On the skirts of witness hills in the Balaton highlands

Itiner

• From the tapolca train station, take the first right at the roundabout. From here, you don't need to turn off in either direction until you get to Route 71
.
• On reaching road 71, turn right and continue along the Balaton-adjacent cycle path to the junction at szigligeti - turn left here.
• Szigligeten turn left at the castle (small square in front of it) onto Kossuth Street.
• Follow Kossuth street, then Réhelyi street to the church church ruins in Avas (small detour), from where Iharos street leads to Badacsonytördemic.
• At the border of Badacsonytördemic, cross road 71 and drive straight into the village, then turn right at Hősök út (the main street of the village).
• Inside, you have no choice but to go straight on along the Roman road to the church of Badacsonytomaj.
• Turn right at the church, then left when you reach road 71 - the Balaton-front cycle path continues opposite in Vasút street, but if you don't want to jump up onto the pavement, you can also turn off a little further onto the cycle path via the entrance road to the railway station.
• Until you get to Abrahámhegy, follow the lakeside bike lane, then turn left at the Abrahámhegy train stop, cross the tracks, and then immediately turn right (Route 71), at the next opportunity, turn left into Patak Street (if you don't want to turn left from the 71 because of the traffic, you can push your bike over or drive straight through from the car park to the other side).
• At the bottom of the valley, turn left onto the road to the village. If you want to detour to the Palace Monastery, turn left at the first opportunity onto the dirt road to the cemetery and follow this road to the ruins.
• Returning to Salföld, roll through the main street of the village, then turn left when you reach the main road.
• Turn right at the kékkút junction; to reach Theodora spring, roll through the village and continue for a few hundred metres towards Kővágóörs. At the kékkúti junction, take the same road back towards Tapolca.
• At the next fork, turn left (towards Tapolca) and then right at the Káptalantót fork onto a wide dune road - this leads straight to Diszel under Csobánc.
• In Diszel you don't need to turn off in either direction from the street where you enter the village, Miklós Street and Szabó Ervin Street lead straight onto the cycle path to Tapolca.
• On arrival in Tapolca, take the first exit at the roundabout ("Centrum"), then follow the road through the centre of town (Kossuth Lajos Street, then Heroes' Square) to the junction with Dózsa György Road, which leads to the railway station (at this junction you should turn left towards Veszprém/Szigliget). To get to the cave or the Malom lake, you have to make short detours of a few hundred metres in the city centre.

Detailed description of the tour

From Tapolca, a town a little further away from Lake Balaton, we start the tour of the lakeshore and the Káli basin from its railway station. We'll only enter the town at the end of the tour, but fortunately, we'll find an unusual sight already at the station: the nose of a diesel locomotive juts out when we're stuck to the water house. (The water house is basically a small-scale water tower, which was vital in the steamer era for servicing the locomotives.) This may need some explanation, as it is usually used to display steamships. Although it is not visible today, Tapolca used to be an important hub, where a heating house (traction headquarters) was also located, and the northern shore of Lake Balaton and the line to Celldömölk were served from here. The sculpture locomotive on display was once part of an M61 type locomotive: most of the 20 locomotives, built for MÁV in the NoHAB factory in Sweden, and which enjoyed a minor cult among railway enthusiasts, served the state railway until the late 1990s, with their last station being Tapolca.

After this short excursion into railway history, we head for the shores of Lake Balaton and the first witness hill! Although everyone is familiar with the typical geological formations of the Balaton highlands, it is perhaps worth defining what these formations are and how they were formed millions of years ago. Lake Pannon once circulated in the Carpathian Basin, and the sediments of this lake were covered by much harder layers of basalt and basaltic tuff as a result of a series of volcanic eruptions 3-8 million years ago. Thanks to nature's long and hard work, the marine sediment was eroded over time, but the basalt was left in place by wind and water, testifying to the original height of the landform.

Basalt from the surrounding hills has long been quarried as a base for roads or crushed stone for railway tracks, and the soil is particularly good for the local grapes and the wines made from them. No witness mountain in the area would be complete without well-tended vineyards, pretty press houses and renowned wineries, as well as legends to explain the origin of the mountain.

In the case of Saint George's Hill, the story is linked to the Dragon's Cave, which is nothing more than an ice cave (or rather, ice cave). The cold of winter is trapped in the passages of the cavity created between the formerly collapsed basalt tongues, which the summer heat cannot displace, so that even in the heat of the summer, cool air flows out from inside the mountain. Legend has it that the cave was once inhabited by a dragon, which was killed by St George himself. According to another story, the dragon regularly abducted girls from a nearby village, but when it fell ill, the villagers nursed it back to health and lived peacefully together. The dragon grew old and his last breath turned the cave where he lived into an ice cave.

The mountain is bypassed from the west by a road that passes through Raposka and then Hegymagas. Leaving the village, it is worth making a detour through the vineyards of the southern mountain pasture: the Lengyel Chapel and the Tarányi press house stand side by side on the hillside. Both buildings, with their yellowish colour, draw attention from afar and were built around 1760 by the Lengyel family of Tóti. The church-sized Baroque chapel's wooden carved Baroque-Rococo altar is as notable as the statues of saints in the stone niches of its tower. The carvings on the façade of the adjacent press house, on the other hand, depict Bacchus riding on a barrel, and Ceres, Diana and Flora, alongside the coat of arms of the Polish family. If for nothing else, the view is worth a detour, overcoming the occasional 10 per cent gradient.

We continue towards Lake Balaton on the generally not very busy road from Tapolca towards the coast, then, reaching road 71, we cycle on the Balaton bike path. Szigliget is the next settlement, now on the shore of the lake, best known for its castle, but before climbing up into the walls we roll past the Eszterházy Castle. The castle was built in the 1830s and came into the possession of Count Pál Esterházy in the 1910s, when it took on its present form. It is most famous for the literary house that it has housed since 1952, but it is also visited by painters, sculptors, artists, photographers and composers.

The "Balaton Castle" has stood on the hilltop since the 13th century (the Benedictine monks of Pannonhalma built the first buildings and walls between 1260-62), changing hands several times until the Turkish occupation, and in the 16th century it was owned by the aforementioned Lengyel family, who managed to resist Turkish raids continuously. The fortress, which had lost its martial importance in time, was destroyed by a lightning strike (which blew up the gunpowder stored in one of the towers) and the remains were destroyed by Leo I. Today, the castle is a great place to admire a Baroque kitchen, an arms exhibition, a castle history exhibition and a reconstructed castle chapel. From autumn to spring, there are also a number of events: solo shows, musical evenings, a minstrel show and jousting.

At the Old Village below the castle, we continue through the winding streets between white thatched houses towards Badacsony, passing the ruins of the church of Avas. The ruin may have been the parish church of the old village, destroyed in Ottoman times and never restored after the Ottoman rule. There may have been a building here in Roman times (as evidenced by several artefacts), and there is a legend linked to the church: 'There used to be a stone church in front of the church. A long time ago, a soldier came and cut it in two with a big axe. It was full of gold coins. It was left here by the Turks. The soldier was also a Turk, so he knew what was in the stone. The soldier took all the money. The goat was later smashed by the children."

From Szigliget we head towards the skirt of Badacsony, first passing through Badacsonytördemic, then rolling along the Roman road (also the Balaton bike circuit) towards Badacsonytomaj. The road may indeed have been created in Roman times, linking the farms and villages near the lake, a few hundred or even 1-3 kilometres from the shore of Lake Balaton (the water level of the lake at that time fluctuated considerably).

On the southern slopes of Badacsony, vineyards, including small and large (often really large) press houses, are prominent. Grape-growing in this area probably dates back to Roman times and is still popular today: the proximity of Lake Balaton and the volcanic origin of the area make it possible to taste the unrivalled grey, blue, Italian and even wormwood wines of the many wineries. This is true for any of the surrounding villages that are part of the Badacsony wine region.

The most famous press house in Badacsony is probably the one that belonged to Sándor Kisfaludy, which today houses a restaurant with a wonderful view of Lake Balaton. Róza Szegedy's house (where the poet and his wife lived) is now a memorial museum, as is the house of the "painter of Lake Balaton", József Egry, which serves as an exhibition space.

Badacsony also has a harbour, and those who want to go down to the lake can do so on several beaches beside the pier in summer. Continuing east on the Roman road, you first pass the basalt St. Donat's Chapel and then reach the Badacsonytomaj Saint Imre Church, also built in 1931-32 in neo-Romanesque style using local building materials, and cited by many sources as one of the two basalt churches in Europe. (A quick search in English does confirm the uniqueness of the parish church of Saint Imre)

Leaving Badacsonytomaj by crossing the main road 71, turn onto the cycle path at the railway station towards Ábrahámhegy. At the outskirts of Badacsonyörs, you can replenish lost energy at a cool cycling rest stop, or even take a break here if you need to, or if you want to take a detour to the Folly Arboretum on the hillside, you can take a break here before tackling the climb. The botanical gardens, mostly of pine, form an integral part of the nursery, vineyard and winery, with a nature trail leading through the area.

From Abrahám Hill we head down the valley of the Burnót stream towards the western edge of the Káli Basin, Salfland. Before you enter Salföld, it's worth visiting the ruins of the Palatine monastery in the nearby forest (there's a dirt road leading to the former church, so you'll need at least a trekking bike - or a short walk - for this detour). Continuing inland through the woods on the wagon track, you first come to a small clearing, and then above it a surprisingly large ruin - the nave of the church was 21.6m long and 7.9m wide, and a rectangular monastery was built around it, with a stone fountain still standing in the former cloister. The church was probably not originally owned by the only monastic order founded in Hungary, and the Palatines were only allowed to use it for two centuries. By the 16th century, it was probably completely deserted, and it is a wonder that the ruins are still visible today - the walls of the nave of the church have stood the test of time better, and only thigh-high fragments of the monastery remain, but with a vivid imagination, you can imagine what the building must have looked like.

Salföld is a charming little village in the westernmost tip of the Káli Basin, and alongside many old, charming farmhouses, the main attraction is the majestic of the Balaton-Highlands National Park. As well as visiting the buildings of the showground, which include a herb and plant garden, an agricultural machinery exhibition and a photo exhibition, you can also go horse riding and horse-drawn carriage rides. For those who want a rest before the rest of the kilometres, we recommend either the Pajta Inn and Gallery in the village or a dip in the sandy shores of the Salföld mining lakes.

The next stop is Blue Well, and the Theodora Spring beyond the village. Bottled for more than 110 years, kékkút mineral water is known throughout the country, and according to some legends was the favourite drink of the Byzantine Empress Theodora. It is almost certain that the spring was known and consumed in Roman times, and a map from the late 18th century shows it as 'sour water'. Today, the spring water can be 'tapped' in a pretty little spring house by anyone who passes by.

We head back towards Tapolca via the Blue Fork, but instead of the straight road we take a detour along the skirt of the Choban towards Diszel. At the border of Káptalantóti, at the famous marketplace of the Lily Garden, turn right onto a wide cart track through fields and vineyards (if you are on a road bike, it is better to continue straight on towards Tapolca and skip the detour to Disel).

The Csobánc - like many of the surrounding highlands - is a witness mountain, and its flat plateau was found suitable for the Gyulaffy family of the Rátót nobility to build a castle on in the 13th century (although it is also possible that the nobles of Disel started building it). At the end of the 15th century, under the orders of Paul Kinizsi, it was so well fortified that it resisted the Turkish sieges and even played a role during the Rákóczi War of Independence: in 1705 the Kuruks took it and managed to hold it for four years. After that, however, the imperialists left nothing to chance and began to demolish it by bombardment, and in 1722 it is mentioned only as a ruin. Anyone attempting to take the 376-metre-high summit (it's not completely impossible to climb the mountain on a mountain bike if you're in good shape) will soon discover why it was almost impossible to take the castle. However, the steep climb down the mountainside offers an unparalleled panorama: all the surrounding mountains, the Káli Basin, the Keszthelyi Mountains and Tapolca are in view, and even the waters of Lake Balaton glisten in the distance. If anything, it's certainly worth the effort.

Diszel lies at the northern foot of Csobánc. The streams that feed the watercourses in the area (the most important of which is the Eger stream) were the site of numerous mills, which were flour mills or board-cutting mills - there were 11 mills in Kapolcs alone, and at least 30 along the entire length of the stream. There were also eight mills and iron peelers on the outskirts of Diszel, of which the Stankovics (or Fekecs) mill is now the site of the First Hungarian Museum. The mill, which had probably been used for centuries, was acquired by György Stankovics in 1905, who converted one of the buildings, formerly an oil mill, into a dwelling house and modernised the other, removing the water wheels and replacing them with water turbines, and adding modern rolling mills, sieves, grinding machines, scouring equipment, cleaning machines and shingle stackers. The two buildings, the mill and the miller's dwelling, were connected by a two-storey bridge building with the machine room on the lower level and the passage between the mill and the dwelling on the upper level. This is how the present building was constructed, and in 1997, after a major renovation, it became an exhibition space. Every year, the complex hosts exhibitions and events, performances and concerts, and also has a pipe museum.

The cycle path from the outskirts of Diszel leads to Tapolca on the site of a former mining road. Like almost all of the witness hills in the area, Hajagos Hill near Diszel provided excellent raw material for road and railway construction, so the Balaton Railway Construction Company opened a mine here in the mid-1910s. Between 1926 and 1982, the stone was transported by a 600 mm gauge railway to the Tapolca railway station, and today you can ride your bike for kilometres along the busy Route 77.

The starting point and destination of our tour is Tapolca, the district seat best known for its lake cave and lake. The popular lake cave has a total length of 3,280 metres, but as several caves are connected under the town, forming a common system, it is the fourth longest cave system in the country.

The popular tourist destination was discovered while digging a well in 1903, and less than a decade later the cave was lit by electricity and opened to the public. At the entrance to the cave, which has long dried up due to bauxite mining in Nyirad, an exhibition at the Visitor Centre of the National Park of Lake Balaton Uplands presents the wonderful world of karst, while underground you can admire the workings of karst water in real life and even take a boat trip on the crystal-clear water that feeds the Malom Lake.

Our next - and final - destination on the tour is Malom Lake, a special setting in the middle of the city. The atmosphere is provided by both the mill, which was built in the 13th and 14th centuries, and the buildings surrounding the pond, taking the visitor back in time. The tour can be brought to a fitting end with an evening meal by the lake, accompanied by a glass of Badacsony wine. On the way back to the railway station in Tapolca, you can take a last look at the Szent György hill. Károly Eötvös wrote about it in his Journey around Lake Balaton. St. George's Mount György. It is also a cone. It was also a volcano a million years ago. Muscles swell on its huge shoulders. Each muscle swelling is a giant ball of rock. And yet the whole mountain is round, carved smooth and round by some wonderful tool. It's not a mountain, it's a relief."