Art Nouveau Museum

After saying good-bye to our Polish Canadian guest Anne, we ventured to the Art Nouveau Museum. It is a private museum, which had some strange differences. Some of the exhibits were for sale. When Ron mentioned this to one of the workers upstairs, she said "Sometimes the lights need to work, sometimes the gas." When Ron questioned whether the sale items were to pay operating costs, she affirmed this.

One thing I learned is that I don't like Art Nouveau inside anywhere near as I do outside. I love the architecture, but could do without the decor and design of furniture. When I asked for a brochure, I was told they didn't have any more than the one in the window. The cashier gave me their "new" website, saying the other one was no longer any good. When I looked at the site she gave me, it was for the Budapest underGuides tours for Art Nouveau. With misinformation like this, it is no wonder they need to sell the displays to cover the bills.

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The Last Art Nouveau Walking Tour for Us

We went on our last Art Nouveau walk offered by Budapest underGuides. I have now done all of their tours and I did the Classic tour twice to do it with Ron. Each tour is excellent, so if you know you will be here some Saturday in the next 6 weeks, you should book one. The English ones generally have room, but the Hungarian ones they have had to turn people away in droves.  Pre-registration is required and they are only funded for 30 people in each of two groups. So many register, but don't show up, which is shameful for those who want to be part of this. 

Here are the photos from today's tour, but they are also in the photo blog.

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I did the tour this morning. Pictures are in the other blog. If you are local and intend to go to an upcoming tour, you must pre-register. They turned away about 50 people today and had to extend the English tour to others who spoke English due to the turnout. The tour was excellent!

I did the tour this morning. Pictures are in the other blog. If you are local and intend to go to an upcoming tour, you must pre-register. They turned away about 50 people today and had to extend the English tour to others who spoke English due to the turnout. The tour was excellent!

Art Nouveau Splash Walking Tour by Underguide Tours

Related articles

• Free Art Nouveau Tours (budgetnomad.blogspot.com)
• Art Nouveau Classic Walking Tour (budgetnomad.blogspot.com)

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Art Nouveau Classic Walking Tour

Not sleeping well yet, I was up in plenty of time to join the Underguides, Art Nouveau Classic Walking Tour. By the time the guides appeared, it was rather shocking to see that there were about 60 people crowding the street in front of the Writer's Bookstore where we were to meet. Having planned ahead, the tour company had 3 guides ready to break us into groups. My group of English speakers consisted on another American, myself, and two Hungarians who wanted to utilize their English. One of these was a student of mine from years ago.


The tour included a number of bits that I didn't know and filled in other bits for which I had a skeleton knowledge. Having only 4 in the group was lovely; there were no issues about hearing over the traffic noise or while walking. The tour lasted for two hours, but really sped by, not feeling that long at all. 


Photos from the walk are in the other blog: Ryan and Ron Do the World or just click here.

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Free Art Nouveau Tours

These are free walking tours sponsored by 
budapestUNDERGUIDE - Go Local!      www.underguide.com 

This is one of the tour companies I have in my Frommer's guide. They are excellent!


Art Nouveau Splash Tour
July 2nd and July 23, August 13 and September 3
Meeting: 9.45 at drinking fountain in front of Gellért Hotel.
Your guide will have a coloured scarf.
Guiding: 10:00-11:30     


Classical Art Nouveau Walk
Lipótváros walk dates:
July 9th
Meeting: Ferenciek tere (Ferenciek square), in front of the Franciscan Church of Pest.
Your guide will have a coloured scarf.
Walk: 10:00-12:00


City Park & surroundings walk dates:
July 30, August 20, and September 10
Meeting: Yellow metroline ‘Vörösmarty utca” station in direction of Oktogon, on the street
Your guide will have a coloured scarf.
Walk: 10:00-12:00


Art Nouveau Lifestyle Walk
June 25, July 16, August 6, August 27, September 17
Meeting: In front of the "Írók boltja" bookshop, (Andrássy avenue 45, close to Oktogon)
Your guide will have a coloured scarf.
Walk: 10:00-12:00

Related articles

• Secessionist Picnic at the National Museum (hungariancult.com)

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Walk, Walk, Walk, Out of the Old City

About the best thing going for this hotel is the breakfast. The shower is so small, I had to step out of it to readjust the water temperature. They give you liquid soap, because if you should drop bar soap, you would need the fire department to come rescue you after bending over to try to retrieve it. It is so small they had to shrink the water drops coming from the shower head in order to fit the stall. So this makes breakfast all the more special. Not only is the breakfast rooms airy with room to spread out, the buffet goes on for tables and tables of choices.

We went for breakfast early, but then we had plenty of time to waste until we met up with the tour guide for the 'free' walking tour. We putzed around going into this church and that one. Most of the churches in the old city are Lutheran. If you have ever been in a Lutheran church, you know that Luther stripped them bare. There is hardly any decor inside, so it hardly makes it worth venturing in at all. Well, yea, you could pray there, but that is not a touristy thing to do.

Finally, at noon, we were waiting at the meeting spot for the tour. Tour guides of all sorts are roaming the streets like turkey hawks looking for a carcass to chew on. Of course, they charge anywhere from 10 to 20 lats a person. Angeles, our young guide who said his name was the same as the city, but without the Los. He works for tips only, was a welcomed sight. It was only Ron and I and two recently graduated high school students who were doing volunteer work in Lithuania. Angeles immediately told us he was not touring us through the old city, but beyond, where most tours never take you. We were dubious at first, but Angeles proved himself to be smarter in this regard than we were.

He took us over the market halls; there are four of them side by side. They were built and used by the Germans during WWI, for storing zeppelins. Afterward, they converted them to the food halls of today. Each one is dedicated to one form of food: fruits and vegetables, only meat only, another for (phew!) fish, and the last is for cheese and dairy products. We went to some sleazy areas in the city where they buy and sell everything and anything. We were shown Stalin's birthday cake, an ornate building that was converted to a science university, but is now offices and underutilized.  We did a short visit to the Jewish area, where a synagogue was burned to the ground by the Nazis, but only after they had it filled with Jews. Right next to it is a memorial to all who aided the Jews in some way. 

Angeles was a disillusioned university student. He was studying navigation and journalism, but could not take the university any longer and quit. He is in the process of searching what is next for him. In the meanwhile, he pointed out interesting and fascinating sites we would never have found on our own. Nothing that Ron had read about Riga even suggested much of anything outside of the old town area. Angeles has perfect English. He told us that it is now mandatory from first grade, but when he was in school, it only started in 3rd grade. In the 6th grade, students have to take a second foreign language. 

The tour was scheduled to last 2 hours fifteen minutes, but in reality lasted an extra half hour longer. One of the highlights was the touring of the art nouveau architecture. When our time finally ran thin, Angeles pointed out pockets of the city to see more. After our good byes, we went exploring more architecture on our own. This city is abundantly rich with fabulous styles. I cannot wait to see my pictures.

Angeles had recommended a restaurant for dinner, so we went there. One Latvian specialty is peas cooked with bacon in milk. Ron tried it for an appetizer in spite of Trip Advisor reviews giving it thumbs down. I don't think they are really peas in the sense of what we know as peas, but shaped like them. These were mostly brown and chewy, though not undercooked. I had sauerkraut, which I was looking forward to, but it was served cold. That was disappointing. Walking back to the hotel, again, the streets were empty. 

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