But for the most dramatic mementoes you need to find the quarry outside the village of Fertorakos

But for the most dramatic mementoes, you need to find the quarry outside the village of Fertorakos. The stone used to build Vienna was dug from here, but enough remains for dramatic sculptures to be arrayed along the road on the theme of barbed wires transforming into wheat at the touch of a human hand.Back in town, the church bells chimed while the digital timer on the Baroque town hall continued counting down the seconds to today, when Hungary and most of its former Warsaw Pact pals become part of the European Union The people will earn the right to travel freely. As from today, we’re all friends – apart from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s compatriot with the semi-automatic, who will remain in place until Hungary’s frontiers with Ukraine and the former Yugoslavia are deemed to be sealed. Perhaps the Ukranians and Serbs are already planning their picnics.TRAVELLER’S GUIDEGETTING THEREThe nearest airport is Vienna, accessible from London and Manchester on Austrian Airlines (0845 601 0948, ) and British Airways (0870 850 9 850, ). From the airport, you can travel by train in about two hours via central Vienna and Wiener Neustadt to Sopron.

To approach the area from the north, you could travel by train to Eisenstadt and connect by bus to M?sch-am-See, but from here you will need to walk for two miles to the main road, from which buses run hourly into Sopron.FURTHER INFORMATIONTourinform, the local tourist office, is at Elokapu 11 in Sopron (00 36 99 338 892, tourinform.sopron.eu). It opens 9am-12.30pm and 1-5pm daily except Sunday (and until 3pm on Saturdays). The Pan-European Picnic Foundation is organising the next event on 19 August 2004. Details from the foundation at Ibolya utca 45, 9000 Sopron, Hungary (00 36 99 316 296, ).Additional research by Sarah Collings.

Anyone enthusiastic about fast cars might identify Spa as the home of the Belgian grand prix race track. But to most people it Belgium’s most recognisable brand of bottled water: blue labels for the still variety, red for fizzy. What has long since been forgotten is that Leamington Spa, Buxton Spa and the other places in Britain noted for their water owe their names to this small Belgian town. Located to the east of the country, not far from the German border, its natural springs were first noticed by the Romans. Some soldiers, ailing from the bad food they had eaten, were cured after drinking the local water.