Cruising a Greenland fjord
An advantage to a small cruise ship is we could squeeze into smaller ports and fjords where larger ships dare not go. We had a leisurely day cruising up and down this Greenland fjord, launching Zodiac boats for a closer look.
The Three Tenors
At a local camera club we have a year-end party where members typically show a several minute slideshow of their favorite photos set to music. I chose a different route for my photo presentation… a little less serious. The goal is to have fun, right?
Cold Fish
Our cruise ship ports of call in South America heading to Valparaiso are not necessarily world-class destinations. Sometimes the most excitement and most interesting photos are of the dock workers.
Split Harbor at Dusk
The main attraction in Split is Diocletian’s Palace, built in the 4th century by the Romans. Today it is simply part of the old city with fancy shops and many restaurants primarily for tourists. Split had the busiest harbor we have seen since Gibraltar. There was a constant flow of cruise ships, ferries and yachts.
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Porto Douro River View
Porto, Portugal was built along the Douro River in northern Portugal. This view is of the oldest section, Riberia, which is largely dedicated to the port wine and tourist industry. The bright yellow billboard near the center of this photograph is the Sandeman trademark of one of these wines.
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Arc de Triomf built for the 1888 Barcelona World’s Fair
My previous blogs of Barcelona have highlighted the works of innovative Spanish-born architect Antoni Gaudi, the Segrada Familia Basicilia, Casa Mila, Casa Batllo, as well as the Barcelona concert hall (not Gaudi). Now I’ll simply take you around Barcelona for some of the interesting sites and discoveries.
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Drying fish in a Shanghai ally
I am proud to say I eat just about any food. If it is on a menu, I’ll try it. As a young kid, I ate rattlesnake, squirrel, turtle steak, frog legs, kangaroo tail soup and just about any odd item found on a menu. The squirrel and frog legs I hunted, which makes me sound a bit like a hillbilly, but it was fun as a kid. I really looked forward to new foods in China. However, overall, it was disappointing. Despite us driving past miles and miles of red peppers piled high in the fields, the food was boiled and bland. Boiled broccoli, boiled cauliflower, boiled bok choy. Also, the Chinese do not differentiate between breakfast, lunch and dinner foods. In the morning you had much of the same foods on the buffet the prior night. Very few of the dishes were great. However, I did get to add to my list of unusual foods, which included:
My main question was who got the good cuts of meat if in the fine restaurants they were feeding me donkey skin and camel tendons???
Quail on a stick
Outdoor cooks
No, I did not get to eat the above fish. They were hanging in a Shanghai ally. Oddly enough, I did not see any flies in these open air markets full of hanging food.
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While walking the banks of the Sacramento River near Redding, California I heard a surprisingly loud racket sounding like loud drums beating. I soon found the source of the noise were salmon spawning. Here is a short video of a couple trying to make it upstream to their spawning grounds.