St George and his dragon

seems England isn't the only one with a monopoly on St George - Milan, Georgia and Zagreb seem to quite like him too

This statue is just near the Stone Gate chapel

St Mark's Church, Zagreb

Katy finds a new friend in Zagreb

Budapest animal graffiti

Saw these 2 interesting pieces of graffiti whilst wondering about around Budapest the other weekend - I especially love the meerkat digger which has been appearing around the city over the last couple of months - this one was on Kiraly utca in the 7th District - simples

Tihany wildlife

The Inner lake at Tihany is a wildlife sanctuary and was home to ducks, herons, special Hungarian cattle with massive horns and weird European Ground Squirrels which were like fat meerkats - they made really funny squeaking noises as alarm calls before darting back down into thir burrows henever people or dogs got too close

Dorgisce - ruins and picnic spot

In the village of Dorgisce, we found the ruins of an abbey at the top of the hill with some great views over the lake - perfect place for a picnic apart from the wind which managed to blow our lunch everywhere!

Orvenyes watermill

Just off the main road in the village of Orvenyes is a watermill and agricultural museum - the old guy who ran it was a real collector of Hungarian farm tools and in a weird mix of Hungarian and English, as well as some German, we seem to have been able to have a conversation to understand most of what he was trying to explain about the mill, the tools and the life of a miller. Needless to say, I doubt that the Hungarian for Hoe and Plough will be too much use in the preparation of medai plans later this year but you never know!!

The mill only stopped working in the late 1980s, just before the wall came down and had been in operation for over 150 years and was a great piece of engineering, even if we didn't understand all the technical terms in full.

Next to it was a funky looking pizza oven although I am not sure if the Trabant was the delivery vehicle of choice :)

Fabulous fountain, Aszofo near Tihany

In the village of Azsofo, we found this wonderful fountain and statue of a Magyar warrior and a dragon surrounded by a pretty garden in a very small village back from the lake near Tihany

Tihany and the Tihany Peninsula

We have enjoyed a really relaxing 3 days in the very charming village of Tihany which is apparently the poshest place within the Balton environs - god knows what we were doing there!

The Peninsula consists of a small village, Tihany, surrounded by forested hills and vineyards producing some lovely rose and white wines which require alot of tasting and analysis.

Tihany is very much still a village that enjoyed the support and patronage of some of the Communist moguls during the previous regimes with large villas overlooking the lake which is the most incredible turquoise blue colour - partly due to the fact that it does to appear to reach any depth for 100s of metres so reflecting the sun from not much depth.

Unusually for other parts of the country we have visited (admittedly not massive amounts) there are a large number of thatched cottages and barns - giving the region a slightly Germanic feel - not surprising given the fact that this region was re-populated by Greman settlers from the Palatinate during the 18th Century