Budapest: Liberty Square

Liberty Square was one of the stops on our segway tour, but we ended up back there again and again as it's on the way to a number of other places. When we first went, our segway guide told us about a Memorial that was being erected and protested. On that day the sculpture had not yet been installed and we only saw construction sheets and the protests on the sidewalk in front. We went back a day later and the statue was up . .  . with many many police around it in case any trouble should break out. We went by a few more times during our stay and the police were always there, but doing nothing.

"Protests continued in central Budapest against the erection of a controversial World War II statue. Many protesters see the decision to erect the statue as a failure to accept Hungarian responsibility for Jewish deaths during the war."

Our guide said that the protesters believed the statue depicts the archangel Gabrielle cowering under an Eagle that is representing Nazi Germany. I'll let you decide for yourselves from the photos.

The fountain in the middle of the square is pretty fun and interesting. It has some kind of motion sensor and stops when you get close to it. You can't see from this photo, but you can walk right up to it, it stops and lets you through to the middle. So you can walk across the square without getting wet! Unless of course you're one of the little kids playing in it - lots of those on this hot day.

You see some of the police here. I'd say there were between 20-30 around the whole square (not that large). Luckily, they didn't have to do anything any of the times we went by.

And here's the statue that seems to be raising all the fuss.