The day after St. Nicholas Day, we said goodbye to our wonderful hosts, and headed to the Festetics Palace at Keszthely to explore the museums there.
The sprawling palace grounds were very well maintained and I imagine in summer would be packed with families having their picnics. That morning, however, the whole town was blanketed by a thick freezing fog, and it was certainly a good time to hide indoors and enjoy the exhibits.
The palace houses a handful of museums which would take a full day to complete. Because we only had the morning available, we decided to take the basic pass which includes the Palace Museum and the Coach Museum.
The Palace Museum charts the history of the palace and the noble Festetics family who lived in the area for a few centuries. We get to see some of the wonderfully conserved rooms, each with their own character and stories, furnished in the styles of different historical times.
The impressive palace library, with its 19000 books collected by the Festetics family over 200 years, is probably the highlight of the museum. Many of these books are of deep historical significance and still used by scholars today.
There was also a wonderful modern section of the museum with beautifully designed displays detailing the intriguing history of the Festetics family. We enjoyed playing around with the interactive elements and multimedia games!
After exiting the Palace museum, we headed towards the Coach Museum which was housed in a building a short walk away across the beautiful palace grounds. The Coach Museum houses an impressive collection of horse-drawn carriages, sleighes and even hearses. All of them have been beautifully maintained and are in pristine condition.
Only two museums visited out of five, and we already took up the whole morning! It was a real pity that we did not have the time to linger on, as we wanted to make the drive to Siofok before nightfall.
And so, with that, we bade farewell to the quaint town of Keszthely!
This is part 9 of my Hungary Winter Drive blog series, click HERE for part 10 where I share about our drive past Tihany, the little village whose housing prices are more expensive than those in Budapest!
- Part 1 – 2017 Hungary Winter Drive
- Part 2 – Sprain Pain and Piano
- Part 3 – Driving in Hungary as a Tourist
- Part 4 – First Taste
- Part 5 – Matra Mountains
- Part 6 – Szekesfehervar Forever!
- Part 7 – Museums Galore – Toy, Diocese & King Stephen
- Part 8 – St. Nicholas Day in Keszthely
- Part 9 – Festetics Palace, Keszthely
- Part 10 – Tihany, Completing the Balaton Loop
- Part 11 – From Siofok to Simontornya
My wife and I enjoy having guests over at our place for fellowship over a nice home-cooked meal. If you would like to drop by to try some of my wife’s wonderful cooking and to talk more about travel and life, do drop me a mail at lenniechua@gmail.com to arrange a dinner date! Everyone welcome!
2017 Hokkaido Winter Drive Blog Series
Little Lion's Lifebook 