Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Lake Heviz, Hungary

Lake Heviz is the largest thermal lake in Europe, and by some accounts, the entire world. It is 47,500 square meters in area, 38 meters deep (wow!), and the water coming up from the source reportedly replenishes the entire lake each day. It is about 33 degrees Celsius (91.4 F) year round and a 4 hour admission is 2400 Hungarian Forint (which really had me guessing because they told me 1 Euro is 240 HUF, so it was a double calculation...until I looked it up just now ($1 = 182 HUF). Ok, go ahead and divide that in your head math wiz:-).


The thermal water is known for its medicinal properties. Lots of good bacteria, green algae, and other really healthy stuff...well, except for the radioactive material also present (see Wikipedia). all the dots you see in the picture are people's heads. Lots of tourists come from all over Europe to be cured (and even the US....ME!).

They have a really cool system - you get a watch-like bracelet when you pay the entry fee and place it on the turnstyle to unlock it. Then upon entering the locker room you scan it on a reader and up pops a number (in my case 2008) - this is your locker and the scan unlocks it each time. The bracelet is obviously waterproof too.


This is the ditch that outflows water from Lake Heviz and people who swim in it get to save the Forints...but check out the no swimming sign (for 100 meters) so I wonder what the price is for this free dip!









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