Cordoba, Spain 2/23/11--2/25/11

Never have we stayed in a hotel so close to the main attraction in town. And it wasn't expensive, to boot. We could walk right out of our hotel and into the Mezquita, a 2 block square building built as a mosque in 785 AD on the site of a Visigoth church. When the Christians won Spain back from the Arabian Moors, they, in turn, removed a large part of the center of it and plunked down a Catholic Cathedral in the middle during the 16^th century.

inside of The Mezquita

The look is unique, not like any other place of worship or visitation. The site is striking with over 850 columns (it used to be 1200 before the center was taken out) with double arches painted red and white and surrounded by niches of Catholic side chapels all around the inside edge of the building. The columns themselves are slender and have the appearance of palm frond stubs at the top. It was built to give the feeling of being in a palm oasis in the desert. The first sight of it is amazing; it seems to go on forever in every direction. We followed it the entire periphery and continued to be amazed mostly at the design but also at the execution of it. We exited into a grove of orange trees brilliantly decked out with bright orange fruit but still within the walls of The Mezquita.



one of about 20 glittering bronze doors into The Mezquita

 The Rio Guadalquivir runs the length of the city and rushes past Roman ruins and under a beautiful bridge the Puente Romano.  It's mostly muddy brown from the runoff of the extensive agriculture along its banks.  All around the city grow hill after hill of olive trees, with some orange trees and cereal grains in areas of fertile looking soil.

The sun warmed our backs as we wove through the narrow streets, trying to find the Alcazar de los Reyes Christianos, a formidable fortress out of which the Inquisition operated from 1492 to 1821.  Good thing the day was bright; on a dark or rainy day it would have been almost depressing to view a structure so involved with intrigue and torture. 

Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos

A quick walk to the Plaza del Potro to see the spot mentioned in Don Quijote and on to our special treat: the Hammam Banos Arabes (the Arabian Baths) where we got a Turkish "scrub" (not nearly as rough as the one we had in Istanbul--no skin left) but nice just the same.  Beautiful indoor pool with candles all around, a warm pool (loved it), a very hot pool (about 5 minutes is all we could take), and a freezing cold pool (we didn't even stick our toes in).  And then to bed with preparations to leave the next morning pretty early in order to turn in our car at the Sevilla Airport and take the city bus to town.

Granada, Spain 2/21/11--2/23/11

It's olives, olives everywhere. Or at least we are seeing olive trees everywhere as we drive from Granada to Cordoba. We haven't eaten any olives in Spain. Actually we haven't eaten much of anything because we've been sick, but we are on the mend and will hopefully make up for lost time.

Although we couldn't do much dining in Granada, we did drag ourselves to The Alhambra (from the Arabic meaning “red castle”)which was the main site on our itinerary. It is still a beautiful palace-fortress even though seeing it in the winter means there aren't many flowers as there were in the late spring almost forty years ago when we first saw it. I could see the roses starting to poke out tender new leaves and imagine what a fragrance the thousands of them would produce! The fortress itself consists of many buildings because it was once a town with several thousand inhabitants. It was originally built in the 9^th century by a caliph for its ideal locale on top of a rocky promentory at the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. It has a near-ideal climate, fertile plains and the close proximity of a river which allows for the hundreds of miles of flowing water that meanders, falls, and creeps through the entire complex.

The main part of the fortress is taken up by a palace, a cathedral, and a military outpost built by the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella (of Christopher Columbus fame) who converted a mosque which had been built in the 13^th century into a Renaissance church. All this happened after the Christian conquest of the Islamic Moors. The secondary part which contains most of the gardens is called the Generalife and consists of a Moorish style villa, surrounded by tile porches, huge gardens, fountains and waterfalls, intricately and precisely clipped ancient hedges and bushes and is built on an adjoining smaller promentory, divided from the rest of the fortress by a ravine.

Unfortunately, it was left to ruin for several hundred years until American author Washington Irving visited there, fell in love with the old buildings and their stories and wrote Tales of the Alhambra in the late 1800's. That's a nutshell history if there ever was one!

We spent the entire day there, just meandering in and out of interesting buildings, enjoying particularly the Palacio Nazaries which is a maze of porches and rooms surrounding beautiful fountains with geometric designs in tile and with ceilings unlike any we'd ever seen. They were carved stucco and looked a little like tiny concave clouds that hung down anywhere from a few inches to more than a foot. They formed large designs of geometrical patterns, surrounded by Arabic script which is beautiful in itself. Cedar coffered ceilings also were of geometrical design and stunning.

Palacio Nazaries



The Generalife (Architect's Garden)



In addition, there was a very nice collection of Henri Matisse which we enjoyed as well as the Moorish art in the Museum des Bellas Artes. After all that, we dragged ourselves back to our hotel and hunted down a restaurant serving comfort food (it would be our first real meal for 4 days)---Italian.

The Alhambra

Meknes, Morocco 2/17/11--2/19/11



Finding Riad D'Or was a bit of a challenge.  Even the taxi driver wasn't sure where it was, and he tried to dump us out at two places before finding the right alleyway.  We, of course, refused to get out of the taxi since we didn't see any sign, and it was a good thing because we would have been dragging our suitcases around like lost puppies which we were.  Finally, however, we saw the sign, and although the alleyway was pretty dark, we got out and were immediately approached by a very thin Moroccan who wanted to show us where the riad was, and, by the way, didn't we need a guide to take us around the medina?  We told him that we didn't and pressed the bell of the riad.  The door opened and we slipped in thinking that he surely would go home, but he was there when we came out about an hour later to get something to eat.  He was sure we would hire him because, as he told us, there was a special Berber market that day (there wasn't) and it wouldn't be open the next day (it was).  We found the recommended restaurant after about an hour of walking around and had tagine (slow-baked meat with vegetables) and chicken shishkebab.

Had made arrangements for a taxi to take us to Volubilis (ancient Roman ruin) and Moulay Idriss.  We enjoyed the ride to Volubilis; it was out in the open country with many shepherds along the roadside with cows, sheep and goats.  The rolling hills were a verdant green with young wheat plants, dotted with the grey-green shade of olive trees.  Beautiful.


Volubilis


We got to Volubilis and hired Abdu to take us around the ruins.  This was the southernmost of Rome's outpost cities that was begun in 300 BC and continued until the Berbers ousted them in 280 AD.  The old city had 6 gates and each one faced the direction of an inhabited Roman city just in case anybody forgot who had sent them there.  It was pretty amazing, especially the mosaics left almost complete in about 8 of the houses.  One of the most important citizens was Juba who was married to the daughter of Cleopatra and Marc Antony.  Small world!!

Next, we visited Moulay Idriss and were taken on an impromptu tour of the city by one of its proudest citizens, I venture, or he was trying to convert us.  He certainly showed us many corners we wouldn't have found on our own!  The views of the surrounding hills was spectacular, and people were very friendly.  We didn't take a donkey ride as many tourists do but decided to walk since we had been doing a lot of eating.

By the time we got back to Riad D'Or, was had just enough time to walk down to the main square and do some people-watching.  It certainly was very interesting especially catching sight of 3 sub-Saharan gentlemen in their bright colored clothes.  By the time it began to get dark, we both felt a little queasy and decided to get back to our riad.  Good thing.  We were freezing, began to have chills, and decided not to go to Chefchaouen but to proceed to Spain.



our room at Riad D'Or









Fes, Morocco 2/15--2/17/11

The morning after we arrived in Fes, the sky appeared a brilliant blue.  Hooray!  Even though it was quite chilly and windy, we ventured out with our guide Ali to explore the medina, an area of twists, turns, dead ends, narrow passageways, and stone walls and ceilings with huge studded doors and massive iron handles.  It was Mohammed's birthday so many stores were closed, but we considered that pretty lucky because there wasn't the crush of bodies going through narrow alleys like there might have been.  We still got to see small shops (maybe 10X30 feet) nestled in the walls of the medina selling everything from candy, candles, bridal gear, shoes, slippers, belts, purses, food, hardware, and toys.  And if one couldn't find the desired object, there were carts selling more of the same and other items besides, in the pathway itself, which made traversing the distance very difficult.  If we hadn't had Ali, we would have for sure still been there trying to find our way out.  He knew the area like the back of his hand (as a 5 year old he scrambled everywhere) and took us into some areas where no other tourists could be found.  He also knew every rug, bronze, silk and antique shop, and we had to hang onto our wallets because there were many items that caught my eye.  We spent the entire day there and popped out at our riad.

Riad Sara is beautifully decorated with lovely tiles, fountain, and intricately carved wood.  Designs were everywhere at once and in a plethora of colors.  Looking at the photos, the riad appears sumptuous, but in close examination, many finishing touches were left undone.  Still, we marveled at the workmanship on the walls, floors and ceilings both in the rooms and in the courtyard.

The rain returned and kept up all night, and as we left Fes on the train bound for Meknes, we wondered if our next stop would be as soggy as this one.

Photos of Riad Oumaima in Marrakech

Marrakech Feb. 14, 2011

The pigeon we had for the special Valentine's Day dinner last night, I was sure, was not going to set well in my stomach, but not only did it taste like chicken, it stayed where it belonged. In fact, all the meals at our riad, a villa type home which has been made into a small hotel, were delicious. Besides tasty, they were always served artistically with exquisite table decorations by Abdul, Yashim and Amin.  We had quail, chicken and beef, in addition to the pigeon, with all sorts of well-seasoned vegetables and salads. Desserts ranged from fruit to chocolate fondue. and the coffee here has been excellent, something for which we are very grateful. Our very favorite drink, however, was a combination of fresh squeezed orange and pomegranate juices which we got at a town called Sitti Fatima. We visited there yesterday and enjoyed the ambiance of a small town originally built in the mountains by Berbers for the beautiful, cool climate, a respite from the terrifically hot summer temperatures in Marrakech.

I should actually start at the beginning. Getting to the riad on Friday afternoon was quite a feat and could have ended up poorly if we hadn't been guided to our riad by our taxi driver through twists, turns, tunnels, and dark alleyways. We stepped from a dark and damp passageway into a beautifully decorated hallway, past a tiny kitchen that turned out some amazing meals, and into an open courtyard with a collection of colorful Moroccan furniture, tiles, a fountain with sparkling blue water, and a large cage containing 4 darling chinchillas. Our room upstairs was both colorful and cozy with a very large shower and nice seating area with what turned out to be a comfortable bed. We fell in as soon as we could.

Saturday was our first full day in Marrakech, and we began by visiting a few of the more famous sites. The Place Jenaa el Fna is a huge square in the old medina where we paid the first visit of many to buy fresh orange juice at 50 cents a glass, watch the cobras sway to the music of the tin horns their masters played, and laughed at the monkeys on chains brought in to entertain the Moroccans as well as foreign visitors. (It's no wonder that I dreamed about snakes that night). On the way to the Place el Fna we had to pass through many small alleyways lined with hundreds of postage-stamp-size shops selling virtually everything. Every shopkeeper thought we needed what they were selling, of course, and it was hard to even look without causing a stir, but we managed to get to the Bahia Palace, the Badi Palace and Sadieen Tombs with stops for cappuccino inbetween. We also stopped at a herbalist and to see Berber arts of carpets, jewelry, and other decorations. The Berbers are the early nomadic people.

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Sunday we visited the Musee de Marrakech where everything was in French (why didn't we pay closer attention in class?) and then visited a tannery. This was an amazing process unchanged for thousands of years. The hides are put through various processes, all of which are so foul-smelling that they offered us sprigs of mint to hold up to our noses to allow us to breathe. The entire area was covered with hundreds of vats dug in the ground (we had to watch where we stepped) containing different kinds of natural chemicals and dyes. It's a nasty business but one that produces a very fine leather.

We took a carriage ride to “air out”and enjoyed seeing the king's palace and different types of architecture that runs from extremely simple to very ornate. Designs on the doors are pretty fascinating, no two alike, in a variety of colors and styles. Ordinary homes are surrounded by tall walls of about 2 stories with only about 5 feet inbetween them, making narrow passageways that turn and twist, but opening into hallways that lead to sunlit courtyards that contain fountains and plants that might be found in our yards. It is always bright inside because the courtyard always opens to the sky which has been eternally blue except for one day and that is the day we went to Sitti Fatima.

The day started out cloudy, and we were sorry that we had chosen that day to travel into the countryside, but nearly halfway there, the sun broke out and before us appeared the High Atlas Mountains with glittering snow at the top like vanilla ice cream on a cone.

Our driver Mohammed stopped at a pharmacy where herbs were made into teas and creams and then at a typical Berber home before we arrived in Sitti Fatima where we had lunch and hiked to a waterfall, stopping here and there to look at some of many wooden sheds set up along the rocky path. They all displayed handicrafts, snacks or drinks that were for sale. It wasn't very crowded along the way, but we heard that in summer hoards of people travel to the Ourika Valley to cool off.

That brings us to the present which finds us aboard the train bound for Fez or Fes as Moroccans spell it. It's an 8 hour trip but we are passing the time speaking with Mouna and Simohamed sometimes in French (very hard for us), German (hard for Simo who studied it for 6 months and will go to Germany to study in the university), or English which Muona wants to practice because she'll be coming to the US with her husband. They are brother and sister traveling to her recent husband's family's home.

A big holiday coming up tomorrow-- the birthday of the prophet Mohammed—so the train is crowded with standing room only and that's mostly taken. We haven't been able to stand up because of the hoards of people, so it's very uncomfortable. Besides, it's raining buckets, and we can see standing water. We certainly hope it stops.

Change of Plans

Well, things certainly have changed.  We teetered on the fence of going to Egypt and Jordan until the civic unrest turned violent.  Then we decided that it would be foolish to continue with our original plans and began to look at some alternate destinations.  We finally decided to stay in Spain and Portugal and venture inland into Morocco.

Now we are scrambling to decide on a tentative itinerary and make a few hotel reservations, at least.  Since we are leaving on Thursday and have only 5 days to make decisions, we are busy reading and looking online for train schedules and short flights to Marrakesh.  It'll be the trip with the least planning that we have ever done.