This is not the entrance to the museum, but inside the courtyard of the Royal Palace:
The main collection is nice. We saw Renaissance era church altarpieces and other art that came from various locations in Hungary. There are a lot of portraits, also by Hungarian painters. One trend that is also highlighted is paintings which painstakingly recreate with as much accuracy as possible, scenes from Hungary's history. There is one large room that features the art of what I am guessing is Hungary's most famous painter, Mihaly Munkacsy. This is very nice. However, what we had hoped to see was paintings from what is called the Secessionist period, a movement similar to Impressionism. Our guidebook had recommended a few examples to see, but we couldn't find them. We began to suspect that they were in one of the special exhibits (we were right), so we returned to the ticket desk and bought tickets to the exhibit Rippl-Ronai and Maillol, two friends, one Hungarian and one French, who were great friends for all of their lives. This is a wonderful exhibition that includes Rippl-Ronai's best art, much of which is portraits of women (head only) and also later full length portraits. Over his long career, he produced a wide variety of paintings, including landscapes. His palette started off rather dark in his early years, but then was influenced to lighten it up a bit. He also experimented towards the end of his life with a kind of large dot pointalism. We bought several postcards to remember this art. We had never heard of this artist, but really enjoyed seeing his art.
Here is a link to an international New York Times article about this exhibit that will show some pictures. It also has a link to the museum's description:
http://nyti.ms/19h2q6x
We return to the hotel for a few snacks in the Executive Lounge that will serve as our lunch. Breakfast had been huge, so we are not too hungry.
We take seats in the lobby to await our driver, and he arrives at 12:40pm. So we depart for our tour of Parliament. This is the beginning of an adventure, to put it nicely. The driver takes us to the Intercontinental Hotel in Pest, which is also the location of the travel agency. We board a small bus with an Australian couple and a German couple. We are meeting the other members of the Parliament tour (sixteen people?) at the Parliament. Apparently, the rest of the group is currently finishing up a city tour. The guide doesn't have much information to impart on the short drive, but she does seem to be speaking more German than English -- didn't we book an English speaking tour? At the Parliament, she does provide a few interesting facts. The outside area surrounding the building has been completely redesigned and rebuilt in the last two years. It is really nice -- this makes the site seem world class. Here is a photo (sorry for the wires):
There are several large statues which she points out as men important in Hungarian history. Some of these are recent installations or restorations of statues that were there prior to the communist era. Apparently when the Soviets were in charge, the statues were completely different, but no longer. One statue of Andrassy, was just reinstalled two weeks ago. Andrassy was a prime minister of Hungary in the 1800's and later a foreign minister of Austria-Hungary. A large avenue in Budapest is also named for him. Here is a photo of the statue:
We enter into the brand new Parliament building visitor's center where we have to hand over our identification to the travel agent/guide. This is a different woman than the one who brought us here; for some reason they made a switch. This is a little unnerving. Many people hand over passports (why are they carrying them? All the guidebooks say don't do this!) We hand over our driver's licenses. Two young women apparently are carrying no identification, somehow this doesn't seem to be a problem. Needless to say, there had been no prior instruction to tell us that identification would be required. The guide returns from the check-in desk with our tickets and hands them out. Then apparently her responsibilities are done. At this point Rob and I figure out that we are taking the official government tour of the Parliament building, not a special tour provided by a travel agent. I look at our tickets; the price is 5,700 forents each. We had paid the travel agency 22,000 forints each, about a four times mark-up. So we realize, we paid all this extra money for a cab ride to the Hotel Intercontinental and then a bus ride to the Parliament building. Just so you know, 10,000 forints is about $36.00, so we essentaily overpaid over $50 PER PERSON for this tour. But lets rewind this story a little bit. Recall that Rob and I had researched on the internet buying a ticket for English tour, and they were all sold out. Well, now we know why they are sold out. Travel agencies buy all the tickets and then sell them for four times the value. Rob thinks this is a remnant of the old communist system; build in extra profits to provide extra (read: unnecessary) employment. I'm not sure, but it is not a good idea. Then, as we are waiting for the English tour to be called, I look over our tickets and notice that they are marked "Deutsch." The travel agent lady gave us German tour tickets. We are not paying $50 each for a German language tour! Fortunately, she is still nearby, so I am able to ask if we can exchange for the correct language. She told us that it doesn't matter, the ticket is just to get us through the door, we can then follow the English speaking guide. This comedy just keeps getting better! HOWEVER, at the end of the day, we achieved our objective by getting Parliament tour in English, even though we overpaid.
Now, about the tour itself: underwhelming to say the least, but really very disappointing; it was less than 45 minutes, and a fair amount of the time was spent clearing security. What did they show us? The grand staircase entrance, very nice. The big rotunda that shows off the crown jewels, spectacular, even though no photos were permitted (FYI the crown jewels are one very old crown from about 1,000 AD plus one orb and one sceptor). An interesting fact about the crown jewels is that someone smuggled them out of Hungary before the end of the war and gave them to the Americans (not sure how this happened). Anyway, the Americans stored them in Fort Knox and gave them back to Hungary in 1978. We saw the main chamber for the parliament, also impressive, then out the door we went. The guide was very pleasant, but I don't feel like we learned many interesting facts during the tour. Well, that's the way it is. Here is a photo of the parliament chamber:
After the tour, we roam around the outside area again; if I hadn't stated this earlier, I'll say it again, the outside redesign is really well done. The statuary is just right and very impressive. Rob takes lots of photos.
We proceed south in Pest to Liberty Square, which features a lot of statues of famous people. We take a closer look at one, thinking he must be a Soviet general, and it turns out he is an American general from World War I. The most surprising statue is of Ronald Reagan; we didn't need to read the inscription to identify this guy. We are enjoying the architectur around the square, although none of the buildings are considered important landmarks. We continue walking until we reach the Chain Bridge and cross back over to the Buda side. Today there is no political demonstration, so we can easily get to the funicular and ride up to the Royal Palace. We return to the hotel for a little rest.
Dinner tonight is at the recommended Hungarian restaurant, Rezkakas, near the St. Stephen Basilica. This was the choice of the woman who checked us into the Hilton. The Hilton also provided a whole list of recommended restaurants, which is a nice service. The restaurant is in Pest, so it is back down the hill for us. The restaurant is also very good. It is Hungarian food, but with a modern, elegant twist. For starters, Rob has goose liver pate, very good. I have the Hungarian Farmer's Plate, which was an assortment of meat and soft cheeses, also very good. We also ordered a small salad to share. For mains, we both have the Goulash. It is chunks of beef in a tomato/paprika sauce with onions and a side of whipped potatoes -- very flavorful, but not being goulash experts, we're not sure how traditional is this preparations. With this we have a side of picked vegetables, most of which is a wonderful white cabbage. Our wine is also delicious. It is a Hungarian cabernet sauvignon, called Czaba Cuvee. It was a little expensive by Hungarian standards (~$50), so we got the full decanting treatment. What was also educational was that they had a Hungarian red wine on the menu called Kadarka. Our waitress was nice enough to give us a taste. It is a light wine like a light style pinot wine. What I really like is the name: Kadarka! It sounds like the kind of wine Dracula would drink if he didn't just drink blood!
We had debated taking one of the Danube night cruises at 9pm tonight, but really what would we see that we hadn't already seen at night? Plus spending one hour trapped on a boat with tourists just seems so unappealing, so we pass. Now, it it back over the bridge, up the funicular, and off to our hotel to enjoya nightcap in the hotel bar. I take this photo on the way back (Royal Palace from Pest):
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