Day 1-Budapest

We arrived at our beautiful hotel-Prestige Hotel. Hotel is brand new, just opened in April, so got a great rate because it isn't very well know yet. It is located on the Pest side, 2 blocks from the water, and walking distance to most sights. This is one of the only 4-star hotels on our trip, so we enjoyed it. We ate lunch and visited the Basitica of St. Stephen before heading on the Budapest Walking Tour, we booked, beginning at 3:30pm. It included the Jewish District, Communist Buildings and a lot of colorful Hungarian history. The county has fought against Ottoman, German, Austrian and Soviet occupiers, yet its indigenous culture remains intact. 

Prestige Hotel Lobby

Prestige Hotel-Mosaic Floor

My new Hungarian friend

Basilica of St Stephen, Budapest's largest and most important Catholic Church. Neoclassic architecture took more than half a century to complete. 

The dome is now correctly scaled after original was destroyed in a storm, and contains a rich treasury of ecclestastical objects.

 

Main reason to visit is to view Hungary's most sacred object, which we did: the holy right hand of King St Stephen.

Great Synagogue, the largest house of Jewish worship in Europe, and the world outside of NYC. This moorish-style synagogue, with Romantic elements, is one of the city's most eye-catching buildings, hardly resembles a synagogue.  Designed as a romantic church, it has 3 naves and a central rose window. It is sometimes referred to as a Jewish cathedral. 

Look at the Moorish-style onion times atop of the towers. 

In the courtyard stands the Holocast Memorials' "Tree of Life" whose metal leaves bear the family's names of of holocast victims, and stands watch over the mass graves.

A billboard in the Jewish quarter- it has to be the largest UPC scanning code I have ever seen (see size in relation to man on motorbike below sign).

Just what I was thinking before I ate my wild boar Hungarian sausage for lunch!

Yummy ice cream!!