Wednesday, May 24: Buda, Museum of Music History, St. Matthias Church, Fisherman's Bastian, Jewish Synagogue

First a note about parking.  In older cities it is sometimes difficult to fulfill parking requirements of a modern economy with narrow streets.  The Italians know how to simply park on the sidewalk.  The Hungarians have taken things a step farther by actually marking parking spaces on the sidewalk.
Budapest is actually formed from two towns: Buda and Pest.  Buda is on the west side of the Danube and Pest is on the east side.  Buda is hilly.  Pest is flat.  So far, we have been spending our time in Pest.  Today we head to hilly Buda where we walk along a narrow, quiet lane past an art store.
Beautiful St. Matthias Church is a fixture on Buda hill.

The highlight of the morning is a visit to the Museum of Music History
where we are treated to a private concert with two amazing young musicians performed Bartok and Hayden on period instruments.  Truly a special moment.

While our guide, Agnes, wore pepper earrings yesterday while we visited Central Market, today she sports musical earrings since we are visiting the music museum.
We have lunch in a nice restaurant in Fisherman's Bastian.  

Fisherman's Bastian is in place of a portion of the old city wall.  Different groups had responsibility for maintaining different portions of the city wall.  The fishermen, located directly below this steep hill on the Danube had responsibility for this portion of the wall.  When the wall was dismantled, it was decided to build a monument to the fishermen in its place
with great views across the Danube to Pest, including the Parliament Building.
On our way back to the hotel, we walk through the Jewish Quarter and tour the Jewish Synagogue.
The mass graves where ten thousand Jews died toward the end of World War II was very moving.
This evening we attended a Hungarian folk dance performance.  Sorry, no pictures.

Good night.



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