TravelStream™ news feed for member pgdavis on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/pgdavis en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:11:13 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1226268060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1226268060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1226268060/tpod.html Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:11:13 -0500 Exploring mainland Europe in Autumn

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Casablanca, Morocco

Morocco has been on our list of places to visit since we started to think about visiting Europe just under a year ago and we are very happy that we made it. You may have read by now about the insanity which is Marrakech and the peace that is Essouria; now it is time to introduce the commercial grittiness that is Casablanca.Casablanca is the commercial capital of Morocco, Rabat is the political capital. As a result, Casablanca has all the symptoms of a large commercial hub; people scurrying around focused on their jobs, the streets full of vehicles, a reasonable amount of garbage scattered alongside the street gutters and any area the breeze can push it to; gardens are more green spaces (lawns) rather than maintained areas full of plants. A certain ``hard edge'' which typifies commercial hubs, which if you have lived in one (Sydney in my case) you can understand it.Another aspect of commercial hubs is the beggar population is larger; Shellie and I were approached almost every couple of streets by a person with their hand out for the spare change from the ``rich western'' tourists walking around. I think on day one I was approached about 5 times in one hour; and while in the first case I did give 5dh (it is never enough, they ask for more of course), if you were to provide for every request you would go broke quickly. All of them (bar the youngest) had a rudamentary grasp of multiple languages other than arabic including english, spanish, french, german; enough for them to have a basic conversation with you. Most of the time they would start with ``where are you from'' followed by ``welcome to Morocco'', tips on good places to visit; then ``you can help my my friend''. This would happen as you try to walk along and move on your way. If people are walking in groups they target an individual based on the group dynamics. At one point (not far from the hotel) Shellie was approached by a young man (who hand not grasped any alternative languages yet) who gestured for money and pointed at his lack of shoes. Walking through this and saying no made me feel a little hollow; I do not like being rude, or being targeted because quite obviously I am better off than they are. It was the quantity, frequency and insistent manner of the beggars in Casablanca which set it apart from the other cities we had visited. In Marrakech and Essouria the beggars mostly sat on the side of the path, hand out.As part of our wandering on the first day we had originally thought we would set out to find the famous Ricks bar of Casablanca fame. Did you know that the bar didn't exist until 2004! Yep, it was only a construction of a movie set until an American entrepreneur named Kathy saw a demand in people visiting Casablanca to see the bar (only to find it didn't exist) and created it! Of course, this ``finding the bar'' was based on an assumption it would be easy to find. As it turned out, we didn't have access to a reasonable map; the one we had at the hotel was ``free of charge'' and comprised of a single photo-copied sheet of paper, without a scale. The Lonely Planet map didn't even have the train-station where we arrived, so it was a little light on detail (although to be honest, we had a Lonely Planet for the whole of Europe, so each area was a little light on detail). So we set out for the tourism office, somewhere up Mohammed V (as you may tell from other blog entries, Mohammed V is a popular name for main streets here in Morocco). So off we went, walking in the general direction of where we understood the tourism office to be. This is where, as a map reader, you really appreciate having a scale on the map. At several points I was convinced we were either on the wrong street (as in a similar to fashion, finding street signs became a learned skill), or we had simply missed the building. Fortunately we found the tourism office only to find the ``free map'' was a guide they had published in Feb 2008 and contained a map without a scale and no reference to any tourist points; oh well - it appeared Casablanca's tourism support infrastructure in terms of information was a little lacking.We ended up using both maps for our travels. After the tourism office we visited the central market which was a relatively small city block containing fresh food on the inside and either prepared food or clothing/trinkets on the outside. Again we witnessed fantastic flower arrangements, something which seems to be a Moroccan talent; I also saw a few more ``fresh meat'' stalls including horse!Surprisingly when we returned to the market around 16:00 the stalls were closed! This was not something we had expected given Marrakech and Essouria, although we did remember the ``Central market'' in Marrakech (not the Souks or Djemaa el-Fna) were closing at dusk!We spent quite a bit of time walking on our first full day in Casablanca, navigating through the residential districts, viewing quite a few high-rise apartments in a range of states of repair. As we walked we saw very few tourists where we travelled we figured we were a little off the tourist map! This of course resulted in quite a few eye's following us as we walked around, and our spider senses being armed to alert us to any streets we shouldn't walk down. By the end of the first day we had exhausted our exploration of the ``new'' Casablanca, saving our exploration of the Medina and Mosque to the next day.Day two of our Casablanca adventure started in a similar fashion to day one, except this time we had maps (sort of), and had orientated ourselves which as a result meant we required maps less! We also had Medina experience thanks to Marrakech and Essouria so we were well prepared.Our walk through the Medina started with us heading for where we thought Rick's bar would be located; somewhere on the Northern wall of the Medina with a view of the harbour. The road on the way was quite wide and accommodated quite a few cars, which surprised us given our previous experience. We found later this was limited to the outside streets of the Medina, the internal ones were the normal ``narro and tight'' we were used to!Rick's bar is a converted house; with a guard posted at the front door! We saw several people arrive in quite nice taxis and, based on our research of the bar and location, concluded the cost of the food and service within the bar may be a little out of our price range; so we decided not to go in!We then continued to walk through the Medina and found the market! It was Saturday and the market area was massive, spreading from the Medina to the streets surrounding it on the Southern side for several blocks. We encountered market after market; it seemed like there were many smaller markets which, due to location, were all connected together. For example, you could explore a few streets find the fresh food, clothing, other goods, then within a few meters, find another fresh food, then clothing etc. We did have a talent in finding the location of the fresh meat areas (by fresh, I mean seeing cattle heads sitting on the benches and at one point we followed a man who had two goat-heads hanging off this bicycle handle bars!) Shellie did very well in dealing with all of this I must say!However, aside from the ``fresh meat'', we also found ample fresh vegetable and fruit markets. We were happy as we had found markets the locals use; there was barely a tourist in sight! Much of the bartering and ordering was taking place in Arabic; which certainly demonstrated this was a local market!This was a refreshing change as, unlike the tourist markets in Marrakech, as the stall holders were busy selling to locals; and we were ``obviously'' just looking around, they ignored us! Also unlike the central market we had discovered the day before these markets were in operation well after the sun went down.We spent several hours exploring the markets before exploring other parts of the new town, before aiming for the mosque at sunset.All in all, Casablanca was a worthwhile experience; but having been here I don't feel a desire to return, unlike for Essouria (for the calm and the beach) and Marrakech (for Djemaa el-Fna and the Souks). If we return to Morocco we would like to explore Agadir, Rabat and Fez, potentially slipping down to Essouria should the opportunity present itself!As a footnote, on the flight between Casablanca and Paris, there was a heated argument between two male passengers two seats behind us once the ``fasten seatbelt'' sign was turned off. It was all in Arabic, and was settled when another man offered to change seats; but it was interesting! They also fumigated the flight with a flight attendant wandering down the centre of the plane holding two bottles of spray towards the ceiling. Something I haven't seen before; Shellie mentioned they do this for flights back from Fiji as well!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1226481660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1226481660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1226481660/tpod.html Wed, 12 Nov 2008 04:23:46 -0500 Exploring mainland Europe in Autumn

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Paris, Île-de-France, France

I again have a bucket load of updates to do, not enough time to do it in :) We are packing what we can into our time in Paris (we arrived here on the 9th). We fly out tomorrow morning. With any luck I will have a change to update this blog with my entries from Casablanca and our time in Paris before we fly out - it not, I'll update at Hong Kong :)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1225735320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1225735320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1225735320/tpod.html Sat, 08 Nov 2008 16:40:28 -0500 Exploring mainland Europe in Autumn

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Essaouira, Morocco

Today we caught a bus to Essouria which is about 3 hours from Marrakech on the coast. The road took us through many small towns which had active food markets in operation along the main road. The bus driver had to sound his horn on many occasions in order to move along pedestrians, horse and carts, cars or trucks. Using the horn while driving seems to be a Moroccan national pastime; it says hello, good bye and ``please get out of the way''. Along the way we saw one vine plantation; which I could only assume was for table grapes as I understand that alcohol is decriminalised. That said, I have also heard that Morocco has some quite good wines; indicating people will always work around prohibition. At about the half-way point we stopped for a break, which was either a compulsory rest stop for the driver, or an opportunity for the bus company to share a bus-load of thirsty & hungary tourists with a local business operator which they probably had shares in. My cynical mind (and the connected nature of business in Morocco) suggests that the later would have been the case.Coffee at this stop was quite cheap at only 10dh (less than one euro)! That said, Shellie and I rested on the bus; the stop providing Shellie with another opportunity to continue knitting the rug for Niklas. In the background we could hear the Eagles playing over the shops speakers. I think it may be a CD they bring out for the Western Tourists.As we were travelling during a period of rain the rivers flowing alongside and beneath road bridges were filled and flowing quickly. I also had the opportunity to witness a twister beginning to form while we were at the rest stop. While it was not an impressive as watching a Tornado in the USA it was still quite spectacular; even though this one did not make it to the ground.After we left the stop it was not long before the colour of the buildings started to change colour. In Marrakech many of the structures are red; or coloured from the red end of the spectrum. In Essouria, the primary colour is blue; more specifically white buildings with blue highlights (window frames, doors etc). This reflects Essouria's bond with the ocean. Red Mosques was replaced with white ones. Similarly the crop being grown changed. Marrakech is Orange and Olive central; the Essouria region is famous for the production of Argan oil.We are staying in a Ryad within the Medina. Our room is on the top floor with an open air balcony facing east. We have a view over the Medina wall into greater Essouria; across the rooftops of our neighbours. Our first walk this afternoon was cut short by rain. As luck would have it, this was the only afternoon on our entire trip to date when we didn't have our wet weather gear; and would you believe it, it got heavier the closer we got to our hotel, stopping not long after we returned to get our wet weather gear. We think this was a sign that we are beginning to get a little holiday tired :) The rain enforced break allowed Shellie to return to her knitting and for me to catch-up on my notes over the last few days before we set out to watch our first sunset in Essouria.On this second walk we didn't get wet - it didn't rain; the rain gods must have known we have our wet weather gear this time. We started by walking along the beach. The high-tide mark was clear; marked by the presence of waste wood, mud and some (not very much) non-organic garbage which would have flowed down the nearby river mouth due to the rain of the last several days. There was also tractor marks on the beach, evidence the locals had already started to clear the beach (and it still hadn't finished raining). This river wash was also evident in the water - it was a brown colour (rather than blue) from all the top soil.The sun started to set, so we headed back towards the Medina to see what we could see before night set in and it got to dark. We walked past a the Ryad Mogador; Mogador was the name for Essouria prior to WW I. Eventually we reached the harbour wall to watch the sunset, which was rather spectacular. During watching the sunset we got up close and personal with the worlds largest seagulls. OK, I know they are not seagulls; but they look similar and you certainly would not one stealing a chip!After sunset we continued our exploration of the Medina; the vibe of which was very different to Marrakech. Essouria is more laid-back. We happily walked along, viewing the shops and seeing was was on offer at the various restaurants. Many shops here had marked prices; something we had become used to not seeing in Djemaa el-Fna and the Marrakech Souks.In some ways perhaps visiting Essouria prior to Marrakech would have been good as we would have had an idea of what to expect in the Souks; also what represented fair value, which would have helped during a negotiation should one have started. All would have prepared us for the hustle, bustle and in-your-face style which is doing business in Marrakech. This flip side of course is after Marrakech, we are finding Essouria a very relaxing place; and we may have thought the rest of Morocco was like this!We eventually settled for dinner at a small restaurant recommended by our Ryad; Petit le Perle. Dinner comprised of a hot Moroccan salad, a vegetable cous-cous, a vegetable Tagine and a yogurt for desert. Appetisers comprised of breed and olives (black standard and flavoured); with a serve of Moroccan Mint-tea. The total cost was 125dh, or less than 12 euro (24 australian); and we were both so full!To walk off dinner we decided to head for the beach at night. We learnt the beach is fully lit; it appears it has been designed to accommodate night swimming in the summer months. Tomorrow we plan to explore the Medina in more detail. The cost of food at restaurants is low, and the markets are friendly, so we feel we will be eating well (and cheaply) here for the next few days.PS: An interesting sub-note on the cost of transport. For our trip between Berlin and Frankfurt (on the train) we spent $255 euro (about $500 Australian) to cover about 700km. For our trip between Marrakech and Essouria, a distance of 180km we spent 13 euro. It seems that the richer the nation, the more expensive the public transport is. Strange, you would kind of expect it to be the other way around.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1225624080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1225624080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1225624080/tpod.html Sat, 08 Nov 2008 06:09:26 -0500 Exploring mainland Europe in Autumn

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Marrakech, Morocco

After the rain of yesterday we decided to spend the day exploring the non-tourist side of Marrakech, always a challenge when you are a tourist yourself (and look like one!). We had learnt from our Belgium friend, Anne, who we met on the tour yesterday, there was a nice French garden just up the road that was worth a look. We decided to make our way there via the Central Marche (Market) which specialises in flowers, crafts and fresh-food. This is unlike the Souks within the Medina which largely deal in finished product targeting the tourist market.The market itself was certainly less crowded than DJemaa el-Fna; much fewer tourists and a higher percentage of locals. The flip side was we stood out more and I was approached more often than had occurred during our exploration of the Souks in the Medina! We progressed through the market, seeing an elderly gentlemen doing some wood lathe work, driving the lathe with his feet; there was also a man putting intricate painting on some ceramic pots. Then we came to the fresh food.And boy was it fresh! On the left there were some stalls selling horse meat; we knew then we were going to have a different market experience. The aromas grew stronger as we progressed deeper; soon to the left were cages of chickens and rabbits; to the right were carcasses of chickens and rabbits; fresh blood was visible on the floor which was in the process of being cleaned; probably remains of a recent slaughter. Shellie, a vegetarian, was doing remarkably well at this point, however we decided to take the next available exit. Immediately outside the market were some flower stalls containing some incredibly flower arrangements.We then commenced our walk to the garden. Along the way a gentlemen asked for the time, upon which he exclaimed ``you speak English!'' His name is Mohammed and he has recently returned to Morocco from England after undertaking training in English to teach it back home. It appeared we provided an opportunity for him to practice his English; so we joined him for a coffee at a nearby cafe. During the course of the chat Mohammed explained by Djemaa el-Fna is formed the way it is and is the largest of its kind in Morocco (due to caravan traders from the south meeting traders from the north); and why many Souks are higher than pedestrian level (they are at camel height). We paid for his coffee, and he offered to travel to the markets on his motor scooter and pick up a Tagine and a pair of blue-scarfs for use in Essouria for us; an offer we accepted. So an hour later we met him back at the same cafe, and he supplied us with the goods. We ended up with three good traditional souvenirs for the price of a cup of coffee and 20 euro (200dh) which was around the price we expected to pay for one item; so a good deal all round (although I am certain there was a fair profit margin for Mohammed in the transaction!) We got Mohammed's postal address so we could send him some postcards from Australia (he is a collector).We then bid farewell to Mohammed and continued our walk towards the garden, the original focus of our trip today. When we reached the garden it was charging an entry price and; seeing as Marrakech has many beautiful gardens accessible for free we decided to not enter.As dusk approached we headed towards Djemaa el-Fna again to experience the Souks surrounding the market place at night; this time comfortable in the knowledge that we had purchased our souvenirs and could comfortably say ``La Shukarun'' should we be approached for a sale.The streets within the Souks are quite narrow; so constantly during our walk we were dodging people, and scooters which had a tendency to speed along the pathways at high-speed, sounding their tiny horns in warning as they tried to weave around you. Fortunately many had headlights so if they were approaching from front-on you could see them (you can infer some didn't have headlights, which made dodging them an interesting experience). The mosques which are scattered amongst the Souks to allow men there easy access were also crowded for evening prayers; I managed to catch a glimpse inside, seeing a brightly coloured space with walls covered with complex patterns formed with brightly coloured tiles.We then worked our way back up Mohammed V Boulevard, settling for bread and sweets from a nearby Moroccan patisserie; using our travel tube of Vegemite on the bread. Tomorrow we head for Essouria.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1225534020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1225534020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1225534020/tpod.html Sat, 08 Nov 2008 06:08:03 -0500 Exploring mainland Europe in Autumn

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Marrakech, Morocco

Today started with it bucketing rain; both Shellie and I were grateful we had walked through the Medina yesterday, but were a little disappointed that we had booked a mountain tour today. While we did hope it would fine up, it didn't. It was soaking wet, with the road covered with mud-slides in many parts. It was almost as if the weather pattern we experienced in our second-last day in Aix En Provence had followed us south!All of that said, the trip was interesting even if it didn't have the benefit of seeing the tallest mountain in the range. The river flowing alongside the road was flowing quickly due to the rain. We stopped at one point so we could have the opportunity to cross the river; using a bridge the locals use - fashioned together with fencing wire and sticks! We also had the opportunity to walk along the road for about 1.5km; and opportunity taken by most occupants of our small tour group except the British.Lunch was at a restaurant about 52km out of Marrakech. Shellie had steamed vegetables and cous-cous, I had a Tagine with chicken and olive, which while nice was not as good as the meal yesterday evening.On the way back down we stopped off at a herbalist were we were provided with an overview of their products (all positioned to have us buy something of course). Shellie and I were under no pressure as we couldn't bring any of their goods home with us due to Australian quarantine rules; a fact even the herbalist knew. We also stopped (on the way up) at a ceramics place with is apparently a Berber speciality. There were some lovely pieces however Shellie and I were not interested in starting negotiations.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1225472220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1225472220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1225472220/tpod.html Sat, 08 Nov 2008 06:06:47 -0500 Exploring mainland Europe in Autumn

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Marrakech, Morocco

Today we set to familiarise ourselves with Marrakech, which in normal Paul and Shellie fashion is to get a map (generally at a high level, not too detailed), choosing a direction and heading off.We made our way out of the hotel and headed to one of the major roads, Mohammed V, one of the two main roads connecting old and new Marrakech (the other is Mohammed VI). The road bristles with traffic including cars, trucks, busses, bicycles, powered bicycles, scooters, horse/donkey drawn and people drawn carts, and pedestrians. Quite insane really! In fact witnessing all of this, when combined with our experience of getting from the airport via petit-taxi last night convinces me that Marrakech and Moscow are similar in their road etiquette; their are road guidelines not rules! To an outsider like me it seems incredibly hectic; however traffic flows and there are no accidents, meaning it is a great example of a self-ordering system, quite magical actually!Crossing such traffic streets requires you to simply choose an appropriate path, preferably one where one lane is obeying a traffic instruction, and then heading off; trusting that the vehicles will work around you should you be in the middle of the road when they get there! It took us a while to master this, although we did start to either follow a local, or have them between us and the on-coming traffic where possible :)The sides of the street are lined with hotels, restaurants and vendors who have set-up temporary stalls. There are also numerous beggars looking for spare change, locals providing ``unofficial'' guide services, and men wearing high-visability vests near taxi ranks working to convince you to take a taxi to save perhaps 5 min walk for the bargin price of 10dh (1 euro).The first location we visited on our walk was the Cyber-Parc - so named for the installation of several public access all-weather internet terminals within a large expanse of well-kept parkland. There was also several ``sit-down'' internet terminals available at a cost of 5dh per hour; a bargain when compared to the prices in Europe (2 euro for 15 min in Nice). It was amazing how simply stepping into a garden 15 mtrs removed you from the hectic place which was Mohammed V. The Cyber-Parc is located within the walls of the Marrakech Medina; Marrakech's old town. The walls are several meters thick, rendered with the red-oxide soil common to this area, with spaces left for the pigeons (well that is what it looked like to me).We continued through the park and existed near La Koutoubia; Marrakech's most revered mosque. Like almost all mosque's in Morocco, non-muslims are forbidden access; although you can get rather close to the mosque and have access to the wonderful rose garden adjacent to the mosque. It must be said the areas here were very clean, the gardens cared for with great care. We witnessed gardeners and cleaners constantly at work, cleaning up the mess tourists were leaving behind perhaps.After exploring the Cyber-Parc and the mosque area he made our way towards DJemaa el-Fna; the large market square within the Medina, the Souks located to the North. The Souks are amazing. The Souks are gathered into areas of expertise, for example, the Leather Souks are together, as to are the fresh food, the fabric, the ceramics, etc. I do not have many photos of the souks because many people didn't wish to be in a photo (which I respect), or wanted payment (which I was not going to do).After exploring the Souks we found ourselves near Ali ben Youssef Mosque and Medersa, a renowned scholarly location; the Ali ben Youssef Mosque founded in the 12th century.After getting lost in the Souks (again) we made our way back to DJemaa el-Fna in order to head towards Palais el-Badi and Palais de la Bahia. We learnt at this point that a more detailed map would have been useful; as in attempting to circumnavigate Palais el-Badi we learnt we could not and found ourselves buried in the middle of an area with no idea how to get out.At this stage a ``particularly helpful'' Burba man tried to strike up a conversation with us, repeating to us many times his help would be at no charge, leading us steadily deeper into unknown territory. Shellie's ``spider senses'' came alive, and after the fifth attempt to politely leave we did so, not before he questioned whether we were racist! Just goes to show there can be some use in knowing the local language version of ``thanks but no thanks'' (which in Arabic is La Shakurun by the way). We eventually made our way back to a known location, following at a distance a tour-group of Westerners which seemed to have a local (paid) guide.After this little episode we decided to calm down we would head again for a garden and headed down Avenue de la Medina. The southern side of Avenue de la Medina is dominated by one of the biggest olive groves I have ever seen. The olive trees here are huge, some are over 100 years old. By way of scale, this park is about 1km wide and 2km long. At the end of the avenue was another large olive plantation, called Jardin de la Medina. This one was complete with a large square water reservoir containing some large fish. Aside from the occasional tourist this location seemed to be the local teenage hangout.Aside from Olives, Orange trees are everywhere. They commonly line the roads, are in the parks - pretty much anywhere there is green space there will be a few orange trees. Marrakech has the most parks of any of the large cities in Morocco, so we seemed to have hit the jackpot on that measure.Returning from Jardin de al Medina we decided to walk up Mohammed VI. This boulevard has a large pedestrian walkway within the centre; making it a safer place to walk on than Mohammed V, and was previously named Avenue de France, a name which still appears on some of the local tourist maps. In the afternoon breeze the large Moroccan flags were dominating the skyline.After reaching our hotel and having a brief rest we made our way back to Djemaa el-Fna to find dinner and experience the marketplace at night; and what a difference. During the day we saw snake charmers and people leading monkeys around on collars; but at night we heard various musical groups trying to out-noise each other in order to get that valuable tourist dollar; street food stalls where men brandished menus and tried to almost man-handle you into their venue, the steam from their cooking stalls washing over the crowd; the street filled with parked horse-drawn carriages; scooters flying across the space weaving their way amongst the crowd, beeping horns to warn, all of this taking place under the dim lighting coming from the cooking stands, the stalls, or the lamps of the street vendors; quite insane really!While we had already decided upon where we were going to be having dinner we decided to brave a path through the food stalls; running the gauntlet of menus. They speak to you to try and catch your eye, hitting you French, Arabic, English, Spanish, German etc anything to try and get your eye, to hook you. Again, if you try and be polite and say no, you acknowledge them, giving them a way in; so we moved on through, ignoring them. It feels quite rude; but if you want to not have them ambush you if felt like the only way to get through!After surviving the menus we made our way to the restaurant; getting a seat on the third floor with an excellent view over the market at night and the mosque across the road where we heard the last prayer call for the day before starting to eat. For dinner we had Moroccan salad (bit of a cross between a greek salad and tabouli); Shellie had a Tagine with Vegetable, I had a Tagine with chicken, onion, raisins and almonds, and we both had mint-tea (a very very nice local speciality). Dinner was fantastic, afterwards making our way back up Mohammed V to our hotel. Tomorrow we are on a tour to Asni in the Atlas moutains, with a view of the highest mountain in the range at 4,138m.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1227894780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1227894780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1227894780/tpod.html Sat, 08 Nov 2008 06:05:20 -0500 Exploring mainland Europe in Autumn

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Aix-en-Provence, Provence, France

Toddy is gone - long live Toddy..On the 28th of November we handed back the keys to Toddy, and there was a small tear in my eye. Silly perhaps, but Toddy had enabled Shellie and I to explore bits of Europe, and experience Europe from a ``locals'' perspective, something you just cannot achieve sitting in a tour-bus or being restricted to only getting to places you can get to by bus and/or train. We ended up putting just over 4,000km on Toddy over the 28 days we had her; our experiences included dealing with peak hour in Prague, the serenity of the Dolomites, the ocean views provide by the French Riviera, the twists and turns of the French/Italian Alps and the flat-out speed of the German Autobahns. The Peugeot was fantastic, providing us with excellent fuel economy of about 5.2ltrs per 100kms; quite respectable for a new engine.We were scheduled to drop off Toddy at Marseille Provence Airport; so we decided to stay in Aix En Provence, which is closer than Marseille to the Airport (more on that later). The experience of spending the last week or so without an Internet connection made us decide to plan the remaining of our accommodation needs. In our exploration of Aix En Provence we came upon a cafe where, for the cost of a coffee, you could use their WiFi - no limits. Compared to the cost pattern on Internet we had experienced so far, this was a great deal.Aix En Provence is a wonderful small city; the old-town is a maze of alley-ways and shops. It was raining much of the time during our explore, however we did manage to find quite a few little shops, as well as a place to print out our plane tickets; a requirement seeing as we booked everything online. It certainly didn't have the number of people we saw in Nice, which was good; Shellie and I are not big-town people.So what is the plan - well it is to fly (Ryanair) to Marrakech on 30-October, staying there four nights, then moving to Essouria for three nights, then Casablanca for three nights, then Paris four nights, then home. Shellie and I are looking forward to the Moroccan part of the trip having spend almost two weeks in Italy and France.All that said, it is worth nothing that Marseille Provence Airport is actually about 45 km from Marseille. A trap for the unprepared should they arrive in Marseille then find they have to stump up for more travel to get to Marseille. The terminal we are in for our flight to Marrakech is the MP2 terminal, a terminal purpose built for low-cost airlines including Ryanair, Jet4You, BMIBaby.com, EasyJet, German Wings & MVAir.com.The terminal is very basic; comprising of concrete floors (polished) with limited white metal chairs around the edge of the terminals for people to sit in. There is a coffee shop, and not much else. This makes sense as most budget airlines, in order to keep their cost profile low, would not be interested in paying the maintenance costs for a traditional airport terminal.As Ryanair charges quite a bit for excess baggage above your 15 kg limit (15 euro / kilo or part there of) we did a test weigh on one of the check-in scales; 13.7kg for mine and 13.9kg for Shellie. We were quite impressed, although we did do a purge of stuff (excess paper etc) while in the hotel in Aix En Provence; and we did a test weigh prior to the airport using an improvised scale made with shopping bags and a coat-hanger. We used measured groceries such as 1kg of cereal; our estimates were only 300g off, not bad! Our return trip from Morocco is with Jet4You who have a 20kg limit, so we will be able to buy some stuff in Morocco should we desire it!Sitting in the airport for a while awaiting your boarding call does provide the opportunity to watch was is going on, well at least those of us who are not knitting. For example, we watched as a Ryanair flight to Agadir (Morocco) was processed. Occasionally people would leave that queue after reaching the check-in point and move to another queue closer to where we were sitting; it appeared the second queue was an ``Issue queue''. We saw a few small families refused flights; we don't know why because our French is not that strong; it could have been less than 6 months on a passport, a spelling error on the ticket, almost anything. C'est Tragic! Watching the staff in the queue work to resolve (or be seen to be resolving) the issue was quite comical. Often the body language was ``that is the way it is, deal with it''. We didn't see many people leave the ``resolution'' queue happy. Hopefully we would not suffer the same fate.Well we didn't (I was just trying to create some suspense). We actually sailed through the check-in process, although at the security check-point Shellie did have to surrender some water and a tub of yogurt. The chairs in the waiting area are more comfortable than those in the foyer for the terminal; same basic chair, just padded with leather cushions. Next stop, Marrakech!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1225039800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1225039800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1225039800/tpod.html Sat, 08 Nov 2008 06:04:10 -0500 Exploring mainland Europe in Autumn

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Nice, Provence, France

Blackboard would have been proudBlackboard (of Mr Squiggle fame) would have been proud with the path we took to get to Nice from Barge. Our day started with us gaining an hour as daylight saving had finished the night before; a fact we didn't know until we turned up for breakfast an hour earlier than our hosts were expecting. I commented to Silvia (one of our hosts) that this explained why the church tolled five times at 05:00, but seven times at 08:00 (at least 08:00 according to my non-corrrected watch). It didn't explain the reason for the church tolling around 26 times at 08:30 - I put it down to a training exercise.After breakfast and bidding Silvia, Marco, the four dogs and five cats goodbye we set off for Mt Vissio; what an amazing site. The car-park we used was at 2,000m! The road leading to the car-park was very narrow (at most 1.5 car width), with many lock-to-lock corners comprised of a cliff on one side, and sharp rise (ie a cliff) to the road above. This theme of lock-to-lock corners stayed with us for the rest of our travel to Nice with took place along the Italian/French Alps; tight corners, narrow roads, with either buildings or cliffs on each side. I was certainly quite tired by the time we reached Nice; and Shellie had started to feel a little car sick.Nice itself was our first experience of the French Riviera. One of the things which stands out is the complete southern orientation of the Nice basin (the town is surrounded by hills) and the bay itself; which as a result is bathed in sunlight from dusk to dawn. Although, after seeing what they call a beach - I can understand why the French started exploring and colonising places such as Morocco, and why they holiday in places such as Australia. The beach here is more like a quarry with smooth rocks.Another lasting memory of Nice will be having to continually dodge dog-poo on the footpath. The town was heavily populated with people and those ``micro pooches'' who did not care to clean up after their dogs. The next stop after Nice is Aix En Provence to end the driving part of our holiday, dropping ``Toddy'' off at Marseille airport.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1224953220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1224953220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1224953220/tpod.html Sat, 08 Nov 2008 06:03:09 -0500 Exploring mainland Europe in Autumn

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Barge, Piedmont, Italy

Torino - Accommodation as rare as hens teethOur stay in Torino (Turin) was eventful before we even got here! You see before we left on our trip we learnt a major food festival was going to take place in there from 23-27 October. It was two festivals in fact, Slowfood and Terra Medre. The common thread for both was sustainable agriculture and consumption of local produce, things both Shellie and I care about. So a stay in Turin was always going to be part of our trip, we even knew exactly when we had to be there unlike other parts of our trip to date.Despite this we didn't book any accommodation. So imagine my surprise when four days ago I started trying to find some accommodation and kept getting ``sorry we are full due to Terra Medre''. Who would have thought having two major food festivals which brings suppliers from all of the the world and where each individually have brought in more than 200,000 spectators each would have used up all of the available accommodation; everything within 100km of Turin!As as result, we booked ahead our stay in Nice and Aix En Provence; leaving two days in hope we could find something. As luck would have it, on the morning of our departure from South Tryol, I had a reply ``yes, we have room'', at a town called Barge, about 50km south of Turin. We leapt at it of course.We ended up spending two nights at a lovely B&B. Our first night we had dinner with the hosts and two ladies who are participants in Terre Medre; one an educator the other a cook and farmer; both from the USA. The dinner was a delicious Italian Risotto, a lovely quiche, a pastry style desert and a wine; all made by the hosts (including the wine) from produce from their garden. It was another demonstration of the Italian passion for food. Conversations over dinner spanned renewable energy, farming, bee keeping, politics etc. The farmer mentioned that while they are organic, they to had suffered from catastrophic hive failure, loosing 13 of their 17 hives! Such things highlight to me just how much we don't know or understand about our complex environmental systems.We were also fortunate for our host to provide us with a tour of his gallery as he is an artist as well, responsible for most of the building work at the B&B and most of the art pieces.Our apartment was the Sunflower room; rich in earthy colours and wonderfully comfortable. The breakfasts were delicious, comprised of home made cake, bread and biscuits. The biscuits were wood fired by a bakery just down the road. Supplied jams were again made by the hosts (Fig, Apricot and Apple and Peach); apple juice was also home made although the yogurt was not! During the breakfast Shellie had a wood fired oven at her back; so getting moving after breakfast was a bit of a challenge. Eating home produced food was inspiring me to continue with my experiments with making preserves when I return; as well as increasing the capacity of the vegetable patch to provide a supply of ingredients.We made our way from Barge to Pinerrello to catch a train to Turin to visit Terra Medre, passing by a town with an interesting name - None! Terra Medre is a gathering of global food producing countries. The official languages of the event are English, Italian, French, Spanish, German, Japanese, Portugese and Russian. The lack of Asian languages (such as Chinese and Indian) perhaps reflecting the European focus; it is developed western counties which have lost their cultural connection to food!It was interesting also that Turin was hosting the event; the city is surrounded by a heavy smog! That was initially a little off putting for me as we drove into Turin, making the stay in Barge nicer (even through it was still affected by the smog). Our hosts mentioned the smog is caused by Heavy Industry (that is Turin's background) and, at this time of year, people burn heating oil and wood. The B&B is about 50km from Turin and about 500m above sea-level, which made the smog a little thinner. Given the smog situation in Turin, as it recently hosted the Winter Olympics I wondered whether the Western Media kicked up such a stink over air quality as they did for China!The venue is huge! It is the old Olympic village and its supporting infrastructure. Turin are using the buildings for the same sort of things that Sydney does with Homebush. Within the event there were stalls from all over the world; but we couldn't find Australia! Perhaps we simply couldn't locate it, or we were not there, which is perhaps a function of our location (as part of Asia whose participation was limited) and Australia would only be able to contribute indigenous food seeing as we do not really have ``Australian'' cuisine.It was a wonderful to spend the day, tasting our way through the cultures of the world. Samples included savouries (too many salamis to count), breads, olive products, cheeses. Boy there were cheeses, some aromas were so potent you felt you may pass out. Desserts included chocolates and nougat, and preserves such as jams and jellies. All in all it was a culinary treat. At the end of the day we treated ourselves to another Gelato; which was better value for money and tasted better than our previous tastings in Verona and Lake Garda.In terms of the organisation itself Salon de Gusto and Terre Medre must be massive trade shows behind the scenes. Despite to 20 euro entry fee per person and the 7 euro prices on some items there musn't be enough cash flow to sustain the businesses, even with the 200,000 plus attendees. The complex was well organised, although toilet facilities were at a premium (even the blokes had to queue, which a few of them took exception to!)Aside from the food, there was also plenty of educational displays, explaining to the common folk (us) why you should think about food supply as a system and, therefore, why it is better to eat locally produced food!It was a great day, inspiring me to increase the quantity (and quality) of the food we get from our little vegetable patch. Tomorrow we leave Italy and head for Nice to experience the French Riveriaria; travelling by way of the French Alps.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1226011140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1226011140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgdavis/1/1226011140/tpod.html Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:21:10 -0500 Exploring mainland Europe in Autumn

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Casablanca, Morocco

All - for the first time since 23 October I have an internet connection. Many things to update - starting now...Today is our last day in Essouria. We catch a bus from Essouria to Marrakech, then a train to Casablanca. Essouria has granted us another splendid day although there is a little bit of a chill to the air.Both Shellie and I woke early this morning; listening to the sounds of the morning including the many birds which seem to like singing in the morning. Our breakfast was again delicious, although a little hurried because we had a bus to catch at 09:15.Interestingly the bus loading procedure this time around was a little different; there seemed to be a bit of a mix of allocated seating and not. We were fortunate to have a couple of English speakers who were happy to trade seats with us as we were boarded and in position several minutes prior to them.The trip back to Marrakech is along the same road we travelled on before, although this time it had been fine for a number of days so many of the swollen creeks we saw on the way down were trickles of their former selves. Again we witnessed the many blocks of land which appeared to be experts at growing rocks, as well as Argan around Essouria. It appears a farm block is created in a number steps; firstly the surface rocks are gathered into piles, these piles are them arranged to form the basis of the future property wall. Preparation of the surface continues; rocks removed are placed on the ones initially removed to form the wall base. After a while, most of this seemingly done by hand, the rocks are removed sufficiently to allow cultivation of the land, and the land is surrounded by a wall.Most of the land holdings seemed to be about a hectare (10,000 sqm) in size, with a stone fence and a house or storage building, again made from stone. Soil within the cultivated areas around plants are raised into ridges, permiculture style, so as to trap water flowing along the surface for long enough to encourage it to sink deep in to the soil. The walls also do not have drainage channels in them, thus capturing more surface flow. Of course, this does increase the risk the wall will collapse under the weight of water, which appeared to have occurred in a number of areas.As we travelled along we passed many sheep and goat herders tending to their flocks; taking advantage of the green material which seemed to form alongside the roadway. This is similar to what some of our farmers in the more arid regions of our great southern land. I also noticed the ratio of men to women (that is, visible men to women) had increased, at least through the market places alongside the roads for towns through which we passed. I am unsure whether this is a cultural reflection; in that areas used extensively for tourism are fundamentally more liberal than other towns, or whether this simply reflected the time of day.Our stopover in Marrakech was short; only about 45 minutes; before we knew it we were on the train to Casablanca. In our compartment we had a couple, and a mother and daughter, all from Agadir. The daughter noticed the Australian Flag on our backpacks, which lead to a brief conversation as she was a surfer. She had thought about travelling to Australia one-day but had heard we have sharks. It appears the governments advertising blitz to deter boat people a few years back has had some effect perhaps. We assured her that very few people actually get eaten!As we travelled through the countryside, change was gradual. The landscape between Essouria and Marrakech is flat, and closer to Marrakech, dominated by the Atlas mountains which are covered with snow it appeared. It would have been a spectacular place to visit had it not been raining on the day of our tour - c'est la vie!The red colour of the soil combined with the occasional eucalypt reminded us of home. Soon we would be back tending to our garden, our pets, and seeing our friends and family again. This trip has begun to feel less like a holiday and more like a way of life; moving from place to place and seeing what is there. I don't think either of us will have itchy feet for some time once we are again home; but time will tell.As the landscape changed, so did the method of marking property boundaries; rocks giving way to prickly-pear. That said, occasionally you would see a paddock full of prickly-pear; demonstrating it can get out of control here as well!As we got closer to Casablanca the landscape was becoming hillier. No longer the large flat rock filled plains with the Atlas mountains dominating the horizon, but more rolling fields of rocks. The further north we travelled, the greener the fields became; rocks making way for fields of clover.At around 16:30 we reached Casablanca VGRS, the main train terminal. We bid farewell to our travelling companions, giving them a couple of the Australian badges we have been carrying around with us for just such an occasion. The mother appeared to be particularly chuffed; the badge had a kangaroo on it and the colour matched the colour of her Berka.Once off the train it didn't take us long to find our accommodation; we negotiated transport with a petit-taxi (they are red here, beige in Marrakech, blue in Essouria) to Casa Port and then walked from there. Shellie and I have planned a quiet night in today; Shellie is running out of time to complete a rug she has been making for Nicklas before we leave Europe. Tomorrow we will set out to find the tourism office and source some good maps of Casablanca.
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