July 22 – Budapest

Last updated on August 26th, 2019 at 03:32 pm

Our Panoramic Bus Tour began at 8:20 a.m. so we decided to have a quick breakfast in the Aquavit Lounge. The breakfast in the lounge has a smaller selection of food items and is self-serve so it is quicker.

Panoramic Budapest Tour

We began our bus tour with an overview of the Pest side of the city. We saw many of the same things yesterday on our Tuk Tuk tour, but were given more details and history by the tour guide on the bus. Since we are getting lots of information about history and culture we aren’t familiar with, the repetition is a good thing – and we are old! We drove around Hero Square a couple times while we heard about the history of the Magyars, the forced Christianity, and the multiple wars Hungary participated in, usually lost, and were therefore occupied. Following World War I, Hungary lost at least a third of its land. People woke up one morning to find they were in a different country.

We crossed the Chain Bridge to the Buda side learning Buda is the older side of the city and wealthier and according to the guide, “snooty”.  We drove up to the Castle District and spent about 2 hours there. After a stop at the restrooms, which usually cost about 1 euro to use, we walked to Matthias Church (Mátyás-templom) and the Fisherman’s Bastion. This time we were able to tour the inside of the church.

Viking has these devices they give us to wear which they refer to as “quiet boxes”. The boxes have a receiver & ear piece. It allows the guide to talk to all of us at a normal volume and we can hear without standing right beside them. These quiet boxes were very helpful in the church as several groups had guides that were all talking. The church is large and ornate with beautiful stained glass windows and a colorful glazed tile roof. Visitors are allowed to take the stairs to the balconies on the sides, so we were able to get some good pictures.

We were given about 1 1/2 hours of free time in the Castle District. We walked around the church to the other side and found a court yard containing portions of walls of an older building as well as a statue commemorating a Friar Julian, who in 1235, while seeking to bring Christianity to the remaining Magyars, was the first European to bring reliable information back about the Mongols.

We spent some time shopping. Hungary is famous for it’s paprika, of which there are many kinds. We mostly found sweet, very hot and smoked. We also looked at hand-made table runners and table cloths of all shapes and sizes. These are hand embroidered beginning with a piece of plain cloth that is embroidered following a paper pattern. Once embroidered, cut work follows, and then some crochet work completes the piece. Our favorites were the ones embroidered in many bright colors. We checked prices, but didn’t purchase any because we knew this was a tourist area. Our ship, Viking Baldur, is docked near the Central Market and we hoped prices would be better there.

Our guide had pointed out a different way to walk down to the buses, so we decided to take it to see more of the area. It was a pleasant walk, with some shade which was a good thing because the temperature was in the mid to upper 80s. We came to a square which gave a good view of the surrounding area, then down some stairs to where several buses were parked.

Then things got a little confusing. Our bus was parked in an area down another flight of stairs and then another moderate walk. We weren’t sure this was a good way to go. When we were on the bus headed back, the guide apologized saying the buses were moved by some change by a government official in where they were to be parked. The guides and drivers were not informed of this change ahead of time.

Central Market Run

When we arrived back at the ship, lunch was not quite ready. We made the decision to make a quick trip to the Central Market Hall before our afternoon tour. Since we had looked in the Castle District, we knew the 3 things we were looking for; paprika, hand embroidered table runner and a Budapest Christmas ornament. We also wanted to use our remaining Hungarian Forint(money). We were efficient! We left the ship at 12:24 pm, walked to the market, made our purchases plus also purchased fresh peaches and a warm cherry strudel for Alan, walked back to the ship and ate a quick lunch all with a few minutes to spare before leaving for our afternoon tour!

Jewish Quarter and Dohany Street Synagogue

Our afternoon tour was a visit to Dohany Street and the Jewish Quarter. We drove by bus to the Jewish Quarter with our first stop at the Great Synagogue, the largest synagogue in Europe, built in the Byzantine-Moorish style around 1854-9. Jews were well-integrated into Hungarian society as they obtained religious freedom as early as 1251 until 1941 when a series of anti-Semitic laws were passed and the wearing of the yellow star became compulsory.

The synagogue has several features typically of Christian churches such as several naves, side pulpit and a pipe organ. These features were included because of the inclusive nature of Hungarian society.

After the synagogue we visited the Holocaust Memorial, a metal weeping willow tree commemorating the 600,000 Hungarian Jews killed by the Nazis. The memorial was partially funded by Tony Curtis. There is also a beautiful stained glass sculpture and well as a memorial to a man who helped many Jewish children so safety in England.

We toured a special exhibit in the Jewish Museum next to the Synagogue of 100 Jewish artifacts, such as Torah pointers, letters, and paintings.

When the Soviets made it to the Jewish Quarter in January, 1945 they found many people dead for lack of food and frozen from little heat. The Soviets could not identify all the bodies, so they buried all of them in mass graves on the grounds of the synagogue placing graves stones with the names they knew lined up on all four sides of the mass graves. There are approximately 2000 people buried there.

We walked from the Great Synagogue along several streets of the Jewish Quarter, which is now becoming a trendy area with lots of shops and nightlife. You can see buildings in crumbling disrepair and others being restored. We walked past the orthodox Jewish synagogue and the courtyard where Jewish weddings often take place. We stopped at a small cafe for a traditional Hungarian cake and a drink. The cake consisted of multiple layers of fruit filling between thin layers of dough.

We were to be back on board the ship by 5:45 p.m. to depart Budapest shortly thereafter. We ate dinner with a couple from California. He is a dentist and she is a nurse. They have 2 boys, 15 and 17 years old. We found out from them that that Viking River Cruises have a lower age limit of 18 years old. This was surprising to us at first, but there really isn’t anything to do on board that would interest most young adults.

After dinner we returned to our room to do some serious blogging. Alan worked on the never ending job of uploading pictures, first from the camera and phones to his laptop, then sorting, selecting and editing and then choosing pictures to upload to the blog pages. As he gets time, he adds captions to the pictures. Joyce writes the blogs and Alan has written some as well.

As we blogged and worked on our pictures, we opened the sliding door on our French balcony and were rewarded with the peaceful soothing sounds of the ship gliding through the Danube waters. No artificial calming water sounds needed!