Century-long traditions, excellent wine, and steep inclines...

We started the day with a dip in the jacuzzi and after a little pampering, had a filling breakfast and headed out. With a little pain in our rear end, we headed uphill and then finally coasted a bit downhill to our first stop of the day in Keszthely–Kertváros. Here, next to Cserszegtomaj, at one of the region's largest wineries, we were scheduled to meet Csaba Bezerics at nine o'clock, owner and winemaker of the Németh Borház. We spent a lovely afternoon with him. First he showed us around the winery afterwhich he held a private winetasting. In a short period of time we learned a remarkable amount of information about the Zala wine region, its history, and its wine. Csaba is a very charismatic person, with a true passion for his professsion, and really likes to pass on that knowledge to his guests. He hold us about the history of the area going back thousands of years. As he said, a true winemaker is also a historian and of course, while listening to him, we tasted great wine. ...

The wines that stood out for us were their 2008 Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay Barrique, and their Deja vu Cuvée, whichc, by the way, is a sweet white wine that was a top wine in the 2008 Pannon bormustra and it must be added, that it is not a Tokaj wine! More details about these wines will be in our Featured Wines section. After this, we took a short trip to a few kilometers away where Németh hosts big gatherings and wine tastings. We saw an impressive collection of wine-related antiques like shears, bottle openers, bottles, tools, and presses. It is definately worth the trip to take a look around. It is also worth going to their Bacchus Restaurant and Wine Museum located in the center of Keszthely where you can see perhaps the country's oldest wine press and other winemaking utensils, related antiques, and old wines.

It was already noon when we continued on our way and didn't stop till Badacsony. This span was about thirty kilometers with more and more incline. All along, the path borders the beautiful shores of Lake Balaton and at Szigliget, the path takes you along the northern side of the mountain where there is a beautiful view onto St. György Mountain. After this, there will be more and more steep sections, but neither is undoable. In Badacsony, the path takes you along the Római road. Even wihtout trying, you run into wineries one after the other. The only challange is getting there on that steep road leading to the Kisfaludy house. I'm not ashamed to admit it, here we had to get off our bikes and push it up the mountain. But a beautiful view awaits you at the top of the mountain, and on a good-weather day, you can see all of Lake Balaton. While we were up here, we went to see Laposa Winery and tasted their selection of wines. FYI, the view of the lake is probably the most beautiful from here. More pictures in the !

Laposa Winery has vineyards on four hills of vulcanic terrain, these are the Somló, Szent György, Csobánc, and Badacsony. Intense, vulanic-salty tastes characterize their wine. One of our favourties was their Riesling made from a marraige of Olaszrizing and Rhien riesling . Great balance, round, with exciting flavor. Our other favorite was the Badacsonyi Rózsakő, which is a clone of kéknyelű and Budai Zöld. Here the mineral qualities were most apparent with beautiful floral-honey notes, and fresh mint and green tea on the pallate. It was after four when we left Badacsony. Our goal was to reach Tihany by nightfall, about another 35 kilometers from here. We hauled butt to get before dark. The route was gorgeous, from Badacsony all the way to Zánka across the Káli valley. From Zánka to Tihany we again traveled alongside the lake. One of the most steepest inclines left on today's route is the road to the Tihany abbey; barely, but it is doable. Our hotel was just a few minutes away from the fairy boat stop (Tihanyi rév) on the Tihany peninsula on the picturesque hillside at the . A wonderful place, comfortalble, spacious rooms, beautiful gardens, outdoor pool, and sauna await their guests. The restaurant has Hungarian specialty dishes and fish dishes from fish indigenous to Lake Balaton. We ordered and Adler plate full of delicious delicacies including cordon blue and garlic pecsenye. We didn't need to take anything to help us sleep--we knew tomorrow would be the longest distance we would have to travel, almost 100 kilometers.

To be continued!