Ah, The City of Light!

Bonjour!

We made it to Paris just fine and are now sitting on the steps of the Pantheon posting this update. We do not have internet in this hotel either but it is a great little hotel - Bonsejour - in the heart of Montmarte. Paris is so fabulous that Kelly is ready to move here. :) She is having a terrific birthday - today we visited Sacre Coeur, the Latin Quarter, and the Catacombes (in honor of Halloween). In a little while, we move on the Eiffel tower. The food, of course, is as good as you would expect.



This is just a short post right now, as we are outside and it is very cold here - quite a change from Morocco. We are trying to upload days of past photos so stay tuned.



Au Revoir!

Goodbye Africa

We still do not have internet in our hotel in Agadir, so we apologize that the posts are less frequent. The remainder of our stay in Essaouira was nice; we ate dinner at our riad one night and Kelly had the best vegetable tagine of her time so far. The day we left, she went to a local hammam - which is kind of a Moroccan bathhouse - and had some of their treatments which provided some nice relaxation. Steve spent the time in an internet café trying to post our many pictures (unsuccessfully).

The bus ride from Essaouira to Agadir was a lot less eventful than the one from Marrakesh! However, it was one of the most picturesque (and curvy) rides we have ever been on, with the bus following the narrow switchbacks of the mountains while overlooking the rocky coast of the Atlantic. Most of the land – amazingly – is undeveloped and unimaginably beautiful. We were also able to see the sunset over the water on our ride.



Agadir is a beach resort and, in a serious contrast to the rest of our trip, we are staying in a beach resort hotel (and for about $50 a night). The people here are extremely nice and seem very happy and surprised when they learn that we are American. The majority of tourists here are English and German it appears. We are using our time here to recharge and not do too much as we get ready to fly to Paris!!

We’ll post back soon.

Keep on Rockin' in Morocco!

We were looking forward to heading to Essaouira. After the hustle and bustle (more hustle), were wanted a slower pace. When we woke up in morning, Kelly wasn’t feeling that well. She thought that she was just nervous about not getting up early enough for our bus. After a quick breakfast, we arrived at station for our 8am bus. Only three hours to the beach.

The ride on the bus was certainly memorable. The roads were only two lanes, narrow, and in the middle of nowhere in the desert. Also, the bus passed several cars and motorcycles, even with approaching oncoming traffic. About two and half hours into the trip, Kelly felt more nauseous. She tried desperately not to get sick. Steve handed Kelly his button-down shirt to use as a “bag” in case she did become ill. Well, Kelly did get sick, vomiting half in the shirt and half onto Steve’s lap (and the floor, laptop, and camera). The passengers on the bus were very understanding and helpful. Another 20 minutes later we were off the bus, hoping never see any of those people again. There's a good chance a photo of the fateful meal is posted in the post below.

Kelly spent the rest of the day and the next lying in bed. Fortunately, after her bout with food poisoning, she is feeling much better. Steve spent his first two days in Essaouira playing reversi and checkers on the computer (due to the lack of tv or internet in our riad).

Essaouira is a beautiful seaport town. It is small; the medina can be walked in less then twenty minutes. Orson Welles filmed Othello here because of the historic ramparts in the city. Today, we walked around a bit, stopping in a few shops and taking pictures. It is certainly more calm and peaceful than Marrakech. Our riad Dar Afram has a great bohemian style to it with stained glass windows and a huge tiger print bed spread with the mattress on the floor.



We have to post from internet cafes and they are not so good, so we may not post our pictures again until Agadir, but stay tuned.

See You Later, Alligator!

Marrakech has been a lot of fun. Tomorrow we take the bus to Essaouira at 8am in the morning so it should be a challenge to make sure we wake up with no alarm clock!



There are some great values here in Marrakech. First, the fresh squeezed orange juice. In Djemaa el Fna close to our riad, there are multiple OJ stands selling glasses of fresh squeezed juice for 3 dirham (there are about 8 dirham in a dollar). Also, mint tea (made with fresh mint leaves) is the main drink here which you can get for just a few dirham. It is served in pretty little silver tea pots with lots of sugar. There are also fabulous dates here. There are also many, many stray cats. The most difficult thing to get used to is probably the squat toilets. Yeah.





We walked over to the new area of the city – Gueliz – yesterday and even though we were following a map, we managed to walk literally about 4 miles out of the way. The temperature read about 45 degrees Celsius in the sun. We tried to ask for directions several times but were having a problem with the language barrier. Finally, we ran into a group of school children. One of the boys said hello and asked where we were from, etc. It suddenly dawned on Steve to ask the boy where McDonald’s was (as we had read that the only McDonald’s in Marrakech was in the center of Gueliz). The boy pointed us in the right direction. As we predicted, all kids worldwide understand “McDonalds” and how to locate it. We probably looked like insane American tourists wandering for miles in the desert sun just to eat a double cheeseburger.





Although, French and Arabic are the predominant languages, one phrase we heard in English several times in the medina was "See You Later, Alligator!"

We’ll post back soon (if we have internet)!

To Marrakesh

So, we've made it down to Marrakesh. We are staying in a gorgeous little riad in the medina called the Jnane Mogador; for the price we've been paying for hostels, we have our own room and bathroom plus a television (on which Steve has "Lord of The Rings" with Arabic subtitles).

The ferry ride over from Tarifa was easy. The ferry is huge and puts the Cape May-Lewes ferry to shame. As advertised, it takes only about 35 minutes to get over to Tangier and that is where the real fun started. We needed to get to the train station for our overnight journey to Marrakesh. A fellow passenger on the ferry with us told us that when we get off at the port, just keep walking - and that's what we did. If there was not a stream of other passengers we would still be walking round the port of Tangier.

We turned down the many offers for taxis because we were just a little overwhelmed and not exactly sure where we were going - Lonely Planet didn't exactly make it clear where to go once you get into Tangier and we kind of had the "we'll figure it out when we get there attitude." Only we were naively thinking that more people would speak English or at least Spanish but we learned very quickly that everyone basically speaks only French and Arabic.

Eventually, we made it to the train station and had our first meal in Africa - at a McDonald's (complete with a McArabia burger). It was the only "restaurant" in close distance to the station. We also had our first cup of mint tea at the train station - Kelly's new favorite. We splurged on the 1st Class couchettes on the train which were actually really comfortable and woke up in the morning in Marrakesh.



Marrakesh is definitely an experience. The medina is filled with ongoing mazes of old, winding streets crammed with merchants selling everything from spices to incense to cow tongue to bejeweled shoes and on and on. Outside in the main square Djemaa el-Fna, there are also merchants selling a wide range of food and goods but this is also where the entertainment is. During the day, there were snake charmers, moneys on chains, henna tattoo artists, and musicians but at night it really explodes with activity.

The center of the square fills up with food stalls selling not only tangine and couscous but snails and calf brain. There are also tons of impossible carnival games even Steve refused to play. Think of the St. Anthony's festival in Wilmington times at least 100 and you will start to get a little idea of the square at night - and it is like this everyday. It is definitely an adventure and we will post back with more soon.

The Real Windy City

Tarifa, Spain is fabulous. We are enjoying a lazy day just relaxing, checking out the many surf shops, and of course, eating pastries. This is a very laid-back, affordable town. It also has to be one of the most incredibly dog-friendly places we have ever been. Dogs are everywhere and they are allowed inside many of the stores and restaurants and/or the places have one of their own (like our hostel - Steve is with the black dog in the photos).

There is also an amazing view of Africa from here in Tarifa - we're getting very excited for tomorrow! Today, we had our feet in both the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean as it connects here in Tarifa. That's the Mediterranean behind Steve in the photo above.



As we said before, this is one of the kite surfing capitals of the world and you can definitely see why - it is TREMENDOUSLY windy here (as you might be able to tell from the horrid hair in the pictures). Unfortunately, we had some rain storms today (our first of the trip) but it is clearing up pretty well now.

We are hoping to stay in hostels/hotels in Morocco that have wifi so we can keep up with our posts. Our ferry leaves for Tangier tomorrow at 3pm and takes only about 35 minutes. Then we plan to take the overnight train to Marrakesh. We will (hopefully) keep you posted!

Adios, Churros

Sevilla is an excellent walking city - except for the small alleys, speeding motorists, and no sidewalks. But, we enjoyed our time in Sevilla. Unfornately, our pictures cannot capture the scenic buildings, paths through the city, and overall atmosphere.. We definitely had a good time and would recommend anyone to visit if they have the chance. Sevilla is “muy romantico,” but full of tourists. The tapas and food were good, although a little expensive. Also, no chocolate y churros. Steve is going through churro withdrawal.

Our hostel – Samay - was great. It was clean, comfortable, and the staff was friendly. We had two Australian and two Thai roommates. Steve had to share the dorm room with five women. Of course, Steve was last on the shower list, but he looks for excuses not to take a shower anyway. We also had the opportunity to do laundry there, so we are back to having some clean clothes!!!

Currently, we are on a three-hour bus ride to Tarifa, Spain. It is a small city (15,000 pop.) on the beach at the most southern point of Spain. It is very popular for kitesurfing, in case you are interested, Travis. We decided to skip Cadiz, which is more of a tourist destination (plus it saves us a train ride and some more motion sickness for Kelly.)

Only three days left in Spain, then onto Morocco!!!

Sevilla, Spain

We walked around Madrid a lot our last night, eating tapas and churros. After hours of churros, we decided to head on down to Sevilla the next day (Wednesday). We asked the hostel clerk about taking the train to Sevilla, she said we needed a reservation 5 days in advance. This did not go well with our plan. We decided to try to call the train station, but the number we had didn't work. Luckily, we brought our laptop, so all we had to do was book the tickets through the internet. Oh, the hostel turns off the internet at 9:00pm - and it was 11:00pm. So no internet.

We decided to just get up early and go to the train station. We got to the station and after a few wrong lines, we spoke to the ticket agent about tickets to Sevilla. They had plenty and we paid him and we went on our way. Kelly worried for nada.

The train ride was 3 hours and 20 minutes. The seats were roomy and comfortable, and they showed a movie (en espanol).

When we arrived at the train station we had no idea where our hostel was -we booked it that morning, and did not write down directions. We asked which way the city centre was and started walking. This was a good mistake.

Sevilla is full of small, cobblestone, narrow streets and alleys. After 5 minutes of walking it becomes like a cornfield maze that is difficult to escape. Miles later, we finally found our hostel.

We will write more later about Sevilla. Right now we are going to the river walk and cathedral.

Chocolat y Churros

We have had a fun few days in Madrid. We switched from coffee to hot chocolate as our beverage. The chocolate is thick and used to dip churros (kind of like waffles, but not as heavy).

We went to a bullfight last evening and left after two fights. Steve has a new cause to fight - not to outlaw bullfighting, but to make it more fair for the bull. It was actually quite sad watching the bull "fight" - he was already injured before he came out. Then it is six against one. More on that later.

Today, we walked to Retiro Park and had a nice lunch and walked around the city. Hopefully, tonight we will get some Tapas.

Lisbon to Madrid

We spent our third day in Lisbon walking around, drinking coffee, and eating cheap pastries. We checked out of our hostel and went to purchase our "autocarros" tickets. We bought the last two and were lucky to get them. We arrived at the bus station at 7:30pm for our 9:00pm reservation - looked good and comfortable. Only one small problem - No Bano!!! If you have ever been on a drive with Kelly for more than 2 hours, you would understand our problem of no bathrooms. The bus was not bad - leather seats! - Kelly slept reasonably well (thanks to dramanine), and Steve slept about 2 of the 8 hours on the bus. The best part was that when you got on the bus you got a pair of free headphones to listen to the bus radio - the only problem with that was that there were only three stations, one of which played the Michael Jackson song "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" on repeat the whole trip.

We arrived in Madrid at 6:30am and hopped on the metro. We exited the underground surprised to see a bustling city at 7:00am on a Sunday morning. So many people, just out sipping coffee, etc. We walked about 3 blocks to our hostel, but check in was at 12:00pm, so we left our bags and explored the city.

Outside, most of the people were gone. Apparently, everyone was up from the night before. Kelly had our morning planned out, so we headed to an outdoor market that opened at 8:00am. It was nice for the two of us to wander around Madrid like we had the city to ourselves. During our hour walk (we got lost a few times), we passed only a handful of people - all of whom were very happy and eager to give the two American tourist directions. Steve can barely be nice to himself that early!!

When we arrived at the market, we were shocked by the amount of people. Only a minute ago, we thought we had an entire city to ourselves, then suddenly hundreds of people were trying to buy other people's used products. It was a huge flea market that was several blocks long, on a very steep hill. We decided to try to get Steve some culture, so we headed of to the Museo National del Prada (it is free on Sunday.) We saw paintings by some very famous artists that Steve already cannot remember.

By this time, we were able to check in to our hostel, and get the well deserved shower. Now we are taking a break so that we can stay up late and eat tapas!!

We'll post back soon.

Mary HAD a Little Lamb...

Well, we didn't quite get that good night's sleep. We are still getting used to the time difference so we tried to go bed pretty early (like 10pm) which is actually 5pm so we both woke up an hour or so later like we'd just taken a little nap. Luckily, the coffee here is amazing and super strong - even Steve has to put sugar in it. It's cool - there are coffee and pastry shops just about ever block and you go in and have a little cafe standing right there at the "bar." We can definitely get used to that. The food is great - just look at our picture of one of the many butcher shops. Last night, we had some excellent seafood and we just finished off a bag of roasted chesnuts.

Lisbon is beautiful and our hostel is in a great section overlooking the river. There is cobblestone everywhere and lots of painted tiles and terraces on the buildings. Yesterday and today so far we have toured around the areas of Baixa (mainly shopping), Alfama (lots of history with twisty cobblestone roads), and Belem (more historic sites including a huge old monastery). I think we've realized we are basically going to be spending the next five weeks just walking.

Tonight, there is a 5 euro Portuguese meal at the hostel for dinner at 9pm (dinner is late here - perfect for us) which we are going to go to and then tomorrow some more sightseeing and then off to Madrid. We think we might take the bus over to Spain - it's a good deal cheaper - so wish us luck. Hopefully, we'll find some faster internet over there so you can see some of our (many) photos - most of which are Steve standing in front of this or that monument.

We'll write back soon.

Our 1st Day!!!

Well, we made it to Lisbon without any problems. It was a long and cramped plane ride. It is very beautiful and very hilly. The hostel we are staying at is very nice and clean. Better than a Holiday Inn, except we share a room with 2 other people. They seem nice, and are visiting from Australia.

We are still tired, and we are looking forward to a good night's sleep. The coffee here is great and inexpensive. The scenery is outstanding with a lot of history.

We are trying to post our pictures, but the internet connection is slow right now.

Pre Flight at the Walls B&B

Kelly and I are all set for our trip. We leave in about 3 hours. We have all of our bags packed. Our bags weigh just under 13lbs. Hopefully, we will be updating this page every 2-3 days with stories and pictures. Our picture link is in the upper left corner.

Its been a long few days getting everything together, double and triple checking bags, passports, etc. Kelly is very excited about having breakfast in Lisbon tomorrow.

Thanks to all of our family and friends for all of your help and support. We will be thinking about you often, and of course, we will be talking with you. Five weeks will go by fast and you will have to see our faces again.

A special thanks to Neil and Kathleen(Steve's Mom) for watching Maggie, Sammy, and Sunny.

The Walls B&B was excellent as usual. Food arrived within 5 minutes of our arrival, and the service and conversation was excellent. Thanks again, we will be back shortly.


Steve and Kelly