I met my very enjoyable and knowledgeable guide, Kinga, behind the Hungarian State Opera House for the "Budapest Night Stroll & Boat Cruise" at the Discover Budapest tour office. I was the only one on the tour. Photo: The opera house on Andrassy Avenue lit up.

Posters in front of the opera house. Tickets are on the inexpensive side here as the opera house is state-supported.

A statue of Franz Erkel, composer, in front of the opera house. A statue of Franz Liszt is also here.

Another statue.

One of the two sphnix in front honoring the first opera held here, Aida, which takes place in Egypt. Kinga used to give tours at the opera house.

Budapest at night. Walking to St. Istvan's Basilica.

St. Istvan's Basilica, a Roman Catholic church built for Hungary's Millennial Celebrations of 1896.

A closer-up view.

An Easter Vigil progression began when we arrived here. For a movie of it, go to Movies, Central/Eastern Europe Movies-2, page 1.

Mural over the entrance.

Its dome.

One of the steeples.

On St. Istvan Ter across from St. Istvan's Basilica, a building lit up in the colors of the Hungarian flag.

A protest memorial at Erzsebet Ter right along the edge of the street.

It is an Hungarian Holocaust memorial to "Say no to the falsification of history, the national memory poisoning, the state-level Hungarian Holocaust denial." The protests began in mid-April on the 70th anniversary commemorations of the Holocaust. Jewish groups have accused the Hungarian government of whitewashing the country's role in the mass deportations of Jews in 1944.

A list of the Jews deported.

Photos of those deported.

A photo of a man who was deported.

Now at Liberty Square. The U.S. Embassy is here.

Also here, near the embassy, is a monument to the Soviet soldiers who "liberated" Hungary at the end of World War II. The monument is not lit up.

And very near the Soviet monument is a statue of Ronald Reagan, also not lit up. Although Reagan is respected in Hungary as being a Cold Warrior, his statue was put here in 2011 to appease the U.S. by the right-wing party in Hungary who went about rolling back democratic reforms. Hillary Clinton was invited to the statue's unveiling. Kinga was somewhat surprised when I remarked on how incongruous this was--"Were they at different political positions?" Kinga told me that Hillary was invited because she was in town for a conference.

Lit up is the bridge where Imre Nagy is standing. He was a Communist leader but one who tried to bridge the totalitarian Soviet and the freedom of the West sides during the Hungarian Revolution in 1956.. However, the Soviets executed him for his role.

He is straddled between totalitarism on one side of the bridge and freedom on the other side.

A view of the Parliament House from Liberty Square.

We walked down to the Danube River bank. Matthias Church across the river on the Buda side.

A photo I caught of the dome of the Parliament House on the Pest side and Matthias Church on the Buda Side.

The Royal Palace, first completed in 1265, a former castle and palace of Hungarian kings.

On the Pest side, a statue of Attila Jozsef, 1905-1937, a beloved modern poet who committed suicide by jumping in front of a train. The statue recreates a scene from his poem "At the Danube" on a hot day.

Nearby is the Empty Shoes memorial with 50 pairs of bronze shoes honoring the Jews who stood here before being shot by the Nazis, then falling into the river. The shoes were worth money and so taken off the feet of those to be executed.

The Empty Shoes memorial.

The Empty Shoes memorial.

A longer view of the memorial.

The Chain Bridge lit up at night. The bridge was destoryed by the Nazis at the end of the war and then rebuilt.

The Chain Bridge.

A view across the river.

The Little Princess statue. Just a humorous statue.

A statue of Shakespeare on the river bank.

My tour guide, Kinga. She put me on a Danube cruise here.

This is my second Danube cruise. I took a movie of the one I went on last time I was here. Go to Movies, Europe: Central/Eastern Europe Movies-1, pages 1 & 2, "Danube Night Cruise, Budapest #1-4." Photo: a building lit up at night.

One of bridges lit up.

The Vigado, a concert hall.

The Royal Palace.

The beautiful Parliament Building. I took a taxi back to my hotel after the cruise, one that was arranged by the cruise people.