R. Doug Wicker's Blog, page 72

Fun Photo Friday — Belfast Favorites 1

Northern Ireland’s Parliament Buildings on Stormont Estate

Today I present from Belfast Fun Photo Friday favorites, including this store, the name of which rather struck me for some strange reason that I’ve yet to figure out:

The Wicker Man

Now for a gallery of skyline shots:

Northern Ireland — Belfast Hop-on/Hop-off Views

Great Eastern Bar

We’re on the Hop-on/Hop-off tour for today’s look at Belfast. So, let’s see the sights, beginning with “RISE“, a sculpture in west Belfast:

RISE sculpture

I always get a chill down my spine when I see commemorations of the old Soviet Union, and not in a good way. Here is the Kremlin Bar:

Kremlin Bar on Donegall Street near Union Street

Just days before we arrived in Belfast there had been a devastating fire that gutted the historic Bank Buildings. Here are th...

Putting “Memorial” into Memorial Day

Normandy American Cemetery, France

I have over the years and during my many travels paid respects to my fellow veterans who have fallen in service to our nation. As such I thought it appropriate today to remind people what the word “Memorial” in “Memorial Day” means by reposting images from past articles.

Gun turret No. 3, U.S.S. Arizona, Pearl Harbor, Hawai’i National Cemetery of the Pacific “Punchbowl”, O’ahu, Hawai’i U.S.S. Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor, Hawai’i Brigadier Gen...

Northern Ireland — Belfast Street Art

Political Art

In the photo above you’ll see the Irish Celtic phrase “Céad bliain,” which translates to “100 years.” And below that is “Ní Saoirse go Saoirse na mban”, meaning “There is no freedom until the freedom of women.” As with much of the street art adorning Belfast, this one is political.

Belfast Street Art

But most of the political commentary deals with “The Troubles“, that 30-year rebellion that tore apart Northern Ireland from the late 1960s until 1998. The scars of this confl...

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...