Tag: travel

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Round Up 121

Lots of pretty things…

Welcome to the 121st round up of the Tuesday Photo Challenge!  Another record setting week of responses!

I think that your posts touched on every interpretation of the theme of Row that I can come up with.  Filled with creativity, your contributions were great fun for me to read and view.  The effort that you put into each one of these posts shone through!!

A heartfelt thank you for your participation in this week’s challenge.  Now I have to think of a theme for 122 🙂

Here’s another row, even though they are not rowboats…

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Volendam Fishing Boats

I’m sure that you can’t blame me for capturing this photo, as the the bright Red, Green and Blue look to be jumping off the screen!  During a visit to the old Zuiderzee fishing town of Volendam, I came across this view and had to catch it with my camera 🙂

The following were this week’s participants in the challenge with links to their posts:

  • Sarah’s entry in By Sarah takes us to some rather interesting rows, as they will be very tasty at some point in the future! [N.B. – blog may be set to private]
  • In pensivity101‘s post is a really interesting read, as she manages to use just about every version of the word row in this post… go see, if there’s one missing!
  • Petra creates another awesome post in Photoworld vol. 3, as she puts all the pretty things in a row! Great photos!
  • Kammie goes exploring in her post in The Nut House, and she finds lots of interesting sets of rows!
  • Shelley’s post in Quaint Revival really sucked me in, as there were some awesome rows, including a row of Batman actors, whose voices are compared!
  • Michelle features a wonderful photo in her post in Take a Walk and Discover, which takes the theme in two directions.
  • In Sync with Deep‘s post, we get a beautiful poem that was inspired by the photo that accompanied this week’s theme.
  • The post in Jordy’s Streamings brings us rows of contradiction, with wonderful photos and celebration!
  • This week’s contribution in Geriatri’X’ Fotogallery provides rows in several dimensions…
  • Charles treats us to a view of the Straits of Magellan in his post in charlesewaugh, where we find a very well-trained row of birds!
  • Xenia’s post in whippetwisdom combines beautiful photos with a lovely haibun, as whippets enjoy the tidal pools.  Xenia’s second post in her blog, Tranature, shares amazing photos of black currants all in a row and a great haiku!
  • Lisa captures some great photos on the theme in her post in A Day in the Life, which leads me to wonder which one you like best? I have my favorite!
  • Nicole leads us to Saint Malo, where we visit the breakwaters at the Plage du Sillon in Une Photo, Un Poéme; this is a truly beautiful post!
  • Miriam’s post in The Shower of Blessings takes us to Huntington Library, where there are a number of gorgeous rows!
  • In her blog Out of my Write Mind, Sandy shares row upon row of hand-tied flies, which are little works of art and are useful!
  • Shubham’s post in Hadd Hai Yaar takes a look at a variety of rows with a set of wonderful photos!
  • This week’s post on the theme in One letter UP – diary 2.0 is filled with something that would make me salivate…
  • In Na’ama Yehuda‘s post, she takes us back to some of the darkest times in human history with a deeply touching photo from the concentration camp in Auschwitz and a moving poem…
  • A stunning photo on this week’s theme is in Chateaux des Fleurs, as fish were trained to swim in a row at the Mystic Aquarium!
  • In MV Obsession‘s post, we get to see the benefit of visiting locales during the off-season: plenty of seats available!
  • Stella has a great collection of photos, as seen in Giggles & Tales; there are some amazing rows in them as well!
  • The post for this week’s theme in Fatma Mahmoud is simply lovely!  A beautiful row of crescents frame the Moon in a great image!
  • Klara takes us to a UNESCO World Heritage site with her photo in Sliku svoju ljubim II; Qutub Minar is the world’s tallest minaret!
  • Olga brings us along on a visit to a vineyard in Niagara in her post in Stuff and what if…; now, if we could just taste some of the wine too!
  • Susan takes us for a serious row in her post in Musin’ with Susan, which also features stunning colors in the photo!
  • Jason may be on the right track in his post in Proscenium: just make sure that you look behind you occasionally!
  • In another great post in WoollyMuses, there are some fantastic rows, and I learn the meaning of the word bollard!
  • In an entertaining post in Jottings and Writings, I got the feeling that there may have been a row with a sprayer…
  • Sonia explores the beauty of symmetry of rows in her post in Sonia’s Musings, for which she provides evidence!
  • Sonya gives us a lovely view of Port Nicholson Yacht Club in her post in Middleton Road; the view is simply stunning!
  • Robert shares a great photo in Photo Roberts Blog, which gives me a sense of other-worldly creatures standing next to the port…
  • With a wonderful set of photos, the post in Life Amazing shares a number of rows that are very interesting!
  • In a post that features some relaxed rowing in Serendipity, Encouraged, Todd shares some of his experiences from his visit to India.
  • A lovely post by Ju-Lyn in All Things Bright and Beautiful has a great photo that shows us many rows!  How many can you  find?
  • Debbie’s post in Travel with Intent whisks us away to Madrid this week, where the great vistas yield some wonderful rows!
  • In a great post in the 59 Club, Alice takes us to the theater district in New York City, where she features a wonderful venue!
  • Debbie wrote another wonderful post in ForgivingConnects, as she shares how she manages to forgive herself for being upset about the uncertainties that she faces; a great read!
  • George documents a set of three chairs through the seasons in an awesome post in Alchemist of the Woods; these chairs are looking for some people that they can support!
  • With a great set of photos in Pictures without Film, we get to view the Mitchell’s Fold Stone Circle in a novel manner (it involves advanced geometry!)
  • On a magnificent beach in this week’s post in Land of Images‘ we get to look at some weathered groynes… Yes, you better go find out what they are!
  • Bryan treats us to something rather special in Bushboy’s World: black beans!  You have to check out these beauties, as each bean weighs about 30 grams!
  • We always get treated to something interesting in the Blog of Hammad Rais, where we find out about the motorbikes of Karachi!
  • Marie’s post in the New 3 Rs: Retire, Recharge, Reconnect features a truly unusual site: the Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend, Iowa!  This really looks worth the visit!
  • In a wonderful post in Photography Journal Blog, we also visit a grotto: the Blue Grotto in Malta, which looks truly gorgeous!
  • Ron takes us under the bridge in his post in Progressing into Solitude, as we get a different view that looks fantastic! No worries, there are no trolls!
  • Maria’s photo in KameraPromenader‘s post for this week’s theme is a gorgeous capture of water drops!  You’ll want to check it out!
  • Ilka takes us to the nursery in her entry for A Thousand Miles, tree nursery that is! All stand at attention!
  • Tatiana’s post in Travelartpix features a wonderful photo of a row boat that has seen better days!  She also features some great rows of drying fish in another post in Travelartpix.  You can see more of her work in Travelways.

I hope that you enjoy these posts and let the authors know!

Favorites – A Finale

Magic unfolds

Over the past week, I’ve posted a number of entries that linked to the final WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge theme of All-Time Favorites. Sadly, the Weekly Photo Challenge is no more, so I want to close out this workweek with one last image in this series (although I may never stop!)

With this image, which is among my favorites (there are a number of photos from Skye that fall in that category), I simply enjoy the sense of being in a different world from our planet, as the light plays across the hills and changes with the movement of each cloud…

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Other-Worldly

The Isle of Skye is a photographer’s dream-world, as each turn of the road presents one with a new, stunning landscape to try and capture. While up in the hills in the Qiuraing, I was continually astounded by the changes in the vistas, even while staying at the same location. Watching the light dance across the hills, changing the colors and highlighting features, was akin to watching a great magician doing their work, but at a scale well beyond even the larges stage.

Have a great day!

WPC Final Week – Favorites – pt. 1

Tuscan Fields

The Final WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge has presented their final theme of All-Time Favorites, which, while being a bit sad that it’s their last prompt, is a great way to finish.

Of course, we all know that it’s not necessarily easy to pick favorites from among all the photographs that I have shared over the years, I’ll try to do this week’s theme justice.  Some of these are based on feedback that I have received from my wonderful blog readers and some are just ones that I really like.

So here’s the first one…

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Tuscan Fields

During last year’s vacation in la Bella Italia, we drove past this location on our way to Montepulciano, which is a wonderful Tuscan hill town.  The morning light wasn’t quite to my liking, but I did resolve to visit during the late afternoon to find this amazing scene in front of me.

It’s amazing what landscapes may unfold for us and this one certainly has kept my interest over the past year.  Have a wonderful day!

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Height

High above the ground!

Welcome to Week 111 of the Tuesday Photo Challenge.  This week’s theme is a bit of a departure from previous ones.

It was a lot of fun reading all of your fantastic posts for last week’s theme!  For this week’s theme of Height, my inspiration came from my recent business trip to Vancouver, British Columbia.  I was there for the OpenStack Summit, which was a great conference with lots of interesting sessions, but most important opportunity to meet with partners, customers and colleagues to discuss directions and challenges.  As I was lucky enough to receive a wonderful package of gift passes from the Vancouver Convention & Visitors Bureau, I managed to take several hours away from the conference and do a quick bit of sightseeing.

An amazing cliff walk at the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park in North Vancouver provided the Height for this week’s theme.  Your challenge is to capture something that gives a sense of height, whether it is a physical of metaphysical one.  Look to bring out the sense of departure from the everyday plateau, at which we usually find ourselves!

I can’t wait to see what you might create, as I’m confident that you will reach new heights!

This is the cliff walk…

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Cliff walk at Suspension Bridge Park

Capilano Suspension Bridge Park has the center piece of the suspension bridge that crosses the chasm; it floats approximately 70m (230ft) above the river.  At the same height is this cliff walk, which consists of multiple segments that are connected to the rock face.  This walk definitely provides a true feeling of being at quite a height!

The full rules of this challenge are in TPC Guidelines, but here’s the tl;dr:

  • Write a post with an image for this week’s topic
  • Please tag your post with fpj-photo-challenge (if you’re not sure about how tags work, please check out this WordPress article about tagging posts)
  • Create a pingback link to this post, so that I can create a post showing all of the submissions over the week (note: pingbacks may not appear immediately, as my site is set up to require approval for linking to it; helps against previous bad experiences with spamming)
  • Have fun creating something new (or sharing something old)!!

I’m looking forward to seeing what might ring true in your posts!

A View of Vancouver

The higher view

This year, I have been traveling quite a bit for business with locations including Israel, Istanbul, Vienna, Brno, Kharkiv and, recently, Vancouver.

A lot of business travel is time spent in meetings, often starting early and running late into dinner and beyond. Occasionally, there is time to break away from the meetings and see something of the city that you’re visiting.  In Vancouver,  during a great OpenStack Summit, I had a couple of opportunities, as there were some great things to do close to the convention center; the convention center is an amazing facility and has wonderful architecture.

The first thing that I got to do is go on a seaplane ride, which provided a great view of Vancouver, the bay and surrounding area.

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Vancouver, Stanley Park and Coal Harbour

The view here is of the city of Vancouver, Stanley Park and Coal Harbour, as seen from the seaplane.  If you look carefully in the middle left-hand side of the image, you see the grass roof of the Vancouver Convention Centre, where OpenStack Summit was held.

More images to come soon!  Have a wonderful day!

Spiraling up, up and up!

Twisting the stairs away!

The WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge has the very warped theme of Twisted, which gives ample opportunity for something a bit outside the norm 🙂

Of course, from twisted minds come twisted images, and I have been known to provide a little warp to what I see.  Then again, there was something rather quotidian that we observed during our vacation in Italy, last year…

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Spiraling…

This spiral staircase twists toward the sky, as medieval footstep could be traced coming down toward a place of oblivion: prison cells!  Never mind getting blocked on twitter, as during these days you may get chained to the wall of a dank cell.  The construction of these stairs is rather amazing, as each stone tread was carefully placed into the wall and was still in perfect position after centuries of use.

May your road rise up to meet you and not be too twisty!

The Port of Rotterdam

Another power of water!

The WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge has the very fluid theme of Liquid, which is right up my alley, as the Netherlands is all about water!

Staying with the Dutch theme from my prior post in this WPC theme, I’m focusing on the city where I was born: Rotterdam.  Rotterdam is very much a port city in its character, as trade is the life-blood of its economy; it is the largest port in Europe.

A key part of the success of the port of Rotterdam is the digging of the Nieuwe Waterweg. In the first half of the 19th century the port activities moved from the centre westward towards the North Sea. To improve the connection to the North Sea, the Nieuwe Waterweg (“New Waterway”), a large canal, was designed to connect the Rhine and Meuse rivers to the sea. The Nieuwe Waterweg was designed to be partly dug, then to further deepen the canal bed by the natural flow of the water. Ultimately however, the last part had to be dug by manual labour as well. Nevertheless, Rotterdam from then on had a direct connection between the sea and harbor areas with sufficient depth. The Nieuwe Waterweg has since been deepened several times. It was ready in 1872 and all sorts of industrial activity formed on the banks of this canal.

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Lots of water!

In this image, we see the Meuse river in the center of Rotterdam, with a water taxi speeding along.  Most of the ports are downstream from this location, which is to the right in the image.  Each of the port areas specialize in certain cargo types, such as containers, crude oil, refined fuels, bulk supplies, etc.

If you get the chance to visit Rotterdam, I recommend that you take a harbor tour with one of the Speedo ships; these tours are both enjoyable and informative!

Have a wonderful day!