R. Doug Wicker's Blog, page 7

Fun Photo Friday — Romania Favorites 2

Dracula’s Castle

Today I present to you the second Fun Photo Friday collection of Romanian favorites:

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)

Romania — The Arms of Peleș Castle

Peleș Castle

Peleș Castle has an extensive collection of medieval arms and armor, including armor for a horse. However, before you step into this armaments room, you’ll pass by some interesting wooden carvings, impressively tall ceilings, a magnificent carved wood spiral staircase, and other sights. But you don’t need to listen to me drone on about all that. You want pictures, and pictures you shall have:

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Romania — Arriving Peleș Castle

Peleș Castle, Roman

About 70 miles/115 kilometers (87 miles/140 kilometers by tour bus) north of Bucharest, 20 miles/30 kilometers south of Brasov, high in the Southern Carpathian Mountains, lies a grand 34,000 square foot/3,200m² palace containing over 170 rooms. This is Peleș Castle, begun in 1873, opened in 1883, and improvements continued into 1914. As you might expect, 170 rooms and the surrounding grounds is a lot to cover, so we’ll be looking at this magnificent palace both this week a...

Fun Photo Friday — Romania Favorites 1

“Castle Dracula” Looking Particularly Ominious

Welcom to Fun Photo Friday Romanian favorites volume one:

Carpathian Mountains Bucharest Chamber of Commerce CEC Bank Palace The Onion Domes of Saint Nicholas Stavropoleos Monastery

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Bucharest Romani — Strolling the Streets

Biserica “Sfântul Nicolae” (Saint Nicholas Church)

Our base of operations on this visit to Bucharest, Romania, was the Moxy Bucharest Old Town. We’ve stayed at Moxy hotels before, so we had every expectation that this would be a pleasant and affordable option. We were not disappointed. And being right in the Old Town section of Bucharest was a real plus. We were mere minutes walking distance from a lot to see and do, such as being only three minutes from Biserica Sfântul Nicolae (Saint Nichol...

Bucharest Romania in the Dead of Winter

Bucharest, Romania — Dining outdoors in the dead of winter

Last week I showed you our visit to Coral Castle near Homestead, Florida, just before we boarded the Norwegian Breakaway for a transatlantic voyage to Southhampton, U.K. I won’t bore you with yet another set of articles on our visit to the Azores, as I’ve already done a series (beginning with” this article” São Miguel Island, Azores — Lagoa do Fogo (Fire Lake)). Instead, I’m going to jump to our next destination, Bucharest, Romania, i...

Miami Restaurant Review — Suvi Thai & Sushi

Suvi Thai & Sushi; Miami Springs

Ursula and I both adore good Thai food. The problem is that “good” is sometimes hard to find. But if you’re ever staying near Miami International Airport, I have just the place for you. It’s so good we ate there two days in a row, the second time with daughter Tracy after our visit to Coral Castle. Behold Suvi Thai & Sushi:

5683 NW 36th StreetMiami Springs, FL 33166(305) 887-2212 Ursula and Tracy

The food here is simply scrumptious, with a me...

Visiting Coral Castle, Part 2

Red-headed rock agama

This week I’ll be presenting a Fun Food Friday of an excellent Thai restaurant Ursula discovered on this trip, so many of today’s images will be a bit more Fun Photo Friday artsy. I hope you don’t mind. And since I gave you a description of this place in Monday’s article, today I’m going to be a little less talkative. Nevertheless, I will give some commmentary, such as on this next image. You may recall that one of the names given Coral Castle is Rock Gate, which is the ...

Visiting Coral Castle, Part 1

Coral Castle; a.k.a. Ed’s Place; a.k.a. Rock Gate; a.k.a. America’s Stonehenge

Ursula and I only recently returned from a two-month trip that took us first to Miami, where we caught up with our younger daughter Tracy for a brief visit, then onto a transatlantic cruise to Southhampton, U.K.; followed by a flight to Bucharest, Romania; a stay in Cairo, Egypt; a flight to Aswan, Egypt where we hoped aboard a Nile cruise to Luxor; a stop at our favorite hotel in Istanbul, Turkey; a jaunt down sou...

Fun Photo Friday — Marrakech Favorites

Marrakech Just After Sunset Souk Laksour Lights A Moroccan Vibe Koutoubia Mosque Minaret at Night Moroccan Lights and Lanterns Riad Viva at Night

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)