Budapest Day 3 (Sunday May 24, 2009)

Budapest Day 3 (Sunday May 24, 2009)

Today we went on our first official tour of Budapest and Hungary as a group. The tour started in the morning at 10:00 a.m. with Peter Herczfeld conducting the tour. The Hirsch cousins, spouses and Aunt Doris Moss went by public bus to see the Magit Island and lunch at Gerbaud pastry restaurant. Jackie and I had gone to the same places the past two days, but it was nice to see some highlights that we had missed and to be with our family. In the afternoon, Mary Bercelli joined us and began her part of the tour. We met her at Hero’s Square where there are statues of all the famous Hungarian kings. Mary gave us a detail history of all the kings and with it the turmoil in history of Hungary. Hungary being in the center of all the invaders from the East and the West was in constant change, but benefited from a melding of many different cultures. Hungary was combined with other countries at times and divided into separate countries at other times. Recently it was invaded by Germany and then Russia at the end of World War II.

We saw the biggest Jewish Synagogue in Europe in Budapest. This beautiful building was sparred by the Germans and Russians. In an outside courtyard is a metal tree dedicated to Paul Wallenberg with each leaf on the tree with the name of one of the Hungarian Jews that were killed during the German occupation of Hungary. Peter Herczfeld’s father’s name was on one leaf, but we were not able to find the leaf on this trip. On top of the Temple is a tablet with the 10 commandments. The Temple inside appears similar to a beautiful large European cathedral.

We also drove by an apartment complex where Peter Herczfeld had lived with this family and an elementary school that he had attended.

We then boarded a rented blue bus and went about 40 miles out into the countryside. Along the way we picked up Mary’s husband, Tibor, her daughter and granddaughter. Mary’s granddaughter is a dress designer and arrived in high fashion with an outfit she had designed.

We saw on the trip the ruins of an old church in a hilltop field with very thick walls that also protected it from outside invaders and several old villages.

We made it to our destination which was a horse ranch and restaurant. We were greeted by a man on a horse and the 3 piece musical group playing Hungarian music. We were treated to a wonderful horse show, which showed off horsemanship skills and which ended up with sister, Lillian, riding bareback around the track. After the horse show we had a tour of the wine cellar and a lovely Hungarian dinner. After dinner we were treated to Hungarian dancers. They got Gordon and some others to try to dance and perform with them. It was lots of fun. The bus took us back to our hotel at 10:00 p.m.. We were all tired and happy after a 12 hour tour, feasting and dancing.