Postscript - On traveling when unwell

 I wasn't sure whether to keep writing after the trip. I am not 100% convinced that what I say is interesting to anyone except myself and maybe some close friends. But I was reading something the The NY Times review site, The Wirecutter, about how to pack for a trip. Although Wirecutter does not give you any way to contact them, what I wanted to say is about packing to prepare for misfortunes.

Everyone knows that you should bring pain meds, sunscreen and maybe insect repellant, but what if you manage to get burned or bitten nonetheless. After getting a particularly stubborn bug bite in Greece last year, I brought not one, but two anti-itch creams, hydrocortisone and Benadryl. This was helpful when I got bitten. What I would have liked to have is some lidocaine, which is also what you'd bring for sunburn. This turned out to be a futile quest, though I am now the proud owner of anti-itch medications from both Greek and Moroccan pharmacies.

The other thing is, what happens of you get injured? I somehow, and I'll never be sure how it happened, got hit by a motor scooter and knocked to the pavement in Marrakech. I say I don't know how because I was crossing at a crosswalk, cars had stopped, but there was about 6 feet between the cars and the curb. I've walked around New York enough in my life that there is no fucking way that, even though I was sick, I would just stroll into that space without looking both ways. I also did not get hit by the scooter itself but rather by some part of the rider's body. I have no injury on the side of my body that was hit. This suggests to me that I was starting to peek out to see if it was okay to cross and I got hit by the guy's shoulder or arm as he sped by. I never saw him. I guess if I'd been seriously injured I would have more information, but I'll gladly do without it.

The good news, aside from getting by with just a huge abrasion, was that I had antibiotic ointment with me. The bad news was that I had nothing but bandaids. No gauze, no wrapping, and so I needed to rely on people who understood maybe 2/3 of what I was saying, to get me something of the sort. They sort of did, and it was enough to get me home, but I would have been much more comfortable with some sort of sort dressing on it. So add a small first aid kit to your list.

Somehow with both a whimper and a bang

 I hadn’t been feeling great for the past day or so, a stomach upset with all the accoutrements. We arrived in Marrakech, our last destination mid-afternoon and after switching rooms, because the one they gave us was on 2 levels with the bedroom and bathroom on the upper level, I went out to look for an ATM because we wanted to give our guide and driver a good tip when we were finished.

The street that our hotel was on led to a big square with a famous tower in the middle. It was very crowded and there were a couple of people sleeping on the sidewalk and it wasn’t very pleasant. So rather than venture further I decided to cross the street and circle around back. I stood by a crosswalk until the car that was coming stopped and waved me across. As I walked past his car I was about to look up to see if anyone was coming when “Wham!,” someone on a motor scooter crashed into me and knocked me to the pavement. 

Aside from a large but not deep scrape on my leg, I seemed to be fine. No blood, didn’t hit my head. After I completed the requisite cursing, I walked to the sidewalk and the young guy who hit me asked me repeatedly if I was okay and did he want me to have him take me to the hospital. Aside from the fact that I wasn’t hurt that badly, I was thinking there is no way in hell that I was going to get on the back of a scooter with a guy who just hit me. Nothing personal- I just didn’t want to be part of the next person he hit. As it turned out, a policeman had seen it  and was giving the guy a ticket. He also asked me if I was okay. I said I was and made my way back to the hotel, only crossing at traffic lights, which was about 90%, though definitely not 100% safer.

I walked into the hotel and the people at the front desk looked horrified. They ran into the office and came back with antibiotic spray and ointment and gauze, after which they worked on me for a good 10 minutes. Then I walked up the stairs to the room (no elevators), recognizing that aside from the scrape I was bruised enough that the stairs were not fun. I pretty much stayed in bed the rest of the day. Our guide brought us to a nearby restaurant for dinner, which involved circling around a music festival blocking off several streets. We did a different kind of circle on the way back (a “long cut” our guide said) and the driver brought us back to the hotel.

That night, I slept very badly. It felt as if I was about to get a fever. I never did, but I still did the usual going from too cold to too hot, and even though this room was on one level, the bed was up one step from the rest of the room, which made going to the bathroom tricky when it was dark. The hotel was very nice but man oh man did it have a lot of little steps and thresholds. Eventually we got up and I forced down a little breakfast and then spent pretty much the entire day in bed, aside from a couple of hours when we went down and lounged by the pool. The one good thing was that the TV had Netflix, so we actually got to decide what to watch (David Letterman interviewing John Mulaney the first night and the Met Gala the next).

People kept asking me if I wanted a doctor and eventually I said yes. He came, examined me for a few minutes and then prescribed 3 different drugs to take. I then called my doctor at home, who said to not take any of them. At that point it was very late, but we decided to leave early. We thought we were going to have to fly coach (8 hours plus) but were able to get into business class for a (not) nominal payment. It was, of course, even later at that point and we went to bed.

This morning our driver and guid picked us up, stopped at the ATM I couldn’t get to the day before, and then drove to the airport in Casablanca. We got there very early and passed through the half dozen levels of security (they took our coffee and almost took our fossil rocks at different points) until we got on the plane, which is where I am not, because after an hour we had to turn around because of an ill passenger (not me). So now instead of getting home around 9 it will be more like 11 or 12, which will feel like 4 or 5 AM, so yay!

I guess I’ll have more to report later. Supposedly we will be on the ground for an hour or a little less.

Overall impressions

I like Morocco. As we leave our latest town of Ourzazate, I have feelings. We haven’t done a lot of trips like this recently, where we are moving from place to place and have things planned for us every day. On one hand it makes things easier, because one of the things that can be exhausting about travel is the sheer number of decisions you need to make on a near-constant basis. What should we do today?  What should we do next? Should we do that given the weather? Do you want to go in there? Left, right, straight ahead or turn around? Where do we eat or get coffee? Where’s a bathroom? And so on. Because this is a planned, guided tour we do not need to make a lot of these decisions; our day to day activities are mostly planned and the guides know where to get coffee, lunch, bathroom, etc. At least in part because of that, we probably end up doing more than if we were self-guided.

All of this is a long way of saying we are hitting a wall at this point. It’s been 10 days, we’ve seen a lot of really interesting things and learned a lot about the country, but it’s very foreign. Yes, that was one of the reasons I wanted to come here, because it would be different than Europe, where we’ve done much of our international travel. But that makes it challenging at times if you want to get something done or find, for instance, a shop that might be able to fix my camera or sell us a can of air to try to blow the sand out myself. 

But just like a marathoner who hits the wall around the 20-mile mark, we’re not done yet and we will keep going and that’s okay. It’s not like we’re so exhausted that we can barely get out of bed.

But yes, I like Morocco. It has a rich, complex history of people movements and political structures and ruling dynasties. Now it seems kind of calm. I’m sure we’re not seeing any resentment that could be bubbling beneath the surface, but it all seems pretty functional. The roads are generally good; many of them were built with French leadership. The people, at least those who aren’t trying to sell you something, seem friendly. The landscape and cities are incredibly varied, I mean, just comparing Casablanca, which seems like a mostly 20th century affair, to Fes, where the so-called New Fes was built in the 14th century, 500 years or so after Old Fes, and there is also a modern Fes as well that we did not visit. The towns seem busy for the most part. And unlike Greece you can flush toilet paper.

So I have no regrets about coming here. One of the effects of all of the above is that I have no real sense of how rich or poor the place is. I’m guessing there’s a wealthy upper class and there are clearly some very poor people, but it at least feels like there’s a good-sized middle class. They seem to value education. I guess the one downside to being guided all the time is that were we to come back here we probably wouldn’t have a full sense of how to navigate the place. But that’s okay, all things considered

Waking up in the Sahara

Waking up in the desert is simultaneously simple and impossible to describe. I came out of the tent and there was sand everywhere, with patches of rocks scattered here and there. And aside from our camp, nothing else. There are other camps in the general area, and I occasionally would hear a car or ATV, but mostly it was silent. More difficult to explain is how it somehow felt cold and hot at the same time, and what the emotional effect might be. I found it moving and I don’t think it was sand that made my eyes tear up a bit. 

Muhammed brought me a cup of coffee up on the dune where I was sitting and pointed at where the sun was just starting to peek over the mountains. It wasn’t one of those multicolored sunrises, the sun just came up. You can just see it right over the hill in the center of the photo.

As the sun rose, it created cool shadows on the dunes. These were my favorites:

From that point, we had a nice breakfast and then it was a travel day, once again, six hours from the Sahara to Ouarzazate, an unpronounceable town that was a significant stronghold back in the day (I don't remember which day, but back in the days of the Pashas. It's on the Road of 1000 Kasbahs, though we didn't see quite than many. Along the way, we spent some time walking through the Todra Gorge, which was pretty spectacular

We then stopped in Kalaat M’Gouna in the Valley of Roses, where the annual Rose Festival was in full bloom (sorry). We went into a shop selling a crazy large number of rose products, then stepped out the back door to see women sitting and picking through rose petals, we were guessing a step. in the process of making rose water, rose oil, and whatever else one makes out of roses.

We drove through winding valley roads until we got to Ouarzazate. The hotel there was lovely, and we rested and then had dinner (pizza!), then wrestled with the TV a bit, but the room is set up strangely for TV watching.

So we went to bed. It's getting to be a lot of driving, though there really isn't a good alternative.

Finally time for desert

Thursday was busy- we had breakfast at our private hotel. That was just so weird and formal. The food was fine and the people were nice and the bed was comfortable. It was just a strange vibe. We didn't really understand how the day would go but we left our luggage at the hotel and drove toward a village called Rissani. A busy, scruffy little village. Apparently, the whole area was part of the ocean 500 million years ago, so there are fossils everywhere. We went to one place where they were trying to sell coffee table-sized slabs with fossils all over it. Then we went to a small museum where we got a better idea of what it was all about. 

From there we went to a weekly market that was just amazing. People and donkeys and bicycles making their way through crowded aisles of produce and meat. The noises and the smells were intense and invigorating. 

We also visited a small, pretty mausoleum and then went back to the hotel, where we had a rest and then lunch and then we switched into a 4-wheel drive vehicle (a Range Rover- I was expecting something more like a Jeep) and drove on a seemingly endless straight 2-lane road and then turned left somewhere and next thing you know, we were entering the desert. Haj, our driver, seemed to sometimes use the usual tracks and sometimes would veer off to try to find something smoother. It reminded us of when we were in Costa Rica and our driver almost completely ignored the lanes of the potholed road and drove on the dirt on the side.

Eventually, we stopped and were loaded (I’m not sure there’s a better word) onto camels for the last 200 yards or so. This was sort of fun but we were happy to dismount. 

The camels dropped us at the campsite and then the guy who is leading them, offered me a bunch of merchandise for sale. I was going to give him a tip anyway, so I bought a little bottle to keep some Sahara sand in. We got a tour of our Tent, which included a little bathroom and I guess you can call it a shower and a toilet. If there had been extra time, I would have tried the shower out, but the day just didn't work like that.

We then got on the camels again and went up to a dune to take in the sunset. At some point, some sand got in the mechanism that opens my camera lens, so from then on it was phone camera only, which is fine for snaps.

It was quite beautiful and Ronnie took pictures and I took pictures and I took pictures of Ronnie taking pictures and we had a nice time.

By the time we went back, we were no longer enjoying the camel ride, which I'm guessing anybody who's ridden the camel can relate to. Our host, Mohammed, then led us up to the top of a small dune to have a glass of wine and just watch the sky and the sand and the changes in color and shadows. 

We came back to the campsite and had some musical entertainment by five men from the village, all with percussion instruments and singing, and at one point, of course, getting us up to dance. We were a little concerned that they were going to have a group of entertainers just for us and that it would feel weird, but it turned out to be low-key enough that it wasn't embarrassing. They played some things that sounded more like chants than songs, but they were still rhythmic and interesting. They had percussion instruments and one of them played a kind of lute. Our guide said the music was kind of cross-cultural African. 

After that, it was time for dinner. Dinner was a tagine, which is typical for Morocco and ubiquitous in tourist restaurants. Easily 2/3 of my non-breakfast meals have been tagine or chicken brochette. They're both fine, and this one was pretty nice. It had lamb shanks I think with prunes and some couscous and vegetables. I honestly don't remember the details. I was happy that we had good food and wine.

We hung out at the table while our Guide told us a bit of his story. He talks a lot, and I asked him how he became a tour guide, which I'm sure to him sounded like I was offering him an opportunity to give us his life history, so that's pretty much what he did. It was interesting; he's an interesting guy. He has done enough different things that he said no matter what happened, he'd be able to find a job. He's an academic, having translated books into classical Arabic. I think he said he sold real estate for a while. He said he has a facility with languages and speak several, with English, probably being his worst. And his English is fine

We retired to the tent. We had been misinformed about the temperature in that place. We had been told all along that it gets cold at night in the desert. We brought jackets and such, but it never got anything that approached cold, and the tent was kind of warm and they were heavy blankets. We managed to get a little bit of sleep once it cooled down slightly and it was unbelievably quiet. 

From Fes to the desert

 We set out for the desert after breakfast, definitely ready to leave Fes. It was cool up to a point but we had already reached that point. We climbed into the Middle Atlas Mountains, which were green and beautiful. We stopped in Ifrane, a town that’s known as the Switzerland of Morocco. Bet you didn’t know there was a Switzerland of Morocco. Well there is and we went there and it’s very cute. And chilly.

It was a school holiday and there were a bunch of people in character costumes, who were mostly loitering with their costume heads off.

There was a carving of an atlas lion. which aside from being the excellent name of the national soccer team, is a real animal, unfortunately no longer living in the wild. 

We then stopped to see some monkeys on the roadside. Some were just chilling, a couple were tending to a baby and a couple were playing in a tree. They were happy to have peanuts tossed to them.

Then it was a couple of hours of driving into and through the mountains up to the edge of the High Atlas Mountains, which were snow-covered. Then we followed a river and adjacent oasis for a long time. Oases do not look like the ones in cartoons, like a little island with a single palm tree, someplace to get water, and perhaps a comely maiden. They look like strips of green running through what seems like an endless expanse of brown. 

After some time, we arrived in Arfoud (or Erfoud), where we were dropped at our hotel. This hotel was kind of in the middle of nothing except for a couple of other hotels. Those were larger and apparently cater to groups. Our hotel was small and the grounds are a work in progress- piles of paving stones everywhere. It became clear pretty quickly that we were the only guests there, so for example, dinner felt very formal with two people who had nothing to do except tend to us. 

There certainly wasn’t anything to do there, so we hung out in the room and wrestled with the TV for a little while before resorting to streaming Parks and Rec again, which worked okay until there was a minute left in the episode and then it would go no further, so eventually we went to bed. Touring the area and then off to the desert tomorrow.

Last day in Fes

 Very little of our last day in Fes was spent in Fes, which was fine. Not that there isn't anything else to see here, but it's pretty inaccessible and you really can't get anywhere at all from our hotel without a car. I've mentioned the hotel here and there, but let me tell you about it. Palais Faraj may be the nicest hotel in Fes, but of course I'm no expert on Fes hotel. It is clearly a former palace of some sort. It sprawls about, with a large courtyard by a nice looking, but empty pool. There are tables and chairs with umbrellas and more places to sit under cover. There is apparently a spa somewhere, possibly in the basement, but I never saw it. The ground floor has a reception area and a sitting area nearby, then you can walk across the courtyard to the back of the hotel where there's the Salon de Thé, then a library, then another sitting room, then a large room with a grand piano, and then the so-called gym. I think there are bathrooms back there was well. There are staircases and elevators in the front and the back of the hotel. Guest rooms are mostly on the 1st and 2nd floor. On the 3rd floor there is a restaurant with two seating areas, one narrow one that I was never in, and a big bright (during the day anyway) area where they serve breakfast. On the other end is a large bar. 

The room we had was lovely in many ways. It was a suite with a bedroom and living room, both beautifully decorated, a large closet and a good sized, well equipped bathroom. The bed was very comfortable. There is almost no lighting in either bedroom or the living room, which is odd because the living room as an overhead fixture, but the room seems to get darker when you turn it on.

So we got picked up and headed to Volubilis, a large Roman outpost that's pretty well preserved. Some incredible mosaics are left in situ and they picture things like the labors of Hercules in pretty easy to recognize detail.

We've seen ruins like this before, most recently on Delos, though those were mostly Greek. There are many similarities but none of them are quite the same, so it's always interesting to explore.

We then drove Meknes, which is has a walled in area including a palace and related places like stables. Unfortunately, Meknes is being renovated right now (it's a UNESCO site) and we couldn't enter that part of the city. We got to see one of the gates though!

Then we drove back, stopping at a boulangerie for a fresh baguette (30 cents today) and then hung out at the hotel again. This time, we were able to watch The Departed, one of those sprawling Scorcese movies with an all-star cast. It was good and kept us diverted until bedtime.

Second day in Fes- enough authenticity already!

 Our second day in Fes was the same and then different. We spent the morning walking through another part of the Medina, with a similar collection of merchandise for sale, though we went through an area with fancy clothes for weddings and such. No meat market or chicken vendors holding up live (for the moment) chickens. Along the way we stopped at two schools, known either as madersa's or madrassa's. More spectacular tile, wood and plasterwork- they both had exquisite central courtyards . In one of them were were able to look around and see the students' tiny rooms looking out onto the courtyards. At the larger one the guide said there could be 400 students there. We did not see a gym or school store or dining commons or athletic fields, though they may have just been off limits to visitors. I don't want to make assumptions.

Eventually, we kind of realized we had done all of it and the day was only halfway through. We crammed too much into the first day. I didn't even write about the large hammam we visited, with hot, warm and cold rooms and areas for me and for women to socialize. According to the guide this was generally the way women had opportunities to talk, since they generally were not out in public, and so they would spend hours and hours there. Perhaps the modern practice of groups of girls going to the rest room together began this way. 

We left the Medina and then tried to visit a public garden, which looked beautiful but was closed for cleanup after an event. The guide and driver then conferred and took us to a couple of nice overlooks, one of which had ruins of a fortress on top. The views were great- the weather has been cool and sometimes cloudy but the air has been clear. At the top there was one of the many cell towers "disguised" as palm trees, which is just as effective as the ones in the US.

At this point we were hungry and nobody seemed to have any idea of what to do, so we suggested that we go to a mall that we'd passed on the way into town and have lunch in the food court. They dropped us off and suddenly we were in the local version of a shopping and teen hangout mecca, if you'll excuse the word selection. We felt very much at home. We had a coffee and then some frozen yogurt, then walked through the mall to the supermarket. 

We did this for two reasons. First, I have always enjoyed supermarket shopping in general, and I particularly like going in supermarkets in other countries to see what's the same and what's different, what's cheaper and more expensive, what is hard to find (hair spray, it turns out) and what is an overabundance, like bread and cereal in the US and apparently tinned fish here. The second reason is that on trips longer than a few days, we get very tired of eating in restaurants, so we buy some charcuterie and bread and eat in the room. Eventually, we finished at the supermarket (actually, a hypermarket), finally found hair spray and then went back to the car. 

We decided to try out the Salon de Thé. We didn't want tea but they had coffee as well so we ordered coffee and some little sweets. I don't want to make any generalizations, because we've only been to the two hotels, but the service here is just off. It's slow, but there are societies where getting your food and drink at a leisurely pace is standard. Here though, it gives the distinct impression that they don't know what they're doing. Any request can be met with apprehension, like "uh-oh, I have to do that?" All the coffee we've had so far had some from multifunction Nespresso machines, and a this place, Palais Faraj it's called, it's been nearly impossible to get coffee that's actually hot.

So they serve us lukewarm coffee and then we wait for the food, and wait, and wait. There were two young men working there, only one of whom actually did anything. Eventually, one of them left and came back with the food. It was 20 minutes after we got our coffee, which was now completely cold. When I said something, they got fresh coffee for both of us. Not the smoothest.

Eventually we went back to the room, had some wine, which we'd bought in a crowded, chaotic liquor store by the hypermarket, along with cheeses and salamis and fresh bread. I should note here that a supermarket baguette costs 1.2 dirham, which is 12 cents. At a nice boulangerie it's 30 cents. Things here are pretty inexpensive in general, but that was surprising. Anyway, he had our wine and food and tried to find something to watch on TV. There were 5 channels in English, and they all had terrible things on. The news was the worst, but the choices were John Wick 2 and then 3, I don't remember what was on one channel, and the our selection was called Den of Thieves, which somehow rated 7/10 on IMDB. It had Gerard Butler and a bunch of people who looked vaguely familiar. I'm not sure whether Butler and Keanu displayed less variety of facial expression. It was some crime caper and the acting was almost laughably bad, but it was in English and we watched it until the bitter, ambiguous end. We then watched an episode of Parks and Rec featuring Ron and Tammy on my laptop, which was a nice way to end the day.

First full day in Fes

 We woke up in Fes on a day we knew would be full but did not know how. After breakfast, we headed into town, starting in the Mellah, the Jewish quarter. I should back up a bit to give some context. Morocco was not a place where Jews were persecuted the way they traditionally had been in Europe. The religious outlook, set by the king, is one of tolerance and moderation. Morocco has been conquered and reconquered enough times that there is a cross-cultural current that you can almost feel. In all likelihood, the location, kind of between the Middle East and Europe, brought all types of people through here. Jews had to live in designated areas, but they served important government functions in some of the reigning dynasties. 

There are not many Jews left now, mostly because emigration to Israel was permitted and eventually supported in mid-20th century. There are normal diplomatic relations between Morocco and Israel at present, and the king has committed to restoring a number of Jewish historical sites like cemeteries and synagogues. This has been a long way of getting to the point that our first destination of the day was the Jewish cemetery in Fes. It's very large and still in use.

After that, we entered the Medina and walked through the souks. There are lots of places you could describe as sensory overload, and then there are the souks in Fes. At least in Grand Central at rush hour, crowded and crazy as it might be, you can see your way out and the main hall is big and open. Here, it's a tangle of narrow passageways, many covered with rough wooden roofs and all crowded to the limit of available space (though tour groups are partially responsible for that) to the point where people were literally pushing each other to move in their chose direction, that seem to go on endlessly and then dead end. I can't imagine trying to navigate it myself and I'm usually pretty good at keeping myself oriented. Maybe I could have managed, but probably not and it would have been totally stressful. 

It was an endless market. Meat, fruit and vegetables, herbs and spices, bakers, snacks and sweets. More nougat than you've ever seen in your life. Shoes and sandals, faux mosaic plates, wedding clothes and whatever else you might want. One after another. Each barely distinguishable from the previous one. And no rhyme or reason to the narrow passageways and even narrower alleys where there are pieces of lumber inserted between buildings, I'm guessing to keep them from leaning onto each other. 

Eventually we got to one of our top destinations, the tannery. This is a very famous thing in Fes and it's a little hard to properly describe. The tanning is done using all natural materials in vats that contain a mixture of water, salt, limestone, and pigeon poop, which does not smell very good. The bad smell is almost as famous as the tannery itself. Men scramble along the edges of square tubs full of chemicals first to tan it and then, after it dries, dye it. Sometimes they stand hip deep in the tubs to manipulate things. It's quite something. The smell was kind of medium level subway passageway ugly, so not worst than anything we'd smelled before, though others there clearly felt differently.

I enjoyed watching Ronnie photographing all of this. She got a least one great photo and I'm guessing there will be more.

We had to go into a store with someone who had guided us through and examine a couple of things ("Camel belly is the best! Waterproof and fireproof!" He poured water on the thing but did not try to set it on fire), but it wasn't pushy.

We then had lunch at a nice traditional Moroccan restaurant. Things got a bit dicier after that though, because we were brought to a carpet showroom where we got to see a variety of the rugs they make here, followed by a very slick, smooth, gentle hard sell trying to get us to buy something. Once you hear someone say "no obligation, of course" for the 5th time, you know what's going on. We were angry because we had very specifically told both the person designing the tour and the guide that we were not buying anything and did not want to be put in exactly that kind of situation. The guide got the message and apologized, and when we visited a pottery workshop and buying opportunity (which was clear from the ATM on site) the guy who showed us around took us to all the showrooms but like the leather guy, wasn't pushy.

We also saw the entranceways to mosques and the university (oldest in the world!?) though we could only peer inside. There will be more of that tomorrow. The Moroccans love their grand gates and doorways and there's clearly a certain amount of competitiveness in their extravagance. We saw a prime example of that at the mosque in Casablanca, but it's everywhere. This is a museum entrance. The detail work is incredible.

Eventually we came out of the Medina and back to the hotel, where I wanted to do a workout, though I couldn't find the gym. Once given instructions, I found it, but I might as well have not, because it was nobody's idea of a gym. It was a large room with a tile floor that had 5 machines. That's it- a couple of mats, but they were covered by a big pile of outdoor furniture cushions. No weights- there was one of those multifunction weight machines but it was complicated and lacking instructions, so I stretched and did some pushups and went back to the room. Interesting mixed bag of a day.

Second day in Morocco- Casablanca to Rabat to Fes

The one problem with doing this kind of blog is that you're constantly weighing whether to do something or write about what you've done. Fortunately, I suppose, the hotel we're staying at now in Fez has pretty much nothing to do and it's not in an area where you can walk someplace. We have the guide and driver, but I like to go walk around in the early morning to get my bearings and see things differently than what happens when we have destinations in mind. So at least now I get to catch up. 

After Friday's touring, we ate dinner and then did our usually searching on TV in a foreign hotel for something in English aside from BBC News or CNN International. Last year in Greece there was a sports channel that had wall-to-wall coverage of snooker. On this night we found reruns of the remake of Hawaii Five-0. I hadn't watched much of the original, and the remake was about the son of the original McGarrett. It was kind of entertaining, with a wide cast of characters, all of whom seemed to be in a state of crisis, written and/or directed by someone who either has no idea how to deal with women or who think women should act just like the men- stoic and unsmiling and completely flat in tone. It was weird. We eventually went to sleep and I managed to not have nightmares about what was happening to all these poor people.

Saturday morning I took a walk along the strand, which looked typical. Restaurants, watersports rentals, surfing lessons and such. Not a ton of housing or hotels, though as we left Casablanca, we could see that many of the former industrial sites that lined the shore had been torn down and I'm guessing at least some of those sites will become something like that.

We had breakfast, which went somewhat more smoothly than the previous day, where our order took a long time to arrive and then the check was completely wrong, at which point the manager (I think) apologized and said they were comping it. Today was easier. We packed up and headed off on our trip to Fes, via Rabat. Rabat is not necessarily the most interesting place for visitors, but the king lives there and we were able to look at the palace from a respectful distance, which here means about 100 yards.

The grounds were pretty and pristine, with some great topiary action.

We then went to a nice little archaeology museum that had some cool Bronze Age and neolithic stuff. It also had examples of primitive tools used for making jewelry, which made me think about how all of the museums we've visited do not have any kind of gift shop. If we were seeing things like the jewelry in the exhibition case at an American or European museum, you could buy a replica in the shop or shoppe. It's a lost money-making opportunity, so I think I should say something to someone about it. I could say it's not in the Moroccan character, but there are plenty of people selling things everywhere else. We then visited the Mausoleum of King Mohammed V, grandfather of the current king. It's not what you'd call modest.

After that, we drove to Fes, which took a bit more than two hours by highway through some pretty mountains and some agricultural lands. I asked the guide if the trees I saw were olive trees and was rewarded with a detailed overview of the Morocco olive industry. There are apparently several types of olive trees, but I don't remember anything else after that. I will say, I gave him a signal at some point when he was telling us about Moroccan history that it was enough. He sheepishly nodded and stopped. I told him that it was all interesting and that I wanted to know it but that too much at once made it hard to remember. He's been better since, and he's incredibly knowledgeable and very sweet. Our driver is cool- he speaks English very well and he's a baseball and NBA fan.

We arrived at our hotel, which is called Palais Faraj. It's clearly built as a palace of some sort and converted into a hotel with detailed and beautiful mosaics on the walls and floors. It's a funny mix, because the room is a small suite with a comfortable bed and a nice view, but it's very dark and it was difficult to find even one available electrical outlet. I brought a travel power strip, so that was enough. The darkness? Not sure what to do with that except enjoy it. More about the hotel tomorrow.

We spent much of the evening in the bar, waiting for our food to arrive and listening to a couple of musicians. A theme we've seen throughout is a general lack of organization and follow-through, which particularly manifests itself with food service. There are lots of people working, but none of them seem to be doing much of anything. It should not take 20 minutes for an order of hummus and pita chips to arrive, and some of the hot food arrives lukewarm, presumably because it's been waiting to be picked up by someone. We'll see if this continues in subsequent destinations. We had some food and drinks and went to bed. Tomorrow we tour the market!

First day in Morocco, April 26, 2024

 I don't know what, if anything comes to mind when you think about Morocco. Some of us think about Lawrence of Arabia, which was indeed filmed here. Aside from that, I had no idea of what to expect. 

The trip here was fine aside from being long. It took us over three hours to get from our house to JFK airport, which is the kind of traffic you usually get around Thanksgiving. Not the most fun I've ever had driving, but at least the weather was OK. We dropped our car at the parking lot and shuttled over to the terminal where Royal Air Maroc flies out of. This terminal looks like international terminals anywhere in the world. Big wide open convention center-sized space with 15 or 20 different airlines spread along the length of the floor, incomprehensible signs, and many more people than need to be there. But we made it through. The flight itself was unremarkable. It left on time arrived on time. The food was decent, the seats were as comfortable as any business class international seat I've had. The food and drink service was extremely odd in that there seem to be a lot of people serving and yet from the time they started bringing dinner around it took about a half an hour until I got my food. I was able to sleep a little bit and then we landed at Morocco at about 8:15 on Friday morning.

We had decided we didn't want to try to navigate Morocco on our own, so we engaged Abercrombie and Kent, a high-end international travel service. We had used them to go to China 15 or 20 years ago and had a good experience and my parents used to use them when they travel all the time. Anyway, when we arrived, we were met by a young man who led us all the way through fast track immigration, and customs, and brought us outside. We were met by another young guy who connected us with our guide and driver, both of whom will be with us throughout. Our guide is very nice but talks a lot in a pretty discursive way. He noted that Berbers (more on them later) talk a lot, so I take that into account, but the perfect example of what it was like was that we passed an official building with the Moroccan flag flying outside. The flag looks like this. 

Ronnie asked what that flag was, as I was thinking that I really should've looked and seen what the Moroccan flag looks like. His response was first that it was the Moroccan flag, and then he went into a five minute long history of the various flags of Morocco over the years, which is not at all what we are interested in and honestly, after having been traveling for 18 hours straight, we weren't really in any condition to absorb it. As is usual, we arrived sleep deprived and unable to get into your hotel room for some number of hours. We anticipated this and scheduled massages for the interim and were lucky enough to get in our room and take a nap before we started touring.

So here's what I've learned about Morocco so far. First off, it's not all hot and dry and deserty, though some of it is I guess and eventually we'll see that part. But we flew into Casablanca, which is the main international airport and the only place that has non-stop flights to and from the US. If your impression of Casablanca is that it's dark and mysterious like in the movie, you'd probably be surprised to find that (1) Casablanca is a bustling modern city and (2) Casablanca is a beach town, located on the Atlantic coast. Even the iconic Rick's Cafe', renovated 20 years ago for the tourist trade, is across the street from the beach. 

It's a bright, open city and one thing that will be familiar from the movie is that it remains very French. It was a French protectorate until around 1950 and French seems to be the primary language. Almost every shop sign and billboard is in French and at our hotel, everyone, including the housekeeping staff, greeted us with "bon jour." The weather here is temperate, high around 70 degrees today, with occasional showers.

So a couple of other things I noticed. There are tons of McDonalds around- there are two within a 5 minute walk from the hotel. Also, I was relieved to see that there are no billboards for injury lawyers. I guess people don't get hurt as much here.

Anyway, we took a nap and then the guide picked us up and we toured a bit, visiting the Hassan II Mosque. There are a lot of things here named after Hassan II and Mohammed V, father and grandfather of the current king. This mosque is unusual a couple of ways. First, non Muslims can enter; a definite no-no in general and second, and I hope I'm translating the French properly here, it's ginormous, The inside holds 25,000 people, about 5,000 more than Madison Square Garden, and if you include the plaza outside, more like 100,000. It's pretty new but you get the sense that they brought every craftsman in the country (or in Africa) to work on it. Massive mosaics and carvings and plaster casts cover every square inch of the place. Each section is beautiful in its own right; overall it's chaotic in a good way, a riot of design. 

That was enough for the first day. We drove around to see a few other parts of the city and then returned to the hotel. One observation about driving- I had no intention of driving here, even beyond the not knowing where I was going. I kind of assumed that traffic would be insane and that cars would be speeding all over, but there are lots and lots and lots of speed cushions at every crosswalk and then along any street that looks conducive to driving fast. I know if I was driving I would be hitting these without expecting them constantly, but our driver doesn't miss any of them.

More to come, of course.

Finally heading home

The general word on Athens is that it is not an attractive city, and that's correct as far as I can see. The neighborhood where we are staying is called the Plaka, which is supposedly the one neighborhood with character. I suppose. I mean it's not all modern and nondescript, but for the most part it's not charming. Lots of places to eat and buy souvenirs or jewelry, a decent number of pedestrian streets, proximity to the Acropolis and a nicely busy tourist/local mix of people on the streets. But character? Meh. 

It was an excellent trip. We had a really great time, helped by 2 straight weeks of perfect weather, but I'm ready to be home. I'll be happy to not have to remember to put toilet paper in the trash bin. I mean, why not just go in the bin? It seems more efficient than having a toilet and a bin. 

We had an unsatisfying day today, visiting the National Archaeological Museum, which has a pretty amazing array of objects

but not nearly enough of what we were interested in seeing. We then walked around a shopping area that was nice enough, but it was way too much walking (like 6 miles total) and nothing really that we wanted to buy, so we spent the last part of the day just resting in the hotel. 

No matter how much interesting, fun stuff you do on a long trip, especially to a foreign country, it wears you out physically and mentally. As Ronnie said, too many decisions, one after another, all the time. Beyond the big decisions about itinerary and whatever attractions you may want to see, it's what street should we walk down, where, when and what should we eat (helpful that all the hotels have breakfast included) and what do we do when the best thing on TV seems to be CSI with Greek subtitles. They do seem to like their CSI a lot- it seems to be on once or twice every night. We simultaneously noted that it's one of those shows where people will be talking and wondering about something and as if by magic someone walks in with information on just that thing. Just like in real life!

I got to watch a baseball game on Sunday because I have a VPN that connects me through the US and that allows me to see things like Netflix or MLB.tv wherever I might care to see. That was a nice break. It used to be so hard to follow sports- have to buy the International Herald Tribune or after a while the NY Times at a newsstand. Now I wake up at 7 and it's midnight on the east coast and the west coast games aren't even over yet, but I can keep up easily.

So we kept ourselves awake until 11 watching, and I am not kidding, the snooker world championship. This is not our first go-round with snooker on TV, it seems to dominate the German version of Eurosport- we never saw any other sports anywhere, so snooker in German it was. You don't really need the announcers, and we eventually figured out the rules. They play best of 25 games, which is a lot even though the games only take around 20 minutes. 

Snooker is played on a pool table but the rules are pretty different. There are nine red balls and 6 balls of different colors. The red balls are worth one point and the colored ones are worth two to six points and placed in different spots in the table, depending on the color. The basic rule is that when there are red balls on the table, you can only sink a colored ball immediately after sinking a red one. At that point, someone with white gloves takes the colored ball out of the pocket and puts it back in its original spot. This can lead to things like a guy sinking a red ball and then the pink ball 4 times in a row. After all the red balls are sunk, you sink the colored ones in a specified order and whoever has the most points wins. I can't say it's the most entertaining thing I've ever watched, but Who Wants to be a Millionaire in Greek is even less so.

We were both awake this morning when the alarm went off, got dressed and ready to go and taxied to the airport. The Athens airport is pretty typical- like a shopping mall you're forced to walk through to get where you're going. I'm not sure if there's some kind of generalized hearing problem in Greece, but at the airport, the announcements were several ticks louder than in the US and twice as long because they're done both in Greek and English. The music was loud too and generally a mix of 60's and 70's pop, with Stevie Wonder, ELO, Stones, Santana and best of all, the Hawaii 5-0 theme. The people at security and passport control are very officious and insistent that you do things exactly as they wanted, which caused the contents of my pockets and backpack to go in 4 separate bins though the x-ray machine, but at least everything came out the other side.

We had access to a "business lounge", though it was one of the least nice we've encountered. It was hot and airless and bare, with no regular tables and chairs, the juice machine and the bathroom were out of order and there was nothing like regular breakfast food there at 8-something in the morning. There was coffee, however, and yogurt and beers to stow in my bag. We eventually went to the gate, which is sequestered from all the other gates and equipped with its own bathroom and Starbucks. I did like that, as opposed to announcements that nobody can hear or understand, the gate agents had someone hold up a cardboard sign saying which group was boarding.

We're now on the plane and heading home. I want to note that, Although Delta seems to be a well run airline and the people have generally been very nice and helpful, the food in business class is ridiculous. Look at this menu:

Overly fussy doesn't begin to capture it. Look at the ingredients. What if you, like many people, don't like eggplant? It's in the soup and two of the 3 mains. And look at how many things are packed into each dish. The salad? Eight ingredients crammed into an ashtray-sized bowl. I ordered the beef kebab, which was fine but I didn't need it swimming in sauce, with 6 other ingredients on the side. And I really hope they're not grilling stuff on an airplane. I would suggest at least one simplified dish- a nice, well-seasoned piece of chicken, marinate it in yogurt if you must, with rice and haricots vests. Elegant and edible no matter what your non-vegetarian taste. 

Only 8 more hours on the plane!

Done with Mykonos and back in Athens

Mykonos is a polarizing place, I think. It's very lovely in spots and they also have shops that sell t-shirts that read "Mykonos Fucks Ibiza." Some people love it and some hate it. There is also very little to do; I made a mistake in planning the itinerary it was having a day too long here (and a day too few in Crete, I think). By mid-afternoon on Saturday we were basically done with it. I worked with a nearby trainer in the  morning and there's one cute little town with an unusually ornate monastery that was worth a visit, but that's about it.

It's not beach season, which is generally what people do here. We went to one beach because there were supposedly remains of a neolithic settlement, but all that's there is a small sign talking about the artifacts that have been removed from the site. The beach was nice, but whatever. After driving around for a while, we came back to the hotel and hung out by the pool for most of the afternoon. Then we went down to town for dinner, which was a pretty miserable experience, though not because of the dinner itself, which was okay. There is plentiful free parking "near" the old port, with near meaning at least a 10 minute walk to anywhere. There's another, closer-in lot that was packed beyond capacity and so we dragged ourselves from the outer lot across the entire waterfront to the restaurant.

So if you're planning a multi-island trip to Greece and don't care about being on a trendy beach or partying the night (and morning) away, 2 days is plenty. A day for Delos and a day to see the town, which really is pretty cool but it's small. I promise you will not regret it leaving so soon. At least the people at the hotel were nice, there was a good coffee shop nearby, and if you like climbing stairs for exercise, this is the place for you. There are so many ways to go up and down even after a few times you can be surprised where you emerge.

So today, Sunday, we are headed back to Athens, and not a moment too soon. Ready to be back in a city, at a hotel we're familiar with that also has nice people working in it. Returning, of course, was a multistep process, only because we didn't want to fly. We left the hotel, then went to the coffee shop to buy a sandwich for my lunch. They have these round bready things covered with sesame seeds with a hole in the middle big enough to put your hand through, so close enough to a bagel for me to get one. I asked the guy what was on it and he said "turkey, tomato, lettuce and Filadelfia." Yep, cream cheese. It actually wasn't bad- there was about as much cream cheese as one would put mayo on a sandwich.

Then to the gas station and airport, dropped Ronnie with the bags at the taxi stand, dropped off the rental car, took a taxi to the port and then waited for our half-hour-late ferry to come. At least they text you to tell you what the revised embarkation time is, in Greek and English, and then show up when they say they will. We've had pretty good experience with the high-speed ferries, which are noted for being unreliable, but I think that because we've had such good weather things have been pretty much on time. The boarding process at intermediate stops, like Mykonos, is ridiculous and chaotic from a customer perspective, but for the ferry company, all they care is about getting everyone off and everyone on quickly so they can get underway. From that perspective it's great. We got our luggage stowed- there's just a bunch of racks and nobody to help, went up to our seats (Platinum class is worth it if you can manage it) and had a decent 3 hour ride over to Athens.

The port in Athens is a madhouse and I'm really glad we did not ever have to get on a ferry there. On the islands, you can see the boat coming and it's obvious where it's going to dock. In Athens, there's a long pier with a dozen or more boats, including several from the same company. It would have been okay because the boats all have electronic signs on the back saying where'd when they're going, but not enjoyable at all. We had a car meet us and take us back to our original hotel, AVA Hotel and Suites. We were really happy to be back in a city, where you don't have to descend 10 flights of stairs or park and walk for 10 minutes to get to town, and a pleasure to return to the hotel. The rooms here are good-sized and well equipped (what hotel has a minibar refrigerator and another refrigerator?). It's a suite, which works well for us, since I get up earlier than Ronnie pretty consistently, and the bathroom is off the living room, not the bedroom, which also works well when only one of us is awake.

We got some very good takeout pizza and watched Legally Blonde in English with Greek subtitles, then went to bed. One more day and then we go home.