Say farewell to Gary, Summer and Wiking marina and get a taxi to Budapest Deli station in the south west of the city. Here I have found a train with no changes that will take us to Keszthely, then we can get a bus or taxi to Heviz. We havent booked seats thinking it is a regional train. Mistake! But we get seats a few rows apart and its only a couple of hours journey.
Oh My God! This train is huge! The floor level is at about my shoulder height and to get in you have too climb up the side up vertical large ladder steps. We manage to sling the largest bag up between us and I climb after up after it. Then drag up the next bag handed up by Norman. Finally we are on board. Its chaos. We are told we are in the wrong carriage, so stumble along with other people going in both directions trying to find seats with bags and kids and pushchairs etc. I am terrified someone is going to kick my ankle or run into it with a bag. We WERE in the right carriage so struggle back to find our seats already occupied, and the people in them dont seem happy to move. The train is not full, so we find a couple of empty seats and collapse. Hot, sweaty and a little stressed. I spend 2 & 1/2 hours fretting about how we get off. However, we are treated to tantilising views of Lake Balaton. It is huge, it goes on for miles, people are sailing, people are swimming, it is lovely. Getting off the train is easier, gravity helps, but we are aware we dont want to abuse our bags unnecessarily.
Once off the train we head for the taxi rank, there are no taxis, probably already taken by faster passengers. But there are buses! The bus driver is pushy and rushes us, refuses to give me change, but its not much and I am exhausted so I dont argue. A nice young couple say they too are going too Heviz and will let us know know where to get off. Its feels like a long way. I am standing so that I can stop the bags falling over as the Schumaker of the bus world throws us around country roads and byways. I say `standing` hanging on for dear life is more accurate. Hey ho, we are glad to get to Heviz. And, delight, there is a taxi. The main street from the bus station to the top of the hill where our apartment is is being relaid. (Most of Europe is being relaid it would seem. There is a building boom going on), so we and dive through back streets and residential areas and are deposited totally lost on what appears to be a quiet residential street. The building doesnt look at all as I remember from the website! However, we manage to summon the owner who unlocks the gate and lets us in. The back of the building is what is on the website!