VFYW: An Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier

For contest #331, we travel to a small island with a huge history.

(For this week’s View From Your Window contest, the post exceeds the content limit for Substack’s email service, so to ensure that you see the full results, click the headline above.)

Giuseppe captions this week’s view, “Ramshackle charm”:

Or, as the French say, charme délabré. Looking at the photo, I cannot think of a more apt expression. Not that every building in that street is dilapidated, though —definitely not the hotel that the photo was shot from.

Another sleuth ventures a guess:

After an easy week, we’re back to the hard VFYWs. Was this photo captured in Chania, Crete?

“Nru” is my reply in the language native to this place. Here’s another guess at the place:

Montevideo, Uruguay? I don’t have a street location, but it reminded me of a trip wandering around the town about 10 years ago.

Another memory comes from this sleuth:

The buildings, the wall, the tower-y structure along a sea — all of it reminded me of Acre, Israel. Maybe it’s some window in Old Acco near the Knights Templar fortress, not far from Uri Buri — a well-known seafood restaurant. My wife and I had lunch there a few years ago with my son and grandson. It was an experience. The restaurant is in the ancient port on the Mediterranean Sea and the fresh fish we chose was prepared “state of the art.” Sometime afterwards it went through some difficult times during a period of unrest.

It’s not Acre, but thank you for the reminder of a wonderful adventure.

Another looks elsewhere in the Mideast:

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia? I found that the enclosed balconies are called mashrabiyas, common to Islamic architecture. It just felt like Saudi to me — and Jeddah is a nice seaport. My attention span has deteriorated, so I failed to look further.

Another sleuth is also frustrated:

Ugh, I have no time, but I’m guessing Paso Robles, CA. Looks like a pretty town and it’s where the TV series “This is Us” was filmed, so why not?

A smartass writes: