Arrival in Budapest

Finally The Uncle and his mates arrived in Budapest and hooked up with Balazs.  Naturally a bit of sight-seeing was in order and what better place than the top of St Gellért Hill, on the Buda side of Budapest:

That would be Balazs there in the middle, with the moustache and would that be plus-fours I spy?  Rather on the long side, but then that was all the fashion in Hungary in 1938, or so I'm reliably informed.

St Gellért, or St Gerard if you prefer, was a saintly person who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Legend has it that during the pagan revolution of 1046 he was put in a barrel on the top of the hill and rolled into the Danube.  From my (albeit limited) knowledge of history, unpleasant as this undoubtedly was, it could have been worse...

Budapest has a lot of bridges across the Danube, as you would expect.  I like this next shot, of Erzsebet Bridge (Elizabeth Bridge).

Unfortunately, like many other bridges across Hungary, this bridge was blown up by the retreating German Army in WWII.  A new one has been built, but it's not the same.

Looking the other way, we have Petofi Bridge - another one that had to be rebuilt after the war:

Clearly The Lads were out at night - or at least The Uncle was:

Abbey Courtyard

Someone had put a traffic cone on a bench in the Abbey Courtyard:

Most likely it was a student, coming out of the Crystal Palace.  I came back later and there was a bloke on it - the bench, that is, not the traffic cone:

An impressive building, The Abbey.  Dates back to the 7th Century, apparently.

Santa Paws

Tired as I was after a day's stretching at The Min, it was all I could manage some days to stagger to the balcony of our little apartment and lift the Nikon, with its 180mm lens attached and some HP5 loaded, to my tired eyes.  (Ed: OK, OK, we get the point - you were experiencing some fatigue.  No need to milk it.)

Where was I?  Oh yes, Santa Paws.  From the balcony:

Bath has its fair share of Big Issue sellers.  This one had his wee doggie with him, all dressed up in his Santa outfit.  Poor wee pet.

On Saturday there were loads of ants:

As night fell, most of the ants went to bed:

Behind the scenes

I must admit to feeling a little sympathy for the people who manage Bath.  The roads are small and very congested, the shops are many and getting all the stuff that is needed into the City Centre and then disposing of the unwanted stuff must be a nightmare.  I think every day was Bin Day, from what I could see.

This was the view outside our digs most days:

Not on the Tourist Trail, for obvious reasons.

I caught this gentleman providing a very important service - I had to snap him up quickly, as you can see:

This was the view from the other side of our apartment block, as captured on the little Yashica:

That's the Theatre Royal there on the right, by the way.  If you ever find yourself there, I can recommend the Garrick's Head Public House next door - they do a very respectable fish and chips.  I speak from personal experience....twice.

A better class

You get a better class of buskers in Bath:

And a better class of street vendors:

Oh yes, Bath is classy.  It seduces you.  You have been warned.  But just remember, as you walk about, gazing in wonder at the uniqueness of the sandstone buildings, the colonnades, the Beautiful Things in the Beautiful Shops...none of it is real.

Berlin and Prague, 1938

So...if you recall from last Friday, it's the summer of 1938 and The Uncle and his mates are off on their summer hols, winding their way down through Germany and Czechoslovakia towards Hungary.

Clearly not one of The Uncle's photographs, but interesting nonetheless.  Now The Lads didn't stay in the Hotel Burghof, but in the neighbouring Hotel König von Portugal, later to be destroyed by Allied bombing during WWII.  It was a traditional Berlin hotel and lay, as the postcard shows, on the banks of the Spree just opposite the City Palace, the large domed structure you can see on the left bank above.  Unlike the hotel, the Palace itself largely survived the attention of the Allies, but only made it as far as 1950, when the GDR decided to demolish it.  It is, apparently, in the process of being rebuilt.

Unfortunately I don't have any snaps of Berlin - The Uncle must have been saving his film for Hungary.  But we have one or two of Prague...

...presumably taken from their hotel window:

I like this one, of the Bridge of Saints, or Charles Bridge if you prefer:

The statues on the bridge and the street light are impressive.  As is the little sign hanging above the middle of the bridge, which indicates that horse-drawn wagons aren't allowed.  The times they were a-changing...

A very interesting bridge, Charles Bridge - dates back to 1357, which is a fair few years ago.  The bridge is lines with statues of Saints, hence the colloquial name.  Prague, apparently, succumbed to the interests of both the Germans and the Russians during WWII but barely a bullet was fired, so the bridge remained more or less intact.  Here's a period postcard of the bridge.

And one of Wenceslas Square, or Horse Market as it used to be known in the Middle Ages.  Famous nowadays of course for the scenes of mass demonstrations during the Velvet Revolution of 1989.  It would appear, going by recent history, that Czechoslovakians embrace change relatively calmly...

And one of 'the old clock on the town hall':

Meanwhile, back at the hotel, we have The Lads relaxing:

What a fine-looking bed that is - and a fine-looking wardrobe to match.  Now we have two of The Lads smartly dressed and in some sort of suspended animation while the third is languishing in his PJs in bed, eyes closed and cigarette in mouth.  A wonderful moment in time.  Surely proof, if ever proof was needed, to take more photographs of normal stuff...

Just to show you that The Uncle was there, in this one he has swapped places with the sleeping smoker:

Fully dressed but under the bedclothes - perhaps it was a chilly summer, 77 years ago in Prague.  He's not in many snaps, The Uncle - presumably since he was behind the camera most of the time.  A bit like myself - and to be honest, it's the best place for me.

Coffee, anyone?

She's probably checking her email, or something important.

Now I know I'm only looking in through the side window here, but I can only see one seat, and she's on it - well, actually, she's nearly off it, but you know what I mean.  Additional Seating Upstairs, that's what it says on the window - good job, eh?

This shot below was of the café just opposite The Min and I snapped it one late afternoon when treatment had finished.   You come out of the hospital, dressed in your 'exercise gear', feeling stretched and exhausted, ready to head back to your digs for a lie down and a shower and then you glance opposite and see some 'real life' going on...people with proper clothes on, meeting friends, having coffee and maybe a chocolate square or something.  You look over at them, and some of them look over at you.  It's all very strange.

That one I snapped with a little Yashica T4 P&S thing that my mate Dr C handed to me one day.   It's one of those auto-wind-on-and-auto-rewind things, and your negs come out upside down.  But all in all it did the job well, I reckon.  Has a nice little Zeiss Tessar 35mm lens on it.  A bit noisy for street work, though - there's no hiding the fact that you've shot someone.

You can, if you prefer, have your coffee al fresco - by the Pump Rooms, no less:

Note the two cups on the table front left there.  All close together and everything.  Cute.  When I returned a while later I found this situation had developed:

Makes you wonder, doesn't it?