Aristocratic Travels and Adventures Exhibition & More

This afternoon in Keszthely, I went to a museum that explores aristocratic travels and adventures, because who wouldn’t?

That was the middle activity of my afternoon. I also visited a garden and a church.

If it sounds like I didn’t do much this afternoon, it sounds about right. I didn’t.

It was sweltering again this afternoon. I was not in the mood to overexert myself in this heat.

The forecast called for today’s high to be a few degrees lower than yesterday’s, but it felt hotter. I didn’t look at the humidity on either day. Perhaps that was it.

At about 2:30 in the afternoon, I opened my weather app. It told me it was 34°C. I think yesterday’s high was 38 or 39. True, 34 is a few degrees cooler than 38 or 39, but, as I said, it felt hotter.

Then again, when the app told me it was 34°, it also said I was standing in light rain. I wasn’t. There were some light, non-threatening clouds near the horizon in a couple of directions. Other than that, the sky was clear, and the sun was shining, as it is wont to do under clear skies in the daylight hours.

So much for my weather app. (And, no, you know who you are, before you mention it, Environment Canada doesn’t provide forecasts for Hungary. I checked.)

I didn’t do much this afternoon, but not nothing. Let’s go. We’ve got those aristocratic travels and adventures to get to

Festetics Palace Palm House

Before delving into aristocratic travels and adventures, I visited the Palm House on the grounds of Festetics Palace.

If you want to know why they call it the Palm House, ask someone else. I haven’t the foggiest of ideas.

It has a greenhouse with interesting tropical plants, but no palm trees. A much larger area within the ticketed space was a nice outdoor botanical garden, with flowers, trees and a couple of ponds. There was one palm tree outdoors, not in the greenhouse. According to Apple Photos, it’s a Canary Island date palm.

Here’s another thing you shouldn’t ask me because I don’t know: How does the palm tree survive outside? They get real winters in Hungary. I tolerate (only just) cold winters. I didn’t think palm trees were as hearty as I am in that regard.

It was hot and humid both outside and inside, so I didn’t spend much time at the Palm House. I hoped that the Aristocratic Travels and Adventures Exhibition would be air-conditioned. My wish was fulfilled. Besides, for some reason, on this, my third overseas trip already this year, with the year only just barely half over, I felt it calling me.

More photos from the Palm House:

Aristocratic Travels and Adventures Exhibition

The Aristocratic Travels and Adventures Exhibition is not on the Festetics Palace grounds, but it’s just a few doors past the gate. And it’s one of the exhibits included in the combination ticket for Festetics Palace.

Imagine that—a museum devoted to aristocratic travels and adventures. I aspire to be featured there one day. I’m getting the travel part down. The adventure part, less so, but maybe they’ll make an exception. Now, all I need to do is figure out how to become an aristocrat. How difficult can that be?

It’s an interesting little museum. It looks at the pleasures, processes, and perils of aristocratic travel and adventure, mostly in the 19th century and just barely into the 20th.

It started with a display of a few pieces of old luggage.

It talks about the perils aristocrats faced when they travelled. (All of the text was in Hungarian and English.) The listed perils included accidents, diseases, and bandits. One of the reasons that was noted for accidents is that there were very few traffic regulations back then.

And diseases? Hah! Let them travel on a modern super cruise ship. Then they’ll know about diseases. (I’m kidding. I know they were even worse on some cramped passenger ships of days gone by.)

And I guess being an aristocrat made them more of a target for bandits. I imagine it’s difficult for bandits to make a living robbing poor people. Then again, I don’t think that always stops them from trying.

Exhibits in the Aristocratic Travels and Adventures Exhibition included old black-and-white photographs, some illustrations, model ships, a carriage (of the type pulled by horses), tools from a carriage repair shop, a cut-away section of a luxury saloon car from the Hungarian State Railways, the passenger-carrying basket from a hot-air balloon, a model ship, a bicycle with a wood frame, some old automobiles, lots of text, and I forget what else.

Among the text was a list of twelve rules for pleasant train travel. (Or maybe it’s just for aristocratic travels.) Each rule was on a separate spinner with an illustration on the other side. Here are the twelve rules so you too can better enjoy your travels:

1. Before departure, visit the lavatory.
2. Mind the time.
3. Never climb on top of the train. It is much better to travel inside the carriage,
4. Take full use of your trunk.
5. Inquire about local conditions.
6. Enjoy the view..
7. When in trouble, use the emergency brake.
8. Don’t be afraid to talk to unknown ladies in a polite manner.
9. After smoking, tend to the ladies as a gentleman.
10. Do not deprive yourself of the pleasures of a healthy sleep.
11. Make new friends.
12. Participate in the community’s life.

I particularly like 1. That’s a rule that is ingrained in me. In my family, depending on the generation, it’s known as “mom’s rule” or “nana’s rule.” In my generation, it’s “mom’s rule.” Mom repeated that incessantly, but she phrased it as, “go before you leave.” We heard it before we went out anywhere. It’s a good rule.

The second rule is not something you have to tell me twice. Or even once. I’m not riding on top of any trains.

I’ve never smoked, but these days the smoking rules aren’t relevant to anyone. You can’t smoke on trains. But what does 9 even mean? “After smoking, tend to the ladies as a gentleman.” I honestly don’t know what they are trying to say. The rules for aristocratic travels are weird, I guess.

As to 7, when in trouble, I plan to panic, followed by years of kvetching about the trouble, if I survive it.

As to 8, I’m shy and insecure, not a great combination, but I suspect they typically go together. I’m usually afraid to talk to unknown ladies and unknown gentlemen. But when I do, I usually try to be polite. I’m Canadian, after all.

Toward the end of the exhibition, which dipped into the early part of the 20th century and the automobile age, there was a display of speed limits in Europe in 1910. The fastest was 45 kilometres per hour, almost 28 miles per hour (those speed demons!). The slowest was Spain at 28 kilometres per hour, a little over 17 miles per hour.

The same sign listed which countries drove on the right side of the road and which on the left in 1910. I was surprised to learn that a few continental European countries drove on the left then. They all now drive on the right and proper side. Obviously, that’s not true outside of continental Europe. I knew Great Britain and Ireland drive on the left. But I looked it up; Malta and Cyprus do too. What is it with island countries that they can’t get that right?

The Aristocratic Travels and Adventures Exhibition is a fun little museum.

Little Saint Theresa Carmelite Basilica

This is a sight I found on TripAdvisor. It had a 4.5 rating when I looked at it, but it was based on only two reviews. Those reviews weren’t in English. I don’t know what they said. I suppose I could have used Google Translate to tell me, but I didn’t.

I didn’t learn until I got back to my hotel and tried to do more research on it that it’s a relatively new church. I found its website and opened it in Chrome because Chrome provides translations from Hungarian. On one of the church’s pages, in the English translation provided by Google, it says, “The foundation stone of the church dedicated to Little Saint Therese of Lisieux was laid in 1927, and the church was consecrated in 1938.”

Later on, it says that it is a neo-Romanesque church.

The exterior is not unattractive, but not gorgeous. The interior is very boxy. It’s all straight lines, including the ceiling decorations. There are statues on the two side walls. I think one of them is St. Stephen. He’s wearing the Holy Crown, which is also known as the Crown of St. Stephen. He’s also holding an orb. I learned of him and his crown and orb previously on this trip. I saw the original crown and orb on display in the Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest. I also saw replicas of them in the Sopron Museum.

The difference between the statue’s crown and the original and the replica is that on the original (and the Sopron replica), the cross at the top of the crown is tilted. Nobody knows how that happened. But on the statue, the cross is erect, as it presumably was when the crown was created.

I wasn’t terribly impressed with the church. They don’t make churches like they used to. So, enough said.

Addendum: Not the Bird Park

I’m a bit confused about something. When I was at the Festetics Palace, I bought a ticket that included the palace and five other exhibits, which were supposed to be all of the ones in the immediate vicinity. I was at three this morning: The carriage, hunting, and historic railroads museum. I thought I was at two this afternoon: The Festetics Palace Palm House and the Aristocratic Travels and Adventures Exhibition. That makes five. But there’s another, a bird park.

I intentionally didn’t go there. It’s at the far corner of the palace’s large grounds, or possibly beyond the grounds. I wasn’t sure from looking at the map. In today’s heat, I wasn’t eager to walk there, particularly because it didn’t get great reviews on Google Maps — actually, bad reviews — and some of the pictures posted there looked a little bleak. I don’t think the Palm House is included as one of the five. It’s not listed on the ticket information page for the castle, but the bird park is. However, they did insist on seeing my ticket before I passed through the Palm House entrance gate. Maybe it’s considered an integral part of the castle. I don’t know.

The combination ticket is supposed to be good for two days. If I’m short on things to do tomorrow (I may be), I might check it out. It’s supposed to have swans, peacocks, and more. Does that count as aristocratic travel?