Eger
The site at Eger (Tulipan Camping) was better than anticipated, the camping book had suggested it was good enough for an overnight stop only but there are new facilities but the lower pitches were very muddy and we parked on the gravel road for safety – and only a couple of hundred yards from the ‘Valley of the Beautiful Women’ ( proper and unpronounceable name Szepasszony volgy) where there were dozens of wine cellars (built into the hillside so wonderfully cool) and restaurants all packed into this very small area.
We headed in at about 6pm and it was clear that the coachloads of local and foreign tourists had been ‘sampling’ the wine for some time – there was much raucous singing along to the gypsy violinists and we could hear singing from our ‘van at 3.30 the next morning. We sampled a kekfrancos and then bought a litre in a plastic bottle (it was 400 HUF (£1.30) plus 50HUF for the bottle), tried some Bull’s Blood (Egri Bikavér), and then enjoyed an elongated tasting of several wines with a woman in the Biro family cellar who had two sons living in Newport in Wales (Velz). As usual, Sheila was able to carry on a more-or-less sensible conversation with this lady despite having no common language, and we ended up buying four (glass) bottles of wine from her. We went back the next night to buy a plastic litre of Bull’s Blood so we have enough to keep Gilroy going until we get to Calais.
Eger was not just wine, it is a charming small town and we recommend a visit to the the Basilica, the Lyceum library with its wonderful trompe l’oeuil painting of the Council of Trent, and the Castle. Apparently the Council of Trent was a meeting of Roman Catholic church which convened over several years to denounce Protestantism and re-assert some Roman Catholic principles - fascinating
Eger library ceiling
Click on this link to get to the last page on our trip to Hungary which is Motorhoming Tips
