Malta

 For easter weekend, Marc and I found cheap Ryanair tickets to Malta.  A wonderful quick trip to enjoy some sun and scenary!  It was perfect timing; Malta is very Roman Catholic, and so there was lots going on in celebration of easter. We missed out on the serious religous worship of good friday, but were there on Sunday for all the fun of chocolate treats and people running around in the streets.  We explored some of the bigger towns, Valleta and Mdine (also know as the silent city due to the massive walls every where, you can see the fortress above from the country side).  The architecture is really spectacular, heavily arabic influenced and the tans are really set off by the blue skies and green flora.  We also stayed right on the water, conveniently located next to their small aquarium.  A very nice mini vacation!!!

Edinburgh Zoo Sea Eagles

I was enjoying a visit at the zoo today, checking out a potential post phd research site, when I came across the sea eagle enclosure.  This charismatic fellow was waiting right up against the glass, and was very engaged with all the human visitors.  He made direct eye contact, and seemed very comfortable.  It is also special as sea eagles are extinct in Scotland, but they are undergoing efforts to breed in captivity and re-establish wild populations. 

Germany: Nurnberg/Nuremberg

Our last stop was Nuremberg in the south of Germany.  While we did have dinner in city centre, most of our time was spent in the zoo helping my lab mate Alina set up her work with the dolphins. But I did have time to wander around the lovely zoo - it is very large, with fantastic exhibits for all of its animals.  They also have a state of the art manatee enclosure which is fantastic, and they keep many of there animals in multiple species enclosures which when done so well I think is fantastic for the animals.  And I felt close to home as they had their own hairy coo exhibit :)

Germany: Berlin

Next stop on our whirlwind Germany tour was Berlin.  We stayed with some of Alina's friends, who were brillant hosts and provided a fantastic tour of Schnapps in addition to being great local guides.  We spent the day simply wandering around city centre, but highlights included finding the only watchtower left still standing since the wall (which we were lucky enough to be able to go up in, it is very rarely opened by city volunteers), the holocaust memorial (which on the outside is a maze of cement tombs that you can wander through), and the Berlin dome after a walk along the canal.  And I had to include a photo of the walking signal, a unique looking little character :)

Germany: Rostock

First stop in our rush Germany tour was Rostock, at the far north of Germany right on the water.  It is a tourist-y area, with lots of shops and beach front access.  We spent the day chatting about seal research at the marine science centre rostock, where another brillant seal researcher's (Guido Dehnhardt) lab is based.

There is a great video that gives you a better picture of the centre here: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x147j6o_meeting-seals-at-marine-science-center-rostock_animals