Orient Express Day 27 Budapest Rest Day - 0km

After breakfast, Edna and I set off for our walk around the Jewish quarter of Pest. There are around 100,000 Jews still in Hungary - around 6,000 show up at the big synagogue, which we cycled past yesterday, for the High Holy Days. There are still 22 synagogues active in Budapest.


There are 3 synagogues in the Jewish quarter which we visited.



Dohany Synagogue http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doh%C3%A1ny_Street_Synagogue

The Dohany Street synagogue is The Great Synagogue of Budapest and also the site of Theodore Herzl's birthplace. Besides the synagogue, there is a heroe's temple and memorial garden/cemetery, the Raoul Wallenberg Holocaust Memorial Park with Tree of Life and a jewish museum.

 

The museum has some very lovely artifacts including beautiful majolica Seder plates from 17th century Italy.

 















Rumbach Synagogue http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumbach_Street_synagogue

 

















This synagogue is a wreck internally but there are enough remnants, and information posters, to give an idea of what once was. The shabbas cat was making sure we paid appropriate respect for what once was a magnificent house of worship.

Kazinczky Synagogue http://marvaoguide.com/index.php/Hungary/Kazinczy-Street-Synagogue.html

 
















Last stop in the so-called "Jewish triangle" is the Kazinczky St. synagogue. It is an operational orthodox shule and was built  in 1913. Had we not turned into the lane beside the synagogue we would have missed the door where an orthodox member allowed us in for a look although he was unsure whether we should have been with an official walking tour.


There are many "Jewish" restaurants and stores in the quarter and we eventually settled on the hummus restaurant opposite the Great Synagogue for lunch. It is owned by a young Israeli and full of Israeli customers. Edna felt right at home!

Back to the hotel for a rest and then out again to walk around Pest near the Danube where we found many interesting statues and buildings, a photographic exhibition and had coffee and ice cream at the famous Gerbeaud restaurant.

Budapest is a fascinating city to walk around. Every building has a rough authenticity and integrity about it and height control has resulted in the city maintaining an appearance which must closely resemble how it appeared a century or more ago.

We decided to skip dinner and headed off back to Kazinczy Street where one of our guides, Gergo, had a gig with his band at a "ruin pub" which is a disused shell of a building converted to a series of pub areas, indoor and outdoor. Gergo plays percussion and the band plays a range of music covering gypsy, folk and lounge in several languages. I stayed for the first set and then came back to the hotel. Others from our Tour managed a later night.

Gergo