Danube Cruise and Exploration 2017 -- Day 9

Sunday, August 20

Mohács, Hungary
Pécs, Hungary

On the last full day of our cruise, we stopped in the town of Mohács, primarily in order to board buses for Pécs.   Mohács was the site of an important victory of the Ottoman empire over the Hungarians in 1526.

Liszt
on the
Archbishop's balcony

We visited the city of Pécs, Hungary, on Sunday. It was raining when we woke up, but it just drizzled lightly during part of our walking tour and then it stopped. We've had gorgeous weather thus far. 

Entering the city, we saw huge pipes running from the power plant to the city.  Apparently the whole city is heated by heat generated at the power plant.

Statues and homages to Franz Liszt are all over Hungary, but the irony is that he spent very little time in the country.

The highlight for us was the beautiful synagogue in Pecs. It is situated on one of the main squares of the city, an imposing structure dominating the square.  The sad thing is that there used to be a thriving Jewish population here and all that is left now is 200 Jews. They were all killed during in the Holocaust during the German occupation.   The occupied countries, like Hungary, have not completely come to terms with their complicity in the Holocaust.  The Hungarian Arrow Cross was responsible for a large proportion of the murders of Jews in Hungary.

During our visit to the synagogue, the tour guide had everyone singing Shalom Chaverim. It was very poignant and we got teary-eyed.

At the end of the day, we had a dress-up dinner on the boat as a sort of farewell dinner.  The entire staff was recognized and applauded.