Monday August 3

Up early, cheated this morning, breakfast in the restaurant. All of €10 for both of us.   
Off to Metro for run into city and museums for the day. Night cruise on the Danube tonight.

Arrived in city and found the Jewish Synagogue open. Having looked through one in Amsterdam we thought we would give it a try. It is the second biggest in the world, being able to seat 4,000. The largest is in New York. 

    
   
This one is special in that it has a cemetery next door. They are normally miles apart, but due to the holocaust and the treatment of Jews, there were 2,500 bodies piled against the outer wall. Following the end of the war, they were interned next to the Synagogue where they lay.  

   
At the rear is a rememberance garden where people bring stones, not flowers, because stones never die.  

 There is also a rememberance sculpture tree in stainless steel with 600,000 leaves. One for every Jew from Budapest killed in the holocaust. The tree was paid for by the actor, Tony Curtis, whose is Jewish and his parents come from Budapest. 

    
 
Following this we went on a guided tour through the old Jewish quarter, with a guide who was 97% legally blind. He did not put a foot wrong all the way. 

    
    
 
This statue represents the Swedish diplomat who is credited with saving thousands of Jews from the extermination camps. 

Following the tour we walked down to the river front to look at another memorial, which represented the 2,500 Jews who were systematically shot on the rivers edge and pushed into the water. Men, women and children. This was so powerful. The shoes are all cast bronze. 

     
    

    
   
We then wandered along the riverfront past Parliament House and looked for a restaurant for dinner as we were going on a 9.00 pm river cruise. 

    
    
 
Remember Columbo? He too was Jewish. 

A few shots of Budapest from the river at night, and the obligatory sunset photos.