R. Doug Wicker's Blog, page 71

D-Day — Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial

On this Memorial Day weekend I’ll repeat this photo series from 2012:

Map of the D-Day Normandy Invasion

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

Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial

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

Some of the 1,557 names of unrecovered or missing U.S. servic...

Fun Photo Friday — More Galway Favorites

Royal coat of arms — Henry VII, Lynch’s Castle

Next week we continue what we started on Wednesday — touring Belfast in Northern Ireland. Until then, let’s take a look at some Galway favorites:

Appropriate: King’s Head Bistro below; The head of Charles I Above Some Galway Color Lynch Family Coat of Arms, Lynch’s Castle If there’s isn’t Guinness, you’re not in Ireland.

Northern Ireland — Belfast

Scottish Provident Building

Still based in Dublin, Ursula had a hankering to visit Belfast, Northern Ireland. So, for €20 each, we boarded a bus and headed north.

The Crown Liquor Saloon; corner of Great Victoria and Amelia streets

The sights here are historic, colorful, and leave one full of wonder for this charming city. One such magnificent structure is the Belfast City Hall. This grand example of Baroque Revival architecture was completed in 1906:

Belfast City Hall

There are s...

Ireland — More on Galway, including lunch

Galway, Ireland

We’ll start this week still in Galway, where I’ll also show off our choice of lunch restaurants. As you may recall from last week, we were on our own time during this visit to the picturesque Shop Street and Quay Street areas of Galway. Down on Quay Street we found quite an array of restaurants and eating establishments.

The Quays Bar and Restaurant Riordan’s Irish Café is now Galway Oyster House Another view of . . . . . . The Quays

You would think that with al...

TripAdvisor Review Update

UPDATE: A mere 1 hour 36 minutes after the posting of today’s previous article on my attempts to leave an online review of Denali Fireside Cabins & Suites, TripAdvisor informed me that moderators of vetted, approved, and posted my revised review:

Hello Doug,

Thank you for contacting Tripadvisor.

We are happy to inform you that your review is now published!

You can find it here: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g31136-d671350-Reviews-Denali_Fireside_Cabins_Suites-Talkeetna_Ala...

The War with Don Devore and Denali Fireside Cabins & Suites continues . . .

You’ll recall that last Sunday I ran a special PSA article on our recent lodging experiences in Talkeetna, Alaska (see: Talkeetna Lodging — The Good, the Bad (and the REALLY ugly)) Excerpts on the portion of that article dealing specifically with Denali Fireside Cabins & Suites were also posted on both Yelp and TripAdvisor, as were my positive comments about Susitna River Lodge.

Owner Don Devore — the innkeeper from hell

Yelp ran the review almost immediately. TripAdvisor waited a day or s...

Fun Photo Friday — The Burren and Galway Favorites

Lynch Castle, Galway

Time of a few favorites from Galway and the Burren:

Ireland — where even the rocks have green

How appropriate — The King’s Head sits beneath Charles I Stairway pavers Strollin’ and Sittin’

Ireland — Venturing from Dublin; Galway

Galway, Ireland

Today and next Monday we’ll look at the city of Galway here on the blog. And on this week’s Fun Photo Friday I’ll post some favorites of both Galway and the Burren.

Galway

Here we had only the briefest of tour guiding before being released to wander about, find lunch, and eventually head back to the tour bus. Our choice of lunch I’ll present to you on Monday, but for now I’ll just say there was no shortage of choices about.

Galway Galway

Nor was there a lack of ...

Ireland — Venturing from Dublin; The Burren

The Burren

With two days of touring the city behind us, Dublin now became our base for venturing out into other areas. So, on Day 3 we found ourselves on a tour that would take us to the Cliffs of Moher (which I showed you last week), the Burren and the city of Galway, all of which are situated on the west coast.

The Burren — Limestone “pavement”

Today I’ll concentrate on the Burren, which is in the Burren National Park. The Burren itself is an interesting piece of geology. “Burren”...

Talkeetna Lodging — The Good, the Bad (and the REALLY ugly)

The view from behind Susitna River Lodging

Special bonus blog article this week. In fact, you could call it a PSA (Public Service Announcement). Ursula and I just returned this past Saturday from a trip to Seattle and Anchorage. While based in Anchorage we rented a car and drove north to Talkeetna to view Denali.

Ursula enjoying Susitna River Lodging

So, what’s so special about that, you ask? While in Talkeetna on Wednesday, 12 May 2021, we ran into the inn keeper from hell, which I sha...