Morroco drifts into the heat haze sunset - 57 hours home

 

We left Marrakesh on a 1 pm flight…no real time to do anything as most things dont open until 9 and we were in a taxi heading to the airport at 10.  

Our last views from the plane were the heat haze and a hazy  view of the red plains as we flew north to Madrid…one night there and we begin the trek home.

As we leave, Israel and Iran are at each other and the flights have been diverting, cancelling and rescheduling….thank goodness Capt. Fi has a handle on Plan A, B, C, D etc.  We flew Iberian to Madrid - think Ryan air if you haven’t used them before, although they don’t seem to have the luggage issues I’ve previously had with Ryan Air.  

Overnighting in Madrid we then caught the plane to Warsaw at 11 the next morning.  Flying LOT - the Polish airlines, we managed to get premium economy which made things slightly more comfortable than they could have been.  

A few hours layover in Warsaw and we were on our way to Narita (Tokyo), this time, seated business made for a more pleasant trip…LOT is fine but I wouldn’t call them luxurious. 

THe last leg was QANTAS, Narita to Brisbane and we scored flat business class beds which were an absolute god-send!   By the time we were leaving Narita, my eyes were popping out of my head, so we stayed up as late as we could and ate what felt like the sixth meal of the day.  We then put our QANTAS pj’s on and slept for a solid six or so hours!

Beautiful Pete was waiting for us at Brisbane airport to drive us back to Fi’s.  We walked on the beach, and took in as much sunlight as we could to adjust our bodies before an early night…both sleeping relatively straight through (I think from pure exhaustion rather than adaptation to the Timezone). 

So recapping the numbers:

Left home Sunday 25 May; 

Arrived home. Sunday 29 June making it 35 days away (although a few of those were in Australia - getting to and from Brisbane, and a day of rest before the 5.5 hour drive home).

5 Countries visited : Turkey, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Morroco…and if you count the layovers include Poland and Japan!

Towns and Cities:  Istanbul, Bodrum (Turkey); Syros, Samos, Rhodes and Paros (Greece); Madrid, Salamanca, Seville, Tarifa (Spain); Coimbra, Porto, Lisbon, Faro (Portugal); Tangier, Chefchaouen, Fes, Marrakesh (Morroco).  

Highlights:

- the Mosques in Istanbul

- the food tour in Istanbul

- Explora 1…all 7 days!

- The Banksy Museum in Madrid

- The food….Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese and Morrocan!

- Chefchaouen - the blue city

- The tile and ceramic works in all countries…so artistic and distinctive

- The cats!

- The Medinas, Kasbahs and Souks of Morroco 

- the reality that kept hitting me - “I’m actually standing next to something that is a thousand years old” every so often….

- the architecture…loved the moorish influence and saw the connections to ancient trade routes.

Lowlights:

- some of the hotels on the Intrepid tour - clean but small; claustrophobic at times

- Fi getting Morrocan belly one night

- a few public toilets

All in all, it was a fabulous adventure.  We met some great travel companions from all walks of life. 

We enjoyed each others company - and forgave each other the snortles and snores! 

The Blue Mosque Istanbul

Fish Sandwich - Karakoy Istanbul

Istanbul

Explora 1 - The Med Yacht Restaurant (the smorgasboard!)

Syros Port…Explora 1 in the background

Walking downhill at Syros

Segway tour of Rhodes

Rhodes

Rhodes

Rhodes - Grand Masters Palace

Pythagoreio - Samos

Swimming in the Med

Plaza Mayor - Madrid

Oldest Restaurant in the World - 700 years Madrid

Banksy Museum Madrid

Salamanca

Fado Statue - Coimbra

The tour gang - Jenny, Tanya, Sylviann, Chiquita, Meir, Bernie, Rita, Allan, Gill, Me, Fi and Nigel

Sardines in Portugal

Roman Bridge Salamanca

Porto Train Station 

Lisbon

Allan capturing Moby at Faro Beach

Seville

The Med meets the Atlantic - Tarifa

Juan - tour leader Spain & Portugal

Batman Cat

Chefchaouen Laneway

Chefchaouen Hotel Door

Tile Design - Fes

Looking back at Chefchaouen

Fes - gateway to the Medina

Sunset Marrakesh

 

The Palace Gates Fes

The Spices on sale

Palace Gates - Fes

A time gone by….Marrakesh

Majorelle Gardens Marrakesh

Walking a main drag Marrakesh

Dinner….Mixed Skewers

     

A train ride across Morroco - FeS to Marrakesh And Indiana Jones

 We left our hotel reasonably early to catch a train to Marrakech.

An electric train but very old style.  It was quite comfortable as we were travelling first class - six to a compartment and soft fabric seats.  The train trip is somewhere between 6 and 7 hours and travels via Rabat and Casablanca so we saw some more of  the country. 

The landscape seems to go  from extremely fertile to dry and baron within a kilometre.  While things seemed well maintained on our arrival in the country at Tangiers, is is now apparent that it was almost a mirage….this is a third world country trying desperately to pull itself out of third world and into a 21st economic trading environment…I don’t know where the money is coming from.  

As we jostled along we looked out the windows and saw lots of olive trees, crops, grapes, more fruit trees, more donkeys, irrigation channels, sheep, wild yarrow on the verges and what I think was Scotch thistle!!

As we moved more toward Marrakech, the landscape turned to desert..plains and mountains of red with only occasional vegetation. I spotted an occasional cluster of buildings surrounded by green - they must be Oasis!

On arriving at the train station, we were met with a very modern and impressive station  entrance and out onto the road tall palm trees lined the forecourt and roadside.  The traffics seemed a little busy but nothing like we were to experience a little later in the afternoon.

Our hotel was very Moroccan with Moroccan furniture, tiles and painted ceiling in our room…it has a fridge which is a blessing in this heat - we haven’t had one for a few nights now.  It is a little bigger than previous, but still only okay - I wouldn’t dare say salubrious!

We wanted to make the most of our short time here, so after dropping our bags we walked up to the Jardin Marjorelle - a beautiful private garden designed by a French artist and once the home of  YSL - there is peace and tranquility and beautiful design with surprisingly few different plants - lots of succulents.  The garden is walled by a 10ft brick wall so it is a little oasis as right outside is the madness of Morocco traffic…think something like the motorbikes in Ho Chi Min and you have a sense of the chaos!

We did not have long, so hot footed it back to the hotel before heading to the main square or Souk.  It was around 6 pm and the square was relatively quiet - so we wandered the markets for an hour or so before meeting to have dinner on a roof top terrace to watch the sun go down.  

After dinner, we went back through the square - and my goodness it was a different place…it was the souk from Indiana Jones!  It was packed with people walking about both local and tourists and watching a completely unorganised series of performers busking….snake charmers, monkey dances, drum beaters, belly dancers, birds and animals (ie a poor peacock standing with his legs tied so he couldn’t move and people could admire his colour). The senses were completely assaulted…sight, sound, smell, touch!  It was intense, scary and exciting all at the same time.  

There were also large street food stalls that had tables undercover where people could eat a variety of foods.   One of the touts came up to Fi and tried to entice her to dinner, when she said she had already eaten, he said ‘I don’t believe you’ and started getting in her face.  I stood up for her and said ‘believe what you want mate - off you go’  to which he turned and got a little nasty…I have no idea how they think that such touting will make people want to eat dinner with them and I think we may have got a little taste of the patriarchy that still exists in this country.  

The whole visit  was a surreal experience in a 20 hour day!

Train route…Fes to Marrakesh

Desert like plans

An occasion little oasis

In the foyer of the hotel

Some of the hotel decoration

Marrakech Train Station

Walking to the Garden…Palm trees line a busy street

One of the garden walkways - a trellis of bamboo

The garden team of tourers

The use of colour, line and perspective

Out the front of our hotel

Sunset from the Rooftop Bar

The Souk comes alive

Dancing Monkeys

Cobra near the Snake Charmer

Nighttime at the Souk

Lanterns at the Souk

Painting in our Hotel Room