R. Doug Wicker's Blog, page 139

Fun Photo Friday — Guayaquil: Ecuador 1

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Faro Cerro Santa Ana

Over the next three weeks, Fun Photo Friday will feature favorites from Guayaquil, Ecuador. So, for a taste of what’s ahead, here is today’s photo gallery and slide show:

Filed under: Fun Photo Friday, Photography, R. Doug Wicker, travel, vacation Tagged: Ecuador, Fun Photo Friday, Guayaquil, photography, R. Doug Wicker, travel, travel photography, vacation

Ecuador — Continuing on our own around Guayaquil

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Guayaquil building art

Reaching the Malecón, Ursula and I turned south to enjoy the gardens, statuary, and buildings along the way. We’ll return to the Malecón with our tour group later the next day, and you’ll see more of that next week. But today is our tour without the group, so here we go southward. Here are examples of some of the statuary you’ll see along this park:

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Statuary

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Statuary

Plaza de la Administración, or City Hall, with its magnificent architectural details:

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Plaza de la Admini...

Ecuador — First look at Guayaquil

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Guayaquil Malecón Simón Bolívar

Yes, we sometimes travel by land rather than cruise ship. Ursula and I did so in February, 2016, for a comprehensive tour of Ecuador. We flew into Guayaquil, Ecuador, one day before we were to meet up with our tour group, which meant we had an entire day in Guayaquil to explore on our own. So, departing our room at the Hotel Oro Verde, we headed east along Avenue Nueve de Octubre to Malecón Simón Bolívar. It certainly didn’t take long to start finding photo opp...

D-Day — Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial

 

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Map of the D-Day Normandy Invasion

The map depicted above overlooks Omaha Beach. Behind that map lies the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial.

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Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial

a territorial concession granted by France to the United States, so this ground is fully administered and maintained by the U.S. government.

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Some of the 1,557 names of unrecovered or missing U.S. servicemen from D-Day

There are 9,387 graves here, of which 307 contain the remains of unknown persons. All but...

D-Day — Omaha

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Omaha Beach

On D-Day, the 6th of June, 1944, Omaha Beach was bleak. U.S. V Corps under the direct command of Major General Leonard Gerow would sustain the most casualties by far of any of the five invasion beaches. Between 2,000 and 4,700 U.S. servicemen would lose their lives on the bloody sands of Omaha.

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Omaha Beach

Had U.S. forces failed in taking Omaha, the entire invasion would have been a disaster as Utah would have been cut off from Sword, Juno, and Gold. Fortunately, after a long and...

D-Day — Utah

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Utah Beach

The beach assaults on D-Day occurred at five locations. Gold, Juno, and Sword beaches lay to the east. Gold and Sword were led by the English. Canada led the way at Juno. The U.S. Army assaulted the two beaches to the west, Omaha and Utah, with Utah being the western-most invasion site.

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M4 Sherman Tank

Leading the assault of Utah Beach was the son of a president, General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. General Roosevelt hid from his superiors a heart condition that would lead to his death...

D-Day — Pointe du Hoc

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100-foot/30-meter cliffs of Pointe du Hoc

On D-Day, June 6, 1944, the U.S. Army Ranger Assault Group landed a Pointe du Hoc. Their unenviable mission was to scale the 100-foot/30-meter cliffs and take out German 155mm gun emplacements that endangered the ships would soon stream toward Omaha Beach to the left and Utah Beach on the right. It turned out to be a bloody exercise in futility, as those 155mm guns were not even there.

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German bunker overlooking Pointe du Hoc

The Rangers were sitting d...

D-Day — Sainte-Mère-Église

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82nd Airborne commemorated in stained glass

The D-Day invasion of Normandy shortly after midnight on June 6, 1944, when English and American paratroopers began descending from the skies to their respective landing zones. Unfortunately for one element of the U.S. 82nd Airborne missed their intended landing zone, coming down instead into Sainte-Mere-Èglise, where German soldiers were waiting for them

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Sainte-Mère-Église “Longest Day” memorial

Among the more fortunate that day was Private John St...

Memorial Week Part 3

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USS Arizona’s final resting place

This week I commemorate Memorial Day with repeat articles from the Normandy American Memorial Cemetery and Memorial, the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, and the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. Next week I will commemorate the 73rd anniversary of one of the greatest invasions in military history, the D-Day Invasion of June 6, 1944.

USS Arizona Memorial:

It’s a short hop, or sail in this case, from Hilo on the Big Island to Honolulu on the island of Oahu. ...

Memorial Week Part 2

 

[image error]National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific

This week I commemorate Memorial Day with repeat articles from the Normandy American Memorial Cemetery and Memorial, the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, and the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. Next week I will commemorate the 73rd anniversary of one of the greatest invasions in military history, the D-Day Invasion of June 6, 1944.

National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific:

Lisa and Al Fittipaldi joined Ursula and me for a ride that would take us...