Friday 8 August 2008

Marzipan Museum in Keszthely, Hungary

To the rest of the world, marzipan is only useful for making the ultra-sickly layer on a wedding cake, but try telling that to the Hungarians. Astonishingly, there are two museums devoted to marzipan in the country (the other being at Szentendre), and it appears as though there is much more that can be made out of the almond-based treat.
Keszthely’s Marzipan Museum features staggering displays of sculpture, with shields, faces and miniature palaces all made out of… you guessed it.
The scaled-down model of the Festetic’s Palace just down the road is particularly impressive, although the cake made from marzipan most definitely isn’t. That’s a bit like putting a Mars Bar in a museum of chocolate, or paddling pool in a museum of water.
Essentially, it’s a marzipan shop with a darkened room in the back. They don’t seem to get all that many visitors, and those that do come tend just to go in to stock up on sickly treats.
It’s worth going in though, if only for the sheer mind-numbing pointlessness of it. And once you’ve done that, enjoy Keszthely – it’s a lovely little town on the shore of Lake Balaton. Which we’re reliably informed is the biggest lake in Europe outside of Scandinavia.

Getting to the Marzipan Museum in Keszthely
Nearest international airport: Budget airlines such as Ryanair fly into the nearby Balaton airport. It’s essentially a cattle shed/ old military base in a field though. Otherwise, fly into Budapest or Zagreb (Croatia) and get the train.
Using public transport: Keszthely is a pretty small town, largely existing for the benefit of fat Germans and Austrians on their holidays. Everything is within easy walking distance of each other, and buses go somewhat infrequently to and from the airport. A taxi is probably a better bet.

More information: Marzipan Museum

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