A Berber Home

On our way into the high Atlas Mountains the van stopped along the side of the road.  We all got out and walked up a hill to a small village where we were invited to tour and have tea in a Berber home.  What an unbelievably incredible opportunity!

The home was beautiful and was built along the side of a mountain.  It was quite spacious with a gorgeous courtyard space in the center.  The woman of the home was so excited to show us her new, second kitchen full of tea kettles and with a fridge!  The man of the home then showed us how to make traditional Moroccan Mint Tea and we shared tea and a meal of homemade bread, butter, honey, and olive oil.  This was the best tea and bread of the trip.  We devoured the food and they were gracious enough to send bread with us for the road :)

A loaf of sugar

The butter story

View from a window in the home

Courtyard

Bedroom

We just feel so honored and lucky to have been able to share this experience with such a lovely family.  

Can one add Ireland to their list of visited countries if the airport closes . . ..

Interesting little experience as airport squatters, we discovered our flight from Barcelona to Dublin had a 7 hour layover.  We arrived at the Dublin airport around 1:00AM and were told we needed to leave the airport because it closed for the night (or at least until 4am).  Really Dublin?  So, the customs official asked us if we were visiting Ireland for business or pleasure -- right!  I explained we had a connecting flight and were told to leave because the airport closed and he put a lovely green stamp in our passports.  He was a nice gentleman, and I supposed I looked worse than my passport photo and he took pity on me, referring us to a different terminal where there was a 24 hour McDonald's (yuk!) with benches for us to "comfortably" rest.

We shuffled our way to terminal 1 and found several people who had built up barriers around themselves with chairs and tables.  We finally found a "booth" at McDonald's got settled for a "long evening nap" when the manager came over to ask us (along with everyone else) to leave because they had to clean.

Since we didn't sleep, we were able to sleep on the plane ride home which ultimately helped us to adjust back to EST.

It was an incredible experience and we are eternally grateful to have this extraordinary opportunity to see this part of the world.

Modes of transportation

Mules

We now know the difference between a mule and a donkey.  Perhaps most people already know this interesting fact, but I’ve (mom) never needed to know until now.  Mules are male and a crossbreed between a donkey and a horse.

We had the opportunity to ride mules up a road and rocky path leading to Kasbah du Toubkal, where we had lunch overlooking the surrounding mountains.  The panoramic view was breathtaking.  It reminded us a little of sitting in the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris, where a circular painting of Monets waterlilies surround you and you don't know where to look first.

We took the mules back down the rocky path and through a small Village.

Camels

Our final day in Marrakech ended with a caravan ride through a desert like area on camels, complete with turbans and in the traditional blue dress.   Nomads in the Sahara would dye their skin and clothing with indigo to keep from getting burned in the sun.   We learned that camels leave a distinct odor on your clothing like no other ….. there won’t be any security professionals opening our bags for any long period of time.  Seriously, it was one of the most unique modes of transportation we have ever experienced.  You could imagine what it would be like to ride them in the desert and we don’t think it would be too comfortable for much longer than our half-hour (since we had a little trouble sitting afterwards).  We rode females and had a 8-month old baby join us.  Simply incredible to see these animal up close and personal.

I love the look on the camels face!  

Back to Spain on a plane ……

On our way home we had one more day in Spain.  We were feeling a bit tired and missing our group and were debating about staying the airport hotel (which was very nice) or going to the Catalan Art Museum.

We’re so glad we decided to go to the Art Museum, what an incredible surprise.  First, the building sits up on top of a hill with a staircase like none we’ve seen decorated with statues, water fountains, columns, 10 foot boxwood, overlooking the beautiful city of Barcelona.













We only had a couple hours because of limited hours on Sunday, so we hurried into the museum despite wanting to take in all the beauty of the surrounding area and building itself.

Given our timeframe we limited ourselves to the medieval & modern sections of the museum.
They're known to have the most extensive collection of Romanesque murals that were actually saved from small churches across Catalonia.

We learned quite a bit from the audio guide about how the murals were moved from the churches in the Pyrenees Mountains and the meaning of many symbols and stories told through art.

Modern Art

Shadow puppets

Garden that was closed

Garden that was open

The “modern” section was not what we were expecting.  Modern for this museum began with the late 1800’s, who knew!  We absolutely loved this section and wished we had more time to discover some of the Catalan artists as we enjoyed learning about Fortuny and Miró.

Cabs

When we were ready to head back to the hotel to grab our bags and leave for the airport we hailed a taxi.  We told the driver we were going to the Barcelona Airport Hotel (literally the name of the hotel because it's next to the airport) and showed him the address.  He said he knew where it was and off we went.  About 5 minutes into the drive we stopped him because we had been going the opposite direction of the airport.  We questioned whether he was going the right way and it turned out he wasn't.  We told him we were going to take another cab and he still tried to have us pay him the cab fare!  He took us in the wrong direction, after having seen the address, and tried to say it wasn't his fault his GPS didn't work, hmmm. In our best Spanish, which is marginal at most, we convinced him it was more his fault that his GPS didn't work than it was ours and got out of the fare.

Lesson learned - always pay attention in cabs.

We found another cab driver with an operational Google Maps App on his phone and off we went :)

Marrakech Moroccan Markets

Yes, even more shopping, but not before a lovely visit to the incredibly beautiful garden designed as a "living work of art" by French artist Jacques Majorelle with architect, Paul Sinoir.

Ahh, the sweet smell of Jasmine - Guess what's coming to your garden next Gaurav.

Herboristerie Bab Agnaou is where we learned about Moroccan spices, natural creams and bought way too many items.  We had a session with a person from the shop who told us all about the items sold in their store.  He had us smell the spices and even a very strong sinus remedy (see if you can guess which photo it is).  He certainly had our "number" as he suggested things for those of us more senior than Miss Sarah (i.e. hot flashes, hemroids, varicose veins . . .  I'll stop here).

Seriously, it was a great place to find quality spices and natural cosmetics.  They had a number of things I (mom) had been looking for in the states priced well.

On our way to lunch mom found a vendor sitting on the street with a Moroccan guitar she had been looking for!  With Nellie's expertise, we found one!  Woo Hoo -- it's been fun getting it through the airports.

We ate at another incredible restaurant with performers just for us!  Made us feel pretty special.  It was so much fun because we were able to learn how to play some of their instruments and dance.

Courtyard of the restaurant 

We visited a palace with beautiful mosaic work and internal courtyards.  

An attempt to perform at the palace while our guide, Radouane, put a hat out to collect money.  Needles to say, my performance didn't warrant compensation.  :) 

Rug shopping was quite the experience.  You almost have to be trained to figure out how to "make a deal" unless you have our guide helping you through the process.  It's exhausting!!!!!  The rugs were beautiful and we were given a demonstration on about 40 rugs and where they came from and what they were used for by different groups within the country.  

We did eventually find a stunning Berber carpet which they are shipping to Sarah and Gaurav!!!

Demo of the different carpets -- LOVE them all

"Let's make a deal"  Thank you Dave for teaching us how to negotiate.

Sold!  The berber carpet has dimension and interesting texture.  Sarah is hoping Moe won't want to dig through it.

Las Vegas in Morocco

We took a drive for dinner to a place called Chez Ale that reminded everyone of a Moroccan version of Medieval times.  It was grand, as we entered and strolled in on a red carpet past several musicians on our way to our table.  After a traditional dinner of delicious barbecue and couscous tajine, we were treated to a wonderful horse show. 

1st part we saw after entering through the gate.

Joining in with the musicians

Before we get into the horse show, let's take a minute to discuss this couscous.  This was the largest plate of couscous you can imagine, shaped like a volcano erupting with vegetables.  It was so big that when the cover was removed, I couldn't help but to laugh.  We even found a chicken buried at the bottom (cooked, thankfully, ha!).  It was delicious and we made a dent in it.

Our guide, Radouane, made certain we had the "best seats" in the house.  He quickly disappeared to watch our reaction from afar and we quickly discovered why.  The show began with 20 men with guns on horses charging straight at us and skidding about 3 feet in front of us, with the horses kicking up sand into our feet.  This happened 5 more times, only they also started shooting their muskets, as if the charging weren't terrifying enough.  We've attached a video, but it doesn't come close to being there.  It was a beautiful show though, with trick riders, a belly dancer and good music.  We were glad we went and glad we made it out!