May 28, 2011: Our day started out by going to the Parliament building for a tour of the inside. It turned out that there was a special tour for young students in the morning, so we bought tickets for the afternoon and visited the nearby fine art galleries near the Parliament. After that, we decided to visit the Museum of Ethnography, especially since it started to rain the moment I asked the question as to whether anyone wanted to go there. The museum consumed a lot of time since my guests were very interested in seeing the videos and reading all the signs of the displays. One picture caught my eye of a young girl learning to walk with the aid of a specially made walking toy:

walking toy at Museum of Ethnography

After the museum, we went to a nearby restaurant recommended by a fellow CETP teacher for lunch and whiled our time before our Parliament tour by walking along the Danube to see the  bronze shoes embedded on the shore commemorating the Jews who were forced to jump into the Danube and drown or be shot to death. 

The Parliament tour was just as interesting as the last time I had gone. Guards were stationed next to the case enclosing the Hungarian crown.

Guards at Parliament

On this tour I learned that there are two identical halls in the Parliament building, one for the upper house and one for the lower house, but since there is only one house in use, the other one is being rented out. The two chambers are identically decorated and equipped. In each chamber, there are 456 seats for the 386 representatives, but the representatives have decided that there are too many representatives for such a small country, and that the number should be reduced to around 200, so we'll see if and how this takes place to reduce the number of representatives.

Chamber roof in Parliament

After our tour, it was on to a restaurant for dinner. My guests all specifically requested that we eat once again at my favorite restaurant, the Gerloczy. It took no convincing me to get me to agree. On the way, we went into the Meridien Hotel to see the lobby.

As usual, my dinner at the Gerloczy was outstanding:

Spring roll stuffed with asparagus

Butterfish

After dinner, it was home for a good night's sleep before a day filled with many activities to climax my friends' trip to Hungary. Stay tuned.