Tag Archives: travel photography

June 10, 2019 · 5:35 am

Baltic Cruise — Stockholm Arrival

Stockholm, Sweden

Vision of the Seas continued on into the Baltic after our two-day visit to St. Petersburg. We would make stops in Helsinki, Finland and Klaipeda, Lithuania, both subjects of upcoming articles, and Stockholm, capital of Sweden, which we’ll view this week.

Stockholm, Sweden

The weather was less than optimal when we first stepped off the ship, as you can see by the gray overcast in some of these photographs:

Stockholm, Sweden

But, fortunately, the sun started peeking through later in the afternoon:

Stockholm, Sweden

Stockholm is home to almost a million people. Throw in the surrounding urban areas and you’ll up that to around 1.6 million.

Stockholm, Sweden

Nevertheless, Stockholm doesn’t feel that large, as it retains a lot of Old World charm in its streets:

Stockholm, Sweden

Stockholm also presents to the photographer hints of its import nautical past, such as this three-masted rigging in the foreground of the Skeppsholmen Church (built 1823-1849):

Stockholm, Sweden

Here is another view of Skeppsholmen:

Stockholm, Sweden

Leaving you until Wednesday, here are some photos of statuary found in and around Stockholm:

Stockholm, Sweden

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June 7, 2019 · 5:35 am

D-Day — Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial

All this week I’ll be rerunning my six-part series on the D-Day Invasion of Normandy, France. Next week I’ll return you to our Baltic trip and beyond. In the meantime, in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of Operation Neptune (the Normandy landings) and Operation Overlord (the Battle of Normandy) in the event we now collectively refer to as D-Day:

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. servicemen from D-Day

There are 9,387 graves here, of which 307 contain the remains of unknown persons. All but one of those interred lost their lives during WWII. The exception is a grave from a lone casualty from WWI. Quentin Roosevelt, who was reinterred next to his brother Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.

Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial

The memorial and reflection pond face east toward the closest point of the United States, between Lubec and Eastport in Maine.

The Memorial faces east toward the U.S.

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June 3, 2019 · 5:35 am

D-Day — Pointe du Hoc

100-foot/30-meter cliffs of Pointe du Hoc

On D-Day, June 6, 1944, the U.S. Army Ranger Assault Group landed at Pointe du Hoc. Their unenviable mission was to scale the 100-foot/30-meter cliffs and take out German 155mm gun emplacements that endangered the ships that would soon stream toward Omaha Beach directly east and Utah Beach to the west. It turned out to be a bloody exercise in futility, as those 155mm guns were not even there.