Maribor and on into Hungary

Maribor in Slovenia has a lovely 'old town' which is also the thriving centre of the modern town

Like many towns abroad it still has its C&A. I wonder – if they had held on in UK a little longer, would they have successfully filled the gap nowtaken by Primark and the like? It seems strange that they can trade successfully in so many other countries but couldn't succeed in the UK.

Despite being having an extensive old town, it does have some very striking modern buildings around its fringes and a modern statue, on which I shall make no comment, but leave you to work out for yourselves what you make of it!

Maribor also has the world's oldest living vine, some 400 or so years old, authenticated by the Guiness Book of Records

After Maribor we set out towards Hungary, aiming for Heviz, near Lake Balaton. Lake Balaton is the largest lake in Europe outside Scandinavia, which seems (especially Finland) to have more than its fair share. We are staying on a campsite as Hungary has no Aires and wildcamping is not allowed. We cycled to Keszthely to visit Festetics Palace, a grand place owned by the same family for 7 generations until 1944; guess what happened then – it was taken over by the government – surprise surprise!! And is still held by the Hungarian government today. They are using some EU and 'local' money to enhance the palace and town as a tourist attraction (which it already is, but it could do with a few extra touches to make it what we are used to); however, with an entry fee of equivalent to £3.00 we were very happy to take our guided tour, albeit in Hungarian with English subtitles (explanations in each room).

We were most impressed to see the accuracy of the estimating for the project envisaged for Keszthely and the palace, which has been calculated to the exact number of forints

A Forint is worth £0.0027 – very slightly over ¼ of a penny. It is very impressive to be able to calculate the price down to the last 6 forints!!

Yesterday we spent a pleasant few hours in Heviz where we went for a swim in the thermally heated (slightly irradiated!!) water, in what is the largest natural thermally heated lake in the world. The temperature of the water was just right, being about the same as that found in the 'baby pool' in a swimming baths at home!! We are now completely cured of all rhumatic and similar pains and glowing slightly – whether with the effects of the warm sunny weather or with the radiation we will wait to discover! [or perhaps, as Frances suggests, with the effects of the local wine - £4.00 a litre in the restaurant at lunchtime]

We have spent this afternoon washing and cleaning Sally, who was looking a bit scuffy after nearly 4 weeks of travelling, and will continue on towards Budapest tomorrow morning.