We had a very full schedule planned for our stay in Budapest. As was evident from the preceding page, we started right off with an overview tour of the city. Our first full day we had scheduled a trip to the Herend porcelain factory and then on to Lake Balaton.
The tour takes place in a special building designed specifically for tours. I don't think visitors are permitted in the actual factory. We started the tour with a demonstration of pouring the porcealin into a mold. We were also shown the process of creating a vase like object on a wheel which is then inserted into another mold and pressed against the mold side to make the pattern.
Click on the picture below to see a YouTube video.
There are many techniques used in the porcelain factory. In the picture on the upper left, the woman is constructing a figure from pieces. She "glues" the pieces together with water. I don't know if the individual pieces come from molds or if they are shaped by hand.
On the upper right, the woman is carving the pattern into the porcelain. When finished it will be an openwork bowl. This is very painstaking work and one mistake means the piece has to be scrapped.
The two pictures in the middle show porcelain roses in process. On the left, the woman is forming and combining the petals. Every rose is done separately so no two roses are exactly alike. On the right is a picture of some completed roses.
The pictures at the bottom show a woman making a bowl by "weaving" strips of porcelain. She takes what looks like an extruded "string" of porcelain and cnstructs the bowl over the form. Although there are minor differences between bowls, by using the form, the bowls are very close to the same.
Click on the center picture below to see a YouTube video of all these processes.
The last process we saw on the tour was painting the porcelain. Herend is world famous for its porcelains and especially its dishes. Each dish is painted by hand and as you can see is VERY tedious exacting work. Click on the center picture below to see a YouTube video of the painting in progress.
After the Herend factory tour, we drove the short distance to Lake Balaton. This is the largest lake in central Europe. We stopped at a restaurant overlooking the lake and had lunch. Very quiet and relaxing.
Boating is a favorite activity on the lake. However, the day we were there we only saw a few boats. I think the high season ends in August.
We had a treat that evening as we had tickets for a concert in St. Stephans Basilica. As I showed on the first page of our Budapest visit, St. Stephens is one of the two most prominent structures in Budapest. It can be seen from almost anywhere in the city. By comparison to other buildings and churches in both Budapest and other parts of Europe, St. Stephens is modern - completed in 1905. Below are a few pictures of the intererior including one of the cupola. If you click on the picture of the musicians, you will see a YouTube video of a small sampling of our concert.
