Today we continued our use of the Hop-on Hop-off bus. But first, we wandered back through Christmas Market the Ninth.
These guys made all sorts of fun things out of metal.
Aaaaaand another lion sculpted by someone who's never seen an actual lion.
I enjoyed this bathroom sign.
Budapest has a love lock gate in this park (it's also the home to the Budapest Eye).
Oh look! Christmas Market the....Twelfth!
It also has a giant Advent wreath.
We picked up the bus across the street from Christmas Market the Twelfth.
I'm not sure what's happening here, but the one tower is old and the other tower is modern.
This is the Bálna (which means whale). It is a shopping and cultural center.
The Gellért Hotel is also famous for its thermal baths.
This is the central train station - not the one we came in on.
This is the Central Market (Nagyvásárcsarnok). We explored it later.
We got off the bus and found a giant Coke bottle, so naturally we had to get a photo of it with Jim.
This is the Dohány Street Synagogue.
It's one of the few synagogue's I've ever come across that allows the public to visit.
It is the largest synagogue in Europe and one of the largest in the world.
Also apparently Dohaány means tobacco in Hungarian.
Also apparently Dohaány means tobacco in Hungarian.
It is beautiful. It was built in the 1850s in the Moorish Revival style.
It can seat almost 3,000 people.
The synagogue suffered great damage leading up to and during the Nazi occupation during WWII.
The ark contains 25 torah scrolls, many of them taken from other synagogues that were destroyed during WWII.
It was only renovated in the 1990s after Communism fell.
$5 million for the restorations was donated by Estée Lauder (yes THAT one) and Tony Curtis (also THAT one). Turns out they're both of Hungarian descent and Jewish and American.
The synagogue has an organ, which makes it a popular place for guest pianist such as Franz Liszt, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Xaver Varnus.
The synagogue was designed by Ludwig Förster and Frigyes Feszl.
Förster believed there was no distinct Jewish architecture, so he chose to use
"architectural forms that have been used by oriental ethnic groups that are related to the Israelite people, and in particular the Arabs."
Outside of the synagogue is the Hero's Garden cemetery.
It is unusual for there to be a cemetery directly next to a synagogue. In 1944 a ghetto was created in which 200,000 Jews were forced into roughly 2,000 homes (and the homes are not large). Because of the horrible situation forced upon them, the once peaceful courtyard became a mass grave.
The memorial is to remember the over 600,000 Hungarian Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust.
This weeping willow is the Memorial of the Hungarian Jewish Martyrs, by Imre Varga.
Each leaf has a name or a number of a person killed during the Holocaust. The gold letters at the top say "Whosoever saves a soul for mankind, saves the entire world."
A view of the back of the synagogue and the rose window.
This whole courtyard is the Raoul Wallenberg memorial park where righteous gentiles are remembered - non-Jews who helped save Jews during the Holocaust.
This stained glass is a monument to Sir Nicholas Winton.
He was a British humanitarian who helped rescue 669 Jewish children during the Holocaust.
Jim wanted to see St. Stephen's so we started heading that way after the synagogue.
Geometric street art!
And we found Captain Budapest.
Jim and I decided to climb the dome of St. Stephen's - Dan and Sherrie were having none of it. They just explored inside the basilica. St. Stephen's was completed in 1905 and is named for Saint King Stephen (the same one on the Fisherman's Bastion).
This is the inside of the outside dome and the outside of the inside dome.
Despite the fog we had some nice views from up here. I think that's Parliament.
The basilica maxes out at 96 meters, the same as the Parliament building. This is to show that worldly and spiritual thinking are equals. No other building may be equal in height or taller.
Here is a lovely overhead view of Christmas Market the Tenth.
Hello Budapest!
How often do you get to see the backs of statues on buildings?
I found the Eye!
Jim on the edge. There wasn't a lot of room up here.
And another one of Christmas Market the Tenth.
Spiral steps going up!
Spiral steps going down!
Now to the inside of the basilica.
It was almost named St. Leopold. after the patron saint of Austria,
but it was changed at the last minute to St. Stephen.
Up to 8,500 people can fit inside of St. Stephen's. I'm not sure if that's fire code or what.
It took over 50 years to build St. Stephen's, partially because the dome collapsed in1868 and all current construction at that time had to be raised and everything had to be started over.
St. Stephen converted the nomad Hungarian tribes to Christianity.
They were trying to usher people out of the basilica so they could have time to set up for the evening's concert.
I got ushered out, but had lost Jim, and never saw Dan or Sherrie in the basilica.
There was some slight concern I wouldn't be able to find Jim again, but it all worked out.
Christmas Market the Tenth from the steps of St. Stephen's.
And the shopping themed Christmas Market (the Eleventh).
We wandered off to find dinner.
We ate at a restaurant in this festive alleyway.
As we were leaving we ran into Mark, Dan's Sigonella counterpart.
It was super random.
Aaaaaand then we escaped! WOO! Three countries, three escapes!
This photo is for Sherrie.
And time to actually explore Christmas Market the Eleventh.
It had a lot of fun lights.
Polka dots and Tea?! What more could I want?!
This concludes our adventures for today.
