First Stop Sicily, Next Stop Greece

This year, our summer adventures began in September with Sicily and continued into October with Greece. First, Palermo:

Vucciria Mercato

Capo Mercato

Fontana Pretoria

Notice that an anatomical feature has been chiseled off, by nuns from a nearby convent.

Cappella Palatina

 Catacombe dei Cappuccini

From Palermo, we drove to Mount Etna and stayed at the Rifugio Sapienza, right next to the cable car so that we could be one of the first on Etna in the morning:

Etna's smoking craters (between us in selfie)

Looking into the craters of Torre del Filosofo

Our next volcano was Stromboli, but since Stromboli is an island, we had to arrive by ferry:

 the volcano from the ferry

and erupting.

After returning to Sicily, we ventured on to Syracuse and the southeast. This was my favorite area to visit because there is so much to see and do, for example:

 Teatro Greco in Syracuse,

 flamingos at Riserva Naturale Orientata Vendicari,

 the tombs of 

 Necropoli di Pantalica

and Cava Grande del Cassibile.

The last leg of our trip brought us to Agrigento and the Valley of Temples:

 Temple of Concordia

Temple of Juno

On the way to Agrigento, we stopped to see the mosaics of Villa Romana del Casale near Piazza Armerina:

Near Agrigento, we also climbed La Scala dei Turchi

before ending our trip at Mondello, a beach resort town near Palermo:

But, our holidays continued. After returning to Erlangen, we traveled to Berlin to cheer Bob's sister, Irene, on as she ran in the Berlin Marathon (sorry, no photos) and then on to Greece, where we met our friends Matthias and Jenny:

We stayed at Matthias and Jenny's house in the village of Levidi, Peloponnese, and explored Nafplio,

 in the shadow of Palamidi Fortress,

 the Menalon Mountains,

 the Lousios Gorge,

and the Monastery of St. John the Baptist (Prodromos).

We also traveled to the Mani Peninsula, where we stayed in a beautiful house

 with a pool

and did some more exploring in Old Kardamyli.

But like all good things, our holidays did come to an end in Athens:

the Acropolis from our hotel room by day

and by night.

Birding, and Other Adventures, in Morocco

I went on my first birding tour, in Morocco. I went with my friend Jennifer, who is an avid birder, and we did a tour with Tropical Birding. Since we arrived in Marrakech a few days before the tour began, we stayed at Riad Bindoo (inner courtyard in photo above) in the medina of Marrakech.

Because we were in the medina, the old walled part of the city, we spent quite a bit of time at the Jemaa el-Fna, the central market, where we met some snakes. And I mean this in two senses of the word: the animals and their handlers, who wanted 400 dirham (about 40 dollars) from each of us for the few photos they took with our phones. When Jennifer gave them 300 dirham for the both of us, one guy followed us and continued to harass us until Jennifer threatened to call the police.

It was nice when the tour began and we could leave the chaos of Marrakech for the High Atlas Mountains, where we stayed at the Kasbah Omar in the village Anrar in the Ourika Valley.

We saw many birds in the mountains, like the African Chaffinch. This, by the way, is the best photo I got of any bird during this trip because he was close. My skills at taking photos with a zoom lens require a great deal of practice. Even with autofocus, most look blurry.

The hotel we stayed in was very nice and the food excellent, but unfortunately our room was cold overnight. So, it was no surprise when we woke up to snow.

From the High Atlas, we traveled to Boumalne Dades, on the edge of the desert. Our hotel, Kasbah Tizzarouine, was along the wadi.

There we did our birding along the Tagdilt Track, which is basically a dirt road where people dump their garbage. But, where there is garbage, there are birds, and dogs. Sorry, I didn't get any good photos of birds.

We also did a bit of birding in the Todra Gorge, where we saw Blue Rock Thrush.

The next leg of our trip was on the edge of the Sahara Desert at Erg Chebbi. This was my favorite part of the trip, probably because we rode camels!

The camel behind me was enamored with me. He kept nuzzling my arm and seemed to like being petted.

We saw some great birds, like the Egyptian Nightjar, the Pharaoh Eagle-Owl and the Hoopoe, one of my favorites. However, my photos of these birds would be embarrassing for me and the birds to post, so if you are interested in what they look like, just click on their names.

We also experienced a short-lived sandstorm.

The last part of trip was spent on the Atlantic Coast in Agadir, a resort town. It was here that we saw our target bird, the Northern Bald Ibis. There are only about 700 left in the wild, all in Morocco.