Monday, 8 October 2007

Friday 5th October


More work on the blog at the Internet Café meant that I got the entries up to date but there are still quite a few photographs to add. That will have to be done at the next opportunity together with an announcement to all of our friends.
On route to Hungary, we came to a town called Laxenburg where tourists signs showed that there was a Schloss. It was lunch time, so we decided to stop and take a quick look. The main square was being beautifully restored a very pretty church, town hall and other buildings. Further on there were the huge grounds of the schloss. Although tempting, we knew that we had a long way to go, so decided not to visit it. However, in the square there was a restaurant that was offering a 'menu' (special meal, often only at lunchtime) that was just too tempting. At 5.90 Euros (approx. Ł4.00) we had a three course meal of noodle soup, fish with a potato and mayonnaise salad and cake with cream. Who said that Austria was expensive?
We called in at Rust on Neusiedler See lake, still in Austria with the idea that we might stay there rather than in Hungary. Rust, at first, did not appear very interesting but we decided to take a look around and found the very pretty main square. Here I was stopped because I was about to walf into a film set! They were filming the second series of "Der Winterkonig" (the Winter King), which was obviously a popular Austrian series. We noticed that many of the buildings around the square had plaques saying that they appeared in the series. The other attractions of the town included a micro-brewery and a large number of 'heurigen'. Heurigen are, in effect, wine cellars where you can try and buy wine but that also serve food. We decided that staying would be a good idea! There was only one campsite, so off we went. Unfortunately, there was nobody at reception and when we took a look around the site, we decided that it was not for us. The site was very large, very busy and had the feeling of Butlins about it. With great reluctance, we decide to forgo the brewery and heurigen and move on to Hungary.
Just over the border beyond Sopron, we stopped at Castrum Kemping, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. We had plenty of choice of pitch and chose one in the quietest position. When I got out of the van, I heard a great deal of strange bird calls. It took me a while to work out that it wasn't birds, it was tree frogs in the tree over the van and also in other trees nearby. Tree frogs make a noise totally disproportionate to their size – they are very small and very noisy. Needless to say they are also very well disguised and despite great efforts, I wasn't able to spot a single one.
The picture shows Rust main square with the filming going on in the background.

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