Haydn Tour - April 2016 - Eisenstadt & Esterhaza Page

From Wednesday 20th to Saturday 23rd April 2016

Getting round Eisenstadt without a map proved the usual hassle but I managed to find the Parkhotel within about 20 minutes fruitless driving & it had a room for three nights (& a cute receptionist). In fact, there did not seem to be many people these. It is in the Josef Haydn Gasse, which is why I looked for it on the Internet. Stuff about Haydn is on the next page. We walked up to the Esterhazy Palace but it was now too late to go in. I did suss out the pedestrianised Hauptstrasse for restaurants & found one but it turned out the hotel did dinner, so we ate there. It was Italian, so I had a calzone & Avis, Genevoise tortellini, which she did not like.

On Thursday evening, we went to the huge, as in high, rather than long, St. Martinus. Fortunately, it had lost its glass (WWII?) & had modern glass installed.

Friday - the Esterhaza (Fertod today) Esterhazy Palace

We had plenty of time on this day which became even hotter than yesterday. To start with, I went a mile out of our way, as there were no road signs at first to Sopron, the first town in Hungary). Then, it was straight forward, although I missed the first turning towards Fertod, as, like the Austrians, they do not put up a list of coming places. However, I knew that Fertoszentmiklos was on our way. In fact, we never got there, as I saw I saw a a turnoff to Fertozseplak & took that, which lead to Fertod (so-renamed from Esterhaza by the communists in 1920).
At Fertod, a woman leapt out to demand F.370 for parking, which meant to her disgust that she had to give me change for a F.1000 note. This was 94p in Sterling! At the palace, they took VISA for the F.4000 they wanted to let us in. We had half an hour to wait for a tour. This was in Hungarian but the guide showed us where we were on the comprehensive leaflet. Apart from the two recital rooms, there are no Haydn memorabilia here.

This place was as opulent as the Eisenstadt one but something I did not know was that when Prince Miklos died, Prince Antal did not just sack the band but closed the place down completely & it was more or less derelict for 100 years until the then Esterhazy reinhabited it & tidied it up. Meanwhile, the opera house had burned down. As we found at the Simplon Hospice, (where we met the Estarhazy's tax-fiddling lawyer in 2014) this lot have more money than necessary. However, it was used by both Austrian & Russian military during the war & restoration did not start until 1957, probably to create jobs after the revolution.
As the roads were not very good in Hungary, I decided to go back on the East side of the Neusiedlersee & we stopped just over the border in Pamhagen for lunch in the Grenzlandhof, which had a one-item menu - pike in thin batter with sauté spuds & salad after soup. This was not splendid but cheap & made up for by the jolly barmaid & the friendly locals, who talked to us. Naturally, they were curious how we got there. I drove on North, hoping to go along the lake but you barely see it & we eventually rejoined the S50, so it was a longer way back, albeit on smooth roads. But it was too hot & Avis was on the sunny side.