kecskemet

Across the border we headed off for Szeged. This was a lovely town with a wide river flowing through it. Along the banks university students were having BBQs and there were families paddling in the waters.  We parked in a car park next to a large open air swimming pool. It looked very inviting but it was nearly 8 o’clock so I assumed it would be closing soon. That evening we wandered around the centre of this vibrant well kept town and then stopped at a restaurant for a beer and glass of Hungarian wine before heading back to the van for the night.

Sunday 16^th June

 There are obviously no problems with ‘wild camping’ in Hungary either as no one disturbed us during the night. We left after breakfast as we were keen to get to Budapest.  A heatwave had now hit central Europe and the temperature was in the high 30s. Even with the windows fully open we were very hot.  However the towns and villages we passed through were lovely as was the countryside. We stopped off at Kecskemet. Which was a lovely Hungarian town. It was a Sunday morning and there were lots of families walking through the park where a band was playing. We had a coffee here and set off again. We were crossing the great Hungarian plain and everywhere looked very well kept.  We were surprised to see Tescos in Hungary – the first for many months so we stopped for a few supplies. Many things were very cheap e.g. bread rolls at 3p each. 

 

We arrived in Budapest around lunchtime and successfully negotiated our way to the Centre. We found a shady parking spot to leave Buster (it was a good job that we had arrived on a Sunday as there was plenty of parking in the City Centre.) at the bottom of Castle Hill and walked up in the searing heat. We were aiming for the Tourist Information office which was supposed to be near the Mattias Church. When we eventually found it, it was closed and didn’t look like it was going to open again in a hurry. However the Church was beautiful. it has been built in a neo gothic style and it has a lovely colured tiles roof that sparkled in the sunshine. I read that Franz Lizts Hungarian Coronation march was played here for the first time during the coronation of Franz Joseph and Elizabeth in 1867.  In the square near the Church is the equestrian St. Stephen statue. St Stephen was Hungary's first king. There were lots of other medieval buildings up on the Hill as well as ruins of a church that was destroyed in WWII. However  the best part from being up on the hill was the fantastic view across the Danube to the magnificent parliament building.  Mike just about managed to keep me going as I find it difficult when it is very hot to do anything useful. 

We headed back to the van and were able to pick up an internet signal so we were able to research a place to stay and found an appropriate campsite on the other side of the Danube in Pest. Did you know one side of the Danube has the town of Buda and on the other side lies Pest.  We headed off for Haller Camping and it turned out to be a good site having all the facilities we needed including free laundry.  It was also a convenient site for us to cycle back into the Centre tomorrow to do more exploring.  We parked next to a friendly Dutch couple and shared our travel stories.

Monday 17^th June

The temperatures were already well into the 30s when we were having breakfast. Jacqui was worried about the heat but we decided that cycling was probably our best method of transport and getting around the city. We packed plenty of water and our swimming stuff and headed off. We had planned to take in the sights of Gellert Hill, the Citadella and the Royal Palace on the Buda side. The cycle in was great as we created our own breeze. We cycled over the river and then had a very steep climb up to the Citadella. At the top where we stopped for a breather I asked Mike if my face was very red. He replied ’oh is it you I thought I was talking to a tomato’ I was very hot! However once again we did have fantastic views of the City.  It is rather lovely. We cycled down and along the river for a bit as Mike wanted to go up to the Palace again as we had only seen it briefly yesterday. The Royal Palace is massive and now also contains the Hungarian National Gallery and the Budapest History museum but the hot weather had drained any interest in visiting museums. In fact I decided to stay at the bottom by the river under some very pleasant smelling lime trees to wait for Mike to revisit the palace area. I just gave him my camera and told him to take some pictures for me.

   Once reunited we set off across the river back into Pest to see the beautiful Parliament buildings. Actually they looked better from a distance as there was a lot of construction work going on around them.

We continued our cycle around the other sights in this area, going past the Soviet memorial and down to Freedom Square where there were teenagers dancing and little kids playing in the fountains. unfortunately no adults were under the fountains and I was soo hot but I decided to join them anyway and went for a quick dip under one of them. The other landmark in this area is St Stephen's Basilica. Our guide book states that on August 20th St Stephen's mummified hand is paraded around the streets and the rest of the year it is on show in a side chapel. We didn't bother to check this out! We then headed off to the Szechenyl Baths. This is one of Europe’s largest spa complexes and was the perfect place to spend time in Budapest when the temperatures were hitting 40C.  We had a lovely time there trying out all the different thermal pools and the swimming pools. Mike’s only disappointment was that he did not see anyone playing chess on floating boards (one of the things it is famous for) but we did see some playing cards.

We left at 7pm and the temperatures were still around 38C but the cycle back was quite flat and it did not take us too long to get back to the van where we could sit and enjoy the warm evening.