7-9
We are going to visit the summer digs of the Eszterhazy family today - patrons of one Franz Joseph "Papa" Haydn, the greatest composer of the classical period. More than Beethoven, you ask? Sorry, Beethoven is a Romantic. Better than Mozart, you ask? Why, yes. How many Trumpet Concertos did Mozart write, huh? In fact, Haydn said that his Trumpet Concerto was his "most perfect" concerto (in truth of advertising, the actual quote is "It is a shame that I have written my most perfect concerto for such an imperfect instrument." But let's not quibble).
**********
Hungarian Driving Rules
1) 50 KPH in the city, 90 KPH in the country.
2) You have to wait for the light to change before you can turn - then move!
3) You get a yellow light before the green light. This is so you can rev the engine and set up the kids in the next lane for the speed trap up ahead.
4) The trucks are really, really big - really. On the small, two lane back roads, they like to drive right down the middle. You would be best advised to get over. They win.
5) You will see all kinds of cartoon-like signs by the side of the road - numbers with red circles around them, empty yellow diamonds with red slashes through them, and, my personal favorite, a red bordered triangle with an exclamation point in it (what does it mean?). Feel free to ignore all of these signs, everyone else does.
A few words about passing...
Passing is the national sport in Hungary. Hungarians will pass you anywhere, anytime. Busy two lane street in a small town, you're toast. Blind corner at 90 KPH, look out - here I come. No passing stripe, not a problem.
A hypothetical situation: you are driving down a narrow two-lane street. There is barely enough room for two cars to squeek by each other in opposite directions. The car coming toward you has an obsticle in their lane that will necessitate the driver of that car merging into your lane. You will arrive at the obsticle at the same time. You can depend upon the fact that the other driver will not slow down, and will soon be driving right at you. In a game of Chicken the Hungarians win. They have more practice.
The lesson here, of course, is check your mirrors early and often - so you can live in constant fear of what you see there!
**********
We left the house early, which meant that we arrived at Eszterhazá an hour before they opened. This gave us time to relax at the Ettrem accross the street and enjoy an espresso and a sandwich, while admiring the ornate front gate. ( sandwich - thick creamy mushroom soup with big chunks of mushrooms on a baguette with cheese melted on top )
Once inside, we started with the tour. We are only able to take half of the tour today, as they are filming on the other side. Regrettably, this is the side with most of the Haydn exhibits in it.
So you are on a tour. It is of course in Hungarian, not your language. What does it look like? Like this...
Tour Dude: (in a total monotone) "Batabatabatabatabata..." (2 minutes and 12 seconds pass) "...batabatabata."
Not a problem, you have your trusty translator along, who will help you figure out what was just said and bring you right up to speed.
Z (translation): "car."
To be fair, she did buy me a nice book on Haydn at the bookstore. She said there was too much to translate. About half way through the tour I noticed a couple of folks referring to a piece of paper. This was the Italian translation of the Tour Dude speach. Turns out they had one in English, too. Oh well.
On the plus side, we got to hear a Haydn piece or two, snapped a couple (illegal) shots of some music and music stands, watched a weird movie about a fireworks presentation that made no sense until later, and kicked in a couple of Forint for the new Haydn memorial statue.
We then crossed the border into Austria and went to the Eszterhazy's home base in Eisenstadt. There was a mention or two of them in the two hours of exhibits we looked at, but it seems the good folks of Eisentadt have decided that there is more money in Haydn. And the best part is that the tour and exhibits are in English! No cars!
There are all kinds of cool things for the music guy here. There are original documents and manuscripts in Haydn's own hand, original documents from Mozart and Beethoven, too, and, for the trumpet player, some pictures and information of Johann Nepomuck Hummel. (As an aside, the way I see it, the Eszterhazy's were respnsible, at least througth patronage, for two of the three trumpet concertos in the standard rep. We owe them a big vote of thanks.) A well organized and presented tour - well worth the time. Oh, and the fireworks - the Eszterhazy's liked to put on big exhibitions for guests. Marie Antoinette (that one) got the biggest, and evidently what we were watching a recreation of at Eszterhazá.
They also have a pretty swell wine cellar here. The Eszterhazy's, like many of the nobility, were into lots of stuff. The wine cellars still produce several award-winning wines, that you can sample here or buy for later enjoyment.
We wandered downtown to explore, after our tour finished, and found a café for coffee and pastries on the central square. We had no more than sat down outside, under the umbrella, when we had the stereotypical Hollywood rain storm - you know, a clap of thunder and then rain that looks like someone turned on a shower directly above you. I didn't know those really existed. If you have been mocking them in the movies for years like I have, sorry, it's for real. The folks in the café abandoned us with our coffee and pastry.
We finished our castle tour with a looksie at the digs of Count Istvan Széchény. Of course, we had to find it first. We saw all kinds of back country roads before we realized we had the map upside down. After figuring that out, finding the castle was a cinch!
So Széchény, the man national hero Kossuth (and my Father-In-Law Peter) call "The Greatest Hungarian." He was responsible for the dredging of the Danube so that it was suitable for freighting. He paid for and built the first Chain Bridge in Budapest (it has been bombed a few times, but always rebuilt) and followed it up by building the tunnel at the end of it. His biggest claim to fame is as a champion of the Hungarian language. At a time when German and Latin were the offical languages of government, he had the courage to speak his native language in the Lower House, starting a language revolution. Paul Lendvai, in his book "The Hungarians" (page 191-205) discusses all of this much better than I do, if you are curious.
Anyway, the castle. Well, we couldn't see the inside because, you guessed it, they were making a movie. The outside was large. And white. (As they often are.)
We are going to visit the summer digs of the Eszterhazy family today - patrons of one Franz Joseph "Papa" Haydn, the greatest composer of the classical period. More than Beethoven, you ask? Sorry, Beethoven is a Romantic. Better than Mozart, you ask? Why, yes. How many Trumpet Concertos did Mozart write, huh? In fact, Haydn said that his Trumpet Concerto was his "most perfect" concerto (in truth of advertising, the actual quote is "It is a shame that I have written my most perfect concerto for such an imperfect instrument." But let's not quibble).
**********
Hungarian Driving Rules
1) 50 KPH in the city, 90 KPH in the country.
2) You have to wait for the light to change before you can turn - then move!
3) You get a yellow light before the green light. This is so you can rev the engine and set up the kids in the next lane for the speed trap up ahead.
4) The trucks are really, really big - really. On the small, two lane back roads, they like to drive right down the middle. You would be best advised to get over. They win.
5) You will see all kinds of cartoon-like signs by the side of the road - numbers with red circles around them, empty yellow diamonds with red slashes through them, and, my personal favorite, a red bordered triangle with an exclamation point in it (what does it mean?). Feel free to ignore all of these signs, everyone else does.
A few words about passing...
Passing is the national sport in Hungary. Hungarians will pass you anywhere, anytime. Busy two lane street in a small town, you're toast. Blind corner at 90 KPH, look out - here I come. No passing stripe, not a problem.
A hypothetical situation: you are driving down a narrow two-lane street. There is barely enough room for two cars to squeek by each other in opposite directions. The car coming toward you has an obsticle in their lane that will necessitate the driver of that car merging into your lane. You will arrive at the obsticle at the same time. You can depend upon the fact that the other driver will not slow down, and will soon be driving right at you. In a game of Chicken the Hungarians win. They have more practice.
The lesson here, of course, is check your mirrors early and often - so you can live in constant fear of what you see there!
**********
We left the house early, which meant that we arrived at Eszterhazá an hour before they opened. This gave us time to relax at the Ettrem accross the street and enjoy an espresso and a sandwich, while admiring the ornate front gate. ( sandwich - thick creamy mushroom soup with big chunks of mushrooms on a baguette with cheese melted on top )
Once inside, we started with the tour. We are only able to take half of the tour today, as they are filming on the other side. Regrettably, this is the side with most of the Haydn exhibits in it.
So you are on a tour. It is of course in Hungarian, not your language. What does it look like? Like this...
Tour Dude: (in a total monotone) "Batabatabatabatabata..." (2 minutes and 12 seconds pass) "...batabatabata."
Not a problem, you have your trusty translator along, who will help you figure out what was just said and bring you right up to speed.
Z (translation): "car."
To be fair, she did buy me a nice book on Haydn at the bookstore. She said there was too much to translate. About half way through the tour I noticed a couple of folks referring to a piece of paper. This was the Italian translation of the Tour Dude speach. Turns out they had one in English, too. Oh well.
On the plus side, we got to hear a Haydn piece or two, snapped a couple (illegal) shots of some music and music stands, watched a weird movie about a fireworks presentation that made no sense until later, and kicked in a couple of Forint for the new Haydn memorial statue.
We then crossed the border into Austria and went to the Eszterhazy's home base in Eisenstadt. There was a mention or two of them in the two hours of exhibits we looked at, but it seems the good folks of Eisentadt have decided that there is more money in Haydn. And the best part is that the tour and exhibits are in English! No cars!
There are all kinds of cool things for the music guy here. There are original documents and manuscripts in Haydn's own hand, original documents from Mozart and Beethoven, too, and, for the trumpet player, some pictures and information of Johann Nepomuck Hummel. (As an aside, the way I see it, the Eszterhazy's were respnsible, at least througth patronage, for two of the three trumpet concertos in the standard rep. We owe them a big vote of thanks.) A well organized and presented tour - well worth the time. Oh, and the fireworks - the Eszterhazy's liked to put on big exhibitions for guests. Marie Antoinette (that one) got the biggest, and evidently what we were watching a recreation of at Eszterhazá.
They also have a pretty swell wine cellar here. The Eszterhazy's, like many of the nobility, were into lots of stuff. The wine cellars still produce several award-winning wines, that you can sample here or buy for later enjoyment.
We wandered downtown to explore, after our tour finished, and found a café for coffee and pastries on the central square. We had no more than sat down outside, under the umbrella, when we had the stereotypical Hollywood rain storm - you know, a clap of thunder and then rain that looks like someone turned on a shower directly above you. I didn't know those really existed. If you have been mocking them in the movies for years like I have, sorry, it's for real. The folks in the café abandoned us with our coffee and pastry.
We finished our castle tour with a looksie at the digs of Count Istvan Széchény. Of course, we had to find it first. We saw all kinds of back country roads before we realized we had the map upside down. After figuring that out, finding the castle was a cinch!
So Széchény, the man national hero Kossuth (and my Father-In-Law Peter) call "The Greatest Hungarian." He was responsible for the dredging of the Danube so that it was suitable for freighting. He paid for and built the first Chain Bridge in Budapest (it has been bombed a few times, but always rebuilt) and followed it up by building the tunnel at the end of it. His biggest claim to fame is as a champion of the Hungarian language. At a time when German and Latin were the offical languages of government, he had the courage to speak his native language in the Lower House, starting a language revolution. Paul Lendvai, in his book "The Hungarians" (page 191-205) discusses all of this much better than I do, if you are curious.
Anyway, the castle. Well, we couldn't see the inside because, you guessed it, they were making a movie. The outside was large. And white. (As they often are.)
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