Daily Image - Nov 2017 Archive

06 Nov 17 We're back. Traveled 11, 963 miles via plane, bus, taxi, autos, and cruise ship, 359 miles of it on the rivers going through 11 locks over a 16 day period. In the process I shot 5400+ photos while visiting 5 countries, 5 cities, with multiple concerts in churches, palaces, concert venues, and ship board. Spent FAR too much time on airplanes and in airports and heard more concerts in a short time than at any other time in our lives. Enjoyed lots of wonderful food, saw too many sights to remember, and made a a few new friends. All-in-all with the exception of being permanently separated from our smart phone on day 4 and both of us getting sick (Jan near the end and me upon arrival home), it was a pretty memorable trip. I hope to come up with perhaps 40 images to share with you - more than that and you likely get tired of them - and give you enough info with the photos to share with you an idea of what we experienced. My MAIN reason for going on the trip was to take photos, no surprise there I guess, and THE most important place was Budapest where we encountered, to say it politely, HORRIBLE weather. Just to make us rainy day folks from Puget Sound feel at home, the entire Danube experienced its annual BIG storm, the one that they name each year!!! So needless to say my photographic opportunities were somewhat challenged. That said, the "guy with the camera and hat" got a few acceptable ones which I hope you like. I'm starting off today with a shot of the building I went to see, the Parliament Building sitting on the bank on the Danube. This was taken at night while the ship was cruising up and down the river just for us to see the night lights, a very short cruise I'll never forget. It was cold and very windy so it was a challenging shoot especially due to the length of the building - wider than my 18mm lens could take in one shot - and other individuals wanting to get the same shot. As such I couldn't capture the building straight on so this is an angular perspective. You can go out and search for a full monte view. It is IMPRESSIVE to say the least and I suggest you do. As I'm still far from feeling well I'll likely share a couple different "looks" of this same image this week. I've made some serious color adjustment from the RAW capture but other than that this is what the camera recorded. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; ISO 6400; 1/60 sec @ f / 4.8.

07 Nov 17 The virus won the round today so this will be short. This is the shot I shared yesterday but converted to B&W. I've tone mapped the colors to black and white using a gradient map thereby losing nothing in the conversion. If you like you could simply paint the bottom of the image with black and make a totally different presentation, one that gives the impression of the building NOT fronting a river. Or just leave it as is. For those of you who like puzzles, this would make for a challenging one. Tomorrow we'll go with something different then return to this one more time on Thursday for a completely different look. You may want to keep all three to compare side by side before dumping them. Same info as yesterday as it is the identical shot. ISO 6400; 1/60 sec @ f / 4.8.

08 Nov 17 Each evening after dinner we received a short briefing on the expected weather for the following day. It was always positive even though often inaccurate as several days would definitely prove. Not unlike the weather forecasts we "enjoy" on a regular basis here in the PNW. But they always gave hope for what was to come. Unfortunately we encountered what can best be described as a MAJOR storm during our last 4 days, one which I understand was given a name although I can't find it but one nonetheless responsible for 5 deaths. It hit all of central Europe and gave us some challenging times. As we approached Budapest early on the first morning the storm blasted the ship with some serious winds and rain. This was the part of the trip I was most looking forward to, being able to photograph the major buildings unobstructed from the upper deck of the ship. It was not to be. Even if I had brought along my southwesters to weather the rain, there was no way I was going to be able to deal with what the winds were providing. So I elected to stand as far forward as I could in the lounge shooting through the window with brief excursions outside to shoot in the somewhat relative protection of a small overhang near the exit from the lounge. You truly had to be on-board to appreciate the veracity of the storm, but perhaps this image will give you some small idea. This is a combination of two shots, one of the rain striking the window and another of the view through the rain. Neither of the two shots by themselves adequately conveys what was happening so I'm hoping this blend will suffice. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 500; 1/160 sec @ f / 8.

09 Nov 17 As I mentioned earlier today's submission is the third of three versions of the Parliament Building shot during the night light cruise. For those of you who are into triptychs this might be a good set of three with which to play. Similarly, if you like to play with transparent objects this version would be one that would easily convert to that format. You may recall me writing a while back about having been told by a well known photographer that after you've taken the shot you want, turn around, and shoot again as quite likely the better shot was behind you. So let's play with that concept a bit and turn the colors around from that B&W version I shared on Tuesday. Now the blacks are white and the whites black, in other words, we have the negative of the object. With all the white space we also have a high key object but that can be easily changed by simply cropping away most of the white at both the top and the bottom of the shot. Try playing with all three of these approaches; I'll wager you have some good fun. And come up with some very different looks. Same info as for the previous two. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 6400; 1/60 sec @ f / 4.8.

10 Nov 17 Day's before we left for the cruise I noted that fall was really starting to burst out and wondered if we would miss it here locally and if we would have something worth photographing in central Europe to substitute. As we departed the Praha airport Jan observed that the colors in the distance were really nice which gave me hope for some nice autumn colors along the Danube. Unfortunately for me the cities we visited were virtually tree free and we never made it into the country side. Our road trip from Praha to Passau to meet the boat took us through lots of lovely countryside but there was not much color to see at all, most of the trees having already peaked and dropped their leaves. A couple of days later as we bused to Salzburg driving through the Austrian Alps there were many areas of lovely color, mountains, and countryside but the Austrians line their freeways with sound barriers which all but made photography impossible. Further, as the boat traveled at night from port to port along the Danube, we never got to see the countryside at all, let alone in color. So my hopes of getting fall color were basically frustrated until we arrived back home and realized that we were returning to peak autumn colors which sorta made my heart jump for joy. We left SeaTac in rain and returned in rain, but the return was in kodacolor!! And as you all know, autumn and its coat of many colors is my favorite time of the year!! When we landscaped our yard we placed a maple at the waterfall end of the pond as the centerpiece of the yard. It welcomed us home with blazing color and today we are looking at just a few of its leaves. The tree is currently perhaps 12' in height and about 4' in diameter, but when full grown should be about 3x as large. I just hope I'm around to see it that size. I've cropped off a bit of distraction but that's about it. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 320; 1/125 sec @ f / 5.6.

13 Nov 17 Some of what I write today will apply to most all of the images I share from the trip. Five years ago Jan & I went on an ocean cruise to the Mexican Riviera. We had a wonderful time in part due to the first rate entertainment we enjoyed each night. One of the entertainers was an Elton John impersonator who was so good at what he did that Elton John, after seeing him perform, gave him a pair of his glasses, a point the entertainer was proud to share. On his first night's performance he opened the show with his all time favorite Elton John song. He shortly followed that song up with his all time favorite Elton John song, and followed that one up with his all time favorite Elton John song. During our 12 days touring central Europe I was constantly amazed at the structures and art we encountered. While I took over 5K images I realize now that I took far too few. I had purchased new equipment for the trip specifically for capturing the structures but left half of it behind and that which I did take I was virtually unable to use. The crowds we encountered made it virtually impossible to take the photographs I desired and when the people weren't the problem the weather or travel times were. So regrettably I didn't come back with the picture story I had hoped to share with you. I plan to do the best I can with what I did get, but understand in many places what I have to share is sorely lacking. In Praha (Prague) I had been told I needed to photograph two things in particular, the Charles Bridge and the Astronomical clock. I did both and today I'm sharing with you my all time favorite photo from the trip, the astronomical clock. It is located in the Old Town Square on the south side of the Old Town Hall. Here is a link to tell you more about it and I strongly encourage you to go read it as I won't be writing all the info here. It was built in 1410 and keep perfect time which tells you a bit about some of the old clock masters. Much of central Europe is being restored and everywhere we went we found building after building after statue after you name it surrounded by either scaffolding or some form of barrier where the restoration was underway. On two sides of the Old Town Hall this was the case and there was blue netting right up to the sides of the clock. In a few more months the clock itself will be surrounded by scaffolding as they being restorative work on it, so we were very fortunate to see it when we did. Getting a picture of the whole clock was totally impossible due to the behavior of the phone camera shooters who are among the rudest group of folks I've ever encountered. They found no problem in simply stepping in front of you to hold up their phones to take videos and just remain in your face!! So I did the best I could and grabbed several vertical sections of the clock from a distance and pieced them together with software. I also removed the crowd, the netting and did my best to also remove the distortion. Unfortunately the position I had to use to get the shot(s) left me too near an open air restaurant and unable to get the very bottom on the building providing support for the base of the clock. But the image shows all the important parts of it. Near the top of the clock are two blue windows that only open when the clock strikes the hour at which time the Apostles rotate across the windows. I'll leave the rest of the clock's description for you to read at the link. If you get to Praha this is a must see item for your visit!! The images consists of 7 frames which I've stitched together, straightened up, and then tightly cropped. Otherwise this is a straight shot. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 800; 1/100 sec @ f / 8.

14 Nov 17 As I wrote yesterday many of the buildings and monuments in Europe are being cleaned up in an attempt to restore them to their prior majesty. In some cases we were told that the process is an ongoing one in that one side is cleaned each year and by the time the fourth side is cleaned it is time to clean the first side again. Not the particular case for the Old Town Hall in downtown Praha, but the process of cleaning the building is well underway. When facing the astronomical clock, the side to the immediate right is currently draped with tarps and scaffolding but to prevent your visit from being a total waste there is a silk screen panel hanging in front of that side of the building which is basically what you would see if the side were visible. At first glance you don't even realize you are not looking at the actual building; it isn't until you get up close that you realize you are looking at a picture. It's a nice touch and gives some idea as to how careful they are to detail. I've rendered it in B&W for today to force you to look at the detail of the original artwork. The black area at the top is tarping and at the very bottom is a set of photographs showing the actual building. I've cropped away most of the annoying stuff on the sides but you can see the roping used to attach the silkscreen to its frame. Wish we would use a similar technique on this side of the pond when restoring a significant monument or building. I've done a bit of straightening and cropping of the original but otherwise this is pretty much straight out of the camera. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 800; 1/60 sec @ f / 5.6.

15 Nov 17 I thought I'd share with you my all time favorite shot of the trip. It was my desire to capture something along these lines our third evening in Praha that led to the loss of the phone. Had that not happened, and my subsequent over present concern about it, I'm rather certain I would have gone out another night to shoot again but I didn't. In retrospect that was a foolish decision. Still, I got several shots of Charles Bridge, Charles IV being the favorite king of all things Czech after whom the bridge is named, many of which I really like. But a few more would have been O.K. The bridge is one of, I believe, 9 major bridges that cross the Vltava (Moldau) River in Praha, but the locals claim there are more than 100. This shot shows a corner of the Old Town Tower (there are two more on the opposite end of the bridge near Prague Castle) as well as a small portion of a group of wooden beams projecting into the river whose function I have no idea. In the middle of the photo is located a very small spillway that crosses the river but doesn't serve any function I could discern. There is a log boom of perhaps 40 perpendicular to it whose main function appeared to be a roosting site for many seagulls, of which quite a few are visible in the image. About 1/3 of the way into the image from the left you can see Prague Castle which might remind some of you of the castle design used by the Disney Corporation. I've attached a link above in blue discussing the bridge which I recommend you read. I'll share a couple more shots of the bridge at another time. Aside from cropping of a fair amount of empty space on the top and bottom of the frame, this is straight from the camera. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 1000; 1/2 sec @ f / 9 on a tripod.

16 Nov 17 It being Theatrical Thursday I thought I'd share something theatrical but not of a serious nature. Our first day out a group of very old cars, in PRISTINE condition, caught our eye just a couple blocks from the hotel. Hard for a guy to not notice a classic car especially in a location where they would not be expected. It turned out that one approach to touring Prague is via restored classic vehicles, and Prague Old Car is ready to give you just such an experience. While we elected to go it on our own, there were many folks riding around the city is these beautiful old cars. Of interest to both of us was that while we saw but four stoplights, we never saw any traffic accidents, heard a single siren (unlike in Budapest), and all the drivers were extremely courteous, exceptionally so. No one drove at break neck speeds, pedestrians were ALWAYS given the right of way, even if stepping in front of a moving vehicle - it was almost weird - and we never saw anything amounting to frustration on the part of the drivers when dealing with crowded and narrow streets. To say the least, it was most inspirational. I've never encountered anything like it before although my visits to Nova Scotia twenty five years ago were a little similar. There must be some rules governing the use of motor vehicles in the city because the traffic always flowed smoothly although I couldn't discern exactly what they were. Try as I might, I could never get one of these old cars sufficiently isolated, so I've elected to go with the image with the least distractions to share. Should you pay Prague a visit see if you experience the same thing. I took the base image, cropped it some to remove a few non-essential details, endeavored to render the modern vehicle as innocuous as possible, and then given it a bit of a cartoonish look. D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 500; 1/100 sec @ f / 6.3

17 Nov 17 Our first day visiting Vienna was our introduction to the pending storm and brought with it some more of the rain we had experienced throughout the majority of our visit in Praha. The arrival earlier in the morning had given us our first and only glimpse of a vineyard and it was in stunning full color, albeit yellow. I really wanted to photograph it as we approached our mooring site but we were in attendance of a lecture discussing the concert we were supposed to hear in Vienna that afternoon and didn't - the performers changed what they presented from what they were supposed to present - and I didn't want to disrupt the lecture so I just politely sat in my seat and watched as we passed by the vineyard. So the following day, our second for visiting Vienna and the evening for the opera, we stayed behind for the morning visit to the city and elected instead to walk along the north bank of the Danube hoping to find the vineyard, which we eventually did. Pictures of that to come later. As we were walking along the path paralleling the river, and not very distant from the boat, we noticed several areas which a couple of weeks earlier would have been spectacular, but were now pretty much spent color-wise. However, the leaves remaining on the trees held enough color to remind you of what they would have looked like at their peak. Knowing that, I've elected to "restore" the color that would have been present and that which I had hoped to see all along. Directly below the bottom of the image is the main highway, then a barrier between the road and the park in which we were walking and immediately to our backs, as we were facing the hillside to take this shot, is the Danube. From river to hillside is perhaps 150 feet max. Nice and cozy and a lovely location for a walk, a play date for the preschoolers in the little kiddie park, or just a romantic rest on a bench. I took the base image as it was and just boosted each individual color that was in the original capture. That's it. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture priority; ISO 500; 1/100 sec @ f /10.

20 Nov 17 Breaking with protocol (mine) and sharing a photo of a human today. Picking up on our walk that I was discussing on Friday we continued onward looking for that promised vineyard stopping now and then to shoot some color here and there as well as anything else that caught our fancy, me with the D500 and Jan with her iPad. A ways down the park I noticed a lone fisherman out on a spit of land in mid river. He was at the tip of the spit and appeared to be completing his morning fishing most likely due to the impending storm which was coming from the direction in which he was looking. I took a couple of distant shots and moved on a little further when I noticed another individual fishing at the edge of the river from a set of steps. As I took his shot he realized what I was doing and immediately struck a pose for me holding up his catch, about an 18 inch Hake. I took a couple of shots of him and the fish and then walked up to speak with him. As I imagined, he spoke better English than a LOT of Americans and I asked him if he had an email address and if so would he like a copy of the photo. He immediately replied yes and wrote his name and email address in my little spiral shirt pocket sized book. He then asked me where I was from. I said the United States (I'm guessing that was obvious) and he "yes, where?" I replied WA State and again he said "WHERE?" I then said on Puget Sound across from Seattle. He said "NO!" I said yes and he again said "NO!!" Upon replying "really, near Seattle" he said "My two brothers live in Seattle. One works for Boeing Renton and the other Boeing Everett." He then wrote their names and phone numbers in my book and asked me to give them a call. Sorta puts into perspective the term small world. While we were chatting he put the fish back in the water, moving it back and forth until it fully revived, and then let it go. It swam off as were were continuing to talk. I had several other interactions with the local folks in different locations which were all delightful. It seemed like I was the only one interacting with locals during our trip and I'm thinking the others missed out on perhaps the best part of the cruise. By the way, observe, the Danube IS blue. This is just as I captured it. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; ISO 500; 1/100 sec @ f /10.

21 Nov 17 Today's submission is one of those that is displaying substantially darker on this mailbox than it did on the box I used to create it, so I've lightened it about a stop. Hopefully this won't result in you receiving a washed out image. Our first day in Vienna was a wet one on and off throughout the day but not enough rain to thoroughly dampen the outing. As we were being bused home we got caught in a traffic jam waiting for a long parade of military vehicles (think tanks and such) to pass in front of us about a block away. It was a National Holiday like our 4th of July and all kinds of "support" equipment was being paraded around the city. While we were waiting the rain provided us with a foretaste of what was to come. After dinner we had our (hopeful) weather forecast of better weather for the morrow. We awoke to better weather in that it wasn't actually raining at that time but the skies suggested that things might not stay that way for long. The majority of the folks went into the city for a morning tour but a still significant number elected to remain on board until the evening performance of the opera. About 5 of us hardy (foolhardy?) souls decided to go for a walk along the river and that's the walk I've been talking about in the last two images. Jan and I were so determined to find that one vineyard that we started out unprepared for what we were to encounter. This is a shot I took about a 50 meter walk from the boat and it should have shouted to us go back and get dressed for a storm, but the beautiful light was more of what I saw than the actual storm, so we didn't and blissfully went on our way enjoying the park, the walk, and the river. The shot of the fisherman I shared yesterday was the extent of the walk but at that point having found the vineyard we began walking at a 90 degree angle to the river and not only encountered the vineyard but a charming little village of which the vineyard was a part. Just about the time I finished photographing the vineyard and community - images of which remain to be shared - that sky became black, winds of perhaps 30 knots appeared, and we entered the heavy duty wash cycle. By the time we made it back to the boat all we were lacking was the soap and spin cycle; we were drenched to the bone. At that point we elected to dry out and enjoy the rest of the day on-board with a warm lunch, nap, and few more image captures from the protection of the lounge. This is straight from the camera. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture priority; ISO 500; 1/800 sec @ f / 7.1.

22 Nov 17 Having left the fisherman with his hake, who by the way contacted us today inviting us back to Vienna for a personal tour to see all we didn't see on a tourist visit, we climbed the hillside on the other side of the road encountering not only the vineyard but a lovely little farm community. A fence surrounding the vineyard was open and as there was a doggie pickup bag dispenser located very near it and the gate open, we assumed it would be O.K. to walk in the vineyard. As several others were soon to do the same as we doing I guess we were right. Our view from inside the vineyard wasn't nearly as spectacular as was the view from the boat, but compensation for the lesser view was a lovely stream with small waterfall, a nice statue, and some different views. This is obviously taken at one end of the vineyard and comprises only a small portion of the operation. In the URH corner you can see the beginning of the rapidly approaching storm. Less than 20 minutes after taking this shot we were in the downpour. But at this point in time we were playing with some beautiful light which gave the grape leaves the rich warm yellow color. As we didn't see a single grape on the vines I'm guessing harvest season preceded us by some weeks. As drenched as we got, the walk through the village, vineyard, and meeting the people made it all worthwhile! Straight out of the camera. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture priority; ISO 500; 1/100 sec @ f / 7.1.

24 Nov 17 Black Friday Way late for today but as it's Black Friday I'm guessing many of you were either out shopping or just spending some well needed family time so later may perhaps be better for today. On one side of the Vltava (Moldau if you prefer the musical name) we were very surprised to see swans. As it turned out they were to be seen along the Danube as well so I guess that are just local birds, along with Rock Doves which we call the common pigeon. This particular bird was easily accessible along with her two youngsters near a boat launch on the far side of the river. Several of us were taking their pictures with mama closely observing what was taking place. A couple times she got a bit aggressive but by just remaining still and talking to her I guess she decided I was O.K. This shot is of a pose she gave me close up for which I thanked her and returned to shooting her children who didn't seem even the least bit interested in having their portrait being captured. Other than having cropped off a bit of unnecessary real estate this is straight from the camera. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/640 sec @ f /10.

27 Nov 17 A local shot for today, and one I took this morning. As we were driving to church Jan exclaimed "Look at that rainbow!" It was arching over a local farm house so I pulled off the road onto the neighbor's driveway and grabbed a shot in the rain. Then headed off to church. Before we had gone even another mile we got a better glimpse of it and pulled off the road again, this time into our local casino parking lot. Lo and behold, we saw the whole thing, end to end, one of which was in the middle of the casino building. Guess it was trying to tell us where to go to find that proverbial pot of gold, or at least a minimal chance of it. On top of that, we had a partial second arc on top of the full arc. Not being prepared for something like this, I had neither my tripod nor the correct lens to capture it. So I shot freehand at the shortest focal length I had resulting in the requirement for multiple frames and tilting the camera backward. The result was a composite that looked very much like it had been shot with a fish eye lens. I've corrected it as much as practical, removed a lot of stuff, and cloned in what was missing. The colors are accurate, sky, rainbow, and casino. By the time we had made it to church, 3 miles distant, it was almost gone and about 5 minutes after that it was totally gone. Ninety minutes later we were looking at rain so heavy it was as if we were looking through a waterfall. It all finally ended about 5 hours later. This is a pano of three shots that I've heavily edited as noted above. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 250; 1/800 sec @ f / 5.6.

28 Nov 17 I'm thinking virtually everyone on these lists will remember John Lennon's silly song Imagine in which he was wishing for life in utopia. He obviously never found it and certainly no one else has ever done so. A sad comment about us humans that we cannot seem to get along for any lengthy period of time. [ I've read that the longest time period in recorded history without any conflict has been but 13 months, and even during the famed Pax Romana, a period lasting less than a century, all that can be said is that there were no conflicts in the Roman controlled areas bordering the Mediterranean Sea. ] You would think we could do better than that. But for a brief period of time in October we got to enjoy such in Praha where it "seemed" liked everyone got along with each other, even in rush hour, in the crowded city streets. It was simply astonishing to watch the citizens share their city byways with pedestrians, horse drawn carriages, touring vehicles, autos, trucks, and buses with nary a traffic jam or conflict. Don't know how they do it, or if its just a case of tourist ignorance, but it was a real treat to be able to go where you wanted when you wanted and know that those around you, and there were a lot of "those," were not going to get upset with your activities. Another nice thing we noticed was how clean the streets were even though they were shared by more than one form of horsepower. Too bad more of us can't enjoy life as do those in Praha. I cropped the original just a bit but that's it. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture priority; ISO 500; 1/250 sec @ f / 6.3.

29 Nov 17 Each day as we walked out of the hotel building to go into the heart of old town, we walked past the Municipal House where we had our first tour meal, a traditional Czech meal (duck, red cabbage, dumplings, and strudel which we skipped ) the only food I didn't appreciate on the entire trip, and where, after that dinner, we went upstairs one level to hear a lovely concert. The concert for me was everything the dinner wasn't. It was to prove to be just an introduction to the wonderful music we would enjoy for the next 12 days. Many days we experienced the musical arts more than once. A real treat! The art we saw is going to be hard to adequately present, but this shot of just a small portion of the Municipal House will be the start. As absolutely magnificent as it is on the outside it is even more so on the inside. This was to be the case for every building we entered. More often than not I would have preferred to skip the concerts to look at the art for as wonderful as was the music, the art and architecture was more so!! I am at a loss of words to properly describe it so the camera will have to speak for me. The 4 days we spent in Praha were all overcast and rainy with just a break in the clouds now and then. It was to be the best weather we experienced on the trip save for our last two extra days in Budapest. The overcast lighting just didn't do justice to what I shot, so based on books I've purchased of the area, I've adjusted this shot of the building to look like the book photos taken in sunny light as well as replaced the "Seattle Gray" sky with something more enjoyable. Zoom in and take a good look at all the sculptures on the facade; it was like this everywhere we went in every city. I never tired of it! As mentioned above, I've manipulated this shot quite a bit. I straightened it some, cropped off a bit of junk on the right hand side and replaced the sky. Then I adjusted the colors to match what I know it looks like in good light and brightened it up some. On this box it doesn't appear as bright as I made it so I hope it shows up as intended on yours. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 500; 1/1000 sec @ f / 6.3.

30 Nov 17 Our first breakfast out was at Maggie's favorite restaurant. We were still somewhat disoriented from the flight, didn't know anything about the city, and had no idea exactly what we might find so we started out with a known. Only it wasn't so known as the "same" items on the menu were superbly better. The next morning, having gotten our bearings, we found a local establishment for breakfast which lasted us all day and was an experience to remember! The hotel, not being willing to give us the tour rate, which was not only quite a bit cheaper but included breakfast, we had our first two on the town. But day three we were part of the group with group rates and hotel breakfast, and what a breakfast it was, for three straight mornings! If there was something you were used to having for breakfast, no matter what, the hotel breakfast spread included it and then some. Over a dozen kinds of cheeses and almost as many kinds of bread. Eggs anyway you could desire them, many types pf meat including salmon, and fresh fruit of all types to say nothing of the various kinds of drinks available. And this was just the beginning. But what really caught Jan's eye was the honey display. Rather than just a jar or bowl of honey, instead there was an elegantly displayed honey comb set at an angle above a bowl into which honey was dripping over the edge of the comb and captured in a pristine white bowl situated beneath the forward edge of the comb. That's just classy! As was all the food and the service! This is straight from the camera. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 1000; 1/60 sec @ f /9 with fill flash.