Sunday, February 4.  Rain, cold, windy.  Otherwise, a great day.  Drove the Tetuan, a city close to the Mediterranean.  On the way we made an unplanned stop at a sheep and cattle livestock sales event.  None suited our needs, so we didn’t purchase any.  Walked within the medina (old city) with very narrow alleys and lots of vendors.  Part is the Jewish quarter, with familiar names assigned to the alleys.  Tailors, bakers, jewelers abound.  I bought peanuts.  There was a poultry section with recently killed chickens, the sliced heads hanging off the edge of the table.  Various seafood.  And cats.  Lots of cats.  Everywhere.  The jewelry shops sold large gold belts for $,$$$$.  Why anyone would want a gold belt escaped me.

Drove to the coast and had lunch.  Seafood, preceded by bread, rice, and french fries.  Water.  Three kinds of fish plus calamari, and shrimp.   Back in the van we had pastries Ben had bought at the medina.  Delicious.

Returned to Chaouen by a different route with what would normally be wonderful views.  Dismal weather limited the beauty.  Ben showed us a video he’d received of our destination yesterday, covered in snow.  It was very close to snowing at Chaouen.

Tomorrow we go to Tangier.

A church, built in 1926.

Every city has a main street named after the previous king.

Interesting way to display shoes.

Another interesting way to sell shoes. Pick two, any two.

A bakery. Warm. Fresh bread. We didn’t want to leave.

Pastries.

For those collectors of used remotes.

The Med. On a clear day we could have seen Gibraltar.

Looks like rice paddies. Aren’t.

I’m in Africa! Give me a break. Didn’t pack for this.

Saturday, February 3. Too many pictures.  Breakfast guy slept in.  Life goes on, but 40 minutes later than expected.  Ben (our guide) says (in essence) that life’s too short to worry about details.  So true.  I suspect Morocco has some version of Navaho Time.  Breakfast was various breads and spreads.

Nice casual walk through town before the Saturday crowds hit the place.  We later saw the crowds and were very thankful for Ben’s planning.  Lots of blue, lots of shops.  Toured the kasbah, built in 1471 to blunt an invasion of Portuguese.  Descriptive languages used were Arabic, Spanish and French.  I think this is the first time I’ve visited a place where English wasn’t the first or second language.  The translation app I had failed to be useful.  Arriving at the other end of town we waited for the bus to take us to our next destination.  Had a mint tea.  Sweeter than yesterday.  Wonderful.

The drive included simultaneous views of pine trees and cactus.  A farmer using a two horse rig for plowing his field, with the wife(?) following behind with a hoe.  No doubt the man had a smartphone in his pocket.  Technology advances inconsistently.  Our family meal was with an entrepreneur named Muhammad and his wife and small child.  Being a weekend, the neighborhood children roamed by.  I pulled out my balloons and created a little magic.  The small child kept biting her balloon.  I’m going to have to rethink the age groups that I make balloons shapes for.  Muhammad answered questions and served sweet tea.  Then we strolled over to his garden to pick turnips.  I pulled a few but didn’t know how to find the ripe ones.  Others were much more successful.  Then the spouse took over slicing the turnips for a dish, with our help.  Well, not my help.  I was entertaining the kids.

The meal was steamed veggies, bean soup, the turnips with seasoning, and fall off the fork beef.  Plus bread and water.  It was all fantastic.  Muhammad not only brought in two crops each year, but hosted these events and had two apartments he rented out, short term.  Morocco apparently has its own version of Airbnb.

We returned to Chaouen, when three of us climbed to the Spanish Mosque.  It’s a pretty little building.  The view was great.  Returning to the hotel we gathered for a briefing by a motivated young lady regarding Morocco’s New Family Code, instituted by the enlightened King.  Overall it seems that Morocco is moving along towards granting equality to women, though there’s still a lot to do.  I think the most impressive aspect is that the country appears to have true freedom of speech, which allows a dialog between the old establishment and new generation.

Dinner was at a small place with good, very inexpensive food.  I had fall off the fork beef again, with steaming veggies.  And a coke!  Then two of us scampered over to the only bar in Chaouen that serves alcohol. Whisky and beer, but no wine.  I had a “Casablanca” beer.

I can’t believe I’ve only been here for two full days.  So much we’ve done, so much more to do.  Really cold today, cold tomorrow with a chance of rain.  Great photo opportunities may be over for a while.

Breakfast spreads. I’m pretty sure one was butter.

Laundry site.

Sphinx like.

No, I’m not using a blue filter.

Roof top restaurant.

Making tea.

Ben holding a sugar cone. That’s how sugar is sold.

People from Wisconsin really know how to pick turnips!

She’s so fast, it’s just a blur.

A picture with me in it. Don’t get used to it.

Bean Soup. With olive Oil.

Steamed turnips and spices. With olive oil.  I believe they’d put olive oil on their cereal.

Snow in Morocco.

A unique welcoming sign.

The Spanish Mosque.

Friday, February 2. (Exercised. Hurray!) Morocco has lots of scenery that’s no different than many other countries.  In other words, it’s not all sand dunes and desert.  Didn’t even see a camel.  Our drive out of Casablanca was typical narrow streets like any city in Europe, followed by a very modern, very new expressway.  After turning off to more local roads we encountered many, many two-wheeled carts pulled by either a horse or donkey.  This was mostly farmland, i.e., very green.  Lots of sheep.  The cattle (and horses) looked on the scrawny side, contrasting with what I saw in Mongolia.  Lunch was outdoors at a barbecue establishment where they demonstrated how the meal was prepared.  Bread was fresh and soft, vegetables was steamed to perfection, followed by slightly spiced ground beef with a covering of tomatoes and onions.  Olives of various varieties.  Water.

After lunch we turned off the main road and began climbing the hills and mountains to Chefchaouen.  There were more than a few RVs heading south, indicating that there is a middle class in the country.  Had some mint tea for the first time.  Perhaps the best tea I have ever had.  Need more.  We crossed the demarkation between what was once French occupied Morocco and Spanish occupied Morocco.

Chaouen, as the natives call it, is nestled at the feet of some tall mountains, which are minor peaks below snow capped ones within the Rif Range.  The buildings are blue.  It’s cold here (50s?)  The hotel is an old mansion. Very pretty.  The rooms are small but adequate. Cold tile floors. Incredibly hot water.

Our guide gave us a quick walking tour of the town, which is built on a hillside with a bubbling brook flowing rapidly but not too loudly down the middle.  There are historical markers in English!    Though the confusion of streets/alleys look imposing there’s really only so many ways to go: getting lost isn’t a real risk.  A 600 year-old casbah (castle/fort) sits in it’s center.  (More on all this tomorrow.)

Being the moslem “Sunday”  the mosques were well used.  Chanting was a common background sound which made it feel more foreign and exotic. At one of the restaurant patios a collection of women were celebrating some event with song and laughter, giving the whole community a welcoming, very personal touch.  Only one restaurant serves alcohol.  I saw a “Sports bar” that didn’t have a bar.  I’m not in Kansas, that’s for sure.

Dinner in the hotel was Moroccan soup, seafood squeezed together and grilled (with pasta? It was dark), and delicious chocolate creme.  With bread and olives.  And water.  (Seeing a trend?)

Our conveyance.

Really beautiful. Nowhere special.

Storks.

This scene looks more like Hawaii than Morocco. There are even roosters!

“Spanish Mosque”

The hotel.

My room.

Thursday, February 1.  Dropped off Yoriko at 7:30 for her flight to Japan.  Then I went to 24 Hour Fitness for 2 hours.  (Past habits would have had me going to McDonald’s.)  Flew an Air France A380 double-decker for the first time.  Oddly the lower deck’s walls curve inward to simulate a single deck plane.  Anxiety prevention?  During the flight I took the rear stairs up to the attendants’ station for a glass of wine!  Two people were ill enough to receive medical assistance.  Fortunately there wasn’t a need for a flight deviation.

I had three hot meals on the two flights.  All were acceptable.  All three had the same hard rolls.  They should switch them up a bit.  The attendants were excellent.   In Casablanca a woman having trouble at customs thought raising her voice would cause them to let her go through.  She’d yell, then wait for a desired response (which was always an undesired “so?” shrug), then look through her purse and cell phone.  Repeat.  Funny.  We had to put our bags through an X-ray leaving the airport.  I’d learned that drones are illegal here by reading about a guy who was stopped with one (and lost it, permanently).  I wondered how they found it.  Now I know.  Apparently, they REALLY don’t want drones in the country.

Hour long drive to go maybe 15 miles.  Heavy traffic, lots of people gathered around place.  Don’t know why.  Nightfall before arrival.  Hotel is no different than any other world hotel.  I met the six others who are doing the pre-extension tour.  Used the fitness center.

The Tour begins proper tomorrow.  A 9:15 start.  Way too late for me.  I guess I’ll hit the fitness center again.

Stairs to the second deck.

Tail camera. Very cool to watch.

Paris. Secure location to charge your devices. Good idea.

On January 31 I fly to Morocco.  (The map below doesn’t trace out the pre-trip extension to the Chefchaouen area and Tangier.)  About 19 days total.  While returning I’ll spend two nights in Paris to perform reconnaissance for a future trip with Yoriko.  There’s no extra airfare and hotels are pretty inexpensive.  Besides, while I’m there Yoriko will be in Japan.

I spent an afternoon in Morocco in 1981, so this won’t count as a new country visited.  But I have at least eight other new countries to visit this year.

Morocco has one of the most complex histories in the world.  It’s been under the thumb of Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Arabs, Ottomans, Spaniards and French, not to mention it’s own variety of rulers with their own agendas.  Three most important factors for being conquered: Location, location, location.  Fun fact: Morocco was the first nation to recognize the sovereignty of the USA.  Intelligent folk.

The entire trip is by bus, totaling about 1,500 miles.  (Morocco is about the size of California.) Included is another camel ride.  This will make three times on three continents in two years that I’ve touched a camel (See below).  Amazing.

Most hotels have wifi.  Two nights in a tent though.  I will try to upload photos.  Please feel free to post a comment.  It would be nice to have more comments from real people than spammers.

Camel in Texas

Camel in Mongolia