Exploring Budapest...

Last Sunday after church we took the day to check out this wonderful city we live in. Dennis had the day mapped out as he does so well :).

First stop was the Grand Synagogue. Budapest has the second largest synagogue in the world next to NYC. So beautiful, yet sad stories of the brutalities and mass burial of thousands of Jewish people when Hitler vented his rage in his "final solution" near the end of WWII. So many untimely, unnecessary deaths. It grieves me so when I see the injustices of the world. Interesting enough, the Germans set up office in the balcony of the synagogue which protected it from bombings.


The engraved leaves of the weeping willow tree are in memory of the thousands of Hungarians who died in the Jewish "ghetto" or concentration camps in 1944-45.

From the synagogue we grabbed some lunch at a hummus restaurant and then headed to St. Stephen's Basilica, named in honor of Hungarian's first king. A beautiful building ornate with many statues, paintings, mosaics, icons, plus the actual mummified fist of St. Stephen.





Our final stop was at Heroe's Square where statues of leaders and other historical figures of Hungary stand. Fascinating to look at these leaders and warriors of Hungarian's history.



This last picture reminded me of The Lord of the Rings :). We walked around this particular area for quite some time taking in the sights of a castle and the beauty of a large park area. It looks like a great place for warmer weather DAWG days :). Come to find out one huge yellow building we wandered into was a thermal bath with a large lap pool, other smaller thermal pools, spas, etc. There are 50 thermal baths in Budapest. We would love to try them some time.

So thankful for the fun day and the sun was out for most of the day. It truly was a much needed Sabbath!