The Cruise, Day Four: More Budapest

Oh. My. Goodness.
I am going to begin with the end - we ended our time in Budapest with a 6 p.m. sailing-out-of-the-city - and a "Captain's Welcome Dinner" that began with cocktails and passed hors d'oeuvres and continued through EIGHT elegant courses and lasted about four hours. It was quite a feast, including things like scallops served on a bed of spinach, pallet-cleansing sorbet, veal... and, of course, ending with an assortment of cheeses which were tempting but I was way too full to enjoy! Hopefully they'll have them on their breakfast buffet this morning!
We spent the morning wandering around Castle Hill in the city and taking in the view from FIsherman's Bastion, before heading for the Jewish section where where we spent a most fascinating afternoon. From Matthias Church (not SAINT Matthias - the church is named for the king, who was a renaissance man who did many good things for the city - but a SAINT he definitely WAS NOT we were told! I show here the music racks, stored in a corner, which I found delightful!) to the large Jewish temple (the largest in the world if you use cubic feet instead of square feet, our guide said)... The Hungarian Jews were such an integral part of Hungarian society in the 19th century that, although Jewish architects designed many of Budapest's finest buildings (including the Roman Catholic cathedral and the Parliament Building) they commissioned a gentile architect to build their synagogue. He, knowing nothing of synagogues, went to Spain, figuring he'd learn about JEwery at its hight prior to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain... and fell under the influence of Moorish architecture and came back and designed and built a very Mosquelike synagogue - with many Christian features (never used) including kneelers and pulpits! Pictured here: their Holocaust Memorial: what looks like a weeping willow (whose leaves bear the names of those lost in the Holocaust) is also an upside down mennorah).
The city-banks of the Danube have yielded to the green of trees alongside as we sail toward Vienna. We'll arrive tonight in time for a concert at the Imperial Opera House. Should be fun!