We left our friends Gregor and his father Janis after another great breakfast. I would highly recommend Hotel Panker if you ever in the Moravske-Toplice region of Slovenia. It is one of the finest family run pensions we have ever visited. Just like yesterday, they insisted Leslie & I make ourselves lunch with the breakfast leftovers from the buffet and this time we took them up on their offer.
The drive to Lake Balaton was disappointing as far as I was concerned. Maybe because I have become so fond of Slovenia and it's refreshing surroundings. Lake Balaton itself is the epitome of a tourist trap. The lake itself is pretty big and I'm not sure whether the hazy skies had something to do with the unusual color of the lake but I was not impressed. I guess coming from the Okanagan region in British Columbia, anything would be a tough act to follow. We did not see one motor boat on this huge lake. There were quite a few large sailboats and lots of people fishing off the shore but a totally different environment compared to what you would see at Okanagan Lake. We stopped to view another castle in Keszthely but were once again very disappointed to see how poorly the place was maintained in comparison to castles in other countries, specifically France. We booked into our room in Veszprém and that was most definitely the most disappointing part of the day. Certainly nothing like the photos and description on the booking site and it was so tiny, as my father would say..."it was so small you stick the key in the door and break a window!" The location of the apartment couldn't be better, right in the centre of the historic village so that was about the only positive aspect of the overall experience. The village was fantastic and probably one of the best historic villages we have toured to date. We capped off the evening by dining at one of the local patio restaurants and it was fabulous. The portions were so huge even I could not finish my meal and that is highly unusual! The only thing better than the meal was the price tag which amounted to the same as a meal at McDonald's except we got wine and beer with our meal all for less than $20 including tip. I had veal wiener schnitzel and there must have been a pound of veal on my plate. We would go back for dinner tomorrow except we will be eating the leftovers from today's meal for dinner tomorrow. You get a great bang for your buck in Eastern Europe, especially in the rural areas.
The drive to Lake Balaton was disappointing as far as I was concerned. Maybe because I have become so fond of Slovenia and it's refreshing surroundings. Lake Balaton itself is the epitome of a tourist trap. The lake itself is pretty big and I'm not sure whether the hazy skies had something to do with the unusual color of the lake but I was not impressed. I guess coming from the Okanagan region in British Columbia, anything would be a tough act to follow. We did not see one motor boat on this huge lake. There were quite a few large sailboats and lots of people fishing off the shore but a totally different environment compared to what you would see at Okanagan Lake. We stopped to view another castle in Keszthely but were once again very disappointed to see how poorly the place was maintained in comparison to castles in other countries, specifically France. We booked into our room in Veszprém and that was most definitely the most disappointing part of the day. Certainly nothing like the photos and description on the booking site and it was so tiny, as my father would say..."it was so small you stick the key in the door and break a window!" The location of the apartment couldn't be better, right in the centre of the historic village so that was about the only positive aspect of the overall experience. The village was fantastic and probably one of the best historic villages we have toured to date. We capped off the evening by dining at one of the local patio restaurants and it was fabulous. The portions were so huge even I could not finish my meal and that is highly unusual! The only thing better than the meal was the price tag which amounted to the same as a meal at McDonald's except we got wine and beer with our meal all for less than $20 including tip. I had veal wiener schnitzel and there must have been a pound of veal on my plate. We would go back for dinner tomorrow except we will be eating the leftovers from today's meal for dinner tomorrow. You get a great bang for your buck in Eastern Europe, especially in the rural areas.
 |  |  |  |
RSS Feed
