Day 4

 This day was rather boring all told. It was the first of the bus journey times. 

The journey took about 6 hours with an added stop for lunch and a few stops where we could get out, stretch our legs, and use the toilet facilities. 

Now, some of the toilet facilities were free to use and some one needed to pay for. The paying for usually meant purchasing something, which really wasn't too hard. Gum or mints were always available, but at a very high cost. 

Much of the area we passed through was farming. It seems like the Hungarian farms practiced strip farming. This is something not often seen in other countries.

One picture taken on the bus of the fields as we passed by. I missed some of the sunflower fields and there were a great many of them, well as corn and what looked like sorghum. I could be wrong on the last one though.

The other photos are of the place we stopped for our lunch. It was very good, and even had a plum tree which Harvey enjoyed picking a plum from. 

The dumpling was not to our liking at all. It seemed a bit doughy. I managed to eat one, but could not eat the second one. The rest of the meal was awesome though.

At the end of this bus trip we reached the ship and managed to get onboard and enjoying the fact we could really stretch our legs. 

Everyone have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Day 3 Continued

 We moved on to the Memorial Garden after the mass grave site. 

The garden is named after Raoul Wallenberg. It holds the Memorial of the Hungarian Jewish Martyrs, this is also known as the Holocaust Tree of Life Memorial. At least 400,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered by the Nazis. It was made by Imre Varga and resembles a weeping willow whose leaves bear the inscriptions of the names of the victims. This ensures that those who lost their lives will never be forgotten. There is also a memorial to Wallenberg and other Righteous Among the Nations. 

The Tree of Life was commissioned in 1989 and unveiled in 1991. A notable contribution to it's funding was from actor Tony Curtis, whose Hungarian Jewish parents had fled Budapest. 

So many diplomats tried to save as many as they possibly could. Carlos Sampaio Garrido, the Portuguese Ambassador who resisted the Hungarian political police who raided his home arresting his guests, and even though also arrested, managed to have his guests released by invoking the extraterritorial legal rights of diplomatic legations. The Italian Prelate Bishop and Apostolic Nuncio in Budapest issued protective passports to Jews in Budapest, also gave misrepresentations of baptism and Vatican passports to thousands of Jews in Budapest saved ten's of thousands of Hungarian Jews. So many others also gave passports to thousands. 

Around the outside of the garden against the walls are the names of all the Hungarian Jewish actors, actresses, scientists, doctors and other notable figures.

The granite plaques hidden in the trees give the names of all those who tried to save as many as they could.

This is where my camera started to act up (it was 40C most of the time we were journeying) and after this I could only take a few pictures at a time and had to turn off the phone in between so that it would cool down.

If you make the photo bigger you will see some bronze shoes by the Danube. This is just down from the Hungarian Parliament and was one of the few days the bus could travel past this memorial. 

The Hungarian branch of the Nazis (I believe it is the Red Arrow, though I could be wrong) would take Jewish people down here. The prisoners would be tied together and shot in the head. The victims would then fall into the water and be carried away. Our guide said in some cases the Nazis would only shoot the first person in line and when they fell in the water, would drag the remaining in after them still alive. It did not matter the sex or age of the victims, there are many small children's shoes in the lineup. 

This is as close as we could get to the palace. It has been undergoing repairs for a very long time.

The monument in front of the flag in the distance is the only Soviet monument still outside in Budapest. It was erected when the Soviet Union "freed" Hungary from the Nazi occupation. Mind you the Communists stayed so how "free" was the country. Now the younger generation calls this the giant bottle opener.

While so much of our day was spent reflecting on the horrors of what had happened, most of us on the excursion looked at each other and came out with the same conclusion. That was we have learned nothing as we are still persecuting people who we think are different. We can say "Never Again", but do we really mean that.

So ends our third day of excursions.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Vacation Day Three Last Day in Budapest

 

Our first stop on this day was at the Dohany Street Synagogue complex and a bit of a walk through more of the old city in what was once the Jewish ghetto. 

This synagogue is the largest in Europe and according to our guide even larger than the one in New York City (though there is a bit of an argument about that fact). It easily seats 3,000 people and is the center of Neolog Judaism. The congregation worships in the Ashkenazi rite.

This complex consists of the Great Synagogue, the Hero's Temple, a graveyard, a memorial garden, and a Jewish museum. We got to visit all of them and surprisingly had to go through security there as well. Pretty strict security truth be told as purses were manually gone through after going through x-ray screening. 

The building is made with three spacious, and richly decorated aisles. There are balconies on each side, and surprisingly an organ (strange as there can be no work done on the Sabbath and playing an organ is considered work). 

Just a few photos from the attached Jewish museum. It holds the Jewish religious and historical collection. This is a collection of relics of the Pest Hevrha Kaddishah, ritual objects of Shabbat and the High Holidays. There is a Holocaust room which was not open while we were there.

Next we got to visit the memorial garden and the graveyard. During the Holocaust the synagogue served as a shelter for many hundreds. Over 2,000 of those who died in the ghetto from starvation and cold during the winter of 1944-1945 are buried there. While it is not tradition for a Jewish cemetery to be so close to a synagogue and some bodies were transferred outside city limits those 2,000 were buried in the makeshift cemetery. 

Just one of three mass grave sites in the complex.

We then moved on to the Memorial Garden, but I think I will save that and the rest of our excursion until tomorrow. Pretty sure this picture heavy post has caused some of you to go to sleep.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Tuesday Tidbits and Stuff, Vacation Continued

 

I am still not completely caught up, so here is hoping I manage to do so tomorrow. I am not going anywhere or doing anything other than sticking close to home. 

I did manage to get all the washing completed, the herbs picked and dehydrated, my computer/office area tidied up, the bedding changed (still need to fold that now the old sheets are out of the dryer) and my ironing done. The I went for coffee and lunch with the sister-in-laws which took up from 10:30 until 2 pm. Four hours was more than enough for me.

Once home I packaged up the meat and got the pie filling out of the molds and packaged. Those are in the chest freezer downstairs now. 

So what did we see on our first excursion which took place the day after we arrived in Budapest.

Our guide took us around the square we were situated on in the Palace District of Old Buda (Budapest is actually two cities that became one).

Walking out the hotel doors and to our right we were in the Fisherman's Bastion.

Not my picture as my phone camera while good is not that good. This photo is by By Bjoertvedt. Probably taken from one of the upper windows or roof of our hotel.

I did get this picture of the parliament buildings through one of the arches, in the lower level.

So many young people/tourists would sit in the openings and pose that it was wait and hurry to get a good shot of the river and parliament. 

This is a statue of the first king of Hungary, Stephen. He actually became a Saint as his one arm mummified and is now in various altars in the country. Every where you went it was very hard to get a photo without lots of tourists in it.

We then got to enter the St. Matthias Church after looking at the lovely tiles on the roof.

The inside was just as lovely as the outside.

This was the first church to have an area for an ebony statue of the Madonna. It was brought back by the Jesuits who oversaw the church to begin with.

We left the church and walked a little way into some of the streets surrounding the square and through a small park. Our guide pointed out places for us to eat a meal, and where we could exchange money. She even pointed out a pharmacy if we needed anything of that nature. 

Hungary does not use Euros even though they are part of the EU. They have their own currency. So confusing as many of the countries we visited even if part of the EU used their own currency so my credit card definitely got a work out as all we had was Euro's. 

This was one of the free excursions that Viking gave us to make up for not cruising when we were supposed to. 

Thus ended the first full day of our visit to Hungary. Though we did travel to one of the eating establishments she pointed out to us that evening for our meal.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.