Author: Tim

Last weekend we went to a place northeast of Budapest, near Tokaj. We left on Saturday and drove for two and a half hours to a place where, more than fifty years ago, someone mined a hole for some reason. Then 60 degree water burst out, and ever since it has been depositing salt there. The water is cooled and then put in a thermal bath for tourists. Then we drove another hour to a different thermal bath that is in caves. It was a bit more like an ordinary pool than I expected, but a terrific pool. It was in a large cave complex, with lots of passages and hard to be sure you’ve explored it all. Then we got dinner. Really nice pizza that was under thirty euros for eight drinks and three large pizzas. Then we got a hotel, watched most of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King on TV in Hungarian, with Hungarian subtitles for the Elvish which we couldn’t tell apart from the Hungarian. Next day we drove another hour to Tokaj and toured a wine cellar, dad tasted some wine and bought some, then we walked for about six kilometres up a mountain and then down a mountain. It was about twenty percent grade up for about two kilometres.

Cheese in Hungary is good. The main seems to be Trapista sajt or something like that. It is really good and it is a medium salty cheese that comes in these huge wheels that stick out because they make up half the cheese section and they are all in bright red packaging. In France nothing is special about brie, because it’s imported to Ireland so we know what it is. Hungarian cheeses are a novelty because you can only get them in Hungary.

Right now we are in a house in Balatonfökajar. It is very compact and efficient, and has a huge yard that has loads of mole mounds. There is a nice undercover patio that is very good for tennis, which I have been taking advantage of daily. The first day we were here all I wanted to do was exercise, and play various sports until three o’ clock. I played tennis against the wall, Nate and I played rounders for an hour, soccer for a couple minutes, and ran laps of the yard. I started at around eleven, and ended around three. Then we went for a walk. The sunsets around here are amazing every night. Tonight the sunset lasted twenty minutes, and was stunning all the way through. The sky was lava red, with black clouds contrasting it. And it’s stunning every night.

On the 6th of February, (my birthday) we were touring Prague. Instead of the “Hop on Hop off” buses we have occasionally used in other cities, we got a private walking tour of Prague. He was a good guide, and very nice. My favorite thing he showed us was a sculpture of ‘The good King Wenceslas'(who was not actually a king, just a duke) sitting on the belly of a dead horse that was hanging upside down from the ceiling.  The creator said it represented the corrupt government and he would take it down when the country was stable again. Our guide said that a cheating business man was now top of the government. He had never done any politics and just decided that he wanted to be in charge. Remind you of anyone? After that sculpture we went to the old town square with the astronomical clock which got really crowded and we waited for about fifteen minutes, and then finally it got to the hour and it went for about a minute and then quieted down. It was fascinating hands, but I was disappointed with its performance.  The other tourist attraction is the Charles bridge. It was about as amazing as any old bridge. right next to it though is the Lennon wall that is all about the Beatles. 

Then we climbed up the hill to the castle, where the tour ended. Then we went into the castle. I guess it was ok. I preferred the other castle that we went to the 9th.

For lunch we went to a restaurant in a monastery.  I had a vacuum cooked burger. Delicious. It was like a pulled beef sandwich.

Next we walked down the hill, across the river, and to an escape room that we were doing for my birthday. That was really fun and took 65 minutes or something like that. It was a Nautilus themed escape room that was really good and very steampunk. We got to drive the Nautilus, which was really hard because the screen telling you which way to go was on the other side of a low wall behind the steering wheel. But we managed. We died in the end, even though we completed it.

9th of February

On the 9th we had a mission. To start with we were getting to a game shop that sold polyhedral dice. Including 4 sided dice, 6 sided dice, 8 sided dice, 10 sided dice, 12 sided dice, 20 sided dice, and 100 sided dice. (The 100 sided dice is really just a 10 sided, and another 10 sided marked with 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 00. So you roll the both of them and add them together, so if you rolled a 7 and a 40 your roll is of 47.(If you get 00 and 0 that is 100, but if you get 00 and 1 that is 1). We already had 3 d4s, 11 d6s, 3 d8s, 3 d10s, 3 d12s, and 3 d20s. At that point we had no d100s. We got 3 more of every dice. A private set for each of Nate, Ben, and me. Why we need so many dice is because of Dungeons & Dragons, or D&D. We have had a starter set that Dad Dungeon Masters, and all of the family play. But the times when we all want and can play D&D at the same time is pretty minimal. So recently Ben, Nate and me have started a campaign, because we want to play a lot more than everyone. I Dungeon Master, meaning that I tell them what is going on and they play. I have COMPLETE power over the world. Nate and I also have a campaign by ourselves, because we like to play even more than Ben does. Nate also likes DMing, and he has a campaign with Ben and I playing. We have 1412 pages of Dungeons & Dragons material related to playing, DMing, Monsters, and creating characters. After all the dice, we went to a candy store with cheap, bulk candy. We bought a preferably unnamed amount of candy. It was called Pedro store. Our guide had recommended deep fried cheese as an excellent fast food lunch. Mom, Dad, and Nate got sausages, and Ben and I got fried cheese. It was really good. Hard to eat though.

The other thing we had on our sights was an alchemy museum. In 1400ish a underground alchemy workshop was built. There was a legend that a fiery horse appeared on the other side of the square above, and vanished in a puff of brimstone. What is more likely is that a thing in the alchemy lab exploded and flames went up through the cobbles, and lit a donkey on fire that tragically expired in front of the house. Scary though. This alchemy lab was only found again in 2002, when Prague had huge floods, that caved in the roof of the lab, so that when the flood retreated a huge hole was in the middle of the square.  There were secret tunnels that led to several other alchemy labs. I found that very impressive. They also found the recipes for 4 elixirs, liquid gold, elixir of eternal youth, with they also found a full bottle of it, elixir of love, and elixir of memory.

After that we took the tram and walked to the other castle in Prague that I found so much nicer that Prague castle. Partly because of the local feeling, and partly that it was nicely shaded and I was hot. Something of the two. Tim

This weekend Fri-Sun we were in Berlin. On Friday we saw a lot about the Nazis and WWII. We went to Bernauer strasse, Mauer park and the East side Gallery. A very historically oriented day. Saturday we went to the DDR museum, German museum of tech, and the German spy museum. A very museum oriented day. Sunday we went to the Berlin zoo, which wasn’t all that nice to the animals and the aquarium. The aquarium was a bit weird, because there were four levels to the building. The first was one aquarium with water and fish. The second level was devoted to reptiles in the desert and forests. The third level was another reptiles level. Fourth was amphibians and insects. The zoo had all sorts of different animals that were in small areas. There weren’t any cages or walls (except for the birds and some of the monkeys. But the enclosures were small. the bull elephant had a winter enclosure that was only a few times larger than him. The mountain goats were extremely bored and were just lying there. Same with most of the other animals. The primate house was saddening. But one of the best bits was that they had chickens that had massive feathery shoes.  Also on Sunday we went to the topography of terror and the holocaust memorial.

That weekend we walked a total of 40km.

Two weeks ago we were told that wolves lived in the area. Last full moon we listened. I’m sure I heard some, but it may have been my imagination or domestic dogs.

This Christmas was a bit different from others, and was very low key. The new year was also different, but much much bigger. At Christmas we all got ?Candy?, and a few other things in the stocking. Nate and I got phones!!(☎️) I also discovered I like Calligraphy. There was no excitement from other houses on Xmas.
Very, very quiet.
New Year. We were watching a thing in Berlin, but we got shoes on and went outside. We lit sparklers. But at midnight the entire valley was launching fireworks, and some one was out launching them every few houses. It sounded like we were walking through a minefield. We saw some friendly neighbors out having a drink to. They went full speed until about one, and then slowed down. The fireworks I mean not the drinks.

Last Saturday we went to Jena and Weimar. That was very interesting, because Mom had already been there, and knew, sort of, her way around. It was very fun.

This last week we drove 2500 km in 4 days driving, 3 resting. We started in Coin, Spain, near Malaga, and got to Buchenau, Germany. The first day was 9 hours and we got to a hotel still in Spain. The waitress was pointing out a dessert to Mom, so she used google translate, and it said it was something like ‘Cream of Polecat’. We then drove another 9ish hours to a place in the south of France that had a hot tub, an excellent stay, although the outside kitchen was massive, the inside one was tiny, and the bedding arrangement was far from ideal. We got there in the evening, slept, had a full day around there, going on a bike ride. Then we got up in the morning and left for Geneva. We got there in the evening after another 8-9 hour drive, and spent the next day at CERN, a fascinating place but Ben and Dad appreciated it more than I did, although I enjoyed and followed most of it. Next was a 10 hour drive to the Martinezes in Stuttgart, some old friends from Whidbey. we spent a full day there as well, going to the Christmas market, and seeing the Martinezes. Another 4 hours down the rode was our destination, a stay for 6 weeks.

After that long drive, we got to Óbidos (or really Arelho, a small town outside Óbidos), our host being very friendly, gave us a tour of the house. 3 Bedrooms, 2 with doubles, and one with 2 singles. Nate and I shared the singles room. The next day, I think, we went to Nazaré, because the waves were looking better that day than any other. The waves were 5-ish meters. It was really cool watching big waves crash into the headland and spraying way up. That was a great day out. We also went to Peniche and ran around the dunes for a while.

Unfortunately we are only here for 2 weeks and 5 of those 14 days dad had to go to Washington DC for work. While he was away Mom, Ben, Nate, and I went to the lagoon of Óbidos. It was crazy. There was a maybe 20ish meter gap between sandbars that all the tide water had to get through, because that was the only gap and it is a lagoon at low tide and and inlet at high tide. Anyway we got there and the tide was going out and the waves were coming in. The whole channel was about 1.5 meters deep, but it got that deep in about the same distance.(How I know how deep it was I will tell in a minute) The channel was going fast too. As fast as I can run. How I know how deep it was is because someone waded across it. There were a lot of fishermen out on the sandbar. I do not know why, but there were maybe 15 of them out there. Presumably good fishing.

Other days out include:

A day to Lourinhã dino museum

A day to Sintra, to a Castle of the Moors, and Monserrate palace and gardens