Budapest

The morning starts with a talk about the disembarkation procedures that will happen in two days. They send you to the airport depending on when your flight is, we have an early 6:20 am flight. That results in luggage out at 2:45 am and get on the bus at 3:15 am with a brown bag breakfast.

At 10 am we get on the busses for a bus/walking tour of Budapest.

We start on the Pest (east) side of the Danube. You can see the Budapest castle on the other side.

Along the Danube river is the Shoe Memorial to victims murdered by Hungarian fascists. Shoes were valuable and could be stolen and resold.

Nearby is the Hungarian Parliament Building which is 96 meters high.

Lajos Kossuth was Prince Regent when Hungary attempted to push out Habsburg rulers in 1848-1849. The revolution ultimately failed, but he was widely admired by the people. The Lajos Kossuth Memorial is next to the parliament building.

The Hungarian Revolution in 1956 lead the way for democracy in Hungary. There are bullet holes in some of the buildings near the parliament building that are from troops firing at the protesters.

We boarded the busses and went to Heroes Square.

One of the statues is King Saint Stephen of Hungary who brought Christianity to Hungary.

After lunch on the ship, we visited the market.

Then we walked over to the Dohány Street Synagogue for a tour. This is the largest Synagogue in Europe.

Behind the Synagogue in the garden is a memorial to Hungarian victims of the Holocaust. It looks like a willow tree.

Each leaf has the name of a victim. With an estimated 400,000 victims, not every victim is named on a leaf.