70th birthday trip, Friday 23 June; travel day 11/15

The weather, which has been absolutely glorious for the past 2 1/2 weeks, has broken and it has rained most of the day. But as we have been on a train most of the day, that wasn't a problem.

The hotel breakfast was lovely, and I rescued some hard-boiled eggs and paté and bananas to have later, although we couldn't make sandwiches as the beeswax wraps hadn't been washed. But we now have breakfast, and perhaps lunch. stuff for a couple of days!

It shouldn't take the whole day to go from Vienna to Jenbach by train, but we quite literally went the pretty way! I wanted to go on the Semmeringbahn to Graz, and then the SW discovered that the direct route from Graz to Innsbruck also went straight through the mountains and was very scenic, even though it did take 6 1/2 hours to do it.

It was, actually, a very pleasant ride, even though I did nap for a bit on the second leg. I don't know though, why Austrian and Hungarian "Inter-city" trains have to be quite so tatty - this one was made up of any old coaches strung together. Not nearly as smart or as comfortable as the Railjets!

I had been a bit worried about today, as I didn't know whether there would be any taxis at Jenbach, and if there were, whether they would be willing to go up to Pertisau (the last bus and train having long since gone). And I hadn't booked our accommodation through Booking.com (who didn't have any nice places), and had stupidly left the confirmation email on my computer at home, so wasn't 100% sure of it. But all was well, and we were just in time to get a meal in the restaurant. The food was good, but the service was dire - we won't go back.

Then it was time to explore our apartment, and honestly, I kid you not, it is much bigger than our flat at home. Can we swap? Huge sitting-room with dining annex, kitchen twice the size of ours, shower room and separate loo, big bedroom. Only thing is no chairs in the bedroom, and I do like to put my clothes over a chair at night!

It is raining! 

70th birthday trip, Thursday 22 June; travel day 10/15

We were finishing a late breakfast (fried tomatoes on toast, which the Swan Whisperer hadn't known was a thing, but is now totally converted!) when the landlord arrived and wanted to be paid! I hadn't realised we hadn't already done so. The SW had no luck setting up an IBAN to do this, so I did and he paid me back.

Anyway, our taxi turned up a few minutes early and we had half an hour to wait for our train. I wandered off into the very seaside-resort square behind (or perhaps in front of) the station where I got us each a coffee - quite the nicest coffee I had in Hungary.

Our train was pretty punctual, and we arrived in good time to change at Budapest Kelenfold, but I was a bit concerned as the train before ours was running 20 minutes late. However, it went through in time not to hold our train up, and we enjoyed the journey to Vienna, including a large beer each!

The quickest way to our hotel was a train to the next station, Matzleindorfer Platz, which was covered by our passes, so we did that, and then the hotel was just around the corner. 

The SW went out to have a quick look at the city, and I stayed in the cool and read the new St Mary's book that came out today. We tried to have supper in the hotel restaurant, but it appeared to be closed, so we ate in the bar instead. It was okay, but only okay. Hope the breakfast is better.

The room is great - lots of room, lovely view, and even a bath in the bathroom! First time we've met one of those! But why do hotels have either far too many pillows or not enough? This one only provides one pillow, and I know I could ask for another at reception, but I cba! I have my inflatable pillow which works well as an under-pillow. 

70th birthday trip, Wednesday 21 June

Today was always going to be a rest day, and I didn't realise quite how badly we needed one until we had it!

The Swan Whisperer went for a run this morning, while it was still cool - I went back to sleep the second he'd gone, and didn't stir until he came back, having stopped to do some shopping on the way. Sadly, some of the eggs he bought were bad, which is very rare nowadays. But we quickly changed our minds about having an omelette for lunch! Later in the morning the SW went to Lidl, quite a long way away, but "I'm not going to that Spar again!" and got rolls, ham, beer and ice-cream!

I, meanwhile, was having a very happy morning reading and dozing and doing puzzles on my tablet. I did get up and shower at some stage before lunch, I think.

Mid-afternoon, however, I got my second wind and the SW and I went for a really enjoyable swim in the lake. It's incredibly shallow, you can go about 200 metres before it even comes up to your waist so doesn't make for good swimming, but it was cool, and we spent a very happy 45 minutes splashing around, swimming a bit, floating a bit, and generally enjoying ourselves.

If the SW hadn't suggested we eat supper on the terrace, I'd have got straight back into my nightie after showering, but as it was, I did dress again. And we did eat on the terrace - it was cooling by then - and after supper I went down to the lake again to see if there were any bats, but I didn't see any and then a couple of people came down for a twilight swim, so I came away. 

70th birthday trip, Tuesday 20 June. Travel day 9/15

Photo: Robert Smyth

I am confused about how many travel days we have actually used! I thought it was 10, but may have miscounted, as the app says 9. Oh well, that's the right way round.

We discovered that one of our breakfast eggs had broken, so we had to share the last one between us, but we had a tomato, too. 

Our train left from Budapest Déli station, which was new to us. And, for almost the first time this holiday, it was on time. It was only a little over an hour to Balatonlelle, which is on the shores of Lake Balaton. 

The apartment is okay, very near the lake but feels rather far from anywhere else!  And, too silly, the landlady who let us in was wearing identical trousers to mine - Lidl's best from last year! What are the odds? 

The Swan Whisperer did go back into town to buy food, and of course we both wandered to the lake. He went for a swim, but I didn't want to.

We walked to a nearby restaurant, but it felt an awful long way there, and my main course ought to have been delicious, but was far too salty. I am very tired tonight, and just want a quiet day doing nothing tomorrow, although I shall feel guilty if I don't make my step count, and break my current streak of 20 days!

70th birthday trip, Monday 19 June; travel day 8/15

This morning we enjoyed breakfast on the balcony of our apartment before setting off to walk the couple of kilometres to the Puszta Animal Park. This is a sort of zoo/safari park, only you walk round it rather than drive. It had lots of traditional Hungarian animals, like grey cattle and mangalica pigs, and lots of ducks and geese. We had a quick cup of coffee before we started our walk round. It was thoroughly enjoyable. One of the nicest things, almost, was the wealth of insect life and plants that we used to play with as children, like burdock and barley-grass, that you never see nowadays in England. Lots of  wild flowers beside the road, too.

We had hoped to lunch out, but the place that might have done us a meal (not the restaurant we ate at last night) was closed, so in the end we got a couple of filled rolls from a nearby grocery, and topped them up with ham and tomato. Followed by a peach. 

Then it was time to go - Angela had kindly let us stay on until 14:30, and she arrived to say goodbye shortly after that. It was not a long walk to the station, although our train was (of course) about 15 minutes late. But still in plenty of time for the connection, which was also late! We were only about 10 minutes late arriving in Budapest, and then it was easy to find our trolleybus back to the hotel.

We stopped off at Lidl to buy some salad for supper and some bread for the morning, and then straight to the hotel. The SW popped out again to get some beer, and I had a shower, badly needed, and got into my night clothes. He has gone out for another explore - don't know how he can find the energy. I have none! Over 13k steps today! 

70th birthday trip, Sunday 18 June; travel day 7/15

This morning we firmly boiled eggs in the kettle, rather than face the revolting hotel breakfast! Then the Swan Whisperer made sandwiches - cream cheese ham and tomato - and we packed the bare minimum into our overnight bags and stuffed the rest into our suitcases. We checked out of the hotel, leaving our suitcases behind, and headed off to find the English church.

I am not sure we would have found it but - miraculously - the people sitting next to us on the tram were on their way to the church and we had only to go with them! God is so nice, sometimes. The actual chapel was upstairs, and quite difficult to find. The service was quite long as there was a baptism, and a farewell to a diplomatic family who were moving on, and a presentation to a couple of people who had been confirmed in Vienna last weekend.

After the inevitable coffee (surprisingly drinkable), it was time to go, and we went on a direct metro line to Keleti station. This time, our first train was 20 minutes late, but that didn't affect our connection to Hortobágy, which was hot, slow, second-class only and on time!  It was a beautiful journey across the Hungarian plains,

some cultivation but not much, and scattered farms or ranches reminding me of Kate Seredy's The Good Master! 

We walked the couple of hundred metres to our accommodation only to find the gates locked and nobody at home. Again, miraculously, the proprietor of the holiday lets next door was in her garden and realised what had happened, so she rang the landlady of this place, Angela (sloth a hard g, like Frau Merkel), who was round within a couple of minutes to let us in. She had no English, so sent for a very nice young man called Mark - son? Toyboy? Neighbour? - who did speak English and we were soon sorted. A very nice studio apartment  with a shared kitchen, except we are the only people here, so not shared!

After a rest and a cup of tea, we set out to find the only restaurant in town that would be open. We ordered a sharing plate - allegedly for two people. Big mistake, and I do mean big - it would have fed, if not the five thousand, then at least six people.

The proprietor did offer us a box for the leftovers, but when would we have eaten them? We don't have a microwave in Budapest!

Then we wandered slowly back to the apartment via the church and are now relaxing before bed. 

70th birthday trip, Saturday 17th June

The day began with a huge disappointment - the hotel breakfast was utterly vile! Only white bread, with margarine rather than butter; squash instead of fruit juice; the eggs were slabs of cold over-cookedness; and, almost worst of all, the coffee was not only Instant but tasted burnt! Not doing that again - there is a Lidl at the end of the street and we have eggs and fruit juice and so on now! Plus ham to make sandwiches out of from for the train tomorrow!  I just wish we had a coffee-maker of some kind. 

So the first port of call was a coffee shop just down the road for a decent cup of coffee! Then round the corner and on to a trolley-bus which took us down to the Houses of Parliament. We walked along the river to the Chain Bridge, but this was closed to pedestrians so we took a bus over it and up to Fisherman's Bastion. After a walk round there, we caught another bus that took us to the major tram and bus interchange, and then a tram to see where it would go. Which was, usefully, past the station we shall need on Tuesday and down to a metro interchange which took us up to the station we shall want tomorrow!

By then it was lunch time and we found a little café that did us a sandwich and some very nice lemonade, and then caught another trolleybus to Hero Square, from where we walked back to the hotel via Andrassy Utca with its embassies and smart residences.  And also via the coffee shop we had patronised this morning as they had delicious cakes! 

We then flaked out for awhile, and then in late afternoon the Swan Whisperer, who had already been for a run in the morning, got restless again so he went out for a walk and on the way back saw a restaurant he thought would do nicely for supper. Which it did.