Europe Trip Report--Day 3

This picture is the Holocaust Memorial at the Great Synagogue in Budapest


Friday, July 13, 2007





We started this morning with a tour of Parliament . We can see the building across the Danube from our hotel, but it is even larger than it appears from that distance. The building was built in the early 20th century and has seen periods of no use (i.e., during communism). It was ornate and beautiful. The architecture was incredible. I was very impressed with the gold leafing throughout the building. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and friendly.

We then walked about 10 blocks to the Intercontinental Hotel and bought tickets to a hop on and off tour bus with a live guide who speaks English (albeit with a very strong accent). We stopped at the Great Synagogue and were once again awestruck at the beauty. In this instance we were also struck by the enormity of the death and destruction of the Jewish community here in the Holocaust. I am attaching a picture of the memorial in their courtyard which was funded by a foundation started by the actor Tony Curtis whose parents were Hungarian Jews. Each leaf on the tree bears the name of a Hungarian victim and if turned upside down, the tree would be a menorah.

The guide told us that the Jews in Hungary were not rounded up until the summer of 1944 (around D-Day) and were almost completely exterminated within a 6 week period. The synagogue here is the second largest in the world (the largest is in NYC) and was designed by a Christian architect. As a result, it resembles Christian churches in many respects with the pulpits, narthex and seating. There is gold leafing here too...just like in Parliament. There is also a cemetery on the grounds which is unusual for a Synagogue. However, they had to have mass burials during the time that the Synagogue was a holding spot in the Holocaust and would not move the bodies after that point, which I appreciate and respect. Their Torah scrolls were saved by 2 Christian women who came in and took them and buried them until after the war and returned them when a Jewish population returned to Budapest.



After that, we hopped back on the bus and rode as far as the State Opera House. Tours are only at 3 and 4 and so we stopped at a little pizza place with outdoor seating and had lunch. The pizza was excellent. It reminded me of a place we went to in Chicago last month and the pizza was just as good.

The Opera House was also breathtaking...more gold leaf and ornamentation. I wish it was the season for the opera or ballet. It would have been marvelous to attend a performance there.

After that tour we hopped back on the bus and rode it through to the end. We then walked back over the Chain Bridge to get back to our hotel and relaxed for awhile before dinner at a more "Continental" time of 9:00. We had a burger on the terrace below our room.



Tomorrow is slated to check out the shopping districts of Budapest and another church and the fine arts museum and then on to Serbia on Sunday.



More random thoughts on the differences...we have figured out that we want the bottled water with the pink tops rather than the blue ones. Still water instead of sparkling (bubbles or no bubbles). All the bottles are glass too...no plastic.

The doors in our hotel room aren't "in" the door frames, but rather mounted to them. I'm not sure how to explain that without visuals!Finally, the lights and plugs in our room only work when the key is in a slot labelled "main switch"...I guess it's another conservation thing which we aren't as good at in the U.S. :-)



Kellye and Eleanor