V8 goes East 12, GHJ, MGBGTV8, V8 Register, MG Car Club

package deals and on the first night the restaurant was crowded, but on the second night it was virtually empty, we being the last to eat. So what, I hear you ask? Well, this restaurant has a resident five-piece gypsy-style group of musicians who come and play around you whilst you eat, to my total embarrassment. The only way to get some peace was first ask for something be Stephan Grappelly and second to buy one of their confounded CDs. Away from the hotel however a light lunch in Budapest of two salads, two mineral waters and two desserts cost just eight pounds.

Rather than join one of the hotel tours we did a deal with a taxi driver at the hotel and he took us on a tour of the best places
This gave us 10 to 20 minutes at each place to look around with our guide books. When you look at the street map you can see that the centre of Budapest was laid out on a logical grid system like New York and there is an area of probably 15 to 20 acres just set out for museums, art galleries and magnificent huge statues commemorating various parts of Hungary's imperial past. Taken together there would be a similar number of imperial and historical statues in London, but it is the concentration into one site which makes an impact in Budapest. What was even more impressive - remembering that this was now a Saturday - was the large number of well-behaved children on school trips with their teachers to see this important part of their cultural history. This activity we also saw in several other countries but we don't seem to see it in the UK nowadays. With its long history and cultural roots it is no surprise to see that Hungary has quickly thrown off the memories of the Soviet control and is again a modern and mature country.

Hungarian wine
There are five or six distinct wine-growing areas grouped around Lake Banaton to the west of Budapest but our route on the Sunday morning took us back east onto the M3 where we were surprised to see a lane coned off and 80 to 100 workers brushing up sand of the motorway and obviously planning to cover many miles of motorway during the day - in the UK we would see a sweeper lorry and one or two guard trucks - further evidence that Hungary is still a low wage economy. The area around Eger is the largest wine-growing area in Hungary, but being a bit higher than the western areas they can suffer crop loss if there are late frosts. We had told the wine waiter at the Radisson that we were heading to Eger and asked him to find a good strong red wine from that area for us - then I was shocked to be served with a bottle of BULL'S BLOOD which I only ever remember as being student plonk. This was not a good omen! Matters did improve at Gyöngyös where we were able to find a famous restaurant (sorry, the name of the place has escaped me) for lunch then relax at the wine festival before heading off to Eger, the centre of the local wine industry and another spa town with healing waters. There are in fact many pools, streams, rivers and lakes at Eger which might explain the high concentration of mosquitoes - we had been free of these pests up to that point on the trip.

The Hotel Flora is part of the Hunguest Group - it has three stars and somehow with its heavy design and decor I could imagine it being full of the earnest leaders of the communist party, there to be treated in the various massage rooms and then soaked in the disgustingly smelly healing waters. If you can avoid being bitten, Eger has a vast number of interesting and ancient buildings of considerable appeal so is in fact well worth a visit. It also has an excellent computer shop were the young man was able to download 132 photos off my camera and burn them onto a CD, for which he charged me approximately three pounds thirty pence!

But enough of all this culture - and shopping. I want to see some mountains and drive up challenging roads, so tomorrow it is off to Slovakia.