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While climbing the steps to the Castillo de Gibralfaro in Malaga we came across this couple performing the smoldering dance.
We saw a lot of these on trail but this was where we saw the highest concentration. I believe Dactylorhiza maculata, but am willing to be corrected. Above 2000m in the Demirkapiiska River Valley, on the Five Mountains Trail (E4), Pirin Mountains, Bulgaria.
Abendlicher Panoramablick vom Turmberg in Karlsruhe-Durlach auf die badische Metropole, in der Ferne grüßen die Hügel der Vogesen und des Pfälzerwalds. Der Karlsruher Turmberg ist die nordwestlichste Erhebung des Schwarzwalds.
Our introduction to the Five Mountains Trail (E4) in Bulgaria came by way of some pretty extravagant wildflower displays. I don't remember nearly so many wildflowers on the Stara Planina / Kom Emine (E3), though we were there at the same time of year. Unfortunately, since we were just getting used to the pacing of the trail I did not always linger as long as I should have to photograph them. I believe this is common/meadow bistort, near Cherni Vrah (2290m), Vitosha mountains, Bulgaria.
The Bishop's Basilica upgraded its mosaics as the Christian community and the church became wealthier and as tastes and symbolic motifs evolved. The ground floor of the museum preserves the 4th-early 5th century mosaics in situ, where they were laid. Some of these are relatively simple but many are of the rainbow style of very colorful and complex geometric arrangements (above). In the later 5th or early 6th century new mosaics featuring more than a hundred birds were installed over these, but during modern excavation and conservation the two layers were carefully separated and most of the newer mosaics were moved for display on the second floor of the museum. The newer mosaics on the theme of birds are the more famous ones, but in truth I think these geometric ones are the more interesting. Rainbow mosaics, Bishop's Basilica, Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
Mrs. Orca on one of the highest peaks of the summer, Malyovitsa (2729m). This is in the middle of the Rila Mountains, and in the distance you can see most of the first four days of our route, with the Verila Mountains in the middle and Vitosha (2290m) in the far distance. Mrs. Orca on Malyovitsa Peak, Rila Mountains, Five Mountains Trail (E4) Bulgaria.
This dates to the 1360s and was built on the site of a medieval cathedral just after the Ottoman conquest of Plovdiv. It was rebuilt in the 15th century and is still active. The Dzhumaya Mosque, AKA Friday Mosque in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
This was our last day in the Rila Mountains before beginning the more rugged Pirin Mountains, which can be seen in the distance. I believe a Martagon Lily (Lilium martagon), somewhere on the ridges above Makedonia Hut (2166m) on the way to Predel Saddle, Five Mountains Trail (E4), Rila Mountains, Bulgaria.
At the terracotta warriors mausoleum, the crowds can easily block you from getting a good look, so you may have to rely on others, especially if you don't have it in you to push and shove to the front. It's estimated that the site averages 10,000 daily visitors.
A very small endemic alpine poppy found above 2000m in the Pirin Mountains. This one was very near the summit of Banski Suhodol (2884m). Pirin Poppy (Papaver degenii) on the Five Mountains Trail (E4) at Banski Suhodol, Pirin Mountains, Bulgaria.
The first clear indications of Christians in Plovdiv are Christian symbols dating to 3rd century. In 304, during the persecutions of Diocletian, 38 Christians were martyred here. Three quarters of a century later the situation had changed dramatically, as by that time Christianity was not only tolerated (313, Edict of Milan) but the religion of The State, with pagan worship banned (380, Edict of Thesallonica). Around this time, the Bishop's Basilica in Ploviv was built next to the Roman Forum atop the site of a temple of the Imperial Cult, recycling some of its materials. It was quite large (36 by 83 meters) and--at least in time--grew very extravagant, with increasingly ornate floor mosaics, for which the site is now justifiably famous.
With Rome's collapse Plovdiv became subject to waves of rampaging Huns, Goths and Avars and by the end of the 7th century the Basilica was abandoned. A primitive medieval neighborhood merged with its ruins and part of the site became a cemetery. A millennia later (1980s) the site was rediscovered and partially excavated, and today a very modern museum (above) stands over the extensive ruins and restored mosaics. It is an incredibly well-designed and curated museum, but it is obviously hard to get the general population excited about mosaics. We visited the Bishop's Basilica Museum, the Small Basilica Museum, and the Eirene House Museum in Plovdiv--all museums of Late Antiquity mosaics--and found that we had them all to ourselves.
Exterior of the Bishop's Basilica Museum, with reflection of the Catholic Cathedral of St Louis, in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
We spent five or six days walking a section of the Trans Caucasian Trail starting from Dilijan. This section passed through Dilijan National Park and, with a slight diversion at the end, visited three notable medieval monasteries: Goshavank, Sanahin and Hagphat. It had some good ups and downs but spent a lot of time around 2000 meters, where seasonal settlements of shepherds raise sheep, cattle and horses, and cut and dry straw for the harsh Armenian winter. A GAZ-66, a common utility vehicle of Soviet design, on the TCT between Dilijan and Sanahin, Armenia.
The very small medieval church in the foreground is perhaps the oldest surviving building in Yerevan. It was built in the 12th or 13th century. Several hundred years later, in the late 17th century, it was incorporated into the construction of the much larger Katoghike church (the medieval church becoming a chapel within the newer one). In the 1930s the Soviets began demolishing churches, but when the much older church was discovered within the Katoghike church they somehow decided to preserve it. Today it is again an active place of worship on the campus of the 21st century Pontifical Residence, immediately in front of the Saint Anna Church (2011). Saint Astvatsatsin Church, Yerevan, Armenia.
A very deep glacial cirque and the second highest of the Seven Rila Lakes. Okoto ("The Eye") (2440m), in the Rila Mountains on the Five Mountains Trail (E4), Bulgaria.
This tower (foreground) is called Baldwin's Tower after Count Baldwin IX of Flanders, one of several hundred knights who formed the leadership of the Fourth Crusade (1202-1204). This crusade had a theoretical objective of conquering Egypt. The fall of Egypt, it was thought, would undermine the Muslim position in the Holy Land and lay a foundation for the retaking of Jerusalem.
Motivations among the Crusaders were complex, and often pious, but in practice they were more akin to pirates than anything else, except that they were pirates granted remission of sins by the Pope, which made them especially nasty in an age already remarkable for nastiness. Through a convoluted series of events the Fourth Crusade ended up attacking not Egypt but Christian Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine / Eastern Roman Empire, which they mercilessly raped and pillaged in 1204. The crusading knights then divided up the plunder and appointed Baldwin as the first Latin Emperor of Constantinople, which he ruled briefly as Baldwin I.
Unfortunately for Baldwin and the knights of the Fourth Crusade, Baldwin rebuffed peace overtures from one of the Byzantines' historical rivals, the Bulgarians. Just a year into his reign Baldwin led the crusading forces against the Bulgarians at the Battle of Adrianople, where the Bulgarians under Tsar Kaloyan captured Baldwin and massacred nearly all of the crusading knights, providing a fitting coda to the Fourth Crusade. Baldwin was confined to this tower (rebuilt in modern times) until he died under mysterious but necessarily ignominious circumstances. Baldwin's Tower at the Tsarevets Fortress, Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria.
Almaden Lake Park, San Jose, California
This recent image from a moody and silent morning at a nearby lake is one of my Top 10 Favorites of 2023: www.stefanbaeurle.com/Blog/Top-10-Favorites-of-2023
We arrived at Ribnoto Ezero, the second of the magical Seven Rila Lakes, just as afternoon crowds were leaving. Fairly recently, a controversial chairlift and a ski-lodge style hotel was placed a bit farther down the mountain, dramatically reducing the effort it takes to reach the fragile alpine reserve and leading to a significant increase in visitors. But by four or five in the afternoon they had pretty much cleared out and the area was empty except for the hutkeepers and several guests. We explored the basin and nearby ridges, had wild mushroom and nettle omelettes with rakia, and camped above the hut, where I took this photo. Sedemte Ezera Hut and Ribnoto Ezero (2184m), Seven Rila Lakes, on the Five Mountains Trail (E4), Bulgaria.