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Budapest questions
We re on the Budapest to Amsterdam river journey in early June. We are considering arriving in Budpest a few days early. has anyone done this? Did you stay at the Tuck hotel or elsewhere? Any info provided would be greatly appreciated
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We arrived 2 days early which gave us a full day of exploring. We pre-booked a small group (the 6 of us) tour of the Danube Bend with Viator. It was excellent. We then had day 1 of the tour to ride the tram along the river, visit the great market, have lunch and a short visit to the Synagogue before racing back to the hotel to get the bus to the ship. We wished we'd had more time at the Synagogue. You need about 1 1/2 hours or more for the tour and time to explore the facility and the museum. Very unique.
Budapest is wonderful! We were there in 2022 on the Oberammergau/Danube tour. This tour ended in Budapest and we spent some extra days there. Claudia mentioned the Synagogue and I agree, you could easily spend 1 1/2 hours there. It is beautiful. In addition to the Synagogue itself, there is also a museum, the Heroes’ Temple, a graveyard, and the Holocaust Memorial Park. We also went to the House of Terror - I had mixed feelings about going, but it was well done. In each room, there was an informational sheet you could take that describes the significance of what you're seeing. There were also recordings of people who survived both the Nazis/Arrow Cross and the Soviet Union regimes. These oral histories were very moving. Across the street from the Parliament is the Shoes on the Danube memorial. You will see a lot on your morning tour of Budapest, but I would suggest checking out the sites listed on your tour description. It's possible you will want to spend more time at some of these places to explore them in more depth. I think Budapest would definitely be worth arriving early.
Tony Curtis parents were from Budapest and he made significant donations to that synogogue as well as others.
I agree with cvc regarding other things to see by the Great Synagogue. There are several other synagogues worth seeing although certainly not as opulent as the 'Great' one. I prefer the typical, more humble temples, however.