Villány
Monday, December 3
After the churches in Pécs, we drove to Villány. This village is tiny and filled with wine tasting venues all lined up down the main street. We stayed at The Crocus Hotel, which is operated by Gere Winery. We have stayed at some nice hotels (and some that really need some help), but this is the nicest hotel we have stayed at. After exploring our suite, the hotel served us a welcome glass of wine.
Below is a 360 Video of our suite. When you watch the video, click on the screen to pan around and see everything!
Monday, December 3
Bock
We walked down the street to the Bock Restaurant as the cold rain drizzled. The restaurant is very pretty & the waiter speaks very good English.
“Do you have a reservation?”
Peering around the empty restaurant, “No, do we need reservations?”
“Yes, of course you do.”
“Ok, we can go somewhere else…”
“No, I’ll see what I can do.” He grabs two menus and seats us without hesitation.
And then literally no one else showed up for the hour and a half that we dined.
The food was amazing. We had soup & entrees that were perfectly prepared. The wines at Bock were the best that we had tasted in Hungary to that point.
We bought a bottle of the Bock Chardonnay to enjoy in our suite that evening.
Crocus Suite Bathtub
Crocus Hotel
Sitting Area
Crocus Hotel
Many dishes are wild game
Bock Restaurant – The owner is an avid hunter and enjoys adding wild game to his menu.
Dinner
Bock Restaurant
Game Goulash Soup
“Józsi likes hunting, so thank goodness we always have enough meat for game stew in red wine. I thought we should have a soup, too… we alter the seasoning a little, add vegetables and the result is a good filling lunch!”
Bouillon With marrowbone
“Tánti, Józsi’s aunt, is still in robust health and there was a time when we chatted at length. I made efforts to put plenty of Swabian courses on the menu. For instance, this is how Tánti likes her meat soup. In bygone days we had meat soup every Sunday, we never got bored with it and everyone held it in high esteem. Let me add that it’s not easy to cook a good meat soup; you’ve got to put the goods in it. Most recently, for a wedding for 140 persons, I put 35 chickens and cockrels in it, we got 58 litres out of it which was a bit on the tight side, but it never crossed my mind to add water. In the end it was just enough.”
Homemade Pasta with tenderloin strips, porcini in cream with basil pesto
“We sell a lot of steak and there are always lots of off-cuts. But even these are tasty. We thought we might put all this tenderloin on pasta, and there’s no denying it works a miracle. You need a special grater for the Parmesan, we place it on a silicon plate and bake it fresh every day-it makes a tasty, spectacular palm-sized complement to the dish.”
Game Stew in red wine with homemade noodles
“I’ve already mentioned that Józsi enjoys hunting, meaning that good meat is always guaranteed. What’s special about our dumplings is that we break up the pastry dough with a spoon. That’s how my grandmother always did it, so I’ve taught the lads to do it like that too. You need the flour, eggs, a few drops of water and a little juice from the stew and it’s done.”
Siklós Castle
Tuesday, December 4
In the morning, we went to Siklós Castle. It was a huge castle, but the museum part was not organized very well. It was still a fun castle and it did not take up the whole day.
We spent the afternoon at the spa. We got the Gere-Grape Treatment package, which included a red wine bath, a glass of red wine, exfoliation massage with grape seed extract, and a full body massage. The red wine bath is really interesting. They run the bath with herbs, like mint, and some type of oil. Then, when you are ready, they pour a pitcher of red wine into the bathtub and allow you to soak for about 20ish minutes while you drink your glass of red wine. The bath smelled amazing! There are two huge tubs next to each other for couples or friends to enjoy the room together. The whole thing was about $70/person, which isn’t bad for an afternoon of spa treatments.
For dinner, we ate at Mandula.
Mandula is at the hotel and they had a set menu.
Entrance
Siklós Castle
Thick walls
Siklós Castle
Chapel inside
Siklós Castle
Rebuilt after WWII
Siklós Castle
Outside of the chapel
Siklós Castle
The view of the surrounding area
Siklós Castle
Very Tall Walls
Siklós Castle
The view
Siklós Castle
The view
Siklós Castle
Mandula
Our multi-course dinner
Appetizer
Mandula
Steak & Beets
Mandula
Dessert
Mandula
