IRON CURTAIN MEMORIES

IT was a dream come true, when just a few days before my birthday, Fran and I returned to the section of the Austro-Hungarian border, where a piece of the old Iron Curtain still stands.

Not much more than a souvenir of a bygone era, at a crossing which isn't even attended by border guards anymore. Just outside Sopron, at the site of the Pan-European Picnic of 1989, when thousands of East Germans busted through the barriers, abandoning hundreds of old Trabant cars on the Hungarian side of the border.

I have long planned to commemorate our family's past as refugees, who also left Hungary not very far from this spot and on this day we did. Find out how, by running the video clip.

LONG LIFE, MAZEL TOV!!!!

JOIN us in wishing long life, happiness and Mazel Tov to Maggie and Den.

They have announced the big day - our children will embark on their married life on June 6, 2009, at a ceremony near Sudislav nad Orlici in the Czech Republic.

We hope to see many of you there on this auspicious day - mark it in your diaries!

PHOTO OF THE DAY

BUDAPEST is the city of hot water springs and none more famous than the venerable Széchenyi Baths in Városliget (the City Park).

More famous even than the baths themselves are its waterborne chess fanatics, who are ready to take on all comers day and night, summer, winter autumn and spring.

They have featured in every imaginable tourist guide ever written about Budapest, were even present in the famous Hungarian tourist ads of a few years ago on CNN. Therefore it was high time, they also took pride of place in our blog.

Here they are, for all of you to enjoy, Budapest's aquatic chess wizards in action on a beautiful sunny winter's day in February (water temperature - 38 Celsius).