Budapest on a fine April day ...... from the camera of Julie Thomas ...no.6

Now Budapest is not a city I have visited, so it has been fun to see the place through the camera of Julie Thomas.

Julie told me “I have my phone on the setting Noir so I will call these Budapest Noir'”

And that is all I am going to say.

Location; Budapest

Picture; Budapest Noir, 2018, from the collection of Julie Thomas

Budapest on a fine April day ...... from the camera of Julie Thomas ...no.5

Now Budapest is not a city I have visited, so it has been fun to see the place through the camera of Julie Thomas.

Julie told me “I have my phone on the setting Noir so I will call these Budapest Noir'”

And that is all I am going to say.

Location; Budapest

Picture; Budapest Noir, 2018, from the collection of Julie Thomas

Budapest on a fine April day ...... from the camera of Julie Thomas ...no.4

Now Budapest is not a city I have visited, so it has been fun to see the place through the camera of Julie Thomas.

Julie told me “I have my phone on the setting Noir so I will call these Budapest Noir'”
And that is all I am going to say.

Location; Budapest

Picture; Budapest Noir, 2018, from the collection of Julie Thomas

Budapest on a fine April day ...... from the camera of Julie Thomas ...no.3

Now Budapest is not a city I have visited, so it has been fun to see the place through the camera of Julie Thomas.

Julie told me “I have my phone on the setting Noir so I will call these Budapest Noir'”

And that is all I am going to say.

Location; Budapest

Picture; Budapest Noir, 2018, from the collection of Julie Thomas

Budapest on a fine April day ...... from the camera of Julie Thomas ...no.2

Now Budapest is not a city I have visited, so it has been fun to see the place through the camera of Julie Thomas.

Julie told me “I have my phone on the setting Noir so I will call these Budapest Noir'”

And that is all I am going to say.



Location; Budapest

Picture; Budapest Noir, 2018, from the collection of Julie Thomas

Budapest on a fine April day ...... from the camera of Julie Thomas ...no.1

Now Budapest is not a city I have visited, so it has been fun to see the place through the camera of Julie Thomas.

Julie told me “I have my phone on the setting Noir so I will call these 'Budapest Noir'”

And that is all I am going to say.

This is the first in that series

Location; Budapest

Picture; Budapest Noir, 2018, from the collection of Julie Thomas

In Budapest ......... reflecting on two who are the Righteous Among The Nations

Now the memorial to Carl and Gertrud Lutz in Budapest is simple and powerful.

Detail of the memorial, 2016

I knew nothing of the memorial or the couple until my friend Julie shared this picture.
 Carl Lutz was born in Switzerland, travelled the world and arrived in Budapest in 1942.

As a Swiss diplomat he and his wife Gertrud organised the issue of safe conduct passports to Jewish people during 1942 and 1945, saving 62,000 Hungarian Jews from imprisonment and death.

After the war Mr and Mrs Lutz returned to Switzerland and in 1964 were designated as Righteous Among The Nations by Yad Vashem.*

It is striking memorial which has a figure laying on the ground with an upstretched hand and is the work of the sculptor, Tamás Szabó.

The memorial, 2006

“Yad Vashem, the national Authority for the Remembrance of the Martyrs and Heroes of the Holocaust, was established in 1953 by act of the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) to commemorate the six million Jewish men, women and children murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during the years 1933-1945. 

The Authority also commemorates the heroism and fortitude of the Jewish partisans and the fighters in the Ghetto revolts, as well as the actions of the 'Righteous Among the Nations' (non-Jews who saved the lives of Jews).

Located on Har Hazikaron (Heb., Hill of Remembrance), a ridge on the western outskirts of Jerusalem, the Yad Vashem Memorial and Institute includes several commemorative monuments, an historical museum, a central archive and a research center for the documentation of the Holocaust.”

Location; Budapest

Pictures; detail of the memorial to Carl and Gertude Lutz, Budapest, 2016 from the collection of Julie Thomas, and Memorial dedicated to Carl Lutz, Righteous among the nations, Szabó Tamás sculptor, taken by Perline, who as the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 

*Jewish Virtual Library, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/yad-vashem

Budapest ........ where the trams are yellow and are fun to travel

Now the trams of Budapest are proof that nothing beats a journey on a bright yellow tram.

That said the city’s trams have had their ups and downs since the first horse drawn service began in Pest on the east side of the Danube in 1865, quickly followed by another in Buda run by a rival company.

Within 20 years there were fifteen lines and by 1944 the network had grown to 66 lines.

But the siege of Budapest which damaged much of the city including the tram network, followed by a switch to trolley buses and petrol powered buses almost did for the tram.

But not quite and today after a policy flip the tram network is growing again and as of 2015 there were 33 lines, including the delightful Budapest Cog-wheel Railway which for those who like detail is Tram line number 60 and runs every from 5 am till 11 at night along 3.7 km of track.

I have Julie to thank for the pictures of the tram and for bringing to my attention the story of Budapest’s tram service.

And the rest as they say is a collection of Budapest's best along which Julie's endorsement of what a "fantastic transport system in Budapest has, with
trams,trolly buses, metro,buses and a water taxi on the Danube and all very cheap."


Location Budapest

Picture;  big yellow tram, small maroon one and number 2 route, 2015, from the collection of Julie Thomas

Stealing other people’s pictures and memories

Now I am a great fan of other people’s pictures, especially when they are of places I have never been.

But it is also that I like to see through other people’s cameras at what they see as interesting and also at the way they take a picture.

To be fair I don’t actually steal but ask which cements an existing friendship and often makes new ones.

So here we are in Budapest in the winter in the company of Julie Thomas and her husband.

Julie posted a selection of pictures of the city yesterday on facebook and I was drawn to them and she has kindly consented to me sharing a selection, which builds on the earlier ones of trams I took from her collection.

I like the first one of the snow, a line of cars and the buildings beyond looking out from a restaurant which was perfectly matched by the two glasses, a bottle of sparkling water and the Danube beyond.

Which adds to the international aspect as the botteled water is from Italy.

In tine I will ask Julie what was in that posh looking glass and Just where in Budapest beside the river they were at the time.


Location; Budapest









Pictures; Budapest 2016, from the collection of Julie Thomas