Today is the day, we had our 10,000th visitor of our blog! We left home June 1st, 2022, exactly 6 months and 20 days ago.
Lots of family members and friends asked to update us with our adventures, so the idea of writing a blog was a very logic decision. Little did we know that so many other people, total strangers to us also found the blog and like it!
Writing the blog, maintaining contact, sorting photos, etc takes about 1 hour per day. Both Ted and I, Edith, take tons of photos each day; deciding which of those will make it into the blog is always challenging…
So now is the point to say THANK YOU for your interest and loyalty, for your comments and likes! We appreciate your following and we’ll promise to keep it going!
This artefact was among wreckage retrieved from a shipwreck off the coast of the Greek island Antikythera in 1901. On 17 May 1902, it was identified as containing a gear by archaeologist Valerios Stais. The device, housed in the remains of a wooden-framed case of (uncertain) overall size 34 cm × 18 cm × 9 cm (13.4 in × 7.1 in × 3.5 in), was found as one lump, later separated into three main fragments which are now divided into 82 separate fragments after conservation efforts. Four of these fragments contain gears, while inscriptions are found on many others. The largest gear is approximately 13 centimetres (5.1 in) in diameter and originally had 223 teeth.
In 2008, a team led by Mike Edmunds and Tony Freeth at Cardiff University used modern computer x-raytomography and high resolution surface scanning to image inside fragments of the crust-encased mechanism and read the faintest inscriptions that once covered the outer casing of the machine. This suggests that it had 37 meshing bronze gears enabling it to follow the movements of the Moon and the Sun through the zodiac, to predict eclipses and to model the irregular orbit of the Moon, where the Moon’s velocity is higher in its perigee than in its apogee. This motion was studied in the 2nd century BC by astronomer Hipparchus of Rhodes, and it is speculated that he may have been consulted in the machine’s construction. There is speculation that a portion of the mechanism is missing and it also calculated the positions of the five classical planets.
The instrument is believed to have been designed and constructed by Greek scientists and has been variously dated to about 87 BC, or between 150 and 100 BC, or to 205 BC. In any case, it must have been constructed before the shipwreck, which has been dated by multiple lines of evidence to approximately 70–60 BC. In 2022 researchers proposed that the initial calibration date of the machine (not its actual date of construction) could have been 23 December 178 BC. Other experts propose 204 BC as a more likely calibration date. Machines with similar complexity did not appear again until the astronomical clocks in the fourteenth century.
All known fragments of the Antikythera mechanism are now kept at the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, along with a number of artistic reconstructions and replicas to demonstrate how it may have looked and worked. *https://en.wikipedia.org
For Ted, seeing the Antikythera Mechanism was a must! The fact that ancient man was capable of producing such a mechanism is fascinating!! Note the Ancient Greek writing that describe of what the mechanism does and how to operate it.
Did I ever mention that our friend Peter used to own a Greek restaurant in Monterey, called Epsilon? No wonder, everything he is putting on the table is just delicious, well spiced, perfectly finished and sooo tasty! My plan of loosing a few pounds will be postponed – again!
Dinner party with his neighbors and friends (from left: Edith, Jenny & Yanis, Ted, Yanis & Dagmar)Peter’s creation: Chickpeas, Fish, Octopus, red cabbage salad, red beet salad and Greek caviarDinner party foodEverything you see on this plate is cooked from scratch – thank you, chef Peter Peter at the farmers market
Peter is not only a good cook, he also shows us different neighborhoods, where the locals go, where you can eat authentic food and feel a little like a Greek who lives here in Athens and enjoys the mild winter weather. It is December now and 15 degrees Celsius. A few raindrops here and there, a warm breeze from the nearby Mediterranean; there is nothing to complain about! Our initial 2-3 night stay is changing into a 1-week stay I guess. There is so much to do, so much to see…..
Hallway at Peters apartment buildingGreek Orthodox Church
A sister to Al Raya, Radiant was commissioned by the Russian media tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who wanted a rival to Pelorus, owned by his arch enemy Roman Abramovich. However, he subsequently sold her to Abdulla al-Futtaim, a billionaire car dealer from the United Arab Emirates, before she was completed. As well as the standard features for a yacht of this size – helipad, gymnasium, cinema, spa – she has one of the highest security specifications ever conceived. Berezovsky ordered a personal “escape launch” – a speedboat with turbo-charged twin diesel engines capable of exceeding 75 knots. She is also equipped with an arsenal of sonic guns that fire low-frequency sound waves that can burst the eardrums of approaching assailants, and a military water cannon capable of sinking an approaching boat at more than 100 yards
We got up yesterday morning at 3.30am to leave Casablanca. The initial plan was to fly to Bologna, Italy and from there to Athens, Greece. „Pustekuchen“
A new thing we discovered earlier this trip was, that airlines don’t ship your luggage through to your final destination anymore unless both flight legs are booked with the same airline. That means: we booked our flight from Casablanca to Bologna with Royal Maroc Air and the flight from Bologna to Athens with Aegean Airlines. And because of that, we had to pick up our luggage in Bologna and check it in again. Which was impossible with a layover of 1h 15min, because we had to wait for the luggage more than 1h and by the time we could check in, it was too late!
Our options were
1: Book the same flight from B to A for the next day (rebooking fee $390 + hotelroom), or
2. Book an entire new flight from B to Frankfurt, Germany to A with Lufthansa ($730)
We chose the second option, we just wanted to be done with it, arrive at our friends house in Athens and give it a day! The good news: because both legs of that flight, B to F and F to A were with the same airline (Lufthansa), the suitcases were shipped through!
And we arrived at 11.50pm at our friend Peter‘s house in Athens, where a delicious Greek meal waited for us! 2 bottles of wine later, fed and happy, we fell asleep and had a really good night! Thank you, Peter!!!
And it didn’t end there, Peter also had a nice Greek breakfast buffet with dates, cheese, olives, and more cheese and lots of goodies…
We made it back again to Casablanca, leaving tomorrow morning at 4.30am to attend another country of our favorite list!
While driving from Essaouira northwards, we never had the feeling of getting lost. Street-signs everywhere, easy to read, kinda…
It’s pretty straight forward if your Arabic is decent, and if not, Berber is always a good second choice!
And then there are signs who do look familiar; the shape, the color…..
Sometimes it is the shape alone that gives it away:
And other times you feel like you are in America; wondering if they even know what a Black Friday is and when it is and why…..
Anyway, we did have a great time driving up the coast!
Having a nice dinner with Dave was the perfect last meal here in Morocco! Thank you Dave!!!
And a very big thank you to Abdul and Fouad, our driver and tour guide, who made this trip possible! Driving close to 3000 km, answering all our questions and managing to find a restroom every time Ted needed to pee – quite an accomplishment!
We had a lot of fun today, exploring the Medina in Essaouira, eating good food, enjoying the beach, etc. After a late breakfast at our hotel, we strolled around and found a nice little market place with a cafe, where we sat down to drink some tea. We were the only people there! But all of a sudden we were spotted by a group of musicians who desperately wanted to play for (and charge) us, but we really enjoyed the quietness and didn’t want them to put a lot of effort into us. So I quickly told Ted: “Let’s talk in sign language, then they’ll go away!” So we did. Sign language-ing with each other literally made them turn around and march off and we had our quiet market place back to ourselves. I know, we are mean, but sometimes it is necessary to bend reality in order to get what you want, right? [BTW, neither of us knows sign language]
Our little quiet market place …… where we had tea and almost listened to music 🥳
We saw a lot of animals today, mostly cats and penguins. Yes, correct, penguins!
And we discovered many blue doors, old blue doors, perfectly aged, old blue doors!
What we shouldn’t forget is the fortress here in Essaouira! It still has many canons lined up – very intimidating for anybody who had the glorious idea to take over this strategically perfect trade location!
Most canons were dated in the 18th century!
Btw, we are not that mean: when we had lunch at another, very busy marketplace, the musicians showed up again and played. This time we gave them a nice tip 🤩
ⵜⵉⵣⵉ ⴻⵏ ⵜⵉⵛⴾⴰ, is Berber for the Tizi n’Tichka pass which is a mountain pass in Morocco linking the south-east of Marrakesh to the city of Ouarzazat through the High Atlas mountains. It lies above the Marrakesh plains, and is a gateway to the Sahara Desert. It reaches an elevation of 2,260 metres (7,415 ft) above sea level, and is the highest major mountain pass in North Africa. The road was constructed along the old caravan trail by the French military in 1936, and is now part of Morocco’s National Route 9.
The mountains were beautiful… lots of trees and much of the landscape reminded us of Sedona, Az and the Painted Desert.
We are finally at the Atlantic again, in Essaouira to be precise. It was founded in the 7th century BCE by the Phoenicians, then the Romans took over and the Portuguese. Until then it was called Mogador and was an important location for trade. Today it is a lovely seaside town, preferred by surfers and artists and anyone who looks to escape the cold winter weather. So here we are!
We had a ~4 hour drive from Marrakech, stopped to see the Argan trees with the goats and an Argan production facility
At the Argan production facility we learned a lot about this unusual tree:
1. It only grows in the south of Morocco, nowhere else in the world
2. Goats love it!
3. There are 21 million Argan trees in Morocco
4. Argan trees are related to olive trees. They are also called Moroccan olive tree, iron tree or goat tree.
5. You have to peel the Argan nuts first, crack them, then there is a seed inside; looks like a small almond and has a bitter taste
6. Argan trees have their maximum production when they’re 60 years old!
7. Part of the seeds you use for cooking, you have to roast before you grind them. Gives a nutty flavor! Part of the seeds you use for beauty products you leave raw when grinding.
For the evening we signed up for a traditional Moroccan cooking class! Fortunately it was only one other person beside us, Justine, a lovely young woman from France, who took this class at Khadijah & Hussein’s house, 10 walking minutes outside the Medina in Essaouira. We prepared a Moroccan salad, Chicken with Couscous and a lamb tarjine. Moroccan mint tea, orange juice and a persimmon milk with pomegranate kept us hydrated and happy! Everything was so delicious, it’s hard to describe!
Chef TedSteamed couscous, fluffed and massagedJustine measuring the rosewater for the couscousCouscous steamed above the pot with chicken and vegetablesLamb tarjine
