Budapest - Day 3

This morning most people on the tour have departed.  There are a few couples staying on in Budapest for one or two or even three more days.

It was interesting to hear how some of the people had to route themselves to accommodate airline miles.  Some of the more challenging trips was Budapest to Vienna to Frankfurt to San Francisco.  Another was Budapest to Amesterdam to London to JFK to Charolette.  Yikes, so many places where something could go wrong.

We were staying on for one more day, so we headed out to see some of things that Tauck did not take us to see.  First up, was the Dohany Street Synagogue otherwise known as The Great Synagogue.  It is the largest in Europe and one of the largest in the world seating over 3,000.  The Central Synagogue in Manhattan is a near-exact replica.

The area around the Synagogue was on the border of the Budapest Ghetto.  2,000 of the Hungarian Jews who perished from hunger and the cold in 1944-45 are buried in mass graves in the courtyard of the temple.  Estee Lauder was a major contributor to the reconstruction of the temple once democracy came back in the 1990's.

In the rear courtyard of the Synagogue is the Raoul Wallenberg memorial park.  It holds the Memorial of the Hungarian Jewish Matyrs which resembles a weeping willow whose leaves are inscribed with the names of the 400,000 Hungarian Jews murdered by the Nazis.

The weather is still hot, hot, hot.  On our way back to our hotel we stopped at the world-famous Gerbeaud Cafe to enjoy a chocolate treat before heading back to our room to sit in some air conditioning for an hour.

Once we were a bit cooler, we hiked over to St. Stephen's Basilica.  Mass was in process and seemed to very well attended.  The basilica is huge and very ornately decorated.  We sat for awhile listening to the service and enjoying the incredible scenery.

After stopping for a wonderful Sunday Brunch at the stunning Four Seasons Gresham Palace (only USD$28), we walked up the street for a tour of the Hungarian Parliament.  Wow, what a structure.  The tour is kind of sucky, not a lot of history given, but you do get taken in to the legislative chamber, main reception halls and you get to stand in the dome area (no pictures allowed in the dome).  You must see this place.  Absolutely a highlight of our tour.

As we were walking back to our hotel, we walked past the Shoes on the Danube Bank memorial.  It honors the Jews killed by the fascist Arrow Cross militiamen who were in power in 1944 before the Soviets "freed" Budapest.  The Jews were ordered to take off their shoes and were shot at the edge of the Danube so that their bodies fell in to the river and floated away.

A more pleasant piece of statuary in front of the Four Seasons.

Goodnight.