Springtime
in Europe and I am traveling with two friends in southern France, Morocco and
Barcelona, Spain. Helene Zimmer-Loew is a Connecticut College classmate and
Lynn Thompson is a friend and travel companion of Helene’s. Lynn is from
Illinois and has been living in Lezignan-Corbieres in southeastern France for
13 years.
Sunday, April 13 Travel Day!
Since it is snowing, I am taking CME to airport... 710 am departed home. This is my first
time using TSA PreCheck to pass through security; very easy! Not need to take off shoes and jacket nor
take laptop out nor take out liquids… well worth going through Global Entry
process! US Airways DEN/PHL 1110 am/450 pm delayed about 1 hour needing to de-ice
plane and wait in various queues to depart; arrival about 535 pm. 15+ minute
walk from Terminal C to International Terminal A West…. ample time to make US
Airways 645 pm flight to BCN - Barcelona. Ordered a ‘special’ meal which sounded
better than it looked - vegetarian pot stickers, Asian slaw, carrot slaw and
lemon tart with white wine for $21.99… looked and tasted as if it had been
sitting for many hours. US Air had sent me an email offering this special meal;
good marketing and I ‘bought in'! I had 2
seats to curl up and sleep for several hours.
Plane half full, so room to stretch out - a bit! US Airways has merged with American; thus the
14, 000 miles I will travel round trip will augment my AA Advantage program.
Monday, April 14 Barcelona, Figueres/Dali Museum, Collioure, Lezignan-Corbiere
Our first stop was the Dali Museum, Figueres, GIRONA, Spain- about 1.5 hours north of Barcelona.
What an exciting place? Salvador Dali built this museum in 1974 to house
much of his work. His art is in a myriad of styles… from his version of impressionism and
cubism in the 1920’s to his surrealism of the 1980’s ... from sculpture to pottery to jewelry. The Mae West Room looks
like a single image when viewed through a frame at top of steps. However, it is
actually a collection of pieces- eyes are free standing paintings, nose is a
credenza, mouth is a chair, hair is an arch. The cubist painting is either Abraham Lincoln or a nude woman, depending on how you view it. To my eye, it was Lincoln. To my camera lens, it is a nude woman - look carefully. Certainly this is all about
illusion! Weeping clocks are among Dali's most well known works. Dali’s jewelry designs are in
a separate and adjacent building…
creativity in gems!
Continuing
our drive north into France, we stopped in COLLIOURE,
on the Mediterranean in southeastern France.
Collioure is anchored by a fort built initially in the 7th c. and
expanded by France in the 17th c. Fort is
now used for military nautical training. In the early 20th century, Collioure
became a center of artistic activity; artists who met here include Andre Derain, George Braque, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. All were inspired by the fort/royal castle, medieval streets,
its lighthouse converted into the church of Notre-Dame-des-Anges and its
typical Mediterranean bay. Collioure's cemetery contains the tomb of Spanish
poet Antonio Machado, who fled here to escape Franco's troops at the end of the Spanish
Civil War in 1939. |
| Memorial to Jews |
There is a memorial to the Jews who were expelled from Collioure during the Inquisition in 1493. Memorial to Walter Benjamin, German Jewish Philosopher, who died of an overdose of morphine rather than be deported to a Nazi Concentration camp in 1940.
Early dinner at Café … ate calamari, frites, anchovies - excellent in vinegar; and of course, wine! Anchovies are a new favorite food. These fresh fish are a far cry from their canned US cousin!
After dinner, our journey continues to Lezignan and Lynn's home...
Arrive
Lezignan after 8 pm…. wine and cheese and
shower and sleep. Lynn’s home is lovely!
What a pleasure to start our trip in
private home...
Tuesday, April 15 NARBONNE
The days start with coffee at home, then a walk into town to buy fresh bread at Boulanger to compete our breakfast. Today we will visit Narbonne, its cathedral and market and the beach in Gruissan.
Narbonne is an ancient city, important during the Roman Empire. Narbonne's Gothic Cathedral was begun in 1272 and never finished. Halles Centrales is a huge indoor market with 'everything' fresh! Cheeses, fish, produce, meat... we had lunch at Chez Bebelle, inside the market building, enjoying magret de canard, frites (of course) and their house wine. 
After lunch, we headed for the beach in Gruissan... quiet in the Spring but very busy on a hot summer day and on to wine tasting at L’Hospitalet. These are grapes from the Languedoc region.
Wednesday, April 16 Market, Yoga, Lunch with Christiane
Our
day started with walk to the weekly
market to order a chicken for lunch and vegetables, salad and two kinds of
strawberries (charlottes and ….) -- and
have coffee. After yoga, Lynn will
return to market to collect this freshly roasted chicken!
Enjoyed
1.5 hours of yoga this morning! Most instructions were in French but occasional
English worked well for me…. plus being able to watch Christiane helped! In contrast to my US yoga experiences, we
started with all balancing poses and then moved to floor work.
Christiane
joined us for an excellent lunch at Lynn’s…. all products from this morning’s
market, well prepared and served on a beautiful table setting. Great food and conversation lasted a couple
of hours!
Relaxing
afternoon and light dinner at home…
anticipating travel to Morocco tomorrow...
MOROCCO
Helene
and Lynn planned the trip in Morocco with help from Hamid Mernissi at Morocco
Discoveries, Montreal info@moroccodiscoveries.com . Hamid arranged hotels, guide and driver and our itinerary. Great job; fairly priced!
In
Morocco, we will drive ~2300 km visiting the cities of Fez, Marrakech,
Essaouira, Rabat and pass through (or stay in village of Sekoura), While this
necessitates many hours of driving (and related sitting), driving permits us to
see the landscape, view many villages and towns, see the Moroccon people in
their village setting … overall to better experience the country. And, of
course, to stop for a coffee and toilettes; toilettes are plentiful and mostly
clean. You may need to bring your own tissue and pay a dirham or 2 :-)
Agriculture, especially
local farms, is the largest employer in Morocco. Tourism is a growing component of the economy. Morocco is the largest exporter of
phosphate rock ore. The phosphate mines are primarily on the north Atlantic coast. Plans are to shift from exporting rock ore to producing fertilizer from phosphate. Phosphate is Morocco's major source of international trade.
FOOD…
...very
important to Moroccans! During a
typical day, Moroccans eat breakfast before work or school; lunch between
noon and 2, snack of nuts, tea… in late afternoon and dinner after work/school,
stroll… after 8 pm. Breakfast includes eggs, bread, soup, cereal,
yogurt…. a substantial meal to last 4 -
5 hours. Lunch is a relaxed time with family or friends. A tagine, couscous,
brochettes, salads… are consumed during lunch. Photo is an array of salads we shared for lunch in the Medina in Fez. Dinner is a lighter meal of
soup, salad, vegetables. Meals are not rushed -- relax and enjoy! The tagine are prepared early in the day and cook
slowly for many hours. In the country,
in the villages, in the city…. tagines
are prepared with vegetables and meat - lamb, chicken, beef. Brochettes are
grilled meats on skewers. Meat is typically chicken, beef - ground or small
pieces. Commonly used spices are cumin,
ginger, salt, harissa (red peppers), saffron, garlic. Parsley is used a
lot. A favorite tagine is chicken with
preserved lemon and prunes. Of course, Pastilla - meat & vegetables cooked in phyllo pastry seasoned with cinnamon, cumin ... is excellent.
PEOPLE…
All
of the people we have met are friendly and welcoming whether in a hotel,
restaurant, shop…. or on the street. Dress runs the gamut from modest djellabas and caftans to jeans and combinations...
Smoking
and talking on cell phone … lots of people smoke. Houssam smokes Marlboro!
Women and men in djellaba or gandour (modestly dressed) walking down
street talking on cell phone. And, of course, men and women in ‘western’
clothes talking on cell phones!
SHOPPING
…
Be
certain to bring your credit card with you!
Many shops, cooperatives… will take yur credit card. If not, there are
ATM machines on every street will take your credit card and supply you wih local currency - the
Dirham! Exchange rate in April 2014 is 8
Dh/ $1.
Carpets
abound… in cooperatives (women and men weave and share in the profits), in Medinas, on the street, in the hotel.
Textiles
are made of sheep, camel, goat wools, agave ‘silk’, cotton and even rayon. Colors are wonderful! Lots of orange, red, greens, royal blue,
yellow, purple …
Leather
-- In the Medina in Marrakesh, we found a great shoe store… while styles were
limited, the leather was colorful and picturesque. Overnight, Lynn had a
pocketbook made to match shoes she bought. Cute shoes in photo are mine!
Thursday, April 17 L-Z to BCN to Tangier, MOROCCO to FES, via Volubilis
Approx.
3 hour drive from Lezignan to Barcelona to make 12:30 pm flight to Tangier arriving
at 1:30pm Morocco time. Easy baggage
collection, passport control and meet Nina Chkirdi, our guide, and Houssam
Nouichi, our driver, who works for
transportation company Enjoy Travel. Nina is the 24 year old
step-daughter of Hamid, owner of Morocco Discoveries travel company. Her mother is a Moroccan diplomat who has
been ‘stationed’ in Washington, DC. Nina
was born in Rabat and has lived in France, Washington, DC and Montreal! Houssam
lives south east of Fez with his wife and 2 yeard old daughter.
We
will drive ~4 hours to VOLUBILIS, old Roman town. Tangiers is on northernmost tip of Morocco
with Atlantic Ocean on the West and the
Mediterranean Sea on the East. Brief
stop for fresh fruit --- oranges fresh from the tree with leaves and blossoms
attached… and freshly picked bananas!
Being sold along the road: strawberries, artichokes, oranges, bananas,
meat…. pottery esp. large shallow bowls for couscous; tagines,,,, Animals:
goats, cows, sheep, donkeys
On
to Fes - several hours more driving, arriving Riad Jasmine about 8 pm... in the old
city of Fes… down many alleys and around many corners…
our bags are being wheeled in what approximates a wheel barrow. In Riad, my single room is 28 steps up narrow
winding stairs; room is large with queen bed and bathroom is inside room and
another dozen steps up! Dinner
at Riad… wonderful! First course is lentils,
eggplant salad, potatoes and tomatoes with onions. Next is tagine of chicken
with carmelized onions, olives and preserved lemon. Desert of sliced oranges with cinnamon and
mint leaves, cookies and mint tea.
Amazing meal! Finished at 11 pm. Quite a day... started in Lezignan, France early morning on to Barcelona ... and, now in lovely Riad in Fes!
Friday, April 18 FES
Abdul
joined as guide for the day… driving to various sites around Fez and then to
the Medina. Weather overcast so city
sight from high points obscured by fog.
Most of day spent walking in Medina!
Shops for everything: food,
spices, leather, carpets, housewares…. A
tour of the largest tannery in Morocco ended in their shop, of course, and the
aquisition of a suede shirt! The hides of sheep are cured and cleaned and
softened and died in traditional manner.
When guides went to pray, we went to lunch - an excellent array of
vegetable salads: eggplant, zucchini, lentils, tomoaroes, cauliflower and, always, bread. Continuing our Medina tour, we visited a
carpet cooperative… women weave various types of carpets (Berber, Fez…) and
sell them through the Coop. Apparently
the women share 80% of income and 20% goes to overhead.
We
continued walking in ‘new’ Fez… outside the medina; built by French with wide
boulevard. Most buldings are government
offices, hotels.
Delicious
dinner at Riad! Vegetable salads, Chicken
Pastilla and fresh fruit salad with a Moroccan Chardonnay.
Saturday, Apri 19 Fez to Merzouga via Ifrane (town mirrors a
Swiss Village and there is a ski lift 15 km away),... Overnight in Bivouac/Camp
@ Erg Chebbi Dunes
Depart
Fez just after 8 am for drive to southern Morocco and the Atlas Mountains. We
(Nina, Helene, Lynn and me) mounted our camels at a Kasbah in Merzouga
around 6 pm heading for Erg Chebbi dunes and our camp/bivouac for the
night. Almost 2 hrs sitting on wobbly
camel in a dust storm in the Sahara desert! Our string of four camels was led
by a guide who walked the 6 km to camp. 
The
camps are managed and operated by Tuareg people who live in the desert. At camp, I met 2 young Japanese women who are
working in Morocco with an organization comparable to the Peace Corps. One gal
is an IT expert, the other a midwife.
French, Italian, Spanish are among the languages heard among the
guests. Dinner was salad and chicken
tagine and we purchased a Moroccan red
wine!
Sunday, April 20 Erg Chebbi Dunes to Merzouga to Skoura
Somehow
I overslept this morning and missed the sun rising over the dunes… quel
dommage! On camels returning to Merzouga
by 7:30 am. Overnight my body figured
out how to move with the camel; not quite so wobby. However, this approximates
2 hours on an inner thigh machine!
Perhaps I cud have arong slmmer camel?
Breakfast
at Kasbah in Merzouga then on our way driving to Skoura. Stopped at a shop that
fabricates granite embedded with fossils; all found in the Atlas
Mountains. Large nautilus (snail)
fossils in granite become table tops, sinks,.... I bought a small trilobyte for Mollie.
Riad
Ben Moro in Skoura…. planned dinner on terrace, but moved inside
since quite cold and windy.
Monday, April 21 Skoura to Marrakesh
….
We
had been booked into the Riad Sara, but moved to the Hotel Andalous - large
tourist hotel. Apparently, the Riad had
been sold and our reservations were not honored. In addition, there had been 2
murders in recent weeks!
Tuesday,April 22 Marrakesh… sightseeing
Nina
had planned a day to work on her own, however, the locsl guide we had was very
limited in the English language and seemed to only know the bare facts about
the monuments etc. So, Nina stayed with us to translate! Menersa - reservoir
& irrigation system; Koutoubia - mosque, medina, souks, jemma el fna…..
Wednesday, April 23 Marrakesh - Hiking in mountains
Houssam,
Nina, Helene and I have planned a hike for today. Lynn will spend day exploring Marrakesh. Driving about 1.5 hours east into the Atlas
mountains, we hired a local ‘hiking’
guide; he was great! we crossed
Ourika river on slatted wooden bridge and began to walk ad climb gaining a few
thousand feet in elevation; trail not long, but steep. Much of the time we were
climbing up boulders. Fortunatey guide Mohammed was young and strong and could
help me avoid slding backwards down the rocks!
In paces, rocks were wet inhibiting a good foothold. At one point, we had to clmb a ladder to
scale a steep rock. After reaching the
top of the ‘trail’, we took the ‘easy’ way back to car…. avoiding going down
the rocks. We returned to our starting point in time for lunch by the river.
After yesterday’s rain, the river is very strong… too shallow and rough for any
boating. Perhaps it gets deeper and calmer in the summer.
Thursday, April 24 Marrakesh to Essaouira
We
arrived in Essaouira in time to check into Hotel Des Iles and go to lunch at
Cafe Fanatic on the beach… we sat on the terrace and ate fish and salad! Houssan and Nina joined us -- it was out
treat.
After
lunch, we spent the afternoon walking in the Medina… while there are tourists around, we see few
Americans. I finally found a pillow cover for Leslie… old Berber, sheep wool.
Plan
for dinner was grilled sardines - a specialty of the area. But, when we got to
the small restaurant, there was a 2kg lobster with our name on it. Grilled lobster, tomato salad, sparkling
water and frites! Not too bad :-)
Friday, April 25 Essaouira to Rabat via Casablanca
We
are now moving quickly to Rabat on Friday and Tangiers on Saturday to catch
flight to Barcelona. Wish we had a few more days to enjoy the west coast of
Morocco…
About
5 hour drive to Casablanca. Quick drive through city and lunch at waterfront.
Lunch
at Restaurant du Port de Peche, Casablanca… fish tagine (very delicious) and
paella, seafood salad, calamari, small shrimp and Sangria and sparkiling water
to drink!
Casablanca,
founded in 1912 … big city, lots of traffc,...
much French-inspired architecture built in 1930’s on. Mosque Hassan
II Casablanca 25000 people can pray at one time.
Construction completed 1993…
After
lunch, we continue drive to Rabat, the captal pf Morocco and Nina’s home city.
Visit
Mausaleum, Hassan Tower 13 th c. and on to Hotel Farah at waterfront.
Depart
at 7 pm for dinner at Nina’s grandmother’s, Hafida. Haf…. was married at 16 in 1962 to a Moroccan
diplomat. They were married for 11 years when he was killed by terrorists. They
lived in Ghana, New York, Washington, DC as well as Rabat, where H continues to
live. At 10pm this evening, Hafida will eave for a wedding. The party includes
dinner, dancing, lots of socializing and will last until 4 - 6 am! H is dressed in a gorgeous apricot colored
kaftan with a gold belt and high heeled shoes.
A
comprehensive and delicious dinner was prepared by H and her ‘maid’ Fatiwa.
Saturday, April 26 Rabat - Tanger Airport - Barcelona
Departed
Rabat at 9 am for an easy 2.5 hr drive to Tangier Airport… road follows
Morocco’s Atlantic coast. The wind
along this coast is very strong and the surf is very high. Easy flight to Barcelona; taxi to Hotel
Montecarlo arriving by 5 pm. While we
have been underway all day, the people of Barcelona are just getting started!
Checked
in and on our way to begin exploring Barcelona … definitely a walking
city! Lynn is very familiar with Bcn so Helene
and I get to follow…. and gawk at the people and the architecture. A glass of wine and tapas - fried green
peppers- along the Pg.de Gracia and then walk to a market restaurant for
dinner. Helene has a pedometer to count
our footsteps and, even though we drove and flew most of today, we have managed
to walk more than 7000 steps!
Sunday, April 27 BARCELONA
Up
and out by 9 am… we have a lot to see in Barcelona today! The architecture of the buildings in this
city form a museum themselves!
We
saw many Gaudi buildings including the Sagrada Familia --- a vast cathedral
that has been under construction since 1882. Today many parts are clothed in
scaffolding. While we would have liked
to have tour the interior, the line wrapped around a very large block and we
have too much to see in this great city. With some advanced planning, one can
buy tickets online.
ANTONI GAUDÍ: AN
EXCEPTIONAL MAN
Antoni Gaudí (1852 - 1926)is one of
the outstanding figures of Catalan culture and international architecture. He
was born in Baix Camp (Reus, Riudoms), but it was in Barcelona that he studied,
worked and lived with his family. It is also in the city that we find most of
his work. He was first and foremost an architect, but he also designed
furniture and objects and worked in town planning and landscaping, amongst
other disciplines. In all those fields he developed a highly expressive
language of his own and created a body of work that speaks directly to the
senses.
Museu Picasso 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaDSAaSO60M Rick Steves tours the Museu Picasso and
shares some of the paintings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9x4JZBjgiI Pablo Picasso: The Power of Art, 58:36
minutes. Simon Schama created and presents this documentary published in 2013.
Much
of Picasso’s Barcelona work is displayed in this museum; many donated by
Picasso himself and his widow Jacqueline Roque. The Las Meninas, 1957, is a series of 58 paintings that Picasso
created by analysing, reinterpreting and recreating the Diego Velasquez’ painting. These canvasses are Picasso's variations of components of the painting.
Picasso understood this series as a whole and donated all to the
museum in 1968 in memory of jkhkJaime Sabartes. Picasso had said to Sabartes:
“
|
If someone want to copy Las Meninas, entirely in good faith,
for example, upon reaching a certain point and if that one was me, I would
say..what if you put them a little more to the right or left? I'll try to do
it my way, forgetting about Velázquez. The test would surely bring me to
modify or change the light because of having changed the position of a
character. So, little by little, that would be a detestable Meninas for a
traditional painter, but would be my Meninas.
|
The
Harlequin, 1917
Late
morning, we watched local men and women dance the Sardana,a Catalan folk
dance. Anyone can join … if you know the
steps! This dance takes place every Sunday in the Plaza in front of the Cathedral. This youtube video lets you experience both
the dance and the live music! A Catalan
Hora!
Walking
to the waterfront, we saw gigantic yachts and myriads of people… and the statue
of Columbus pointing to the new world.
Light lunch and walk back to Hotel.
Helene and Lynn spent the afternoon in the Guell Gardens with many Gaudi
pieces. I took the afternoon ‘off’ to catch up on email etc. Tapas and champagne at Piscobalis for our
final dinner. What a fun way to eat -- small bites of many dishes!
Monday, April 28 TRAVEL DAY BCN/PHL/DEN
After
breakfast, Helene and I departed Hotel Montecarlo for Airport and home...
ITINERARY
Helene
and Lynn planned the itinerary to be approximately 2 weeks and include several
days at Lynn’s home in southeastern France, Lezignan-Corbieres and some time in
Barcelona. These parameters etc.
Vueling
Airlines only flies Wednesdays and Saturdays between Barcelona and Tangier,
thus trip planned to accommodate this.
When Helene and Lynn initially planned trip, they had planned to spend a
day in Gibraltar. Helene has visited 110
countries; Gibraltar is not one of them! However, the logistics of getting
to/from Gibraltar was sufficiently complex, this was scratched from the
itinerary.
Given
our experience, I would add more time on the west coast of Morocco…
Nina
Chkirdi… grandmother (Mother’s Mother) married young; husband killed in
terrorist attack in Italy in 1973; owns Villa in Rabat.
Salvador Dali Museum, Figueres, Spain
Monday, April 14
Tuesday, April 15
Wednesday April 16
Thursday April 17 Drive L-C to BCN; fly BCN to Tangier; drive Tangier to Fez with stops at Volubilis, Moulay Idris ....
VOLUBILIS ....
The Mauritanian capital, founded in the 3rd century B.C., became an important outpost of the Roman Empire and was graced with many fine buildings. Extensive remains of these survive in the archaeological site, located in a fertile agricultural area. Volubilis was later briefly to become the capital of Idris I, founder of the Idrisid dynasty, who is buried at nearby Moulay Idris.
Volubilis was a critical city in the imperial Roman department of Mauritania (modern day Morocco, and the Western Sahara) during the reign of Caracalla. Volubilis is impressively well preserved and the genius of Roman urbanism is still intact. The two central integral streets in every Roman castrum, the Cardo and Decumanus, are prominent. The cardo is the boulevard which runs north-south and the Decumanus, east-west. The intersection of the two is the heart of every roman city.
MOULAY IDRISS
The picturesque whitewashed town of Moulay Idriss sits astride two green hills in a cradle of mountains slightly less than 5km from Volubilis, and is one of the country’s most important pilgrimage sites. It’s named for Moulay Idriss, a great-grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, the founder of the country’s first real dynasty, and Morocco’s most revered saint. His tomb is at the heart of the town, and is the focus of the country’s largest moussem every August.
Moulay Idriss fled Mecca in the late 8th century in the face of persecution at the hands of the recently installed Abbasid caliphate, which was based in Baghdad. Idriss settled at Volubilis, where he converted the locals to Islam, and made himself their leader, establishing the Idrissid dynasty.
Read more: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/morocco/moulay-idriss#ixzz2yM4PsczB
Friday, April 18 FEZ
Medina of Fez
Founded in the 9th century and home to the oldest university in the world, Fez reached its height in the 13th–14th centuries under the Marinids, when it replaced Marrakesh as the capital of the kingdom. The urban fabric and the principal monuments in the medina – madrasas, fondouks, palaces, residences, mosques and fountains - date from this period. Although the political capital of Morocco was transferred to Rabat in 1912, Fez has retained its status as the country's cultural and spiritual centre.
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/170
Over the next several days we will travel into the Sahara desert and through the Atlas mountains....Saturday, April 19 Fez – Azrou – Midelt – Erfoud (225 miles)
Erfoud - oasis town in Sahara desert
Erfoud is a destination for filmmakers due to the beauty of the surrounding Sahara Desert and the town's oasis areas. Erfoud has been a filming location for many films, including
- The Mummy (1999)
- Filming began in Marrakech, Morocco on May 4, 1998 and lasted 17 weeks. Photography then moved to the Sahara Desert outside Erfoud.[1][2]
April 20th: Merzouga Dunes – Tinghir – Sekoura (158 miles)
Hotel: Kasbah Ben Moro, Sekoura
April 21st: Sekoura - Ouarzazate – Marrakesh (110 miles)
