Hungary Photos 3

Still in Budapest.


The inside of the Great Dohany Synagogue (see the outside in one of the last sets). Oriental influences and general architecture reflect the work of a church designer who had never done a synagogue before.


Stained glass skylight in the synagogue.


Dome over the aron kodesh.


Rachel standing in one of the two speech pulpits, about one third of the way down the aisle in the synagogue. Why two? Some story about competing Rabbis and politics. I'm not sure how both could have given a speech at the same time, however.


Stained glass memorial installation by an Israeli artist.


Monument to Raoul Wallenberg, as well as many other noted righteous gentiles from WWII.




Weeping willow installation, commemorating some Hungarian Jewish victims of the Holocaust.


Leaves on the tree.


One of several calligraphic works in the current installation in the attached museum to the synagogue.


Budapest subway.


Front of the Budapest parliament.


Statue in front of parliament.


Random building across from parliament.


Random statue near parliament.


Random statue near parliament.


Random statue on Margaret Island. Margaret Island sits in the Danube, between Buda and Pest. It's accessible by walking. It's essentially a nature preserve, with parks, some hotels, some music areas, and so on. One of the nicest places to walk or bike around.

Rachel and I rented bikes for an hour to do the island. Two single bikes were cheaper than a double pedal contraption, for some reason. They also rent golf cart type things.


In the Japanese garden on the island.


In the Japanese garden on the island.


Rachel on her bike.


In the Japanese garden on the island.


Some sort of Roman ruins on the island.


Me on my bike.


Riding into the Rose garden on the island.


The zoo on the island.


The zoo on the island.


Rachel lying in the Rose garden on the island.


Random statue near the Rose garden.


Fountain near the entrance to the island. The water spurts in different ways: low, high, sideways, and so on, in a regularly changing pattern, all to the sounds of classical music from some speakers.


A Gypsy playing for us in a cafe near our apartment. He was quite good. Gypsy's suffered nearly the same problems as the Jews during the Holocaust.


His partner, less talkative, playing a strange percussion instrument, a bit like a xylophone (called a synth.... something?)