We spent a little more time exploring some more on the Pest side of Budapest.

One of the places we got to visit was the second largest Jewish synagogue in the world.

It is a special sect of Judaism specific to Hungary.  It has a lot of history associated with the massacre and deportation of Jews by Adolf Eichmann of the Nazi regime as the Hungarian government was aligned with Germany in WWII.  If you look closely, you might be able to figure out what the special memorial is supposed to be.

It started to rain, but as Puget Sound veterans, we were prepared.  We walked down from our hotel to the chain bridge and the Danube to go visit the “Shoes Memorial”. It takes about 10 minutes to walk down a path along the Danube as you cannot get to it by car. It is a special memorial to remember the Jews that were lined up along the river, forced to take off their shoes, and then shot to fall into the river.

The next morning, we went to visit the Hungarian Parliament. We were able to get an appointment to see how the Hungarian government meets and works.

The Parliament guards are changed every hour.  Very diligent.  When we visited the crown jewels inside the Parliament building, they had a hard time containing themselves when some other tourists kept trying to get closer than allowed and did not understand the Hungarian supervisors language.

Take a look at this building in the middle. Why is it different?  It is built differently so it does not have risks of bombings, spy bugs built into the walls and also the NSA can install lots of collection antennas.

OK – we got kicked out of Pest.  We are headed to Buda!