Budapest, Hungary - Day 2

We awoke early (for us) and headed to the Parliament to try to get tickets. Online tickets were sold out, but they sell tickets the day of beginning at 8:00. We were there around 7:15 and there were about 20 people ahead of us. The couple behind us were from Cincinnati, Ohio. We were able to get tickets for a tour immediately. The parliament is a beautiful Neo-Gothic building that is the second largest in the world. (Romania is 2 meters longer.) It sits on the Danube river and at night the lights reflect off of the water. It is just as gorgeous inside. The parliament holds the Royal Crown of Hungary that has been worn by the many kings and queens, and the orb and scepter. Following the tour we had a nice breakfast and then went back to the room for a brief rest . Note: we get a view of it from our apt and it is beautiful at night. We can also see St. Stephen' s and the Buda Castle lit up at night.

Our next adventure was to the Great Synagogue (The Dohány Street Synagogue), the second largest in the world and the largest in Europe. With a main floor originally just for men, and balconies for the women, the synagogue was built to hold about 3,000 people. Today men and women both sit on the ground floor but men are in the center and women on the sides. Worship attendance has dropped dramatically as it has with other religions. The synagogue was bombed in WWII and religious worshiping was banned during the communist period. In the 1990's it was extensively renovated. It's design is more like a Christian church being rectangular in nature and the Torah at the far end. Most synagogues are square and they lead prayers from the middle. The synagogue has a graveyard beside the church which is generally against Jewish custom. But the graveyard was a mass grave for many of the Jews killed here. Bodies were buried 6-7 deep making it difficult to move. About half of the bodies were identified and their names are in memorial markers. In the courtyard behind the Synagogue is the Tree of Life memorial sculpture. It looks like a weeping willow tree and the leaves have the names of Hungarian Jews who were killed during the holocaust. Looking at the sculpture upside down, it looks like a menorah. There is also a heros memorial dedicated to the people who secretly helped the Jews.

Budapest has numerous thermal baths that date back to the middle ages when under Ottoman Turkish rule . The original baths appeared in Roman times. Some of them have indoor and outdoor pools and some are are undergoing renovations. We chose one that was indoor under a dome and not the most popular - Veli Bej Baths on the Buda side of the bridge. It dates to 1575 and only allows 80 people in at a time. We took a bus to get there. While waiting in line for it to open, we met a couple from Seattle, WA. These pools are actually in a hospital and certain sections are reserved for hospital rehab. There was a main pool of about 35°C (96°F) and several smaller ones housed under the old domes. There was a smaller, hotter one and two smaller colder ones. The facility has been expended to house a pool for swimming laps, two steam rooms and two saunas. We spent about to two hours here.

Since the Parliament sits right on the river, it is hard to see the front of it when on the Pest side. We had planned to cross the bridge one evening or take a boat ride in order to see the parliament lit up. Since we were already on the Buda side, we found a place for an outside dinner (The Spot Budapest ) directly across from the Parliament and watched as the city lights came on and the river lit up with lights and tour boats going up and down the river. It was a great spot to enjoy a bottle of wine as darkness descended. Then a short metro ride to our apartment.Read more