The Jaguar Club Hungary organized this year his main event, the Jaguar Week-end at the Balaton-Uplands and in Tapolca as the initial point for the daily tours. Ideal place to gather the Jaguars and their riders and passangers.This time the Jaguar Club Hungary hosted also 29 members of Austrian Jaguar Clubs, so all together close to 90 Jaguar Club members were present. After and before rainy days, this time the weather receive’s favor the event, at least for the days, when the group went for trips to Keszthely, Tihany and Herend.
We arrived Friday afternoon to the ****Hotel Hunguest Pelion in Tapolca. The hotel is built on a tortuous cave system which is hiding under the streets and houses of Tapolca, a little town not far from Balaton. In the strictly protected caves, which were discovered more than 100 years ago, the visitors can make a unique boat trip on the lit, bluish water of the underground lake. Autopalace M5 Hungary, the local Jaguar-Land Rover dealer presented the new XE at the entrance of the hotel, and the attendees of the meeting could admire this newcomer of the Jaguar range.
Saturday morning the participants drove to the Festetics Palace of Keszthely in convoi, and as usual, this was very nice to see old and new Jaguars rolling together, in harmony with the beautiful landscape of the Balaton Uplands. The Festetics Palace is the third Hungarian palace in size, while it is the most popular with visitors. It functions as a museum and an events centre. Christopher Festetics began the construction of the Festetics Palace in 1745, and through several modifications and extensions, acquired its present form in 1887. The building is surrounded by a nature reserve park, with the palm house and the former coach house. The Jaguars parked at the parking of the new building of the hunting exhibition and the historical model railway exhibition, which is opposite the back gate of the park. At the end of the visit, Attila Feltein, Club’s Program Director, his wife Vera and their music ensemble played chamber music pieces in connection with the history of the castle and the family Festetics in the castle salon.
At the delicious lunch at the Szent György Cellar, in the center of the most patinated wine region of the Balaton-highland, the attendees had a view to the Tapolcai hollow with the basalt hills bordering it, which provides perhaps the most varied scenery of the country. Arriving to Tihany peninsula, which is deeply elongating into the Balaton lake, the cars parked around the Benedictine monastery, which was established in 1055 by King Andrew I of Hungary. His tomb in the crypt of the church is only grave of a medieval King of Hungary which has been preserved until now.
Saturday evening at the dinner in the hotel, the Hungarian and Austrian club representatives exchanged ideas and discussed opportunities for future cooperations.
Sunday morning the group went to Herend, visiting the Herend Porcelain Manufactory, specializing in luxury hand painted and gilded porcelain. Founded in 1826, it is based in the town of Herend near the city of Veszprém. In the mid-19th century it was purveyor to the Habsburg Dynasty and aristocratic customers throughout Europe. The famous Queen Victoria set, introduced in 1851 at the First World Exhibition in London, was purchased by Queen Victoria herself. Subsequently named for her, this Chinese-influenced pattern demands the skills of Herend’s most talented and experienced painters. After the fall of Communism in Hungary the factory was privatised and today exports to over 60 countries of the world.
