Budapest: Churches and Synagogue

The day after Easter Sunday was one of the brightest, sunniest days of our river-cruise trip in March.  So you won't be surprised that we packed it to the gills!

Our first mission (so to speak...since this is a post about churches), was to see the Dohány Street Synagogue on the Pest side of the Danube.  But on the way...

...we stopped in at this wee church first.

Remember, this was the Monday morning after Easter.

And then we saw the aftermath of a car accident...our first of the entire trip.

Everything about it appeared as though it could have been anywhere!

There she was...just as we had remembered on our Viking excursion when we drove by the previous Friday.

This time we were on foot and could see it up close and personal.

The Dohány Street Synagogue, from 1859, is Europe's largest, seating 3,000.

Sadly, it wasn't open...but we saw a lot!

 I was especially mesmerized by all the Stars of David mixed in with the design and architecture.

We peeked through every gate and crevice possible....

...especially at the Memorial of the Hungarian Jewish Martyrs, resembling a weeping willow (1989).

The leaves bear the names of over 400,000 Hungarian Jews murdered by the Nazis.

I just wish we could have gone inside to see the names!

Have you ever wanted to learn Hebrew?  I have.

(click any collage to enlarge)

It's the kind of place where you just want to sit and soak it all in!

It so happens that there was an advertisement inside the memorial courtyard that pointed out a Flodni (apple-walnut-poppy-seed pastry) café just down the street.  And since it was about that time....

...oh, YES.  Just what the doctor ordered.  Rachel's flodni, to be precise.  

She's "one of the queens of Budapest Jewish cooking. The daughter of a noted rabbi."

Doesn't get more authentic than that...just a few doors down from the synagogue!

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Newly energized, we headed off to another of Budapest's famous churches but stopped off first at the nearby Opera House.

The Hungarian State Opera House, from 1875, is Hungary's largest opera building.

Lucky for us, we were able to step inside the lobby and get a glimpse of the grandeur.

The outside wasn't bad either!  (Look at that imp!)

Like I said, we were on our way to see another church, the grand St. Stephen's Basilica from 1905.  It's the third largest church building in present-day Hungary, according to Wiki.

 If that doesn't grab your attention, wait till you go inside.

And yes, that's a souvenir-coin machine right at the door before going in!

Sometimes there's nothing you can say!

"At the feet of Jesus" came to mind.

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Near St. Stephen's we found the metro station and headed across the Danube to the Buda side of the city.  Remember all those churches we saw, clustered near the Matthias Church?

To refresh your mind, see all those steeples?  Yup!

We wanted to see what we could of the other churches.

 This Elizabeth Temple was on a side street on our way to another church...and wasn't open.

This Church of St. Anne, from 1762, was open...at least for the inside glassed foyer.

It's amazing what pictures you can still take without going all the way inside!

But this Church of Szilágyi Dezso, from 1896, was the one I so hoped was open...but wasn't.  

Well, at least it was a treat to behold on the outside.  Look at those colored roof tiles!

By then it was time to eat supper and go home.  So we did.

And what a great choice it was!

You can never go wrong with a nautical theme...for us!

And because this was our last time on the Buda side of the city, I just had to capture the famous icons again:

the Parliament (looking back to the Pest side), the Margaret Bridge, and the Chain Bridge.

By now you should have all these landmarks down pat, right?!

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Other impressions from the day...

...more impressions...

...and more impressions.

This, my friends, is Budapest, with one more day left to go....

Budapest, Hungary: the Chain Bridge and Parliament Area

From this point on, Budapest was on our own...starting officially after breakfast on the Saturday before Easter.  I say "officially" because since our hotel wasn't ready for check-in till 2p, Viking encouraged us to stay in the vicinity and eat lunch onboard, which we did.

So in this post, I'm showing what we saw by walking around the vicinity of the Chain Bridge where our boat was docked.

When I say we were docked at the Chain Bridge, I mean it. 

In fact, 3 of these images above were taken while on the bridge...but more on that later.

As we left the boat, we were on another mission....

...while passing the views of the churches on the Buda/opposite side of the Danube river.

You've already seen up-close-and-personal the Matthias Church from my last post.

You'll see some of the other churches in a later post.

Right then we were on this side of the Danube, on a mission to see...

...the most disturbing sight of our entire trip.

The Shoes on the Danube is a 2005 memorial honoring the Jews killed by fascist Arrow Cross militiamen during WWII.  Men, women and children were "forced to strip naked on the banks of the Danube and face the river; a firing squad then shot the prisoners at close range in the back so that they fell into the river to be washed away. This was a common practice that occurred during 1944-1945."

I can't think of any war memorial anywhere that has affected me as deeply.

And as you see, it was only meters away from our Chain Bridge docking.

Let our hearts be broken...and lest we forget!

 After composing ourselves...we continued our walk along the promenade past the Parliament building.

It's usually best seen from the other side of the river but, for now, here it is up-close.

We actually walked around it and saw the back side, which was almost as nice.

Once around the Parliament, we headed back to the promenade on the other side of the Chain Bridge.

You know I'm a glutton for these bronze statues, especially when Astrid joins the shot.

The most famous is the Little Princess, from 1989, created by László Marton,

inspired by his eldest daughter from his first marriage.

I love that she looks like an impish tomboy.  HA!

From the promenade we walked inland to Vorosmarty Square for the Easter Fair.

Have you ever had rooster testicles stew (top middle image)???

(And yes, the poor we always have with us!)

This was fun.  Very Hungarian, apparently.

But I started singing "Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier" when I saw all those fur hats!

(click any collage to enlarge)

And while there, this band was playing...

 ...with these children watching, mesmerized.

I wished like the dickens I could understand Hungarian!

Now, head back with us to the Chain Bridge to close the loop.

This time we walked across the bridge, over the Danube, to the Buda side of Budapest.

To the left of the bridge is the Royal Palace, if you remember it from my last post,

and the Castle Hill Funicular that takes you to the top to see it.

And there's Matthias Church again.  See, you're getting acclimated to this incredible city!

Now, turn around and go back across the bridge to the Pest side.

And that's when you see these fabulous views of the Parliament!

How can you say NO to that!

At this point it was time to eat lunch back on the ship, while new passengers were boarding.

It was our unofficial last Good-Bye to the Viking Grand European Tour we had just experienced
for 2 incredible weeks.

Along the way of that day....impressions.

And more impressions.

We even had a sneak preview of the Margaret Bridge,

which we would cross the next day to Margaret Island....

...to be continued...

Viking's Grand European River Cruise: Vienna, Austria

Viking River Cruise, Day 12:  Vienna, Austria (Facebook collage)

(click any collage to enlarge)

If you remember my last post, you remember that we woke up to snow once entering Austria on Day 11.  So it shouldn't surprise you that we had snow in Vienna the next day, Day 12!  Vienna is Austria's capital and largest city.

 AND...it was Viking Idun's first birthday!  But more on that later.

Vienna was an all-day stop...morning, afternoon and evening...with lots of ground to cover.

First off in the morning was a nice bus tour all over the major part of the city.

We sat in the back of the bus, I on one side, snapping away...

...and Astrid on the other side, seeing things I couldn't snap, like the Parliament building and the city hall.

It was a good solution for the pass-through, short of eyes.

And yes, we saw lots of snow!

We even saw the Easter Bunny, this Wednesday before Easter Sunday.

 Once off the bus near city center, we started a walking tour with our guide,

The one place that stood out was the Spanish Riding School for the Lipizzan horses.

(The middle image of the man with horse is Astrid's!)

 But it was the Cathedral of St. Stephen we were dying to see, consecrated in 1147.

We had seen it's 450-ft. steeple peeking around almost every corner as we walked towards it.

Before entering the cathedral, we admired Sylvia Kummer's Rose of Jericho sculpture nearby.

Have you ever seen a Jericho rose in real life?  It's amazing.

Then inside....

How many times have I said these cathedrals are like museums to us!

With so many tourists inside taking pictures, I would think it'd be hard to worship.

But of course, the tourists don't take pictures during the services, which makes it feel better (read less guilty).

Once we were outside again, we saw the window cleaners.

Can you imagine that job!

And right there where we were standing, watching the cleaners on the cathedral,

the horse and carraiges were lined up for the us tourists.

One in particular really caught my eye:  the Horse Whisperer!

If we had been willing, we could have taken a buggy ride out-n-about.

It was more fun, and cheaper, to watch and take pictures.

But we did go into a souvenir shop to buy a Christmas-tree ornament.

What do YOU think of when you think of Vienna?  Mozart was everywhere!

Lots of impressions of Vienna...

...like these fur coats.

Astrid says some of these coats are as old as the women wearing them.

Would we see them in America these days, I wonder?

Do you like to people watch?

Impressions.  Impressions.  Impressions.

And again.  More impressions. 

And then it was time to go back to the boat for lunch, which we did.

And that's when the birthday part of the day got fun.

 We were all invited outside after lunch to have our pictures taken...including the staff.

(Astrid took these 4 images above.)

If you squint, you can see me holding the first 'P' of HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

(image taken from the Viking Facebook page)

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As if that wasn't enough excitement for one day...after the birthday pics, we headed off to the nearby St. Francis of Assisi church that we could see from the ship, just a short walk away.

 What a gorgeous piece of architecture on a glorious sunny afternoon!

It was consecrated in 1913 and thus seems very young to us now.

It was just as gorgeous inside.

And very bright and open and cheery...for a Roman Catholic church.

I think the younger the church is, the lighter?

And lucky for us, we had it all to ourselves,

except for Denise and Linus, our shipmates, who joined us.

Now THIS is what I could get used to.  A good way to end my day.

I say MY day because at that point I went back to the boat as Astrid went off on her own back to a canal to take graffiti pics.  We both needed our own "me" time again.  I'm 9 years older, remember.  HA!

 And when I returned, our boat was a happy camper, too, getting another bath.

Others went back to the city that evening for a paid Mozart and Strauss concert.  Others surely went back for the Vienna night life, since our ship didn't leave port till 12:30 a.m.  We were both very happy to just stay put.

Vienna didn't "do" that much for us, if you really want to know the truth.

Was it too overwhelming...or do we just really prefer OLD city centers?!?!

Or maybe we just need to go back one day and spend much more time?