R. Doug Wicker's Blog, page 62

Barcelona — City Sightseeing and walking Old Town

Basílica de la Sagrada Família

I‘ve given you an in-depth look before at Antoni Gaudi’s incredible Basílica de la Sagrada Família. For some reason I was thinking it would finally be complete this trip, but Sagrada Família is still a work in progress. It has been ever since ground was broken on this immense project way back in March 1892. That right; this basilica has been under construction now for almost 139 years, and apparently it has at least four more years to go before completion. As fo...

Barcelona — Arrival; Day 1

Last week I reviewed Royal Caribbean’s Oasis Class ship Harmony of the Seas. You may recall that I mentioned we took Harmony on a transatlantic cruise out of Barcelona starting at the end of October 2021. What I didn’t mention is that we spent three nights in Barcelona before boarding Harmony. So, over the next four weeks I’ll be presenting to you images of that trip to Barcelona, culminating with a Fun Food Friday restaurant review on February 11 of a tapas place so impressive that we retur...

Fun Photo Friday — Harmony of the Seas Favorites

A Creepy Halloween aboard Harmony of the Seas

Today I present my favorite photos of Harmony of the Seas. I’ve not yet decided what next week will bring. I have several choices. It might be Barcelona, from before we boarded Harmony, then a series continuation of the transatlantic crossing. It could be the 10-day Mexico cruise from which returned just last week. I might even start a series on a two-week cruise around the islands of Indonesia. Whatever next week brings, here’s today’s Harmony fa...

Harmony of the Seas Review — From Play to Dining

Harmony of the Seas Perfect Storm water slides start on Deck 18 and empty onto Deck 15

Make no mistake about it: While every cruise ship is billed as an ocean-going resort, Harmony of the Seas is truly a floating resort. There is just too much to see and do, with fun distractions for almost all age groups. Indeed, I’m going to go so far as to say that I would not sail the Harmony for anything less than 10 days, and even then only if the itinerary were port intensive. Doing so will leave one f...

Harmony of the Seas Review — A Mega Ship Behemoth

Ursula and I recently returned from Barcelona, Spain. But we didn’t fly back to the U.S. As you would probably expect from my many travel articles, we cruised back. And what a cruise it was. We were aboard Royal Caribbean‘s ship Harmony of the Seas on its repositioning voyage this past November. This massive ship, with seven separate “neighborhood,” would take us from Barcelona to Port Canaveral, with stops in Málaga, Spain and Nassau, The Bahamas. As Harmony is by far the most impressive sh...

Fun Firearm Friday — A Revolver Week Fraud!

WARNING:
Severe, exceedingly obscure, fascinatingly trivial, yet amazingly fun history lesson follows! Approach with extreme caution.

A Webley Mk VI… or is it?

Webleys are the iconic English military pistol. They’ve been around since 1887, and continued in Commonwealth and U.K. military service until withdrawal in 1970. The most famous of the Webley series was the Mk VI dating back to World War I, all of which were factory chambered in the oddball .455 Webley (most have since been rechamber...

Revolver Week — Ladies’ Day with a S&W Model 60-7 “Lady Smith”

Smith & Wesson Model 60-7 “Lady Smith“

Okay, ladies, admit it. The miniscule revolver pictured above is just so darned cute! Today’s Revolver Week article is on a gun that Smith and Wesson specifically marketed toward women, the Lady Smith variant of a S&W Model 60, change 7. And there’s quite a history behind the Model 60, as it began life as a Model 36 “Chief’s Special” which, as you may have guessed by that name, was designed in 1950 as a small-framed concealable revolver suitable for plai...

Revolver Week — Military Monday with a S&W Model 10-5

Smith & Wesson Model 10-5

Next week we return to travel and travel photograph, but this is Revolver Week. And today we begin Revolver Week with a Smith & Wesson Model 10, change 5. Or, more simply, a Model 10-5. This particular example dates back to 1966-1967. I can say that because of the serial number (see below). The “C” range of serial numbers stretched from 1948 until they ran out in 1967. The range for 1966-1967 are serial numbers C810,533 through C999,999. As such, I guesstimate this o...

Fun Photo Friday — Off-Season Endicott Arm 3

Since this week’s Fun Photo Friday concludes my series on cruising Alaska off-season, I thought I would start off with the sunset photo above. That picture was taken shortly after Ovation of the Seas left Endicott Arm and turned south for our return to Seattle. I’m still contemplating what next week’s series will be, but I’m still leaning toward a week of interesting firearms followed by our trip to Barcelona and our transatlantic cruise returning us to the U.S. Until then, Here’s today’s Fu...

Cruising Alaska Off-Season — Studying Endicott’s Steep Walls

The walls of Endicott Arm are steep. Very steep. And myriad waterfalls cascade down their sheer dropoffs into the cold, glacier-fed waters below. The pictures shown today were taken on Cruise 2 of our back-to-back off-season Alaska voyages. So, the photos you see today were taken on 6 October in bright sunlit conditions.

One of Endicott’s many waterfalls

We also enjoyed these scenes from our Cruise 2 balcony, and I took advantage of the sunlight illuminating the walls on our way into t...