Sunny and Wil's Travel Blog

Home again....

2012-02-05T22:35:00.001-08:00

The weekend wasn't what we had originally hoped, of course... But we did have a great time. Seeing the "bait" (cows) at Area 51; going to the arts district in Vegas (who knew?!?); wandering around the Gaslamp Quarter and Old Town; watching the sun set from our balcony; and exploring the overwhelming (and, dare I say, overpriced) San Diego Zoo.

On thing that makes me very happy is that, no matter how much fun we have while away, I am always happy to be headed home again. Looking forward to seeing our furry little friends soon!!

San Diego

2012-02-04T21:56:00.001-08:00

Flew into San Diego this morning... Spending more time sitting on the Tarmac than in the air.
But SD has been a pleasant surprise, from the killer tofu burrito at Pokez, to our pretty balcony at the hotel, to the sweetness (if Disneyfied history...) of Old Town San Diego.
We walked by 4th and B, the club where Adam was supposed to play tonight, and saw two guys hanging up a banner for a fight night. We struck up a conversation with them because I wanted one of the Adam posters on the door. They encouraged us to come to the show... "we've got girl fights, fights where you can tie up your boyfriend and wail on him.... And even little people!" ummm, maybe ...
Tomorrow we will hit the zoo, but I have to admit that I am already looking forward to getting home. A little too much travel for my old bones.

Vegas,baby

2012-02-02T19:30:00.001-08:00

Look, we're not Vegas people. But it was a great place to see Adam Ant. Who then cancelled. So we are making the best of it and having a great, quirky time. Now in the arts district -- very vibrant!

au revoir, Paris - day 7

2010-06-13T22:21:00.000-07:00

Random Paris memories...

- the "Mickey" breads at Disneyland Paris... no pretzels or ice cream bars, but lovely brioche...
- the candy seller near the Metro station... never managed to buy candy from him, but the display was spectacular
- the fancy fire extinguisher store... who knew there was a market for fancy fire extinguishers?!?
- the gold ring scam. Bless.
- the denizens of the Pharmacy nightclub beneath our flat
- Gustav Eiffel wrapped in protective plastic... looking somewhere between a Christo work and Katherine Helmond in "Brazil"...
- singing la Marseillaise surrounded by thousands of French fans watching France's opening game in the World Cup

I do wish we had gone for a run... or rented a velib bike.... or swam in the Josephine Baker pool. That's my plan for our next trip -- a Parisian triathlon of sorts.

I was surprised at how much Wil enjoyed Paris -- and, through him, I enjoyed it too. So I suspect we'll go back someday. If only we had more vacation!!!!

We got up early on our last morning, dragged our things to the RER and on to the airport, where we queued seemingly forever in a long and winding queue to get "out" of France. We somehow couldn't find anything to buy at the airport. Morocco rearing its ugly head again! It just made me think of Barcelona airport and their amazing shops. Perhaps we got shunted off into a horrible "you're flying to America so you won't buy anything" wing? But we settled happily into our seats on the plane... and were even happier to arrive home on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Not sure when our next trip to Europe will be... perhaps Italy in 2012? 2013? Who knows...

But our next "big" trip -- New York for the marathon!

on yer bike! Paris day 6

2010-06-12T21:30:00.000-07:00

Months before we went to Paris, we saw a woman wearing a shirt that said "Fat Tire Bike Tours: Paris". We made a note of it, said we'd look it up when we got home, and then promptly forgot. A couple of months before we left, I was leafing through a guidebook and Wil remembered the shirt. I turned the page to where my ring finger was "holding" a page... and read "Fat Tire Bike Tours". It was destiny!

We had talked about a bike tour of Paris, but then decided what we really wanted was their day trip to Versailles. So we booked it for our last full day in the city of light.

We met up at the office, picked out our bikes, and met our guide, Andrew. Andy talked us through the morning -- we ride as a group, we "take the street", and we stick together. Thus prepared, we rode to the RER station. A bit chaotic ... lots of different "strengths" and levels of confidence among the group. But we got to the station with plenty of time, and Andy coached us through what we would do. Basically, we were grouped in sets of 4, given pairs of bungee cords, and instructed to get on trains when the doors opened and then bungee our bikes together to the poles in the entryway. It was a little panicky when the train arrived, but we all got on board safely.

As we rode to Versailles, Andy worked the train, moving along to chat with the people on the tour. He also gave us the good news -- that Versailles was the end of the line, and that we'd have plenty of time to get off the train.

After arriving in Versailles, we regrouped, and then rode to the market to buy provisions. Andy had told us where the essential shops were -- the wine store, the cheese store, and (for us) the Lebanese store, where we could get tasty veggie options. I think all of us bought a week's worth of food. We came back to the bikes, strapped our picnics to our bike racks, and then set off for the palace.

We pedalled around the grounds -- lovely and flat -- stopping for photo ops in a few places. I started daydreaming about living near the palace and going for my runs in the park... Eventually we arrived at the far end of the Grand Canal -- and settled in for our amazing picnic. Great wine, great bread, great cheese, etc. etc. Lots of nice chatting with the sweet people on the tour.

I will say that the people on the tour were surprisingly nice -- perhaps because this is an active tour, rather than a standard bus tour. A couple who were on their honeymoon, another couple who had gotten engaged the night before,

Then we went for a bit more of a ride... and things got weird. We "lost" a couple of riders, there was some anxious chattering, and a few angry words. But in the end, we all made it to the entrance of the Chateau...

Going in to the Chateau... crowded, lots of shuffling, but amazing interiors... the hall of mirrors is justly amazing. We wandered around for a while, but soon tired of the heat and the crowds. Andy had made a point of telling us where he would be drinking while we were in the Chateau, so we made our way there and found a few other "tour"ists. We drank beer, swapped stories, and talked about football before going back to the bikes for our trip home.

Pretty uneventful trip back to Paris -- we were much better at getting the bikes on and off the train, and chatted with two nurses who were on holiday. We all rode back to the office, and then, somewhat anticlimactically, disbanded. It made me wish we had gone on one of the city tours -- because Fat Tire puts on a great tour -- and when we go back to Paris we'll definitely do it.

That night we wandered flaneur-style around Paris... lingering on the Pont des Arts. We loved all the people gathered on the bridge with picnics and guitars, and loved watching the Eiffel Tower go all sparkly. We even loved the Bateaux Mouche. But most of all, we just loved being in Paris together.

too darn hot -- Paris day 5

2010-06-11T22:02:00.000-07:00

Crazy freakin' hot day in Paris. We started the day at Pere Lachaise cemetery, wandering around and admiring famous graves. I have to admit, I'd hate to have been buried next to Jim Morrison! Nice to see Gertrude and Alice B. buried together... much nicer than seeing Heloise and that faithless Abelard. Still love Oscar Wilde's tomb, too... perhaps none the better for the purple lipstick kisses all over it.

At some point we also made our way into Notre Dame -- big, beautiful, cool Notre Dame. Sigh.

Perhaps now I should capture some thoughts about food.... we ate well, even if we mainly ate bread and cheese. Paris isn't exactly a vegetarian paradise. We should have had more Lebanese food, methinks, but were a little frightened off by the "ham in everything" mood of much of the food we saw. One complete highlight: Berthillon ice cream... amazing. Not sure why we didn't have it every single day... We also drank bottle after bottle of fizzy water... fantastic. And is there any shame in eating amazing bread and incredible cheese all the time?

the lovely bones... Paris, day 4

2010-06-10T08:56:00.000-07:00

Thursday morning we went out on a suitably rain-soaked morning to visit the Catacombs. We had to wait in the queue outside for a while -- they try to keep the numbers relatively low, so someone has to leave before you can go in. It's all very charming and low-tech... old-school turnstiles, some yellowed postcards at the ticket desk, and then a steep spiral staircase. It takes a while for your eyes to adjust, though there are lights.

First we walked through some pretty empty tunnels created out of the old stone quarry. It seemed to go on and on, and I wondered if maybe I had been misled by the pictures I had seen. Perhaps there's only one ossuary room? But then, eventually, we passed a sign: "Arrête, c'est ici l'empire de la Mort" and came to the corridors lined with that must have been millions and millions of carefully arranged bones. Some were simple -- just lines and lines of femurs, with the "knee joints" on the outside. Others used other bones for decorations -- some had patterns of skulls, for example -- while others had insets of tombstones or other carved stones.

I was really pleased that they limited the number of people who could be down there at any one time -- it meant that quite often we had rooms to ourselves. And most people stayed pretty quiet in the catacombs... except a bored-sounding tour guide. It was surprising how many bones there were -- they just went on and on. I began to imagine holding a goth wedding in the larger rooms. Probably wouldn't be allowed by the authorities.

It was almost a relief to climb the spiral stairs at the other end of the tunnels and emerge into the still-wet, but brightening Paris morning.

Later that day we made our way to the Institut Pasteur to visit the museum. Not sure what to expect, we just turned up and had a battered "guidebook" thrust in our hands as we were taken into laboratories lined with display cases crammed with relics. There were displays on crystallography, his work on yeast and fermentation, his work on anthrax, and, of course, his work on rabies. Hand-blown glass jars of various shapes and sizes, filled with various items... including the (okay, to me) very recognizable "rabbit spinal cord dangling in a jar". (Tiny thrill.)

But then we were collected, along with two other hapless visitors, and taken upstairs to Pasteur's apartments -- typically overstuffed and overfurnished rooms, lots of awards, some random art, flocked wallpaper. Could have been anyone's... though slightly amusing to find it in a city, rather than in a country house.

But then we came to my favorite part of the tour... the trip to the crypt. A glorious mosaic arched ceiling depicting several of his great achievements... snarling dogs, happy cows, frolicksome bunnies, and laden grapevines. And in the middle, a big black marble sarcophagus. Oh, and a bronze death mask. Awesome.

I had hoped to go back up to the "gift shop" (they had some books and postcards), but we were basically then escorted to the exit. Methinks the museum staff are just grad students bored out of their mind.

In the evening we made our way to Montmartre and wandered around following a "walking tour" from the City Walks card. First we stopped at Cafe des 2 Moulins -- aka Amelie's cafe -- and drank red wine at the bar while smiling at besotted tourists (and feeling besotted ourselves). Then we climbed up the hill, seeing the Lapin Agile and a restaurant, whose name I have of course forgotten, that looked amazing. But I had other plans.

We were wandering around, thinking everything was beautiful and quiet, and wondering about out next trip to Paris, finding an apartment there, etc. Until we rounded a corner and the street was suddenly full of drunken teenagers. What? Crazy noisy busy icky. Romance completely gone. We made our way up the steps to Sacre Coeur and had a quick wander around the very pretty church, then back outside for the view over the city. The hub-bub made us not want to linger, so we wandered off.

Eventually found our way to our dinner destination, Au Grain de Folie, a vegetarian restaurant. Let me just say... this place was bizarre. It maybe seats 10 people who know each other very well. We arrived and there were two people in the place... they had a certain haggard look to them... but we sat down, got our menus, and prepared to be amazed.

The wine was okay -- basic red table wine, drinkable without being noticeable in any way. We had starters and a main... and waited about 20 minutes for starters. Tasty something or other... perhaps a salad with a bit of goat cheese on toast? It's been too long to remember. But it was okay. After we finished our starters, the two other diners left. I should point out that we were the only two people in the restaurant at this point.

A good hour later, we got our main course. It was... hmm. Nothing special. Quite a bit of random small collections of food. As if perhaps she had rummaged around in the tiny kitchen and scraped various things out of tupperware and arranged it on a plate. We also had the distinct feeling that she was drinking plenty of the house red herself... she kept wandering by the table and chatting with us... as we sat there, without food.

After our main course, we sat there for a while... until she came back and told us that she had made a lemon cheesecake that she was very proud of, and thought we should have some, Um, okay. It was indeed good, in that "little bits of lemon peel" sort of way.

We were probably in there for 2 hours. No one else came in while we were there. How does this crazy old dear survive?

When we left, I told Wil to take a photo of the facade to remember it. As he was framing the shot, she came sprinting out to pose in front of her restaurant. Adorable.... if crazy.

Voulez Vous Disney Avec Moi? Disneyland Paris, Day 2

2010-06-09T17:03:00.000-07:00

Staying at one of the DLRP hotels means that you can take advantage of "extra magic hours" -- basically, an hour's head start over the crowds. We foolishly thought it was good for both parks... until we walked over to a suspiciously quiet Walt Disney Studios Park and discovered that the gates were locked. Harrumph.

So back over to the main park which, in the morning rain, was empty. Weirdly empty. We got pictures of Main Street USA that were virtually empty. Not "extra magic hours" empty -- more like "pre-opening restaurant reservation" empty. Pity the weather wasn't better... but maybe that's why the park was so empty.

We went into the castle walkthrough -- fantastic stained glass, "sleeping" suits of armor, pillars turned into trees, etc. Really gorgeous -- especially when empty. We walked by it again later in the day, and it was rammed with people -- clearly we got lucky.

At some point we wandered over to the Disney Studios park.. but we were totally underwhelmed. Most of the rides weren't open... either not open yet for "summer" (hey, it was only June 8), closed due to some mechanical problem, or, in the case of Toy Story Playland not yet open at all. Boo. So we walked around a bit, went on Tower of Terror, saw lots of closed rides, and managed to successfully see the "Armageddon Experience". But then we gave up. At one point we joined a huge queue for Crush's Coaster... to be told that things were not working, but they hoped to fix them, maybe in an hour, maybe tomorrow, peuf. Infuriating. So after poking around in some shops, we just went back over to Disneyland.

What else is there to say about DLRP? We had this idea that it would be glorious... but a lot of it simply wasn't up to snuff. For example, the teenagers who work the railroad are bored teenagers, rather than train geeks. Because, of course, Europeans who love trains can actually WORK ON TRAINS. Seeing that snotty kid with his overalls undone "just so", his bandanna and hat in his pocket, and absurd hipster sunglasses almost made me angry. So pathetic.

And the whole character thing... the absolute crush that greeted any character "in the wild' was terrifying. Take cultures for whom standing in lines is simply not done, and throw excited kids in the mix. Yikes. At first we thought they only had fur characters out there... but then at one point we saw Snow White essentially pinned against a railing by a 6-deep crowd of people. So much for our finding out what language the princesses all spoke!

By about noon, we were pretty much done. We had another night we could have stayed, but for what? A wander around the dispiriting "Disney Village"? Another weird meal in the hotel? Plus, the weather was getting worse and worse... absolutely dumping with rain.

We went back to the hotel to have a nap and to think. A couple of hours later, with the rain still pouring down, we decided to just pack up and head back to Paris.

We took the shuttle bus to the train station, the train back to Paris, and were in our lovely little flat by evening. Nice!

Bonjour Mickey! Disneyland Paris Day 1

2010-06-08T22:29:00.000-07:00

Woke up early – well, okay, the noisy garbage collectors woke us up early. But it meant that we got up, showered, threw a few things in our small shoulder bags, and we were out of the apartment by 8:45…. So that we could go to Disneyland!!!

We took the RER from Luxembourg to Les Halles, and transferred to the red line to take us all the way out there. The ride was pretty uneventful – not a lot of people heading out of the city at that time. At 9:45 we arrived at Marne la Vallee station – up the escalators, and suddenly Disneyland! Sorta.

It was easy to spot the signs to the buses to the hotels – where, weirdly enough, Hotel Santa Fe is the closest bus. (Clearly Disney hasn’t worked out that they are supposed to put the “value” hotel buses farther away…) One arrived within a few minutes, and it was loaded to the gills. A far cry from the buses at WDW in Florida, there were children pressed against the windows and doors – kinda scary. Watching that bus empty out made me a bit nervous, but I was still excited at the time.

We rode to the hotel along windy roads, so it wasn’t super obvious how far the hotel was. That said, I had read that it was only a 15-20 minute walk (though Disney describes it as 20-25 minutes) – we just didn’t know which way to go. Our first glimpse of the hotel was pretty positive – a giant “drive in movie” screen picture of Clint Eastwood, a big reception area, and a separate area to get off the bus. We went in to reception, walked up to the desk, and within minutes the helpful castmember had given us our park tickets, breakfast reservations, and told us where we could stow our bags until our room was ready at 3. So within 20 minutes of arriving by train, we were ready to set off!

Again, not really knowing how to walk to the park, we decided to take the bus. This may have been a mistake. Now, in Florida, there are organized bus queuing areas, and everyone is relatively orderly. Of course, that’s because our culture doesn’t approve of line jumping. Here, it was chaos. Rather than queues, it was more of a pen – with openings that aligned with the various openings on the bus. It’s clear that at some point they had to alter the pens – by putting up pollards at the point where the “pen” meets the curb – to deter people from just pushing in at the back (if that makes sense).

Then the bus pulled up, it was chaos. Even before the bus had stopped, people were running at it, hoping, perhaps, that the doors would open before it arrived at the “pen”. Once it stopped, the doors opened, and everyone just pushed in, regardless of children, strollers, etc. Crazy. We got trapped behind an English family who just didn’t know what to do. In the end, we basically had to go around them and squeeze ourselves on.

Thankfully, it was a very short ride – but it made us realize that we really needed to figure out where the walkway was!

We got back to the train station and headed through the lackluster security for our first glimpse of Disneyland Parc. They’ve designed the entrance beautifully, placing the grand hotel right at the gates – fantastic! You go through the arches underneath the hotel and through the turnstiles and you emerge at the familiar view of the Main Street USA train station – but without the “floral Mickey” garden. But once underneath the train tracks, it’s again a very familiar vista – looking up Main Street toward the castle – which, here, is a pinkish red. (Gorgeous, but I still think Magic Kingdom in Florida has the best castle so far.)

You could see other design improvements, however. At DLR and WDW, when there are parades, it’s nearly impossible to move in or out of the park. Here they built arcades that run behind the shops so that you can quickly move through. Very smart!

We decided to head directly for one of our two favorite rides – “Phantom Manor” – and to try to get there by “guessing” rather than by looking at the map. So we headed into Frontierland, and soon saw Big Thunder Mountain – or Big Thunder Mesa, as it’s called here. Up on a hill to our left, in a fantastic old “wooden” house, was Phantom Manor. Gorgeous! We essentially ran in, and were let in to the first possible elevator. It was strange – the introductory voiceover is in French, which meant that most visitors couldn’t understand it, so most people completely ignored it. We entered the “stretching room” – which felt very small, but did have 4 totally different portraits. The castmembers are having a tiny bit of fun, but not enough, frankly. My very basic French meant that I could understand that it’s the same speech – “this chamber has no windows, and no doors!” There’s also no scream on the track, and it was so dimly lit that I couldn’t tell if there was a “body” on the rope in the cupola or not. Still, exciting. When the doors open, most people rush out, which meant we had plenty of time to enjoy the morphing “paintings” (which, as at WDW, are digital, rather than painted). One interesting difference: the cat lady turns into a black panther, not a tiger. Strange choice?

Then into the loading area – same lovely brass bats, and a much more attractive backdrop. Weird lack of voiceover here – no “doom buggies” or “I will lower the safety bar”, etc. In fact, there’s no voiceover at all, so it was difficult to sense the “story” throughout the house. There’s something about a bride, but not sure what happened to the groom. Other differences – the bride is holding the “floating” candlestick in the hallway, and the coffin in the conservatory has a cheap shadow piano player (nothing nearly as nice as the one in DLR). The ballroom, rather than being a birthday, is a wedding party – though it still looks as if a hearse has crashed in to the room. Not sure if anything is going on in the “picture” of the house – it’s not the two dueling gentlemen. Madame Leota speaks in English and French, but there’s no response when she asks the spirits to ring a bell, etc. The biggest difference is in the graveyard scene – rather than an old world graveyard, it’s a wild west graveyard and ghost town. The singing busts are still there, but that’s the only time you hear “Grim Grinning Ghosts” at all – sad. And there’s a “mayor” who doffs his hat (and head), while speaking lines from the American voiceover, but that’s all. And then at the end, rather than hitchhiking ghosts, you get little demons hanging on to the top of your doom buggy. And at the very end, you see the bride talking – perhaps saying things like Constance says at DLR, but not sure.

Wil liked the wild west graveyard, but I thought it was a little cheesy. We both missed having the song playing as a finale, and both really missed the voiceover. Just what, exactly, happened to the bride? And we never saw the groom?!? Or was he the cackling skeleton? Who knows.

We rode it again immediately… and over the course of our stay rode it a few more times. It’s fun, but not as good as either DLR or WDW. We did, however, like the inclusion of a “Boot Hill” cemetery after the exit – nice touch.

Leaving Phantom Manor we walked along the “Rivers of America” frontage towards the (sadly closed for maintenance) Indiana Jones ride – which apparently is very different from our Indiana Jones ride. With great restraint (meaning we didn’t run), we then saw the big pirate ship and the banner for Pirates of the Caribbean – my favorite ride.

Their Pirates has a long interior queue area – much like Florida, where you wind around a castle for what seems like forever. The loading is pretty much the same, but after that there are a lot of differences.

We had heard that Paris’s Pirates is a “true” ride – meaning that it hasn’t been “Jack Sparrowed”. Well, sorta. It’s a much different ride – as if the ride had been shuffled – and starts with a very brief float past a restaurant and then a lift up to the top of the castle – where you glimpse the battle below.

Here’s the thing – sometimes things in rides break. In our time at DLP, we noticed several differences within individual rides. On “It’s a Small World” on Tuesday, one of the “carousels” in the finale room was stopped. But on Wednesday it worked. And things changes in Phantom Manor. So the fact that the cute teenage “wench” next to the “pooped pirate” wasn’t there when we went through on either day could mean that she has also been edited out of the story… or it could mean that she just wasn’t working. I’m going to assume the latter – since there was a weirdly graphic “shadow” in a nearby window that showed two men pulling a woman this way and that – including holding her legs. Weird.

So we liked a lot of the parts of Paris’s Pirates, though I still prefer the original. There wasn’t very much “Pirates Life for Me” action, and some of the tableaus were missing or limited at the end. But we still rode it several times over the course of our visit!

After leaving Pirates, we wandered through Fantasyland (yep, the queues for Peter Pan’s Flight are crazy here, too), admired the castle, and did the “dragon” walk-through. (Fantastic!) Then we headed over to Discoveryland, which is perfect in its Jules Vernian theming. Giant airship hangar? Check. Nautilus in water? Check. Great big gorgeous mountain, with a giant cannon on the side? CHECK! Of course, it was closed…. But they hoped to have it open later in the day. We did walk through the Nautilus, which was very pretty, but I would rather have slowly moved through a lake.

We wandered around a bit more, going on rides occasionally, looking in the shops, and doing a lot of people watching. We went on Star Tours – in French – which was still fun but needed some serious work on the soundtrack. (Unless French people assume that all robots have warbly voices?) Fun to hear C3-P0 speak French – but, of course, he speaks millions of languages… Experienced some pretty hardcore line dodging – lots of people just trying to push through the line. Very, very weird.

Eventually, we noticed that Space Mountain Mission 2 had opened… so we hurried in. After only a 10-minute wait (in an attractive queue area), we were on board. And… I hated every second of the ride! I guess I thought it would be pretty and swirly – like a prettier version of the ride at Disneyland. Nope. Completely different ride – loops, barrel rolls, lots of smacking my head on the restraints. Never again. (But it was gorgeous to be “shot out of a cannon” to start our trip.)

It felt weird to have the park closing at 7 – I mean, what else are people going to do? We did wander around Disney Village for a while – just some Disney shops, a few restaurants, and a big cinema that happened to be showing Sex and the City 2. I have a hard time imagining the cinema in Downtown Disney putting up a giant billboard advertising that movie.

We went back to our room after having a look at the buffet – the only dining choice at our hotel. (Why we didn’t have a look around, I don’t know. But we didn’t.) The lines were crazy, so we decided to get a bottle of wine from the gift shop (where we met the first truly good castmember of our visit) and head back to the room to rest. When we returned to the buffet, we ended up behind a group of 5 French girls at the cashier.

Here’s something we noticed right off in France. Cashiers are always asking for correct change, or at least closer change. My favorite is when Wil was paying for something that cost 7 Euros, and paid with 10… and was asked if he had 7 instead. Really? Anyway, the restaurant sold one thing, essentially: a buffet. You could choose to add a drink to your bill for 2 euro more. So why it took 3 or 4 minutes per person in the queue I cannot imagine. Because we had more than 15 minutes to prepare, Wil and I made exact change, which we handed to the cashier. The cashier looked at us as if we were insane, and inspected each coin as if he had never seen such wonders in his life. I should point out that this man was French, and most likely used euro in his real life. He also WORKED AS A CASHIER.

Once in to the buffet, it was just as chaotic as we expected. Though there weren’t a lot of people (it was after 9 by this point), it was still strangely crowded. And whereas most menus in the park were clearly labeled as far as vegetarian choices go, the buffet was not. Still, some of the salads were good, and we liked the cheesy potatoes and the fresh guacamole.

Back to the room – quiet! – and then to bed.

Arrivée…

2010-06-07T22:15:00.000-07:00

Got up super early – 3:30 – to say our tearful goodbyes to Sue and Joe (who was a total hero for getting up with us). Then Tony took us to Birmingham Airport, where we got a little lost (ah, Terminal 2…) but still arrived at the check-in counter before they opened. As a result we were able to watch the agents studiously ignore the people standing 2 feet away from them (us).

One good thing about an absurdly early flight: no queues at the security screening. Which meant that it was a little confusing as to what was expected. And apparently you no longer need to remove your shoes. (Though I did. I’m funny like that.)

Then we had a lot of time to kill at the airport. We wandered and shopped, trying to use the last of our British coins. We bought sodas and then sat in the completely empty “Vue Lounge” to eat our leftover Linda McCartney pies – Wil was right, they’re the perfect breakfast.

Finally, it was time to board, so we all went down the runway and onto…. A bus. Which drove us around for a little while before setting us down next to a tiny plane… with propellers. Gulp. We had two options for boarding – front door, or back door. We decided to head for the back door since we were seated in row 21 – a wise choice, as it was the last row of the plane.

The flight was short – only about an hour – so we were up and down before we knew it. We seemed to have to go a long way through the airport before suddenly emerging in the midst of a big group of Americans – so we must have somehow ended up merging with a big flight from the US. Still, immigration was weirdly easy (bored looking agent opened our passports, looked, and waived us through).

We then went to baggage claim, where my bag was already circling and Wil’s came within seconds. On the way to shuttle, we decided to go ahead and change our UK cash – knowing it would be a terrible rate, but whatever. I’m embarrassed to say just how bad the rate was!

Then on to the shuttle, to the RER, and after a bit of fiddling with the machine (good thing Wil has a chip and pin card!) we had our tickets and were headed to Paris!

Uneventful ride (though it was hard having suitcases on the train), and we got off the train at Luxembourg station. We had a 50-50 chance of picking the correct exit… and lost. :) But we did have a chance to stop at a cash machine and pick up the wodge of cash we would need to pay Nathalie.

We found Rue Monsieur le Prince very easily, but I had a harder time spotting the house numbers – and was again confused by the fact that the numbers don’t match up on either side of the road. Never mind – eventually we found the building and made our way inside and up the steep, windy stairs to the 3rd floor (4th floor to us!). The key was right where Nathalie said it would be, so we let ourselves in (a teensy bit early – it was 10:40) after a bit of fiddling with the lock. Five bolts! Wow.

The apartment is tiny – but perfect and has everything we need. A tiny shower, a tiny bathroom, a tiny kitchenette, a tiny table, but a decent sized bed. And everything – everything – is orange!

So we settled in, freshened up a bit, and then headed back out to explore a little. Our first stop: lunch. We picked up some beautiful cheese sandwiches and sodas and headed over to Notre Dame to picnic in the square. We got our first “Do you speak English” scam, watched very bold little birds that hovered in front of your face hoping for food, and basked in the sunshine. (And ate our awesome sandwiches.)

We then walked over to the Louvre – and along the way got our first “gold ring” scam. We didn’t understand it at first – in fact, we walked away figuring it was probably a scam, but also fretting that we were being rude somehow. Until, of course, we got the same scam a couple of hours later. It’s a famous scam, apparently, so glad we didn’t get caught up in it.

We went in to the Louvre at about the right time – not too crowded, no queues for tickets or security. We admit it: we were there to see the big items, so we headed for the Mona Lisa first (though stopped along the way to admire other things, including the Nike of Samothrace, which is one of my favorite pieces). Mona Lisa – small painting, big room, huge crowds. I still think one gets a better sense of it from postcards (heresy, I know). Also saw some great sculpture, a couple of Vigee le Brun’s, but then wanted to get outside. Funny: the gift shops at the Louvre are very posh, with nice postcards, prints, etc., but they don’t have any of the fun stuff that, say, the National Gallery has. No t-shirts, no scarves, no mugs. Weird. It’s only when you leave the museum that you find the fun things. But I’m sure the Louvre is doing all right.

We then decided to walk along the river to the Eiffel Tower – so pretty! Got there, saw the huge queues, and decided that we should use a restroom first. Except, apparently, there are no restrooms in the park. Now, there’s a lot of construction work going on, so perhaps they are renovating the restrooms… but is there really only one of those public restroom pods to satisfy the needs of EVERYONE who visits the tower each day? Really???

We ended up going for a little walk and stopping somewhere for some water (we were dehydrated) and a loo. We couldn’t buy a liter of water without eating, so we ordered a cheese sandwich. Yes, all we eat now is bread and cheese…

Refreshed, we headed back to the tower and the giant queues. Queue for security. Queue for tickets. Queue for the lift to the second level. Queue forever for the lift to the tippy top. Queue for the lift from the tippy top back to the second level. Queue for the lift to the bottom. Of course, this queuing was broken up by some breathtaking views of the city. :) I love going up to high towers and buildings to see a city. And though it was cloudy, it was also pretty clear and we could see everything.

Amusing: there are signs all over at the tower saying that it is illegal for the “itinerant salesmen” to be selling merchandise, and that the only official merchandise is that available in the shops on the tower. A girl behind me in a lift queue read it and said, “Oh, I get it – they want you to purchase the $20 item, not the same thing for $1 from those guys.” Yep.

We walked back towards home along the river (and had our second gold ring scam attempt, along with several “do you speak English” attempts) and stopped in at the Monoprix along the way to pick up provisions – cheese, bread, salad, tomatoes, fizzy water, and wine. It was fun to wander around and look at the food, though the checkout lines were insane. But we left there, got home, and had a delicious “picnic” at our little table by the window.

We decided to have a semi-early night, since we want a semi-early start on Tuesday. Why? Because we are going to Disneyland!

our last days in Blighty

2010-06-06T20:02:00.000-07:00

Had a relaxing weekend at Beck and Steve's, hanging out with the family. We went to the chippy, where I had my first (and, let's face it, probably last...) pickled egg. Beck and Steve were packing for their honeymoon, doing endless loads of laundry. We also went for a walk in the park with Beck, Steve, and the young kids.

Sunday morning we got to see Beck and Steve off, and I quickly scribbled "JUST MARRIED" on their car. William and Lydia had selected special hats for the couple to wear -- large "nemo" clownfish hats -- and they were good sports and put them on to drive away in. Great to see them both so happy!

Wil and I went for a little run, discovered that there was a countryside fair, and planned on returning to it. We took Bella (freed from the kennel that morning), the kids, and Tony and Sue and had a look around. I saw a hedgehog, so it was epic.

Decided, in the end, not to go to the Glee Club to see Milo and Erica. It would have been great to see them, but it was also great to sit up late with Tony.

Wedding!

2010-06-05T04:51:00.000-07:00

Have just arrived back from Beck and Steve's gorgeous wedding -- absolutely lovely!

The day before the wedding Wil and I went into town to see "our painting" (Albert Moore's Dreamers) at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. We also did some nosing around in the shops since we are now obsessed with the thought of new table mats. Then home, where we had a relaxed dinner with Tony and Sue and got ourselves ready for the wedding day.

Friday morning was glorious -- after breakfast we loaded up the car and drove to Dunsley Hall to get settled in. Gorgeous place! We had a quick visit with Beck (with her updo complete, but still in jeans) and Steve (still in shorts), and then went to check out our room. We had been assigned the Rose Room, which was beautiful, and had a fantastic view of the garden.

We visited for a while with some early arrivals, and then went upstairs to get into our wedding clothes -- Wil's black suit and my black and white floral dress. Then downstairs for a glass of the fruitiest, fanciest Pimms I had ever had, and some mingling. Then we were shepherded into the ceremony room, where we were given seats up front because the couple had asked us to do a reading. William, Joe, and Steve looked fantastic in their suits -- dark blue, with cream waistcoats and shirts. William had a tiny magenta tie and matching gerbera boutonniere, while Joe and Steve had orange ties and boutonnieres. Lydia had a cream colored dress with magenta rose trim and roses in her hair. When Beck came in there was a spontaneous burst of applause -- her strapless dress was gorgeous and -- even better -- she looked so happy.

The registrar was funny and kind and sweet and charming, and moved through the ceremony at a good clip. I concentrated on not looking at either Sue or Tony, both of whom were trying from the minute they walked in. :) Beck and Steve were sweet and emotional, but got through their lines just fine. And Wil and I got through our reading without crying, too.

After the ceremony the fun began. We had champagne and a lot of photos in every conceivable grouping, and then went in for toasts (which are done before mealtime in the UK). Tony wasn't sure he'd get through is, but he did, and it was beautiful. Joe gave a lovely toast, too -- very brave. And Steve's brother and a few of his mates also gave funny toasts. Then -- dinner! The starter was asparagus with cheese (and ham, for some). Omnivores had fantastic looking legs of lamb on mountains of mashed potatoes. We had delicious potato gnocchi in cheese sauce, and we all shared cooked carrots, green beans, and cauliflower cheese. We finished with profiteroles, which were lovely.

After dinner we were asked to clear out of the dining room so they could set up for the evening. We all moved outside and spent a while chatting with our tablemates -- all college friends of Beck's. The weather was hot and sunny and lovely. We also spent some time chatting with Tony's brothers and their wives -- such lovely people! I think we might also have gone upstairs to freshen up at some point -- how nice it was to have a little room to escape to!

I felt a bit sorry for the DJ; he was playing dance music but no one was dancing for the first couple of hours. I guess it's always that way at weddings. But eventually most of us got out on the floor for at least a little while. William was out there strutting his stuff -- but Lydia was so tired she fell asleep on one of the couches.

We stayed up till the last of the guests had left or gone up to their rooms, feeling a tiny bit the worse for wear (and with very sore feet from 12 hours in heels).

This morning we were downstairs at 8:30 for a full English breakfast, and on the road before 10:00 -- which meant we got home and had a nap. :)

A fantastic wedding for a very a lovely couple -- we're so thrilled we were able to be part of it!

Chester

2010-06-03T03:50:00.000-07:00

Started the day with a lovely walk with Bella along the seafront. She's a funny dog -- very opinionated. When she doesn't want to continue in a particular direction, she just sits down. If encouraged, she'll lie down. Until you let her get up and dictate which direction she DOES want to go in. She's also got a lovely doggie smile, so it's easy to be won over.

Then we piled in the car and drove to Chester. Tony and Sue dropped us off (and headed to West Brom) while we had a day to spend exploring Chester. We were dropped off at the Chester Park and Ride -- only about two miles outside of the center of town -- and took a bus in along with lots of shoppers. You had to buy your tickets before getting on the bus -- there was a man in a booth in a little building. We noticed that the machines only sold return tickets, and we needed singles, so we asked him. He said, "Oh, no, we only sell returns. It's a park and ride, you see." So we said "Okay, that's fine, can we have two returns." "Oh, no, you'll have to use the machine." "Okay, great. Can we get change?" "Oh, no, you'll have to use the change machine."

Not sure what that man's job was, really. I should add that he couldn't tell you when the next bus was due to arrive, other than a "They're very frequent."

Got to Chester and had a lovely wander around -- we walked the walls all the way around, stopping off to look at various things, including some time relaxing by the river. Chester is famous for its "Rows" -- double-decker shop fronts. We looked for -- but failed to find -- the infamous stitchery shop that Suz and I visited on our visit all those years ago. And, no, I HAVEN'T finished (or started) the kit... Suz? I also was introduced to the joys of the "Scotch-style egg" -- essentially, a vegetarian Scotch egg (where "meat" replaces the pork). Frankly, the vegetarian "meat" is nicer.

Then we took the train from Chester to Birmingham, and had a "oh, yes, it's familiar" moment. Sadly, we were too late to visit the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery to see "Dreamers". But lots and lots of wandering around, including a visit to a running store, a lengthy visit to a slightly icky sports store where the staff were pretty useless, and an amusing trip to Selfridges, where they had a huge display of Lucky Charms cereal for the bargain price of L7.49/box.

Then home, where we had a great dinner with the family at Beck's house, and ended up sitting up late with Tony and Steve. He's such a nice guy -- really pleased to have him in the family.

This morning we have had a water fight with little William and Lydia, while Steve and Beck gather their things to go to the wedding venue. It's great that it's so soon!

Conwy

2010-06-01T14:58:00.001-07:00

Another lovely day -- had a little lie-in, then got up, showered, and headed out with Tony and Sue to run some errands and poke around in Conwy. The weather had turned grey, making us extra pleased we had done our lovely Orme walk in the sunshine yesterday. We looked around in the shops a bit (we're in the market for a lovely new set of table mats...), and of course ended up touring supermarkets and collecting items we wanted to bring home. :)

In the afternoon we stopped in at the Pen-y-Bryn, the beautiful pub on the hill where we had gone at Christmastime in 2005, and had a really nice cider called Taffy Apples. After we went into Llandudno, walked around there, and then walked along the bike path home.

Sue made a gorgeous pasta puttanesca for dinner, followed by Marks and Spencer sticky toffee pudding -- heavenly! Then we took Bella for a walk along the sea front, then home, blog... and bed.

Great Orme walk

2010-05-31T15:48:00.001-07:00

Had a bit of a lie-in today, but then got up and went out for a tiny run. Then home, shower, and breakfast. The weather was glorious, so we decided to go for a walk around the Great Orme -- it's 5 miles to walk the Marine Drive loop, on a paved road, with gorgeous views out to sea all the way. And halfway round there's a cafe called "Rest and Be Thankful", where we had a slice of amazing lemon meringue pie in the sun.

At the end of Marine Drive we crossed back to our starting point on Invalid's Walk -- as Tony said, you'll be an invalid when you finish. But it's a lovely view of town, and passes behind the site of a house where Alice Liddell (the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland) spent her summers. Pity the house isn't there.

We walked past the Great Orme Tramway -- which goes up to the top of the Orme, but I suppose it's not even as steep as the cable car hills in San Francisco, so it must be okay.

At a couple of points during the day we stopped in at various shops to start collecting our favorite British things -- shower gels, biscuits, and, of course, sweets. How we'll get everything home, I can't imagine. But we'll try.

Then home, where we chatted for a bit, had a drink, and then headed back in to town for (guilty guilty pleasure) -- proper British Fish and Chips. A massive filet of cod, perfectly breaded, with amazingly crisp chips and the finest mushy peas I have ever eaten. Fantastic! After dinner we stopped back in at the pub and Wil and I each had the other perry from the festival (though I'm not sure which one it was).

Once home again, we moved out into the garden and chatted for hours -- it was the kind of evening that Wil had especially been looking forward to. :)

catching up

2010-05-30T16:03:00.000-07:00

Slept well -- even if I did wake up a couple of times too early in the morning. Woke up around 9:30 to the strange sensation of light... and someone else in the room. I rolled over, slid my eyeshade up (hooray, again, for eyeshades), and looked at Wil... who also was peeking at me. We sat up -- carefully -- to find William at the foot of the bed. How long had he been there? He sweetly offered us coffee... running back to ask me what I would like... and then scampering off while we quickly got dressed before he could come back. Well, at least he didn't jump on the bed or start purring, like Squeek.

Got ready and out the door with Tony and Sue for the drive to Penrhyn Bay -- which is just as lovely as I remembered. It's such a treat to be driven around! Oh, and we stopped at Shergill's to buy 10 samosas and half a pound of veggie pakora -- heavenly -- which we nibbled on as we drove. Once settled in the gorgeous bungalow, we headed off again, to the Penrhyn Arms, an award-winning pub to try several ciders as part of the Great Welsh Cider and Perry Festival. (Yes, these are my people.)

Wil and I had two pints each -- it's a tribute to their strength that I cannot remember the name of either of the first round them. For our second round, Wil had a Black Rat or something like that, while I had a crisp, refreshing perry. Lovely! Then home, where we decided to go out for a walk near the Little Orme to see the sea lions (who weren't there).

We came home, relaxed a little, and then ordered waaaaay too much Chinese takeaway. Lovely, as usual. Within half an hour of dinner I was nodding off -- too much good food (and, of course, cider). So Wil made us go out for a brisk walk in the twilight to get some fresh air -- which was lovely.

Sure, it's late (half past midnight), but it does feel late and soon I shall be in slumberland. It's lovely to be here!

West Bromwich!

2010-05-29T16:01:00.000-07:00

Landed at Heathrow -- moved quickly through immigration, got the bags reasonably quickly, walked straight through customs, round a corner and then -- bang! -- there they were! So nice to see Sue and Tony in the flesh. Sue cried, there was lots of hugging, and we headed to the car.

Unfortunately, Sue and Tony hadn't received our "we're late!" email before setting out at the crack of dawn to London, so they had been waiting at the airport for hours. But I think they still thought it was worth it. :)

We hit the road as the weather turned nasty -- a lot of rain and spray making visibility very poor on the roadways. We tried to chat, but Wil and I kept nodding off. My only real memories are of the brief stop we made at a motorway services, and the two strangely dressed contingents: a number of men in rugby shirts going to see Wales play nearby, and a number of men in "cowboys and indians" gear, headed up to Birmingham for Gay Pride weekend. Interesting blend of folks.

Then things started looking familiar -- and we arrived in West Bromwich. We pulled onto the drive and out came Steve, Beck, Lydia, and William -- so big! So nice to see everyone! Of course, we were dead on our feet so after a bit of chat, we were sent to our room for an hour's nap. We passed out, essentially, then got up and had showers and then it was time to head to dinner at Tony's favorite restaurant -- the Akash.

All nine of us went -- Joe having come home from work -- and we had a fantastic meal (except for the glasses of "dry white wine" that Sue and I tried -- they were golden yellow and tasted.. well, let's just say I'm not sure they were made of grapes). And it was great to have the family together.

Steve, Beck, Joe, Lydia, and William went home in the van, but Tony, Sue, Wil and I decided to walk the 10 minutes home. Got home, watched a bit of "Britain's Got Talent", and then headed for bed.

morning

2010-05-29T03:44:00.000-07:00

I don't think I slept much, sadly. We sat on the tarmac for a while, and then found ourselves at the back of a queue with the air traffic controllers -- but then finally we were airborne. Soon after they dropped off our special meals -- essentially what most people had, given that there was a vegetarian pasta option. Of course, getting fed first meant that we didn't get drinks until long after we finished eating.

Wil and I watched "The Young Victoria" -- at least he started watching it, but abandoned it in favor of trying to sleep. Easier said that done, of course. I tried listening to music, wearing the eye mask, everything. Perhaps a tiny bit of sleep.

Someone had a shrieking baby -- finally the flight attendants went and had a word with the parents. Bravo.

Landing in 90 minutes -- excited!

Delayed in Detroit

2010-05-28T20:28:00.000-07:00

We had a 2.5 hour layover in Detroit so weren't worried when our flight from Seattle was 20 minutes late. Indeed, we had plenty of time to wander the airport shops, marvel at the little red tram that zooms overhead, eat the snacks we brought from home... but we didn't quite have time for our pre-flight "to Betsy" drink.

We got to the gate 30 minutes prior to takeoff. I saw the plane and thought that there didn't seem to be much "bustle" around it. Then the gate agent said they weren't going to start boarding yet, but would have an announcement in 10 minutes.

Boo.

Sure enough, in 10 minutes, he announced that there had been a leak in the fuel system, and that they would have to bring in mechanics and testers, and it would take about 1.5 - 2 hours -- but that we should come back in 45-60 minutes for an update. We, of course, headed straight for "Slap Shotz", a hockey-themed bar, where we had tiny but absurdly strong drinks and seasoned cross-cut fries drenched in "cheddar cheese" sauce. Let's just say we didn't stick around for a 2nd round... though we did get to witness a woman reverently telling her young son "that's Gordie Howe" and making him stand next to the large autographed photo on the wall.

We found ourselves with more time on our hands, so we decided to walk around the airport. We took the tunnel to concourse B&C, which was a pleasant surprise. I was just thinking about the fantastic "Rhapsody in Blue" neon tunnel at O'Hare, and how great it is, when we descended to a low enough level to see the art installation. lights, music, rt glass -- and loooooooong moving walkways. Fantastic.

We got to concourse B/C -- nothing special -- and then decided to head back as the departure displays still read 8pm. The lights and music were even nicer on the way back. At some point Wil noticed an electrical outlet next to the moving walkway -- and imagined ourselves walking in place with our laptops plugged in.

Then up to the gate -- still empty -- and the agent was telling a would-be passenger that he would be making an announcement in 10 minutes. Ten minutes later, sure enough, he came on the loudspeaker and announced that they were still working, and would make an announcement in 20 minutes. Another 20 minutes have now passed... and he just made an announcement that they're still trying to identify the source of the problem, and that they would make another announcement in 20 minutes. We're now 90 minutes late. I wonder how long this will go on?

30 minutes later -- another announcement -- though this time they said not to leave the area...

Success! 2 hours after the flight was due to leave, there was another announcement. I couldn't quite hear him -- but I heard the whooping that went up. And then they announced they were starting boarding immediately. Excellent. I mean it's not like you want them to rush repairs on a fuel leak for a transatlantic flight... but.

en route to Detroit

2010-05-28T11:24:00.000-07:00

So we're flying Delta -- the "flight leader" is one of those ancient flight attendants -- thin and taut and leathery, like a coiled bullwhip -- who has been flying since the miniskirt and jaunty cap days. There's nothing she hasn't seen, no route she hasn't flown. She knows no fear. The other attendant in our section is also older, but more frumpy, and even a little mannish. She looks as if some of the vertebrae in her neck are missing.

The leader attends to the pilots and those in business class. We get the minions, who seem nice enough, if a little terrified, of the leader.

I watch her bustling gracefully up and down the aisle -- I imagine that she studied ballet as a young girl (perhaps she still does?) and dreamed of a career on the stage. But the romance of travel -- and the carefree life of a stewardess beckoned (note: when she started, she was a stewardess. Honest.) Perhaps she flew the European routes, having affairs with handsome pilots, saving up to buy Hermes scarves, bringing home souvenirs for her kid sister. Perhaps she imagined that one day she would settle down -- mary that cute pilot from the NY - Paris flight - but couldn't kick the lifestyle. It's hard to settle down when you've got wanderlust.

So here she is, matriarch of the plane, running a tight ship but spoiling her regulars, just a little. Her kid sister is a grandmother now, so the souvenirs are brought to her great nephew (grand nephew?). But she still wears those gorgeous Hermes scarves.

trip recaps

2009-08-17T17:22:00.000-07:00

So I've finally typed up my journal entries from Egypt as "blog posts" under the dates and times I actually wrote them -- so if you're interested, scroll down...

Still really happy to be home, and sifting through the photos. Lots of photos.

safe at home

2009-08-08T18:03:00.001-07:00

Just a quick note to say that we're home and safe - we didn't have internet access in Egypt, so apologies for the lack of posts. Trying desperately to stay awake for a few more hours so that we can start working through the jet lag. :)

homeward bound

2009-08-08T04:54:00.000-07:00

Had a nice last day in Luxor -- boat into town, walked around Television street for a while looking at the fake shops and knock-off merchandise, and then had a fantastic early dinner at Sofra. Three young traveller couples there, all of us with the Egypt LP. Ordered too much food -- again -- but really nice. Back at the hotel we toyed with the idea of having a shisha at the Sundowner, but we got spooked. It just didn't feel right. Guess we should have had one at Sofra. Sundowner overcharged us for drinks; imagine what they would have done for a shisha?

Packed everything and ordered a taxi for the next morning -- which consisted of having the bellman call a taxi from outside, who drove in and negotiated with us. (Same old story -- there's an accepted price, but the driver started high and only came down when we argued a bit). He gave us his card and told us to call him. We told him to be there at 6am. There was some back and forth about this, but we thought we'd got it sorted.

In the morning we checked out (I knew we'd get dinged for that minibar stuff we didn't let them replace on that first morning -- but we disputed it and didn't end up paying) and had a quick breakfast at the buffet. Then we went out front to leave.

5:58 - no taxi
5:59 - we ask the front desk to call the taxi. They call, twice -- no answer.
6:00 - we storm down the driveway and re-negotiate with the first driver we find. grrr.
6:15 - we arrive at Luxor Airport

We go inside the terminal where three guards were standing next to a metal detector and x-ray machine, both of which were turned off. A fourth man, behind the glass, who in theory would monitor the x-ray machine was sleeping, smooshed against the glass.

One said, "Do you have a ticket?" When I said yes, he said "I want to see it." So I dug out the e-mail (it's not like I had a hard ticket), which he glanced at, and then waived us through. Since the scanner was turned off, we hesitated, and started to wheel my bag through the metal detector. The guards said, "No, no, through the machine." I wasn't about to step through the gate without my bag going first, so I pointed out that everything was turned off. So they shouted at the sleeping guard, who slowly woke up, and turned on the machine. We stood there, waiting, wondering how exactly this was secure. But eventually we were able to load the bags onto the x-ray and step through the metal detector.

Then to check-in, where there seemed to be a lot of typing -- and the clerk was a hunt-and-peck typist. But we weren't in a hurry and he did give us the Egypt exit forms to fill out. Then to the next security checkpoint, which again was switched off. The belt wasn't moving, but the guy wanted us to walk through and didn't understand why we hesitated. Awesome! Finally that came online, and we could go through. Then into the domestic departure lounge, which didn't have many shops but at least was priced in Egyptian pounds.

Eventually our gate opened and we got on a bus to take us to the plane. We had exit row seats to Cairo -- nice -- but I don't think EgyptAir bothered with a safety demonstration.

Cairo airport was nothing special; had to go through the emigration process which took an absurdly long time and had highlights like the officer sending and receiving text messages while processing forms. Cool! Very little Egyptian stuff in the airport shops, which surprised me. But they did have food, at least.

Flight to Barcelona was tedious; already feeling tired of travel.

Arrived at the schmancy new T1 and found the spot where the hotel busses go. At first glance, the Hotel Tryp was a dud, sitting in an older industrial park next to a Volkswagen office. But it was beautiful and very stylish inside. The shuttles were really useful too -- running every 20 minutes to the train station and airport, which meant we could check in, dump our stuff, and head back into town. A nice lady at the Renfe train station showed us that you could save money by getting a T-10 ticket rather than two round-trip tickets. Nice!

Spent the late afternoon/ early evening wandering around Barcelona looking at buildings in L'Eixample and trying to find a grocery store. Found one, eventually, but couldn't find what we were looking for. Again, we have completely failed to buy anything for anyone. Oops. Not that we bought much for ourselves, mind you. We bought nothing in Egypt that we didn't eat or drink -- in large part because I was tired of the constant hassle.

Walking around Barcelona we kept thinking how lovely it was not to be harassed at every street corner, every time we stopped, etc. And how clean it all was. And did I mention we brushed our teeth with tap water?

Back to the hotel at sunset, and then we just hung out, drank cheap Sidre, and snacked on cheese, tomatoes, potato "tortilla", and crackers.

Set alarms for 3:30 to make sure we caught the 4:00 shuttle; we were out of the room at 3:58 and right on time. Sadness: the lovely shops at the airport were still shut -- one downside of an early morning flight! But time passed and we're now halfway through our flight to Amsterdam. Happy to be homeward bound!

Karnak

2009-08-06T11:58:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday afternoon we took the 3:00 boat into town fora visit. It's lovely on the boat -- takes a long time to go upstream, which means where was plenty of time to eavesdrop on our fellow passengers. Lots of package tour Brits -- proof that Egypt is the new Spain -- Costa del Nile? They were complaining about the food, the price of beer in the hotel, etc. I mean, food and drink is always overpriced at a hotel. But anyway. Also the number of times we heard people talking about going into town for "a McDonald's" made me cringe.

Arrived in town and went to Luxor Temple. Really had to fend off the guides and the guards who point at something really obvious, say "sphinx", and then want a tip. The temple, however, was very cool -- the columns were amazing, especially the "bunch of papyrus" ones. Some beautiful carvings -- lots of "fertile" Osiris in, umm, full bloom. Very hard to process that one of these areas was built by Alexander... and depicted him as pharaoh. Still hard to get my mind around that. I mean, the pharaohs seem almost mythical, but Alexander? Wow.

Did a little walking around Luxor afterwards, ran across the sanitized tourist bazaar but couldn't face it. I mean, there's just nothing I want. I can imagine getting caught up in it all and buying statuettes, papyrus paintings, etc. But I don't want any of those things, really. I do regret not getting the Tut-mask toenail clippers, however. ;)

Then over to the Winter Palace, where we used their exquisite bathrooms and walked around their pretty gardens before catching the shuttle bus back toward Karnak. We asked the driver to let us out in the village, and looked at a couple of places before choosing Nefertari for dinner. We met the owner, a kind man who had studied in Walthamstow and had a shop in Bristol. Wil's tummy had been bothering him again, so we asked if he could just have some rice and steamed veg -- simple. I had some mezze: babaganoush, tabbouleh, and falafel. When it came it was perfect -- lovely fresh, clean food. Very nice -- best falafel ever.

We finished, paid, and went down to the road just in time to flag down the shuttle back to the hotel. Perfect! Then an early night.

Yesterday we got up at 5:30, and were out the door before 6 to go to Karnak. Perfect timing. Other than the fact that the guards made us do a big loop past an empty set of stores to get to the ticket booth (rather than walking 100 feet past the guards directly to the booth), it was perfect. Hardly any people, no one trying to be our guide, lovely pink sunrise. Glorious. We wandered around for a coule of hours -- the hypostyle hall was amazing -- so many pillars! It's all a bit overwhelming -- I keep feeling like I'm in a movie set, which is ridiculous, but... Really liked Hatchepsut's obelisks, the "botanical garden" reliefs, the massive pylon gates. One enterprising guard had moved the "area closed - no entry" sign but pulled the metal gates across the opening. When we got close, he noisily moved the gates and kept telling us it was okay. But we didn't want the hassle. Around 8:30 we walked back to the hotel, where we had breakfast and then hung out by the pool.

In the early evening we took the shuttle -- getting dropped off at Karnak and then feeling silly because it was so close -- but as Wil said, it will have given the package tourists something to talk about. Had dinner at Nefertari again, which somehow wasn't as nice. Don't know why. Then walked from there to Karnak temple, where we bought the Very Expensive tickets to the Sound & Light show. 100 LE! It was very different than the one at Giza. In this one you walked from place to place in the temple and learned different things along the way. Kinda cool to walk around with the temple lit up like that. It ended in the seats overlooking the sacred lake, which was a bit of an anticlimax. Still, nice. And very different from the one at the pyramids. Then home, where we stayed up late and finished the bourbon.

Today (8/6) is our last full day here, and we've done everything we wanted to do. So we slept in, had a late breakfast, and have been swimming and lazing ever since. At 3 we'll take te boat into town and wander a bit before having a late lunch / early dinner at Sofra, before going home to the hotel to prep for the next 2 days of travel.

At breakfast we were surprised to see a bunch of people we heard talking about how they were leaving yesterday. Apparently their charter flight had been cancelled, stranding a bunch of the package tourists for an extra night. We want to ask for details but don't want to talk to anyone. Happy that we're on a scheduled flight!

Sofitel Karnak

2009-08-04T11:10:00.000-07:00

It's nice here -- once we got all the stuff with the room sorted, anyway.

We waited till 7:15, then went to the counter and were told our room was ready. So we got our bags and were led up to a room... that hadn't been cleaned. Um, okay... so the guy called the desk and got another room... which we went to, but it had 2 beds. We had reserved a king-size bed. So we called reception and were told they would take care of us.

90 minutes later, the two of us still reeling a bit from exhaustion, Wil called the front desk again. They seemed surprised we had an issue, and promised to send someone up to fix the problem. A few minutes later, a man came up to the room, stripped the beds, pushed them together, and remade them as one. Not exactly what we had in mind. So we decided to call the desk again. They told us that we could have a king bed at 3:00 -- normal check-in time, but we would have to leave the room we were in immediately.

So we thought about it and called them back to say that, actually, we would spend 1 night in that room and then switch the next day. Wil hung up, but 2 minutes later the phone rang -- it was Mohammed, the manager, who apologized and told us that he would have a room ready for us at 11am but he needed to have this room as it was reserved for part of a group and needed to be cleaned again. At least that was a good explanation!

So we took everything back downstairs, taking a moment to change into our swimsuits, dropped off the bags, got some towels, and went back to the pool where we slept and swam for a couple of hours. At 11:30 we went to the front desk, where Mohammed gave us our keys and told us that our things were already there. Good man!

We went to our room -- now in the Ramses wing -- and it was perfect. A couch, a balcony overlooking a grassy courtyard, and a massive king-size bed. Perfect! Really happy we stuck to our guns and got what we'd paid for. (Well, except for the picnique that was supposed to come with the room... but we're not that bothered.)

Hung out in the room for a while, then decided to go into town for some lunch. We had to take a taxi since we had supposedly missed the last shuttle (we hadn't), but we went out to the road and started bargaining. We were told a taxi would cost 25 to town, which as a ripoff, but the drivers told us it would be 40. We laughed at that. Another driver came up and said it would be 25, was always 25, but drivers would try to get 40. That's how we met Hamdi, our hard-sell taxi driver. He drove us to Sofra, the restaurant I had chosen from the LP. On the way, he convinced us to hire him for a trip to the west bank and Valley of the Kings the next morning. As his price was 50 less than the other driver had quoted us, we accepted and arranged for 7:00 the next morning.

Sofra was fantastic -- we ate upstairs on the shady roof terrace -- lots of fantastic Egyptian mezze, fabulous juice, and a leisurely lunch. Really nice place.

Then we walked around Luxor for a bit -- difficult to get a sense of where the tourist center is -- but then again we didn't go to the temple. Then we decided to take the boat back to the resort -- and (despite asking directions at the Winter Palace -- twice -- we really had a hard time finding it. It's very difficult to even hesitate on the corniche. Hesitation = touts. You want a felucca? Taxi? Carriage? Eventually we did find the dock, and spotted a westerner waiting. Success.

Came back to the hotel and rested in the room for a bit, then walked around as the sun set. Couldn't find anything to eat -- not many vegetarian choices -- but we'd had a huge lunch and decided to just skip dinner for the night.

Next morning we were up early and went to breakfast. Wil doesn't think it's as nice as at Oasis, but I think there seem to be more choices here. And the orange juice, though still not fresh, at least isn't Tang. They've got an omelette-to-order area, lots of "western" hot things, nice spreads, gorgeous tomatoes, and good bread. So it's okay, really.

Then we went over to the front entrance -- right at 7 -- to meet Hamdi. Imagine our surprise when Hamdi turned up with another driver as well and told us we'd be going with him. Nice. We figured that he'd gotten a higher amount from the other group and would have ditched us in a heartbeat. So we rather unhappily climbed in the other car. It was fine, of course. He stopped along the way for us to buy water and made sure we didn't get too fleeced. Then drove us quickly and safely to the Valley of the Kings.

I'm not sure what I expected -- but there's an attractive visitor's center and a not too chaotic ticket window. You buy a ticket that gives you entrance to 3 tombs for 60 LE. You can then buy additional entry tickets to Tutankhamun (100 LE) and Ramses VI (50 LE). We bought Tut tix and then set off. I had picked out some tombs to visit -- unfortunately 2 of my 3 were either closed or required a supplemental ticket. oh well.

We started off in Tut's tomb -- a deep, angled walkway down, then a small room. There's a red quartzite sarcophagus -- massive and perfect and beautiful -- and the outermost gilded wooden coffin (we saw the other 2 in Cairo). In a smaller case on the other side of the chamber rests his mummy, looking very frail, with spindly toes peeking out from the too-short covering. Some very nice painting on the walls -- a chubby young Tut with his wife, for example. It's one of the smallest tombs in the valley, but special because of Tut, and because the mummy is there. The tickets are overpriced at 100 LE, but it did keep the crowds down.

Tried to go to Ramses VI, but it needed an extra ticket so we decided to think about it. Moved on to Seti I. Closed. (So sad, because it had lovely crocodile and hippo paintings.) Tried some others. Ramses III? Closed. Amenhotep II? Closed. Sigh. Went to Seti II largely because it was open. Pretty paintings, nice carving (the walkway starts as carvings but then just goes on as paintings -- as if they were either running out of time or of interest. Some of the painting is really just sketches in red paint -- sometimes added to with black paint. Pretty cool. The guards in the tombs follow you around, calling out names or things in the carvings. "Cartouche. Osiris. Crocodile." and then expect a tip. This "walking wallet" thing is tiring.

Then we went "next door" to the tomb of Tawosret / Sethnakht -- a double tomb of sorts. Two big burial chambers... a little like train carriages. Really nice paintings -- have they been restored (repainted?). Lots of stars on the ceiling. Pretty.

For our final tomb we went to Ramses IX. Or was it IV? Can't remember. Big tomb, lovely painting, etc. Clearly the heat was getting to me at this point. Decided therefore to skip the Ramses VI tomb -- we had been in the Valley nearly 2 hours already.

So to the exit and the gauntlet of vendors. Everything so cheap -- but almost all of it crap. So tiresome. But it's their livelihood, I know.

Then back to the car and to Deir al-Bahri, aka the Temple of Hatshepsut. Her temple is beautiful -- looks fantastic and modern. Most of it has been rebuilt using modern stone. But there are some beautiful reliefs carved on the terraces... including the bringing of trees to her garden, a couple of which "survive" (or linger as dead stumps) near the ticket gate. Lots of annoying touts -- taking pictures of people with their camera and then refusing to return them till they are given a tip. We didn't fall for it, of course.

Super hot there, and we finished the water. As we braved the tourist gauntlet, one clever vendor had posted a large price list for his cold drinks. That's all I want, really. I'm happy to pay over the odds, but not to be fleeced all the freaking time. Really. So we bought Coke Light and water and guzzled it.

Then back in the taxi -- where the driver encouraged us to go to an alabaster factory (we said no). We didn't have time (or, by that point, ENERGY) to go to the Ramesseum, so we just went to the Colossi of Memnon to snap a couple of pictures and then headed back to the hotel.

We asked the driver to take us somewhere to buy water and soda and he stopped at a place in Karnak, not far from the hotel. We loaded up, even buying two expensive bottles of mineral water (12 LE each, when soda is only 5).

Spent the rest of the afternoon lolling by the pool and reading trashy books. I had finished "The Host", and got most of the way through the horribly written "Atlantis Code".

in the evening, we took a shuttle into town and went to the Kings Head pub. Wil had a Heineken while I made the grievous error of ordering a whisky sour. I mean, I wouldn't order that in a proper English pub, so what was I thinking? I suspect they had never made one before ... it was lemon juice (not lemonade, just sour lemon juice), and a splash of whisky. So nasty, almost undrinkable. Totally my fault.

Then a wander through Luxor and we walked home along the corniche. So many cruise ships! Moored 4 deep. Are any of them going to move? Weird. Spent the whole walk fending off taxis, carriages, and felluccas. Tiresome.

Walking through Karnak village, we stopped to buy soda. The kid tried to charge us 10 each for the soda, so we started to walk out. We quickly dropped to 10 total. Some little lad followed us for blocks and blocks, shouting "Hello! Money!" over and over. Really annoying. Then back to the hotel. Did I mention I burned my legs really badly? Idiot.

Today we slept in -- no Karnak at sunrise for us! -- had a leisurely breakfast, a splash in the pool, and now sitting on the grassy hillside overlooking the Nile. Still feels like not exactly our style, but it's nice here.

sunrise on the Nile

2009-08-02T06:27:00.000-07:00

Sitting next to the Nile as the sun rises. Very little sleep on the "sleeping train" -- and an extra strange conglomeration of breakfast items, each individually wrapped: a croissant, a soft roll, a slice of white bread, a slice of cake, plus butter and jam and triangle cheese.

The Sofitel Karnak's system isn't online yet, so we're killing time before they can look to find our reservation. I'd like to shower and sleep sooner rather than later.

"sleeping train"

2009-08-01T22:51:00.000-07:00

Spent the day relaxing by the pool -- really lovely -- some sunning, some swimming. Nice.

Then at 6:30 we caught a taxi to Giza station, where we stood around on the platform for an hour before getting on the sleeper train!

Funny old train; reeks of cigarettes throughout, but each car as 10 2-person compartments where you're served a meal and then the attendant makes up your room into bunk beds. Beds comfy-ish, though the ride isn't particularly smooth. And we'll arrived at Luxor at 5am. Yikes.

Had a drink in the lounge car after dinner -- thick fog of smoke -- we were served a can of coke between us and charged for two drinks. Awesome! Glamour!

Now we try to sleep. Or at least do some reading. My handwriting is almost illegible because the car is jolting so much...

Giza

2009-08-01T10:36:00.000-07:00

Got up early -- both of us sick now :( -- and had a quick breakfast before going out to meet Alaa, our driver. Again, having the driver was fantastic: he took us to buy water ("it's very hot -- and water inside is very expensive") and then drove us to the ticket counter, waited until we went through the controls, and then drove us to the Great Pyramid. We went IN the great pyramid -- strange -- you go in and then up a very steep, small ramp, and then up a steeper but tall ramp, and then squeeze through a low doorway into the chamber... which was full of what I must assume were so-cal hippies chanting. Awesome. The best part was that they had seated themselves right in front of the door -- so you had to squeeze past them into the room. Oh, and they shushed you when you made noise. Great.

It was at that point that I realized that the pyramids are just amazing manmade structures, very old. Not spiritual beacons. Just buildings. Amazing buildings, but just buildings.

At some point they stopped and all you could hear was breathing. Then, after a few minutes they started again. That (and the fact that I was dripping with sweat in the heat) was my cue to squeeze back out past the hippies, telling the people trapped outside that there was plenty of room inside if they could just squeeze in.

Then down down down the ramps, scary scary, and back out into the fresh air. Alaa was waiting, and took us around to the smaller tombs. He told us to give the guard $1 or 5 pounds each, AFTER looking, and no more. So he convinced the guard to unlock the doors and let us in. There was some back and forth, but we did get in. Smaller tombs but more inside them -- lovely carvings, some still with paint. Really happy we had them.

Then back to the car and Alaa drove us to a panorama point and took silly pictures of us making pyramid shapes. I loved seeing police on camels. Alaa's presence kept other would-be guides and touts away, making the money completely worthwhile.

A few more stops for photos -- by the small pyramid, by the sphinx, and then we were dropped at a papyrus museum. Bless. But it wasn't a hard sell, and they showed us how they make papyrus. Pretty interesting. Of course, we didn't buy anything. Then back to the hotel, where we'll be hanging out for a few (several?) hours before catching our train to Luxor.

Pyramids: so big! Still surprising to spot them out of the corners of our eyes.

Sphinx: Alan Bennet was right -- it is like meeting a famous person and being surprised by how small they are in real life.

Alaa: marvellous. He bought me a falafel to try and then laughed when we told him we eat it at home. At one point he and I chatted while Wil was in the loo and he told me he has a family here in Cairo but another wife in South Africa. Wow! I took his picture and he said "You can e-mail it to me." Really nice man -- he kept the hassle away from us completely.

Egypt!!!

2009-07-31T23:03:00.000-07:00

"Egypt is the place to be... EGYPT... EGYPT..."

When I was just a teenager, some song with that line played in the danceclubs... it keeps running in an annoying little loop in my head.

Managed to sleep until 9:00, then up and a quick trip to the buffet breakfast. We went to check on the shuttlebus at 9:55 -- and we told that it left at 10. Perfect! So we got on and rode into town. At one point I saw something out of the corner of my eye... PYRAMIDS!!!!! They are HUGE. Bigger than I had thought. And they were RIGHT THERE. I, of course, burst into tears. I'm still feeling a bit overwhelmed. Amazing.

Once in Cairo, we walked to the train station first, so we could book our sleeping train tickets for tomorrow. Yay! People were astounded that we would walk "that far" - "better to take a taxi". It took us 15-25 dawdling minutes to get there. Along the way we passed dozens of Cairenes about their business -- none in the tourist business, mind you -- and the vast majority said "Hello! Welcome!" -- which made us think there had been a (successful) campaign to promote friendly exchanges with tourists. On the way we stopped to try a drink we'd seen on an advert -- Limited Edition Pepsi Cider. It was like sparkling cider with a Pepsi aftertaste. Awesome!

Then back towards the Cairo Egyptian Museum -- where of course more scams started. "Sir, the museum is closed for lunch... why not come to my shop?" Of course, the guy was clumsy -- he told us the museum closed from 12:30 - 1:15, but it was only 11:45. So we went past him and went into a very quiet museum. LP's description was pretty apt, however: a queue for the scanner at the gate, then a queue to buy tickets, then a queue at the turnstiles to get in, and then another security queue inside. But we were lucky -- the queues were never more than 2 people long, and of course they weren't closed.

So in we went to one of the greatest collections in the world. They have so much stuff that it's all jumbled together and poorly labelled. Any single piece would have pride of place in any other museum (except the British Museum, perhaps) worldwide. Crazy. As Shar (from Fez) said, "I'm from a culture where we make up a mythical beast to sell to tourists -- but they've got so much history it's just jumbled together!"

We paid the extra 100 each to see the royal mummies -- both worth it and a little weird -- I mean, in some ways they were underwhelming, until you thought about how old they are. And about how strange it is to show your dead rulers. Would England dig up its kings and queens to display them? No. Would we disinter our presidents? Nope. Very strange.

The Tutankhamun galleries were amazing, bringing back childhood memories for both me and Wil of books we had in 1977 - 1978, and my very vivid memories of the Tut exhibition that came to Seattle. I remembered the cow-couch, "the chair", the canopic jars, and -- of course -- the mask. We managed to get into "room 10" at exactly the right time -- hardly anyone there, so we had the mask all to ourselves. It's still mind-blowingly beautiful.

We wandered around looking at amazing things -- crocodile mummies, tomb treasures, huge statues, and more -- until we were feeling overloaded. Amusingly, large groups started arriving at 1:30. Maybe it had closed to admissions? So we decided to bug out. We went to the cafe for overpriced soda (Fanta Blackcurrant!) and to plan our next move. The shuttle back to the hotel wouldn't go till 5, and it wasn't quite 2. We didn't fancy the hassle of directing another taxi, so we decided to wander around Cairo a bit. Walked along the Nile, through a high-priced fashion shopping mall containing absolutely nothing I would ever wear, visited the Nile Hilton's pristine bathrooms, etc. Also walked through a local's market and were "Welcome!"d to Egypt over and over again.

Met a nice Bedouin businessman who told us his life story and invited us to tea, coffee, cocacola to celebrate the birth of his first grandchild. We had to decline, but it was a nice exchange. Oh, and there must have been an epidemic of grandchildren last night -- we met three people who told us the same story. While made the story less sweet.

Then back on the minibus to the hotel, where we asked about transport to the SOUND & LIGHT show. They quoted us 80 return, $16, which seemed a lot easier than haggling and struggling each way, so we booked it. Does it make us old that we're pleased by this? Probably. But still.

Back to the room for mediocre room service and a nap, and then back to the lobby to meet our driver -- Alaa. He was very nice, very calm, very confident, and told us a little about the area as he drove. The S&L show was reputedly very kitschy, tacky, touristy -- but when else do you get to see the pyramids lit up? So we got there, inadvertently went to the VIP ticket line (because there was no queue), and happily paid 90 (as opposed to 75) each to sit unmolested in the front row. Got there as the sun was setting -- amazing. We were led to the VIP seats, which had 3 rows roped off behind them -- nice to keep the riff-raff out. :)

Promptly at 8:30 the show started and it was beautiful. Lights, stereophonic speakers, projections, lasers -- really nice. And nice to be outside in the evening with a cool breeze. After the show was over we found our driver right away, and decided to book him for tomorrow's trip to the pyramids. Sitting outside in the moonlight drinking bourbon and coke light. Very nice.

Casablanca airport and our trip to Cairo

2009-07-30T17:16:00.000-07:00

The morning in Casablanca was very easy -- we just got up, showered, zipped up our bags, and walked out of the hotel. Quickly got a taxi -- too quickly, really, and we got to the train station at 8:04... which meant that, by moving quickly, we were able to catch the 8:07 rather than the 9:07 we had tickets for. We were going to play dumb if the conductor gave us any grief, but he didn't.

When we got off the train, before we could enter the airport, we had to go through another scanner. Including the bags. Kinda weird -- some people were even being pulled aside for questioning. But we went through just fine (even if it took us 20 minutes to get through the line... there's only one scanner for a train full of people.

Then up into the terminal, where we went off to find the Iberia counter. Three lines, 2 family/travel groups of 2-4 people each. We joined one and still, somehow, had to wait nearly 20 minutes. Oh well.

Then we passed through to the passport control. First you show your boarding pass and passport to one person, who looks at them and then points you in the direction of a person sitting at a table at the end of a deserted stanchion maze. Wil noted that the person looked at the wrong page in his passport. So you zig zag over to the person at the table, who looks at your passport and boarding card again, says "Tourist?" and then when we nodded, points us toward the next lines at the windows.

So we wait in the line at the windows. And get to the front, and the man in the box says "card?" and asks us to go back to the second person, get a card, fill it out, and then get back in line. Awesome!

Then the official spends a long time perusing our passports before stamping all over them, his desk, and waving us through.

Then another round of security -- x-rays, a bit of pat down -- and we were through -- to the most dismal "modern" international airport in the world.
- nowhere to exchange the dirham you weren't supposed to take out of the country
- lots of shops that only accepted Euro
- signs to a food court that had been closed
- toilets without seats (the seats had been broken and not replaced)
- a restaurant / cafeteria that shared a room, but the "restaurant" wasn't open so you couldn't sit at those tables
- a Duty Free shop that didn't inform you what you would be forced to throw away the bottle of Jim Beam upon your arrival in Madrid

BUT we amused ourselves by buying bags of crisps, mediocre food, overpriced sodas, some scarves/sarongs, and a "Jedi" shirt for Wil. Then an easy flight to Madrid.

In Madrid we threw away our Jim Beam and bought a replacement, bought some candy and some overpriced "beach reading" paperpacks in English.

Then the flight to Cairo -- where we sat in row 6 next to a very stinky man who hadn't had the opportunity to bathe in days.

Landing in Cairo, where we were asked to fill out supplemental health forms, and then handed them to people who didn't look at them. (It's been interesting to see different takes on the swine flu pandemic.)

Then we got in the passport control line, though I noticed a sign saying we needed to buy entry visas for US $15 "at any bank". So we picked one of the 4 windows, handed them $40, and got a crisp $10 bill in exchange. Wild. Some random pushing and queueing, but then we were through to baggage claim.

I needed the WC, so I asked the machine-gun toting guards if I was allowed to go down the hall. They smiled and pointed the way. Of course, there was an obsequious attendant, who handed me "wet naps" and escorted me to a stall from which she had removed the toilet paper. Why? So that when I was finished, she could turn on the tap, squirt some soap on my hands, and then hand me toilet paper to dry my hands. Having no Egyptian small change, I had to give her a dollar bill, which made her grin from ear to ear.

Then our bags came and we faced the arrivals hall gauntlet. I was so pleased to have booked our hotel in advance -- so absurdly pleased. None of that hassle at 11pm. We had read that we could just book a limo for a fixed price -- no haggling. Okay, I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but I'm tired of the haggle. And so we went to a limo desk, were told it was 120 Egyptian pounds ($25 US), but easy. So we said yes.

We told the men at the desk the name of our hotel. They swore they knew the place. The took us down to where the towncars were parked. We men our driver and insisted on paying him. We paid the "escort" a "service charge" of a dollar. (He was a jerk.) And then the adventure began.

Two hours later -- after a lot of stops where the driver got out and asked others where to go, including other cabbies, people on the street, policemen, etc.; after getting stuck in bumper to bumper traffic; after the electronics on the car died and the driver had to get out and fiddle under the hood; we spotted the Hotel Oasis. It was 1am.

The driver had been kind, and I had begun to feel sorry for him. At one point we feared he would just dump us at some other hotel -- but instead he saw us "home". So I tipped him $3 and he was thrilled. Again, when do you get the chance to be a hero for $3?

We walked into the hotel, tired and travel worn, and the men at the front desk were jerks. (Admittedly, the 1am staff at most hotels probably isn't the varsity team.) Someone tried to grab our bags, and we instinctively refused to let them go. Then they stopped being even remotely helpful. We asked for someone to show us to our room as we had been told it was hard to find. They made us wait for 5 minutes for a man who took us to the sign that said "ROOMS ---->" and abandoned us there. Ten minutes later we had found the room (after consulting two maps). Not the best first impression. Luckily, we had our Duty Free bourbon from Madrid and my Coke Light to ease our jangled nerves. It was 1:30 when we got to the room, but we were asleep by 2.

Casablanca

2009-07-29T23:28:00.000-07:00

After a long train ride yesterday from Fez, we arrived here in Casablanca. Got off the train and stepped into a (relatively) cool breeze -- since we're back at the coast. Got to our hotel (the Guynemer), which LP raves about, but it's nothing special. I mean, it's a small room in a dingy hotel, but it does have a friendly staff and wi-fi. It's all we wanted in a place to crash before flying to Egypt.

Walked around Casa a bit yesterday -- there are some grand old facades in this town -- but it's all dirty and poorly maintained. It's not a poor city -- there's lots of international business here -- but perhaps the lack of rain keeps everything coated with dust.

Made the trek (skirting the medina and inadvertently passing through some dodgy areas, but in broad daylight) to Rick's Cafe -- modelled on the bar in the film... which was, of course, actually modelled on the Caid's Bar in Tangier. But we figured we'd be bummed, later, if we didn't at least have a drink there. Not very imposing on the outside (why on earth didn't they invest in a neon sign?), but it is beautiful inside, even if it doesn't look anything like Rick's. Had a drink in the upstairs bar; the drink was stiff if expensive, the service non-existent... but it was the first time we had had a service charge applied. Happy to have our one drink, beg someone to give us the bill, wait 5 minutes to pay them, and then skedaddle.

On the way to Rick's we came across the Hassan II mosque, the third-largest mosque in the world. It's so big you can scarcely believe it -- it's set a bit apart from other buildings so you don't get a sense of how big it is. But it can house 25,000 worshippers at once, along with another 80,000 in the surrounding squares and halls. Beautiful, but not open to non-Muslims. (fair enough).

After Rick's we decided to get some food, and followed LP's recommendation for Al-Moumia -- which was gorgeous and classy in a way that Rick's will never be. Stepping through a guarded door into an amazing fairy-lit courtyard with a huge tree providing shade. Were seated quickly, and then not long after we arrived the crowds came. We told them we were vegetarian and they brought out a 6-plate salad to share as a starter -- huge thing... an eggplant salad, two different pepper salads, the tomato and onion salad, a cucumber salad, and... oddest of all... ground carrot with sugar. Honest. They were all delicious (well, the carrot was odd but still tasty) and very filling, so when our vegetable couscous came we weren't very hungry. The waiter was funny and charming and pretended to be sad that we didn't finish our couscous (or our "dessert couscous" that came with walnuts, dates, and a liberal coating of powdered sugar). But it was relatively inexpensive and absolutely Moroccan.

Today we head to Egypt. I remember writing this day on my calendar at work: "Fly Casablanca to Cairo". Wow. Being very modern, we can take a train out to the airport... after we take a petit taxi to the train station. Still, we've got plenty of time. Tonight: we should see the pyramids!

to Casa...

2009-07-29T11:48:00.000-07:00

Breakfast this morning with the San Francisco girls, very nice and chatty. Katherine is off to Casablanca today as well and then flies home (via Amsterdam) tomorrow. So perhaps we'll bump into her.

Settled up and said goodbyes to Josephine, who thanked us for walking into her house. She liked us a lot, I think.

Then out to the parking lot where, for the first time EVER, there were no taxis. And three people waiting. Boo. We walked a little way down, eventually flagging someone down to take us to the station. Still got there at 10:25; plenty of time to spare. Checked the destination board and asked three people who all agreed that the train would be on platform 2. Got some cold-ish drinks and got on board -- there seems to be the tiniest bit of cold air like when you stand in front of the fridge -- but not proper A/C. Oh well. Shared the compartment with a Belgian woman an a nervous young Fassi who had been born and raised in the Hague and had never taken the train alone in Morocco. Luckily, both she and the Belgian were going to Tangier, so they agreed to help each other. Only 2 hours left now...

Volubilis

2009-07-28T15:49:00.000-07:00

Got up early(ish) and went to the nearest medina gate to pick up a taxi. I had been thinking about taking a bus or a shared grand taxi, but we bumped into Josephine on the way out and she convinced us to take the train. So we got a taxi right away and were at the station in a few minutes. Easily got 1st-class tickets to Meknes and settled in for the short ride.

Got off at the right station (the second one) -- so thrilling not to have luggage! -- and out into the street. A man quietly said "Taxi? Volubilis? Moulay Idriss?" and we said no thanks and moved a little bit away to get our bearings. LP said to go to the Institut Francais to haggle for a taxi and to try to get the price down to 350.

While I was looking for the map, the man approached again, again very quietly and politely, so we asked how much. He described the trip: 20 minutes drive to Volubilis, 2 hours to walk around the site, then a 5-minute drive to a panorama above Moulay Idriss, and then 20 minutes back... for 350. Which is exactly that I wanted to / expected to pay. So w/o haggle or hassle we agreed.

The driver was nice -- chatting in French and telling us about the upcoming festival for the king, about prickly pear (cactus), about olive oil, etc. We got about 50% of what he was saying.

Volubilis itself was surprising -- like Ephesus must have been in the 70s -- some bits cleaned up, but lots of piles of rock, a few arches, lots of fallen pillars, and only a handful of signs. A big museum, very modern looking, is being built, but it's clearly a couple of years from opening. But once open it should help the place -- which just needs money to improve the signage, etc. The mosaics are remarkably intact, other than the ones which have had their faces or naked bodies scratched out. But the Hercules mosaic is lovely. And I liked the arches, especially the triumphal arch. And I like that storks have built their nests atop 2 of the tallest columns in the basilica. Very nice that someone still makes a home there.

We were pretty much done after 1:45 -- there's no shade to speak of at the site, and it's very dry. We couldn't even be bothered to go to the cafe for a cold drink -- we just went back to the car and our driver.

Leaving Volubilis ("I told you you would only want 2 hours!") he drove up the hill to a nice view of Moulay Idriss, explaining that it's the tomb of Moulay Idriss I, and the tomb in Fez is of his son, Moulay Idriss II. "Poor man's Mecca", because 5 trips to Moulay Idriss during the saint's festival = 1 trip to Mecca. A fossil seller sidled up and tried to sell us fossils, while telling us about Moulay Idriss but he kept slipping from German to English which is pretty much what I do when speaking Spanish or French.

Then back in the car and back to Meknes, where the driver was a bit disappointed in us that we didn't want to explore his city. But we only had 20 minutes until our train at 13:29, so we didn't want to risk it. So to the station we went, and discovered the train would be 35 minutes late. Okay, fine. Well, the train was 90 minutes late. Boo. And when it came there was no A/C. Double boo. But it came, we got on, and had no trouble getting a petit taxi back to the medina.

Spend the afternoon resting (oh, after having a date shake at Cafe Clock...) and then in the evening went back out for a saunter, looked at some slippers, and ate.

The slippers thing was tough -- I think I *wish* I wanted them, but in part I didn't want the hassle. But we went to a shop, Wil tried on some yellow slippers (the best!), and we looked at the different quality. I think the guy just normally sold to locals, so didn't want to haggle -- but he also gave us very inflated prices. So we said no and walked away, and he didn't follow. I realized that flat slippers really wouldn't do much for my feet, so I dismissed the idea as well. So no slippers for us.

Dinner at clock -- got a great table we sniped from another couple (who left a bag with a melon, and then slunk back for it). Wil had the cheese and veggie grilled sandwich, I had the falafel/tabboulah/hummous platter (not as nice as last time?) and two big waters. We watched the sun set over Fez and relaxed.

Then "home" to our riad, then bed.

tanning beds...

2009-07-27T09:11:00.000-07:00

Wandered down to the tanneries this morning – just went down, down, down past the shops and the mosques, eventually finding our way by following the unmistakable stink.

A nice man offered to show us a good view and took us through his shop and up onto his terrace. I was happy we had gone with him, since the place seemed simpler than the ones with the fancy covered terraces – we walked past trying hides. Yellow was today’s color… or perhaps yesterday’s as these were drying?

The dye pits are pretty amazing. The whole seen looks (and, now that I think of it, IS) medieval. They were dyeing browns and reds, with men (they were all men) standing in the pits moving the hides from one pit to another. Amazing. We also saw the very stinky part, where they take the hides and actually tan them, using lots of pigeon poo and cow urine, apparently. The men drop hide after hide into a vat, turning them over and then mushing them down with a stick. Then they take them out and put them in the next vat of muck. It must take days to tan the leather…

Anyway, after watching the tanner and dyers do their stuff, we headed back in to run the gauntlet through the shop. The first man had been nice, but he turned us over to another man who was less nice. Wil saw a good bag for the netbook and the haggling began. The seller started at 750 Dh. ($95) Wil countered with 200 Dh ($25). The seller dropped to 550, but Wil stood firm at 200. They asked our best price, and Wil stood firm. So we said thanks, goodbye, and then left. A few minutes later the man came after us, telling us he couldn’t make a profit, and asking our best price. Wil was a rock, and said “200… it’s all I can spend on a bag”. The man let us go, and I started to wonder if we had really gone too low. I man, a camel leather bag, pockets, buckles, etc…. But a few minutes later the little boy from the shop came running after us with the bag and said “OK! OK!” We had won.

A bit more wandering around; got a little lost and actually left the medina to try and get our bearings. Eventually made it back in and found our “home”. Now up on Josephine’s breezy roof terrace enjoying beverages from her icy fridge. Bliss.

Fez

2009-07-26T21:51:00.000-07:00

Looooong way from Marrakesh to Fez – the train was an hour late to arrive but not too bad – and was happy to see the end of the fat belching woman.

Bought 1st-class tickets to Casa for Wednesday morning, giving us 3 nights here in Fez (and time for a daytrip to Meknes or Volubilis). So that’s good to have that sorted – even though we were relatively lucky with our train seats from Marrakesh.

Then out to the street, where we hailed a Petit Taxi – the first guy wanted to charge us 50 Dh, which we laughed at and moved on. The second guy said 15, so we jumped in and he took us to the Bab Bou Meloud, the blue gate. From there it was relatively easy to find Talaa Kebina, even if it was challenging to find the first riad we wanted to look at: the Dar Iman. I thought the mosaicwork and painted doors were beautiful, but Wil hated it from the beginning. He didn’t like the terrace, the courtyard, and the immediate surroundings. So we moved on.

We checked our map and decided to try my first choice: Dar El Hana. We got lost a couple of times, and had to ask directions, but we found it and it’s gorgeous. More subdued, with a great big room and a lovely roof terrace. The room was, however, far more expensive – 890 Dh, but we talked her down to 700/night for 3 nights. The owener is an Aussie expat named Josephine, and she’s lovely and thoughtful, giving us tea and water and telling us about Fez and how she came to be here.

Our room is huge, with an anteroom and desk and couch, as well as a large bedroom and shower. Beautiful floors and wooden details, and a very cute “secret window” looking out over the street from the bed.

Got settled a bit and then headed out to the town. We made a loop through our part of the medina, stopping to visit the shop of the man who helped us find our way. (Wil hates the brass mirrors, I’m trying to think of a place to put one.) We ended up at Café Clock, a very cool “cross-cultural café” run by an expat Brit. It’s a converted riad, so there are lots of different seating areas and chill-out rooms, plus a great roof terrace. The food was good too – we split a falafel/tabbouleh/hummus plate and a “Fez tapas” plate with roasted beets, pickled carrots, little croutony things, an eggplanty pepper spread, some very soft goat cheese, a tomato and onion salad, and a couple of dates. Which made me sorta wish I had a date shake.

Now back at the riad and thinking about tomorrow. Would like to get a look at the tanneries, which might be a great place to start.

train to Fez

2009-07-26T11:49:00.000-07:00

Up early this morning to catch the 9:00 train to Fez. Breakfast was a bit late, but it gave us the chance to play with Khalim the kitten. The off to the station, stopping on the way to the Djemaa el-Fnaa to pick up water from our second favorite shop. An old lady begged me for bread and when I said no, just grabbed a loaf. I looked at the shopkeeper, who nodded and took a 1 Dh coin from my change. Probably not enough to cover the sale of the bread, but hopefully enough to cover the ingredients.

Then a taxi, where we were told it would be “fifteen”. Fine, okay – until we got to the station the driver asked for fifty. We knew he was having us on – it shouldn’t really have been more than 10… so we laughed at him and held firm.

Nasty surprise (on a small scale) at the train station: no 1st-class tickets left on the 9 or the 11 train. Oh well. So we bought 2nd class tickets and hoped for the best.

As the train arrived, the usual boarding scrum occurred – complicated by me getting my pack stuck in the doors. I’m awesome. We got in a car marked with a 2, went through doors marked with 2s, but found a compartment that looked suspiciously like a 1st-class compartment: 6 velour seats with nice wide armrests rather than 8 orange bench seats. Still, we sat down and hoped we wouldn’t be moved.

We were joined by 2 German girls who had been in Morocco for about 30 hours and already seemed ready to leave. They were leaving lovely Marrakesh for icky Casablanca – I hope they find something they like. Later, 2 young Moroccans joined us just before the train left.

We’ve stopped several times at a variety of stations – our original Moroccan couple left and a family with 2 small sleeping children took their place. At some point a ticket collector passed through and didn’t seem phased by our presence, so I guess we really were in a 2nd class car. (Not that we won’t book first-class tickets for the trip back to Casablanca…)

The countryside has been very dry and sparse. In the south the only green was from the cacti which seem to have been planted as hedge/fences around where animals are kept. As we’ve come farther north, there’s a bit more green – olive trees, some palms, something that looks like sugar cane? Also (as we approach Casablanca) there’s more industry and the villages, once just a few houses and a mosque, are being replaced by towns – more houses, some shops, a pharmacy, and of course mosques.

Strange glimpses – shanty towns covered with satellite dishes; skinny Holstein cows surrounded by cacti.

The German girls got out at Casablanca, and were replaced by a Moroccan family including a fat grouchy lady who immediately put her nasty fat feet on the seat across from her, her skinny husband, and their surly teenage son. The lady kept holding the door shut so no one would come in and take the open seat, even when people were standing in the aisle outside. And shall I mention the belching? Must be cultural…

Nawarma

2009-07-25T22:45:00.000-07:00

Despite staying in the medina the whole day, we saw different worlds. Went out in the afternoon to wander the souk and ended up in an expensive bar -- Cafe Arabe -- drinking mojitos on a roof terrace and feeling a bit too much like Mick Jagger in the 1970s. Then back into the souk where we went in search of the perfect Moroccan pouf. Wil had memories of a 2-toned one his granddad had, while I had a more modern one in mind. But we did agree on two things: 1) green should be the main color and 2) no camels. So we wandered around until we saw shops with many choices, but no one had our color. After a lot of looking (and a few disappointed salesmen), we found a good compromise -- a 2-tone, dark green with tooled tan leather one, good sized, and with a nice seller. He wanted 650, I wanted to pay 400. I'm sure we still paid over the odds, but I'm happy with 400 for our pouf -- especially since that's what we had just paid for 4 mojitos with tip at Cafe Arabe...

So eventually we wandered back to the riad, attracting extra attention because we now had a shopping bag. Dropped off the pouf, checked the maps, and headed out to dinner at Nawarma. We didn't quite know what to expect, and I wasn't even sure we were headed in the right direction. But then Wil spotted the sign and an "official greeter" led us in.

What a place! Beautiful and dark, and very stylish. Black-clad servers seated us at a table near a burbling fountain, while a DJ spun a very strange set of 70's-style samba covers of hits including "Ladies Night", "We Will Rock You", "Roxanne", and yes, "Y.M.C.A." -- which was amazingly (and coincidentally, I assume...) mashed up with the 10:00 call to prayer. Then a cover of Billy Joel's "I Love You Just The Way You Are",l which reminded both of us of a bit we'd heard where a woman deconstructed some of the lyrics, saving her special scorn for the line "I don't want clever conversation; I don't wanna work that hard." Oh, okay Billy.

But back to Nawarma -- it was a Moroccan/Thai fusion place, so Wil had another go at veggie couscous, while I tried the green curry. And another round of mojitos.

The food came quickly and was beautifully presented. The couscous came with 2 sauces, which made it exponentially better than the version we had yesterday. My green curry was flavorful, spicy, and filling.

The bill? More than our poufr, more than our night's lodging. 605. But still worth it for the ambiance and delicious food. Besides, we decided we deserved a splurge...

hot hot hot

2009-07-24T23:26:00.000-07:00

Stayed in the relative cool of the riad until 2:45 and then headed out to the Bahia Palace -- got there along with a couple of dozen other tourists, so decided to backtrack to the Dar Si Said crafts museum first -- which we had completely to ourselves. Nicer than the simply arranged crafts was the gorgeous building -- even nicer was how cool it was inside.

After dawdling through there, we went back to the Bahia Palace which, while it wasn't very crowded, wasn't exactly empty so it was less peaceful than we'd hoped. Beautiful tilework, carved friezes, and woodwork. We spent a while wandering around and taking some silly pictures.

Marrakesh is much nicer than Tangier. I'm really happy to be staying in this amazing raid so close to the main square (the Djema el-Fnaa). Went for a wander through the souks earlier, having (yet again) failed to follow a Lonely Planet walking tour. Looked at some things -- an olive green ottoman is in our future -- and perhaps found the perfect slippers for Matt and Lindsay.

Souks are a bit overpowering -- so many things, so many people. Went out in theh evening for dinner and timed things perfectly right -- climbed up to the rooftop terrace at Chez Chegrouni just as the couple in the prime location were getting up. Ordered (surprisingly flavorless) veggie couscous and a veggie tagine, but perhaps we should have asked for cumin? Slightly annoying having people come and stand next to us to snap flash photos of the square, but we had gotten the best table in the house.

Then back down to the Djema el-Fnaa -- very crowded with snake charmers, monkey wranglers, water sellers, dancers, henna painters, drummers, and all the foodstalls you could imaging -- from the amazing fresh-squeezed orange juice stands to the snail sellers. Lots of locals out at night -- pressing through the souks. A bit of sensory overload, in a good way.

Ended the evening on the roof terrace of the riad. Sweetly, Ahmed wished us good night. He also, at some point, sprinkled rose petals in the courtyard fountain. Really pretty.

I love it here. Very happy to spend another day here, even if it is swelteringly hot.

settled at last

2009-07-24T12:11:00.000-07:00

Train was better than expected – our compartment mates were friendly but quiet, and we had lights out before 11pm. Wil had the bottom bed, I had the top – which I loved. Slept with my head by the window, listening to Stars on my iPod and looking out the window. It was hot in the compartment as the attendant had turned off the A/C. When we weren’t moving there was no air.

Slept fitfully, but I did sleep. Wil reports that he slept really well. Lucky puck.

Guard came by in the morning and opened the door. Not a lot of hustle and bustle – I brushed my teeth and got my bags back together, and then we pulled into the station. Much less frantic than I expected.

Went through the pretty station (again, no left luggage), and easily grabbed a petit taxi. Then the hard part started. I had wanted to stay at the Jnane Mogador – but had noticed a big hotel called the Riad Mogador near the station. Of course, that’s where the taxi driver took us first. I said no, showed him the map, and then we drove around. And around. He pulled up at a couple of other hotels, asking doormen, other cabbies, etc. I think he hoped we would just say okay, that’s the one. But eventually he found the road and drove along it as far as he could. We got out, shook off a tout, and then headed up the road (confirming with a nice man en route).

A few minutes of walking and we had found it. Unfortunately, the owner didn’t know if he ha any rooms for tonight, but invited us upstairs for coffee/tea while he found out. The riad was gorgeous – lots of beautiful carving in the courtyard, and a lovely terrace where we had tea. There was even a cute (if filthy) tiny gray kitten frolicking. But, sadly, no rooms for tonight or tomorrow.

He did call someone else, whose place we went to look at. It wasn’t nearly as nice, and all looked new trying to look olde. The rooms we were shown were 300 and 400, and the 300 room stank. To top it off, they then told us the 400 room was already booked for the next night. If the Mogador had had a room for tomorrow we might have just gone for it – but they didn’t. So back to square one. Mohammed made another call and we went to look at a third riad, Riad des Princesses, as it turns out. A bit farther off the grid, but beautiful and quiet. We bartered down to 500/night including breakfast, which is less than we paid in scutty Tangier. The manager/owner is called Ahmed, and he has a beautiful tiny orange kitten named Khalim. I showed him the pictures of Bub and Kiki and he softened towards us completely. And he was touched we bothered to ask his name. Very nice man.

So we’re here for 2 nights – a nice chance to do a bit of washing and relax.

Once in the room we had showers, washed our stinky socks that never did dry in Tangier, and then headed out for some food. We’re really close to the big square, so we went there first. Had a great breakfast in a weird little café with no ornament other than a photo of the Spice Girls on the walls.

Now back in the riad having a siesta till the heat dies down.

Marrakesh!

2009-07-24T10:42:00.000-07:00

Hello from Marrakesh -- we're trying to cool down a bit in our riad -- Riad des Princesses -- after a very hot morning. The trip has been amazing so far -- the trek was beautiful and terrifying, and so far Morocco has been interesting and delightfully foreign.

I've got lots of notes from the trek which I'll post under the dates I made them -- so you may have to scroll down a bit to find them.

Happily ignorant of what 36 degrees Centigrade is in Fahrenheit....

Marrakesh express

2009-07-23T22:14:00.000-07:00

Somewhere in Morocco – we’ve been stopped for a while in some small station. It’s dark but I can see people in a park a few hundred meters away. We’re en route to Marrakesh in a sleeping car with 4-bunk compartments. Our cabin mates are 2 Aussies on a group tour – a 10-person “Intrepid Tour”. Sounds fun, but perhaps too “group activity” for me.

adieu Tangier

2009-07-23T18:47:00.000-07:00

Had a nice lie-in, and another bath. Then we decided to take our bags to the left luggage at the station – got a petit taxi right away and were there in minutes. Unfortunately, there is no left luggage facility here. Or at any train station in Morocco. Oops LP.

A bit stumped, we took a taxi back to the hotel and asked to leave the bags there. Thankfully, they said yes, though they just had us leave them off to the side in the lobby. But at least we were unburdened.

We set off walking from the hotel along the seafront, turning up into the medina. Had to shake off would-be guides a lot. Just wandering around for a while we came across the Grand Socco, and then dove back in and ended up in the Kasbah. It was a pretty aimless day – we didn’t have any real plans or needs, just wandering around.

We came across a strange viewpoint with a handful of locals – a big rocky expanse with what looked like graves cut out of it. Hard to say. But it was breezy and peaceful.

Then back into the Kasbah, where we stopped for a drink and then laughed when 2 competing tour groups – one Spanish, one German, crowded into the same small square.

Then some more wandering through the medina, an ice cream at the Glacier Igloo on the seafront, and more wandering around town. As I said, a very aimless day.

Highlights: the Restaurant Afrique (where I had my first Moroccan mint tea), the supermarche (so much Laughing Cow cheese!), seeing huge queues of locals outside a giant McDonalds, and – of course! – our strange little visit at Caid’s Bar, the real model for Rick’s Café in the movie Casablanca. Caid’s is in a swanky old hotel, very pretty, and we wandered around for while before going in to the bar and ordering expensive cocktails. (I had a delicious whisky sour, Wil had a gin fizz.) Very nice, very strange.

Now at the train station – we’ve been here for an hour already as we frankly ran out of things to do in this ugly town. Lots of people milling about, waiting. Mainly locals, but a few other tourists. People with huge piles of bags. I’m happy that we have couchettes. Hopefully no shrieking children. Please.

Tangerine...

2009-07-22T23:52:00.000-07:00

Hotel Marco Polo, Tangier 11:46 pm, 7/22

Very strange day – long bus ride, then a sudden dash off the bus and into a taxi to the airport. Got there just at the right time – a few minutes before the counters opened and the scrum erupted. We cleverly watched the young woman in front of us and followed her forward (thus jumping several places in the queue).

Bit of an issue at check-in; they clerk couldn’t find our reservations – but eventually she did. We think they had transposed our first and last names? Then through security, which was freakishly easy – there was no line, so I didn’t think it was open. :) And then we were through. Easy peasy. Decent browsing at the airport, but we didn’t buy anything besides snacks. (I might splurge on a Pedrera beach towel when I get back, however…)

We kept laughing about the legs of – I’m not sure what they are? Pigs? Some sort of hoofed animal whose meat must be very tasty if you’d want to buy an entire large leg of it. We tried to imagine bringing that through US Customs. “Nothing to declare, sir… and could you please ask your dog to stop gnawing my suitcase?”

The plane was late. Was amused that everyone waited in line – which made us wonder if we had assigned seats (we did). But eventually we got on board and were surrounded by more children than I had ever seen on a plane. It made me wonder if maybe US flights had a limit? But the weirdest part was that the children were almost all creaming and no one was shushing them. Awesome! And one boy in particular was a nightmare. Thank heavens the flight was short.

Finally landed in Tangier an hour late. We got off the plane quickly, first passing through “health screening” (temperature checks) and then passport control. We joined a short queue at a window with two women who were studiously ignoring the person in front of them, who eventually picked up his things and walked to another window. No “we’re closed” or anything. So we joined another queue as well, and that was okay, until we were asked to go to a health check. Lots of questions about where we had been for 10 days, and whether we had been around anyone with the flu. It was only later that we learned that the UK now has the second most cases of swine flu, so I suppose it’s good that they were being extra careful.

So that done, we raced back through immigration and got our bags – then we made the semi grievous error of jumping in a grande taxi rather than a petit taxi. We also didn’t understand the driver. Did he say 150, then 750 (multiplying it by 5, the supposed number of passengers he can take?) We thought we were being done, but we also figured it would be worth it to make it to the train station on time.

But traffic was bad, and we arrived too late at the station to catch the 21:05 Marrakesh express. Wil handed the driver 800 DH, and the driver looked at us like we were insane. He promptly gave us back 650, and told us to be very careful, to hold on to our bags at all times, etc.

We raced into the station in the hopes that the train was delayed, etc., but no luck. Boo. But we were able to get couchettes for tomorrow night.

So back out of the station, and we attempted to get a petit taxi. I was worried about looking for a hotel at 9:30 pm, so I picked one from the book that wasn’t too far from several decent places and we aimed for that. We ended up here at the Marco Polo – nowhere near as nice as La Tangierine, but not as isolated either.

The driver took us here for 20 Dh. We got here, checked out our big triple room for a bit, and then went for a little walk. It’s an interesting town – swarms of people walking around at 10, 11 pm. Had pizza in a beachfront café with a very friendly waiter – almost Basil Fawlty/Manuel sort of way. Then a bit more walking and back to the hotel to cool down and rest. Tomorrow we explore Tangier.

CdF recap...

2009-07-22T09:35:00.000-07:00

Slept pretty well – still stormy outside but the A/C provided nice white noise. Couldn’t resist the lure of the bathtub – don’t know when my next chance will be!

Thought I would write up a quick Carros de Foc overview. Overall, I loved the CdF. The scenery was amazing (even if our pictures just look like a succession of mountains and lakes). Our fellow trekkers were interesting. Loved the Swedish group, the nice Spanish family with their very brave little girl, the kind French family with their beautiful border collie who got sick and needed to go home. Even the goofy French guy from yesterday, and the hardcore Englishman with the short-shorts we glimpsed at Colomers and again on the path from (or to, in his case) Restanca. And of course, our Spanish “sisters”, who shared hostels with us every night of the trip.

Sure, some of the people were annoying, like the truly unpleasant woman from the first night, but her daughter was nice. And the cocky group of 8 – though, when we saw them on their second day, they were much friendlier. I still worry a little about that poor blonde woman – I hope she want over Monastero safely.

The hostels were great, too – and all slightly different. Ventosa felt like a proper mountain hostel, with its scary squat toilets (with the lightswitch and door just too far out of reach from the “hole”, and doors that didn’t really shut; its freezing cold shower (which I think put us off bathing), cheap beer and soda, and tofu for dinner. Okay, maybe that last bit wasn’t typical. But we got good bed placement (on the bottom bunk, near the end). Lots of places to sit outside and hang out, too.

Beds and sleeping: big communal bunks was the way it worked. Some hostels, like Ventosa, had one big room with 2 looooooong sets of bunks, narrow mattresses dividing up the space, and thin pillows plus thick blankets to go over your sleepsack. We’d get our bed assignment, beg to be moved to the bottom bunk (always successfully), and go upstairs to set up our space. Unfold the sleepsacks (which, thanks to the Swedish sisters, we had torn open so our legs could move), set out our headlamps and earplugs, and stake out our territory. The blankets weren’t always super clean, but then again, neither were we. They were very warm, however, which we needed in a couple of the hostels.

Dinners: communal affairs as well. At each place we were assigned to a specific table. Then, once everyone was seated, representatives of each table would go up and get plates, glasses, and silverware. When everyone had that, reps would go up and get big pots of soup – sometimes, if the soup wasn’t vegetarian, we’d get a separate bowl. There would always be lots of bread – big farmhouse loaves, a bit dry. Then we would take back the big soup pots and sometimes we’d get fresh plates, but usually not. Then usually there would be a big salad. Once it came with tuna, but they had left one section tuna-free for us. :) Once we had salad and the omnivores had a lentil-sausage stew. Then that would be cleared, and the mains would come. One night we had tofu and potatoes while omnivores had sausages and potatoes. Once we had cannelloni while others had a meaty stew. Once we had lasagna vs. sausages. I can’t remember the dinner at Estany Llong at all – must have been too scarred from the day’s crossing of the pass. My favorite meal was at Amitges, where we had gorgeous cheese crepes. But I liked Amitges in general!

Estany Llong – one large bunkroom upstairs, kinds cramped common room downstairs – and one shower with 8 minutes of hot-ish water for 2.50. Of course it wasn’t really hot water, just not freezing. It took the edge off. Oh, and the shower was little more than a stall with 12 inches of “dry” space between it and the door that opened into the common room. So not particularly comfortable, but it did the job. They had two big, clean bathrooms downstairs, a nice cozy fireplace (which would be awesome in the winter, when people snowshoe and ski in to the refuge). But lots of bugs. And everyone looked exhausted. Lots of people with banged-up legs, including one woman with a massive scrape on her bottom. Did I mention that day 2 was incredibly hard?

Colomina – a perfect rustic hostel. Very cozy – a windswept cabin by a lake. Tibetan prayer flags on the wires that anchor the building to the rock. Small rooms with 12-16 beds. A cold shower, but proper toilets. Plenty of room for bags. Really sweet and funky staff. Loved bundling up and sitting by the lake, drinking rum and cokes.

JM Blanc – this was the hostel I was looking forward to because the setting looked so beautiful. While it didn’t disappoint on that front, it was full of day trippers and weekenders who didn’t quite “get it”. But the position by the lake was perfect. Really enjoyed just sitting in the sun and relaxing there.

Mallafre – not much to say – looked okay, if small. Really glad we skipped it to stay at Amitges.

Amitges – my favorite of the hostels. Perfect location, nice people, and happily quiet on a Sunday night. Loved the sun deck most of all.

Saboredo – we didn’t stay here, either, and I bet the experience depends on your fellow travelers. Might be perfect with the right group in the tiny, 3-level sleeping room.

Colomers – well, too many daytrippers, too many mosquitoes, and such a miserable staff. Perhaps my least favorite hostel (even though it was squeaky clean, had huge bathrooms, etc.)

Restanca – we didn’t stay here, but it looked nice, had big toilets (mens AND womens, which I only noticed while coming out of the mens…) and a very friendly staff. So it made us a teensy bit sad we didn’t stay there on our first night.

Writing this from the bus to Barcelona – feels very slow, and we seem to be stopping every few miles. But I’m sure we’re on schedule. Then straight to the airport to fly to Morocco!

back in Viehla

2009-07-21T20:03:00.000-07:00

Well, we survived it!

Last night was strange – not very nice people – staff OR guests. But we just kept remembering that we were almost finished. At dinner people didn’t want to make room for us even when the staff lady asked them to. And at first we were seated across from each other, which meant we had to shout – which, in a room full of excited day-trippers, is still difficult to hear. But a kind Frenchman offered to switch, so we were saved.

Not the best dinner – a noodle soup to start, then a meatless lentil dish, and then – for us – fried eggs. The omnivores had whole fish. The woman next to us, who happened to be “the other vegetarian” told the hostel that she ate fish… but she couldn’t face it when it arrived.

Then there was time to kill after dinner. We chatted with the Spanish ladies, tried to avoid being eaten alive by mosquitoes, and then decided to get ourselves set for the next morning and an early start.

As we went to bed a huge thunderstorm blew in – from out of nowhere it seemed – with pelting rain. This made people close the windows in the dorm, which meant that, by midnight, the heat was stifling. I barely slept. Really happy when it was 6:45 and we could get up pack up our sleepstuff and go downstairs. Breakfast was the usual, so we didn’t linger. Got changed, packed, and hit the road at 8.

Wasn’t sure what to expect from this last stretch. Was it 2 passes, or 1? Were they scary? Would we find our way?

We set off alone, but a Spanish couple and then 2 lone Frenchmen caught up with us on the way up the first pass. Steep but easy walking and no terror.

Then down the other side (a bit of a hassle because it was steep and we had to drop 100+ meters in elevation) but again, no terror. Then up up up again on the second pass of the day. Still, it was pretty easy going and we made it. Then down a little, and I began to recognize things. Some people veered off to the right to summit Montardo, but not us. We simply went back up to the Guellacrestada and hugged and kissed for joy – we had completed the circuit!

Well, sorta – we still had 90+ minutes of steep descent to Restanca. But we tpook our time and – all of a sudden – could see the lake where the refuge was. It still meant 30 minutes or so inching down a waterfall, but then we were there.

We got to the refuge, took off our boots and packs, and went upstairs. The same funny older lady was there to stamp our forfaits and cheer for us. She was even kind enough to say that we did it quickly – and gave us our t-shirts and took our pictures. Yay!

Then, of course, we still had to make our way back to Viehla. So we walked the hour down the path to Pontet de Rius and found no taxis – just an annoying family of day trippers waiting for one. We sat for a while to wait, but we were being eaten alive by mosquitos so we decided to trek down to the next stop. It took us 35 minutes of walking along a very nice gravel road – nothing like the road to Blanc – to get to the next parking lot.

There was a man in the info booth who, when asked about taxis to Vielha, asked us if we wanted “expensive or economical”. I didn’t want to wait for a 4 more people to come down the mountain, so I said “expensive is okay!”. So for 40 euro we got a lift to the hotel where we were greeted with great indifference. But they got our bags for us and we went up to our room to clean up. How heavenly to shower in a big, clean bathroom by ourselves.

We went into town to get some lunch – surly service (but a decent vegetarian pizza) at the pizzeria I had been thinking of. Discovered that there are no launderettes in Viehla. And we went to the CcF offices to buy some treats: t-shirts, stickers, pins…

Then a few more errands – drink for the evening (some very nice Spanish “sidre”), stamps, etc., and then back to the hotel where we’ve been trying to wash and dry clothes in the sink. The washing was fine; but we’ll see about the drying.

As we’ve been in the room, a huge thunderstorm rolled in – it just underscores how lucky we’ve been with the weather. Not a drop of rain on us while trekking.

Safely down from the Mountains.

2009-07-21T11:24:00.000-07:00

We’re safely down from the mountains. We completed the 6 night Carros De Foc trek in the Pyrenees, it was absolutely beautiful (and at times absolutely terrifying).

Slightly more physically and mentally demanding than we’d expected, the training for marathon running put us in good stead and our steady heads at times of mountain pass fear saw us though…

wil

Colomers refuge, 7/20

2009-07-20T16:26:00.000-07:00

Pretty good day today, after a really nice night yesterday. Had a great dinner – we ha a potato soup to start (omnivores has some sort of pasta soup), and then the omnivores had a big lentil/sausage thing while we were given a big salad. Wil and I assumed that that was it… but then they brought out the mains. The omnivores had some sort of meaty gravy dish, while we had huge and delicious cheese crepes. Fantastic! Pears and cherries for dessert.

We shared a table with 2 French couples; 1 goofy funky old couple who were on a tour where someone else carried your bag while you walked; the other were on a short walking tour. They were very impressed by our CdF trek. :)

After dinner we saw deer of some sort near the dam – including a tiny baby one. Then to bed early, where I slept pretty well in the uncrowded dorm.

Up nice and early for breakfast – bread and cheese and hot cocoa – and then got packed and ready to go. Today was another 2-refuge day, and I was a little nervous. The distances were described as being 2-3 hours each, but I didn’t know if we could believe that. So I wanted to get an early start.

We set off on the path toward Saboredo, and sorta before we knew it we had reached the pass. Very nice and easy. Then down, and we could glimpse Saboredo in the distance. It took a while to reach the refuge, but we actually heard it before we saw it again. The warden, an odd young man with a big white dog, was listening to a remixed jazz record (Nina Simone, perhaps?) at full volume. Nice. I had a little fantasy about Wil and I living there with an unlimited supply of books and needlepoint. And a dog.

We got our forfaits stamped (#8!) and then moved on. Oddly enough, it had taken us almost exactly 3 hours, despite a few breaks. So that was cool.

Then on to the next stage: Colomers. I think we may have gone the wrong way at some point, but it was easy enough getting up to the pass. Down, well, we followed the main trail over the rocks when perhaps we should have trusted our instincts. Then after clearing the rocks, we went to the left through some trees along the edge of a ridge… rather than going straight down. This was probably not the standard choice, but it was a trail, and we were going roughly the right direction, so we continued.

Both of us ran out of water at this point – not good – and when we had found our way by Lac Cloto de Baish, we discovered that we hadn’t received any drink in our lunch. Boo. (That’s the 1 strike against Amitges – the rest of the lunch was lovely.)

But we walked and a little farther found a sign for Colomers. So after going up and around a small hill, we could see the dam and the refuge at the end below us. Nearly home!

But of course there was still a lot of descending to do, and then a final scramble up to the dam. And then we realized that the new building farther along the lake was the refuge (wonder when that was built?). So a few hundred more yards of up and down, thirsty in the hot sun, and we were there.

Strange place – day trippers and large groups, and a slightly unpleasant staff. The woman who checked us in seemed offended that we didn’t eat fish – and couldn’t figure out my name. Oh well.

Cold showers only. But tomorrow we’ll have baths!

Amitges refuge, 7/19

2009-07-19T15:35:00.000-07:00

It’s absolutely gorgeous here – I thought Blanc was a beautiful hostel, but Amitges is amazing – fantastic sun deck, nice big restaurant, hot showers, (1 Euro), flush toilets, soft pillows – very nice.

Last night at Blanc was interesting. It was a Saturday, so there were a lot of day-trippers who either took taxis up or walked from Espot (not easy, mind you). So dinner was noisy – we shared a table with 9 Dutch people (some kind of family reunion, we think) and they didn’t know the routine: get the plates, get the soup, get the bread, get the salad, etc. They were surprised when we leapt up and got the things for the table. They also lit up when we mentioned that we had different food b/c we were vegetarian – and went to go ask for veggie food. So when the main course came and Wil went to get it, they said “These are for the OTHER vegetarians” – and it was a fried egg. Then ours came: lovely lasagnas. The omnivores had potatoes and sausages, but there was some concern that there weren’t enough potatoes for 11 (despite the fact that 4 of those people were vegetarians…). But anyway.

After dinner we sat by the lake for a while, and then went up to our dorm to try to sleep, which didn’t work for a while. Lots of people enjoying a noisy Saturday night by the lake. But eventually I dropped off, even though the man next to me was snoring mightily (even through my earplugs). (Perhaps I should note that it wasn’t Wil. )

Slept reasonably well, and then got up early. Had breakfast right at 7: bread, cheese, tomatoes, orange juice, hot chocolate – and then packed up to go.

We had looked at the maps and decided that the “option B” from the description was the way to go. So we set off down the “road” from the hostel towards Espot. It was really steep, very rocky, and I found it difficult to believe that anyone could drive up it. But, later on, a Land Rover passed us, moving slowly. So down down down we went, while I extolled the wonders of a 1:25,000 map.

We got to the “water tank” (reservoir) and noticed a grassy road veering off to the left – but we couldn’t see the canal. We were sure it had to be the right road, however, so we set off. It was lovely and level and grassy, going up gradually, and very peaceful. We were hurtling along when Wil said “Maybe there’s water beneath us?” Sure enough, every 500 m or so we’d seen a concrete square in the path with a ring in the top. When we stopped and listened, we could hear water. Success!

I was still nervous about the semi-cryptic description: “When you get to the tunnels, go to the lowest side.” So we came to a tunnel …and walked through it. Oh, but there was another tunnel, looking very dark. We put on our headlamps and ventured in. I freaked out at the first broken beam, but managed to continue to the site of the full cave-in. Yikes. We turned around and I hurried out of there. So then we started to look for the path around the tunnel. The start was clear, but Wil climbed up, saw the sheer rock face, and said “I can’t do this.” I saw a small white square on a free a few feet down (rather than across) and then noticed some cairns. The route dropped quickly – I spent most of the first 5 minutes on my bum, sliding along – but then climbed as quickly. It was clearly marked, so only 10-15 minutes of terror. Then back on the main path – very lovely – until we came to tunnel #2. We were prepared by the map that it would be a longer detour, so we simply spotted the cairns and followed them around. Some small panic, but mainly very nice. Interestingly, there were multiple “blazes” of reflective tape on these detours – which leads me to think that the SkyRunners who do the circuit in one day do this route – probably at night – rather than cross the Monastero pass.

Once back on the road we were only a few minutes from Mallafre. We walked around the corner to find our Swedish friends eating their picnics and getting ready to walk to Espot to catch a bus to Barcelona. They had had quite an adventure – told us how horrible the Monastero pass was. They said they were frightened, worried they would die, etc. So very happy we made our choice!

It was really nice to see them again, and to trade stories about snoring, farting, and spooning strangers. But we all needed to get back on the road, so we got our forfaits stamped and set off for Amitges.

We stopped at the San Maurici lake, the other “half” of the national park, and ate our picnics. No candy? What? But it felt weird anyway to see so many day-trippers.

We took the Swedes’ advice and went along the lakeside path to the waterfall. Weird again; we’re tromping along with big packs and there are people carrying handbags. Perhaps weirder were the people with walking poles and no packs.

Saw the waterfall and then climbed up alongside it for a while until we reached the forest road. We walked along it, past lakes, waterfalls, and flowers. All the while it was climbing steadily. No shade, getting very hot, but at least it was even going. The last km or so was crazy steep – so steep I took a picture of a Land Rover inching down it. But we trudged on and on, occasionally passing someone coming down with a day pack, and cheering us on. Then – finally! – here.

It’s gorgeous – and our fellow hostellers (who don’t seem to be going all the way round) are (so far) nice Dutch families. We’ve been sitting on this fantastic sun porch and drinking sodas – marvelous. It’s beautiful here, surrounded by mountains and lakes and the sound of a waterfall.

Started the day with just 5 stamps in our forfaits; now we have 7! Very happy about that.

Tomorrow’s stretches look fine – the Swedish guy said the passes aren’t scary and I believe him – so it feels like we are nearly finished. I know it’s wrong to look forward to the end of things, but I’m really looking forward to finishing. I’ll be really happy this time tomorrow!

Josep Maria Blanc refuge, 7/18

2009-07-18T15:01:00.000-07:00

A harder than expected day of hiking – we took the wrong way up a pass. Oops.

But last night was interesting – the horrible noisy group of 8 were annoying at dinner (and of course we had to sit with them…). They complained about the food, which seems stupid to do in the middle of nowhere. We had a cream of mushroom soup, a big salad, and veggie cannelloni. The omnivores received a meaty “hotpot” sort of thing, but asked (after it had been served) to have what we were having. The cute staff lady asked them if they were vegetarian. They said no. So she said no. :)

Nice thing: before dinner we spoke – haltingly – to the quiet Spanish ladies and they taught me how to play dominoes. It seems that they are on exactly the same schedule we are, which means we’ll have “friends” in every refuge.

It was difficult to find quiet after dinner – noisy group stayed in the common room, and it had gotten far too cold and windy to go outside, even with our down jackets on. So we – and the Spanish ladies, it turned out – retreated upstairs to our dormitory, where Wil and I played Trivial Pursuit till it was time to sleep.

Didn’t sleep very well, however; there was a big storm in the night and we woke up to 1/2 inch of snow. Yikes. But we bundled up and set out around the lake from the refuge. Then up up up to the next lake and then we went astray – we followed some cairns into a boulder field and somehow missed a springy turfy switchback path. We got held up in the boulders for quite some time – only towards the end seeing the lovely path below us. A nice young group passed us and showed us where we could go straight down to the path. Afterwards we chatted with them for a while, and then continued up to the pass. At the top we saw the Spanish ladies, and rested a little. Then down the other side, on a clear path (though Very Steep).

The SL’s were ahead of us and kindly stopped to point out that they were going to summit a peat and not to follow them. :)

Then over hill and over dale, past some lovely lakes, came down to the “crossroads”, which had the route to Blanc clearly marked (you know how I feel about good signage). The nice young group were resting by the crossroads and joked that they had waited to make sure we didn’t go the wrong way. They said they were going to Mallafre (which we’ll pass tomorrow), but that Blanc was the most beautiful of the hostels.

So we set off on the little path and stopped by a pond for lunch. While there was saw a guy from Colomina who had been to Blanc and was headed for Mallafre for the night.

After lunch we continued and eventually met up with the noisy group of 8. They were nicer – I think they’d seen some real hiking – and they weren’t that far ahead of us despite their leader’s insistence that they hurry along. The blonde lady who had been so scared crossing the dam and who looked scared about the “day 2 pass” smiled at us and asked how we were feeling. We said “Great!” and asked how she was. She said “Tired… but I think we are halfway there.” We told her she was doing great and didn’t point out that she still had to cross the second-highest pass of the trek that afternoon as their schedule had them sleeping at Mallafre as well. Poor dear. They said the refuge wasn’t far – but then others contradicted them and said it was.

In a way, they were both right. Not long after leaving them, we spotted the refuge far below. Glorious! However, there was a hairy scary descent down to the lake that lasted an absurdly long tome before we got remotely close. Then across a beautiful dam and we were sure we had arrived. But, no, we had to go up and over one last hill, and then back down to the refuge. Still, glorious to arrive here.

Now we’re sitting out in the sun relaxing and I’m trying to get my knees unswollen by massaging them. My right knee especially is painful – I can no longer completely straighten it, nor can I bend it past 90 degrees. Awesome! However, I have discovered a miraculous Spanish medicine – powdered ibuprofen that you add to water and drink. It’s flavoured peppermint and isn’t half bad. And it seems to cure headaches in minutes. Will pick up a box when we get back to Vielha.

J.M. Blanc is gorgeous, and clearly a day-tripper kind of place. You can walk up from Espot or even take a 4WD Land Rover taxi. There’s a nice little restaurant (complete with espresso machine – this isn’t roughing it), 8 16-bed dorms, showers with hot water, toilets, sinks, bliss. They also knew we were vegetarian, so that’s nice.

Tomorrow’s route is interesting – there are options. Frankly, my knees could use another day of rest, with no mountain passes. So we may take the long, low route rather than go over the Monastero pass. We’ve been over several passes, and will be going over several more. So maybe we’ll continue our “rest day” by going for a long walk.

checking in from Josep Maria Blanc

2009-07-18T05:40:00.000-07:00

So -- the trek has been great so far, but there's too much to tell now. (Maybe after we hang up our clothes to dry I'll have another chance to type up some of my notes.) It's the end of day 4 of the Carros de Foc trek and it has been fantastic so far -- though there have been some terrifying moments, there has been so much beauty to make up for it that it's totally worth it.

We arrived here at Blanc about 15 minutes ago, got checked in and our bed assignments, and then I had a shower. A glorious hot 6-minute shower. The best 2 Euro I have ever spent. Wil's in the shower now, and then we'll head back outside.

Colomina refuge, 7/17

2009-07-17T16:49:00.000-07:00

Perfect day! Got a decent night's sleep and a decent breakfast. Said goodbyes to some of our friends -- the Swedish sisters, the Spanish family, and the French family with dog -- who were, sadly, ending their trip because their dog was poorly. Had a little cry thinking about their pooch.

But then we headed out, climbing gradually through a forest until we reached a ridge we followed around. We dropped down to a lake, first crossing a boulder field that, though it involved some jumping and scrambling, but there were obvious markers. Then we went up and over a pass -- only 200 meters less than yesterday's pass, but lovely and zig-zaggy and not very rocky. The Collada des Dellui had me breathless but I blame the altitude. A brief pause at the top -- too windy to linger -- and then a quick descent down to the Estany Eixerola. Nice wander along the lakes -- Monola, Tort -- and we took a lovely long lunchbreak overlooking Estany Mariola. Nice picnics today -- huge cheese sandwiches, nuts, pineapple juice, an apple, and a KitKat.

Then back on our feet and along Estany Tort. We reached a couple of points where you could walk along the top of a dam or go up and down to get to the other side. We decided that discretion was the better part of valor and stuck to the low route. A couple of times we saw people start across the dams, get freaked out, and have to be helped across. Ha.

Got to one point with a faint trail up a hill and another faint trail following some old rail tracks. We decided that any decent guide would mention train tracks, so it must not be the route. It was. We ended up going up and over the hill rather than gently around it. Oh well. So we followed the tracks for 15 minutes or so, and then turned up the steep slope to Colomina. 30 minutes of steep climbing on a nice path -- and there it was. Really pretty == they've got Tibetan prayer flags, the logo incorporates a dove, and they've got 4 16-bed rooms instead of a massive 70-bed room.

The staff is sweet -- they keep smiling at us == even when we arrived behind a large group of first-nighters who were fiddling with their forfaits. But we got some rum and cokes and went to sit by the lake.

The route today was perfect -- no real scrambling, about as described time-wise, and I never feared for my life. Still happy to have an easy day coming up tomorrow.

Estany Llong refuge; 7/16

2009-07-16T17:28:00.000-07:00

Today was one of the most challenging days of my life. We set off on the trek to Estany Llong refuge at 7:30 - kind-of a rough night as I didn't sleep well with the snoring and the body heat of 60 roommates. But.. we were both feeling okay and ready for our trek.

The first bit was lots of boulders, so a full-body workout plus some scuffed legs, but okay. (We had seen people last night in the refuge with scuffed legs and not known what had happened. We started to understand.) Then there was a short stretch of snow. "Snow!" we thought, feeling amused.

We kept climbing, and kept climbing. A lot of scary stuff happened -- slipping, falling, but I think I'm blocking a lot of it out because I can barely remember the way up. We ended up chatting with 2 Swedish sisters, and we basically followed them slowly up to final push to the top of the pass. Absolutely terrifying, very steep scree. I was right behind Wil -- so close I could touch him -- and his feet were level with my eyes. I was walking pretty much upright, but had my hands and feet in contact with the hill. The elder Swedish girl started a small rockslide ahead of us, and all we could do was dig in and hope it missed us. Really scary stuff.

After a very brief rest at the top (as the pass is very narrow), we had to start the descent. I suppose I should point out that it was described as a 4-6 hour stretch -- and the national park signage described it as a 5.5 hour stretch -- and we had already been going for over 4 hours. Possibly 5. An Englishman who joined our struggling party had the line of the day: "5 and 1/2 hours? Maybe if you're a condor!"

Down wasn't much better -- we went from a reasonably marked path to a rockfield devoid of cairns. We had been following a French family and their dog for a bit, but we had lost them around a curve... around the same time we lost the cairns completely. Wil spotted an obvious cairn in that appeared to be in the wrong direction, but it was clearly well marked so it went somewhere. I was just worried it was going to the wrong somewhere -- a summit or something. But we took it and then stopped where it seemed unlikely.

We then saw the French family coming back up the other side of the gap we had crossed to follow our path... and they started to head over to us. Though I was worried they were following us on the wrong path, we waited till they caught up with us and chatted with them. The dad could see people coming up the trail, so he was sure we were on the right path. Or *a* right path. He told us that they got to the end of the spur and there was a 10-foot drop down a "little cliff", which he deemed "dangerous for the children". (Did I mention he had two little kids in tow?)

So we all started down -- over 500 meters of elevation, apparently -- but most of it was well marked and mainly grass or dirt. There was even one glorious meadow with a rushing river. It was the poster girl of paths.

Then down down down some more, till we finally reached the other refuge -- which meant we had to climb up to the "forest road" and walk uphill to our refuge. Tiring, but we made it.

This hostel seems smaller, but they have a fireplace and hot showers, and they had our beds reserved for us: bottom level, on the end. Awesome!

Today's walk was really scary and made us feel a bit unprepared. Still wondering how on earth the "skyrunners" get around the circuit so fast. Everyone said that this stretch is the hardest, however, so I'm glad to have it done. Tomorrow is meant to be the longest single stretch, but nowhere near as hard. Hooray!

Ventosa i Calvell 7/15

2009-07-15T15:24:00.000-07:00

Got a good start today -- nice breakfast buffet at the hotel, lots of cheese and bread and fruit. Then we grabbed our bags and went downstairs to talk to the nice blonde who had been helpful yesterday. She let us put our big bags in storage for the week and even called the taxi -- "Jaime" -- and asked him to take us to the trailhead. He turned up with another passenger and a minivan, but it was 4WD and he was easily able to take us to the highest trailhead, just an hour's walk from Restanca.

But what an hour -- it felt like we went straight up through the forest on a rocky but clear path. Wow. Really steep. But everyone said that the first hour would suck. So imagine how pleased we were to see the curve of the dam that forms Lake Restanca -- and to see the refuge across the top of the dam. Yay!

The refuge was lovely, and made both of us feel a bit sad that we hadn't just gone up yesterday for the night. Still, we had a little look around and got our swag: a surprisingly cool black hat, our sleepsacks, our maps, and our disappointing "lightweight towels" (read: washcloths). Tiny panic when whey couldn't find the blank forfaits, but then we got them. Hooray!

We set off along the lake but then rapidly climbed (again!) alongside a waterfall up to Cap deth Port lake. Wheezy. Lots of wild flowers and green plants -- reminded us a lot of Mount Rainier national park. We followed the lake for a bit, and then started up through the boulder field to the Coll Crestada, which was really tough: very steep, careful stepping, and frequent breaks. Beautiful views -- I made up strop partway along for candy because I was out of breath and feeling tired. It took us two hours to reach the summit, but then, suddenly, we were headed down the other side. Much more pleasant, grassy rather than bouldery. We managed to take the correct path to the refuge -- a little alarming because I didn't see the other path. But oh well.

The red and white blazes changed to yellow-painted sticks, and there were fewer of them -- but also they weren't as necessary on the obvious path.

A few more ups and downs, then lovely trail past glorious lakes. All greens and blues. Bright sunshine. Still, I admit that I got tired. And seeing the refuge -- even after just 5 hours of hiking -- was a thrill.

Ventosa i Calvell is pretty -- beds upstairs (we got -- after some switching around, end, lower-level bunks) and tabled downstairs. We got the info (dinner 7-8, breakfast 6:30-7:30) and our table assignments, then we bought a beer and a soda and went outside to relax and eat our well-deserved lunch.

Lovely to feel physically tired but not in pain. Bright sun outside, wind whistling around the refuge. Really great day.

Vielha, 7/14

2009-07-14T22:48:00.000-07:00

Strange day -=- got up early to get to the bus station and walked around for 20 minutes looking for a cafe/breakfast. In the end we just went to the station restaurant and had rude service. :) But the cheese sandwich was perfect and exactly what I wanted.

Found our bus "spot" -- #31 -- but there was no bus. However, there WAS a working electronic ticket machine right in front of the stop. Would have saved us 45 minutes yesterday...

The bus too late, lot of frantic people saying "Vielha? Vielha?" to anyone who passed. I watched idly as a woman frantically asked nearly every man in sight. I was a little alarmed when the bus arrived and frantic lady was nowhere in sight... but she did come sprinting up a minute or so before we left.

Pretty empty bus -- we wound our way through Barcelona with 5 passengers. Near the Barca stadium we picked up another. Not sure how they can survive financially... but I guess we're travelling in the off season.

At some point we turned off the big motorway onto a 2-lane road and I saw a sign for a Camino del Santiago -- very exciting! A couple of hundred yards later we passed a small icon/signpost. I realized that, here at least, the pilgrimage route is just staggering along a busy, dirty 2-lane highway. I know pilgrimages are supposed to be physically and emotionally challenging, but still, that looked horrible.

Excited to discover that we were going to go through the (relatively new) Tunnel de Vielha -- 5 km of 3-lane tunnel through a mountain. I kept thinking it would make a really fun 5K race.

Then, suddenly, we were in Vielha. We asked a helpful stranger where the hotel was -- luckily just down the road from the bus stops. Got to the hotel, checked in and went up to our oddly shaped room -- a huge bathroom, smallish bedroom area, and a triangular balcony overlooking the river.

But we had questions to ask, problems to solve before we could rest. So we dropped off our stuff and headed into town. Vielha is larger than I had thought -- lots of condos/vacation rentals all over town, and a medieval, higgeldy-piggeldy layout. But most things were closed between 2-5. So we looked in windows and had lunch. We chose a place with a nice-looking menu, a cool location next to the river and a tiny handwritten "we speak English" sign.

Okay, so the waiter didn't speak English. But he was nice and patient as we struggled to order food. I was trying to figure out what the ingredients of a particular salad was -- was it a bean? A plant? A sausage? But we were stuck. I said "soy... vegetariano?" and his face lit up and he said "Legume!" and smiled and nodded.

We were seated on an outside deck with a glass room, open at the sides, and with a canvas sunscreen stretched under the glass. A water sprinkler sprayed the top of the glass, making "rain" off the sides of the room into the river on one side and the old millrace on the other. It also made gorgeous patterns on the roof between the water and the shadows.

When my food came if was a bit of a surprise -- a big platter of grilled vegetable drenched in amazing olive oil and spiky with salt. Along with a side plate of slabs of toasted bread rubbed with tomato. Wow. Eggplant, tomato, peppers, asparagus, onion, and an entire artichoke. Really tasty, but I'll have to get accustomed to the salt.

Around 5:30 we went back into town, visiting the Carros de Foc office (woo-hoo!) and chatting with the staff. She showed us the towel and bedsheet we would be given and gave us the name and number of a taxi driver. Then more wandering around the various shops -- lots of outdoor shops, none of which sold GPS units. Odd. But perhaps comforting? I mean, they all sold compasses and rucksacks and hiking boots, so they had the essentials.

Also looked for some postcards and got the feeling that this is a tourist town that hates tourists.

Stopped in at the SUPERMERKAT to pick up water, cheese, and bread. Was very impressed by the range of tinned seafood. Wil pointed out that the illustration on the "octopus pieces" can looked like "struggling seamonster" which made us almost buy it, just for a laugh.

We had seen what looked like a nice baker up the road so didn't buy bread -- but after buying the hardest loaf in the world from the surly baker, we actually went back to the merkat for bread. Lesson learned: just because it's from a bakery doesn't mean it's nice.

Spent the evening sorting through our things. Pleasantly surprised by a knock on the door at 7:30, where the bottle of cava (did I mention the "romance package"?) was delivered to our room. So we snacked on bread and cheese to cava for dinner, then went down for a quick visit to the spa to relax before bed. Tomorrow it all starts!

Barcelona misc.

2009-07-13T22:03:00.000-07:00

Slept pretty well... at least until 4:15. But then was able to listen to the Now Show and try to get a little more rest. Some mice random thoughts from yesterday, in no particular order...
- sitting in the plaza across from the hotel at 10:30 last night, eating Solera and Magnum ice creams, drinking beer from cans, and discovering what we think might be the hot-climate version of the Kinder Surprise eggs -- the Kinder Joy. It's still an egg, but you pop it open into two symmetrical halves -- one with a toy and a little spoon, the other with a white chocolate mousse/creme and two tiny chocolatey spheres inside -- like tiny ferro rochers. Gorgeous!
- lovely to watch families out with their children in the moonlight -- riding bikes and whooshing around on scooters. I mean, if they take a siesta at 2, then of course they can stay up late.
- seeing lots and lots of the same type of dog -- a French bulldog perhaps? -- 3 or 4 at a time. Must be a good apartment dog.
- stumbling across the Palau de Musica Catalunya late at night, lit up beautifully. Love the green glass newel posts and the floral mosaic pillars
- overhearing an English girl ordering the chorizo y jamon pizza, "SIN chorizo". Um, okay.
- the "BICING" program with all the white and red bicycles all over town
- discovering an interesting new artist/character by stumbling across a comics/manga shop: Hugo Pratt's Corto Maltese.

Now getting started with the day -- showers, packing, and getting on the road. Today we start with a long bus ride to Vielha!

Barcelona

2009-07-13T20:41:00.000-07:00

HOT. And humid. Uh-oh. Spent most of yesterday traipsing around beautiful Barcelona. Arrived at the airport, collected our bags (phew!), and emerged into the steamy heat and a fog of cigarette smoke. Oh, right -- people still smoke outside of Seattle!

Walked right on to the Aerobus to the center of town, and then the 15-minute walk to the hotel where I didn't really get lost -- we were heading in the right direction -- so much as lost faith in my internal compass. Anyway, we checked in, went straight up to the small but very tidy room, and took showers to wash away the ick of travel. Awesome water pressure!

Walked over to the bus station to sort out tickets to Vielha. We had decided to stay a last night in Vielha rather than race back to Barca, given that we almost always prefer smaller villages to larger cities. So we figured out the timetable and the days we wanted. See, we had plenty of time because the queue to buy tickets stretched all the way around the ticket hall. At least the 4 ticket sellers had a system whereby every now and then one of them would go out to the line and look for people who were waiting to buy tickets for buses leaving within 30 minutes. So that was good. We considered just trying our luck the next day, but didn't want to risk missing the bus while waiting in an even longer line. But our main focus today was just to stay awake for most of the day rather than sleep it off.

BTW, I busted out my awesome 5th-grade Spanish to order the tickets. The woman behind the counter kept smiling to herself, probably thinking "Oh, you idiot" but I did feel as if I had made the effort. :)

we wandered up to Sagrada Familia -- looked very different to my memory of it. More pink? More rainbow-colors on the "sanctus sanctus" art? But I guess that what happens on a work-in-progress after 10 years have passed.

On a whim, and because we were a bit sleepy, we jumped on one of those city tour buses and rode around for a while. We sat in full sun on the top deck -- which felt really nice when we were moving (lovely breeze!) but less nice when we were stopped. I didn't feel like the narration was particulary good -- indeed, when we jumped on a bus later on I noticed that absolutely no one was wearing their headphones. But it was probably a convenient way to move between the sights. Both of us nodded off at a couple of times, so we decided to head back to the hotel for a very brief siesta.

We went through the Barri Gotic, somehow getting completely turned around in the marvellous winding lanes. Absolutely beautiful, but we were tired and getting cranky. So we knew the right thing to do was to give in to morpheus and then go back out.

90 minutes later, very refreshed, we walked back out and through the Parc Ciutadella, where we caught one of the tourist buses and rode for a couple of stops. Then we dove back in to the Barri Gotic and wandered around, looking at shops and then settling on a cute little restaurant for dinner. I know, I know -- paella and sangria isn't exactly original, but it was very tasty. And by the time we left, the restaurant was full of locals.

Day 1 – 2009 07 12 - Prior to landing in the 'Dam…

2009-07-13T14:18:00.000-07:00

Got up nice and early, to make sure that everything was fine and the bedding was laundered for Matt, our great housesitter. Hung out with the cats for a little while, not quite sure if they know that there was something going on.

Breakfast was cheese and onion waffles. (Kinda a last taste of America but with added onion). Rebecca was wonderful in her offer to drive us to the Airport (which went without a hitch, other than not being able to locate the KLM departures (hidden below layers of NWA and Delta.)

We’d checked in online, but for some reason my passport couldn’t be scanned so we were

required to go to the ridiculous line for special services. A 90 minute line!!!! (we also managed to officially jump the queue a little, as it became clear that if the Amsterdam people didn’t then we would be missing our flights).

After the lovely line I still only got my boarding pass for Amsterdam and need to get another to Barcelona when we land. (Sunny managed to get both from the nice auto kiosk). I guess that when they tell you to arrive 2 hours early there are times when they actually mean it, (we also managed to officially jump the queue a little, as it became clear that if the Amsterdam people didn’t then we would be missing our flights)

We are heading on holiday, so we are Mr. and Mrs. Positive. Security as fine, and the double Jack and Coke on the other side was even finer (even though the plane had already started boarding by the time we had gotten through security)

On board and in flight (as we a

re now) and all is good… We are a couple of glasses of wine down, ate a really rather nice “Asian Vegetarian” meal, a super thing but satisfying brownie, followed by our after/during dinner entertainment “Monsters versus Aliens”.

Our clocks are set to Amsterdam/Barcelona time, which means that it’s midnight 22 tomorrow, and maybe we should think about trying to get a little sleep.

I did get a little bit of a thrill as the captain was letting us know the route and he told us that at around 6-7am UK time we would be travelling over my home island… So hopefully anyone in the UK who knows me will be up and checking out the sky. Notice a nice red and sliver plane. That will be the plane which we’re on.

England was cloudy as we passed over, there was a point where I could see land, but the land was dark and the sun was light, so my camera decided that it would prefer not to take pics...

Wil

Amsterdam

2009-07-13T00:28:00.000-07:00

Lovely uneventful flight where we watched too many movies (Monsters v Aliens, Benjamin Button, and Frost/Nixon), drank red wine, and ate really nice "Asian vegetarian" meals with a chickpea curry and rice for dinner, a bean-salad pita for "lunch", and... well.. a plastic bowl of multigrain Cheerios and soymilk for breakfast. Which wouldn't have been quite so bad if the standard breakfast hadn't been egg and cheese biscuits. Oh well.

Schiphol Airport is amazing -- beautiful design, lots of self-service transfer kiosks (where Wil could finally print his boarding pass for Barcelona, which the less-than-genius agent in Seattle claimed she couldn't do even though I had printed mine...), lots of fun shops, and an interesting system whereby we suddenly had to pass through immigration and security but there didn't seem to be any differences between the two sides. (Love the brightly colored bins they have at their x-ray machines!) Also, I noticed that, in addition to their metal detectors, they had one of those x-ray picture machines... that had a large monitor attached. I said "Ooh, it's the naked picture machine!" and Wil said "Yeah, and I guess the monitor is for the entertainment of the queue."

Didn't have too long to kill, but did manage to find a cheese shop and buy some lovely cheese in honor of my international cheese-smuggling mother. Say cheese!

Flight

2009-07-12T14:01:00.000-07:00

So we're on the plane and I'm slightly tipsy. Nightmare @ checking - I was fine, but Wil had to go to the "special services" line -- where we waited for 90 minutes. Good thing we got to the airport so early! Then they wanted me to go wait in another line to check my bag... but eventually (since there were 10+ of us in the "special services" limbo, they let us move to the front of the queue.

Eventually we made it through check-in and the huge (but relatively fast-moving) line at security. And we still had time to raise a glass to Betsy before getting on the plane.

It's a relatively full flight, but it seems like we've got nice people around us, so that's good.

Really excited about our trip - happy that everything has gone smoothly so far!

nearly ready

2009-07-11T15:35:00.001-07:00

We've been packed for days... but of course still went out today to pick up some last-minute things. But I really think we're packed now. Oh, unless I need to bring...

summer hair

2009-07-09T22:29:00.001-07:00

So I had decided that I needed a haircut before my trip. But when? When would I manage to do it? We needed to spend an evening with Matt, and I had a dinner with one of my agencies another night, and then we're leaving on Sunday... so what to do?

Then Lindsay reminded me that *she* was having a haircut on Thursday... at lunchtime. So just before my dinner on Wednesday I called Beehive -- the place I had my hair cut last August -- to see if they had any openings Thursday morning. I booked an 11:00 just so I wouldn't have to think about it.

Laura was a great stylist -- very patient and understanding of a lazy person who simply won't do any styling. :) After the cut I went in to work, where I finally realized that I had cut a lot of hair off. As I was chatting with folks in the kitchen, in walked Lindsay -- with HER summer cut. Let's just say we had similar styles -- though she had gotten the fringe that I hadn't. Hilarious!

Still, I'm very happy with my hair -- and extra happy to have checked it off my list.

3 more work days...

2009-07-07T20:22:00.000-07:00

A very long day at work, though I feel like I made a tiny dent in my list. Of course, I didn't actually do what I had planned on doing, which is clear off my desk. Poor Lindsay.

The big news is that Wil was offered a job today -- when we return from our trip Wil will start his new job. Hooray!

packed

2009-07-06T22:45:00.000-07:00

It still seems pretty surreal -- but Wil and I went out to get a few last things and both of us are packed and ready to go. Or as ready as we can be. Still lots of random small tasks to do but we're very close. Can't believe it!

Yes, I'm taking too much stuff. I know this. But I can't help it.

just around the corner!

2009-07-04T23:37:00.000-07:00

Wil and I spent the day helping our friend Mike and Allison sell their Heavenly pretzels and "big cheezy" scones at the Seattle International Beer Festival -- 12 long hours, but good fun (and good beer). We stood and danced and chatted and laughed all day. Really great day. But that's the last big task before we go on our trip -- so I guess we need to get packed now.

<10 days

2009-07-01T22:46:00.001-07:00

Made a quick trip to REI today -- Wil decided that his shoes were indeed too big, so we exchanged them for a half size smaller. Oh, and we bought additional random items -- an ultralight "packtowl" for me (to replace my giant "lite" one) and sunhats for the both of us. Really not much else we can buy at this point...

Terrifying to notice that we are less than 10 full days away from our departure. Umm, how are we going to get everything done? Not sure. But we have a long weekend which gives us time to pack for real... and then we'll make up the daily cleaning roster so that the house is sparkling clean for when Matt moves in.

strong Euro, weak Dollar

2009-06-29T21:58:00.000-07:00

Wil paid the remainder of our Carros de Foc fees today. Now, mind you, it's 6 nights room for two people, plus 3 meals per day. But, still, 498 Euro is now $750. Yikes. And apparently that doesn't include porters, guides, or horses. Just kidding. (Okay, it *doesn't* include any of those things, but we didn't expect that....)

Really really pleased that our holiday is just around the corner!

countdown

2009-06-29T06:50:00.001-07:00

Umm... really? Less than 2 weeks? Yikes.

thank heavens for the Swiss

2009-06-20T21:10:00.000-07:00

Discovered on Friday that our flight reservation from Barcelona to Tangier had been cancelled -- not that the agency had told us, but I logged in to look up the flight times and numbers saw it on our itinerary. Oh. Great. Wil called them and the less-than-helpful staff said, "Oh, um, maybe the flight was sold out." (Which it wasn't, since anyone with a European credit card could still book them through Jet4You.)

So Wil went back to the drawing board and found a Swiss/Italian flight called Bravofly. Because they are able to process payments via Paypal (crazy!) we decided to give them ago. Oh, and they didn't add a huge fee on top of the flight cost, AND we were able to pay for our luggage in advance. Sure, it still took a day for them to confirm the ticketing info with Jet4You, but in the end we were able to book. Bravo, Bravofly.

Scary to see the countdown ticker show less than 3 weeks. Very very scary. Seems like lots and lots to do... but very little that we can do right now.

new gear

2009-06-19T21:47:00.001-07:00

Two words: squishy bowls.

We got one set of green ones....

...and a set of black ones....

No bonus points for guessing who gets what.

Oh yeah.

Carros de Foc

2009-06-17T19:15:00.000-07:00

The first part of our trip will be spent completing a trek that I've wanted to do since the day I read about it in 2003: the Carros de Foc. It's a 39-mile loop through Aiguestortes National Park in the Spanish Pyrenees. The great thing is that you spend every night in a mountain refuge. It's not fancy, but it's a bed and a blanket and 3 meals per day. So essentially, you can complete a multi-day trek with a day pack. Heaven!

At your first refuge you pick up your "forfait", which you have stamped at each of the 9 refuges you pass by. The warden will list the time and date you arrived at the refuge. When you complete the loop by having your forfait stamped again at your first refuge, you get a t-shirt. Having read some people's description of the hikes, a lot of them, at one point or another, are motivated simply by getting the shirt. Well, probably that and a warm meal.

We're doing it at a leisurely, 7-day pace. At that rate, our longest predicted day will be up to 8 hours of hiking. But one day will be as little as 4 hours of walking. It's hard to know. We cross mountain passes almost every day, and there is always the possibility that we'll get lost. But every afternoon, we'll arrive at a beautiful hut in the mountains and be fed a nice hot meal complete with red wine. After a potentially less-than-perfect sleep in a big dormitory, we'll wake up to breakfast, and be sent on our way with a packed lunch. Very sweet. And did I mention the t-shirt at the end?

We're starting by taking a bus from Barcelona to Vielha, spending the night there, and then setting off in the morning. We'll pass the Restanca refuge, pick up our forfait and other goodies, and then go in a counter-clockwise direction, spending our first night in the Ventosa i Calvell refuge. The next day's trek to Estany Llong is described as the toughest stretch -- good to get that behind us. The third day takes us to Colomina -- the longest stretch, but easier than the previous day's. Then on the fourth day we'll take it very easy -- a 2-4 hour trip to the beautiful Josep Maria Blanc refuge.

Things get a little tougher -- or at least a little longer -- on day 5. We're going to do the 3-5 hour trek to Ernest Mallafre... and then continue on to the nicer Amitges refuge. Day 6 is another 2-refuge day, where we'll hike 2-3 hours to Saboredo, and another 2-3 on to Colomers, where we'll spend our last night in the mountains.

On the 7th day we'll get up early and head back out past Restanca again... FOR THE T-SHIRT ... and then back to Vielha. Ideally, we'll be able to catch the 1:30 bus back to Barcelona. And find ourselves a nice hot bath. And perhaps a washing machine.

Lots more info -- and some spectacular pictures -- from the official Carros de Foc website.

adaptability

2009-06-17T18:54:00.000-07:00

Slowly but surely I'm checking things off lists. Today had a couple of hours to kill in downtown Bellevue so stopped in at Bergman Luggage to pick up TSA locks and power adapters. We need to pack a couple -- we may find ourselves in situations where we have to charge both cameras and the netbook at the same time -- so I bought 3. Yeah, I'm nuts. I know. My backup camera battery and XD card also arrived in the last day or so, so that's sorted as well. Still waiting to get final confirmation from the airline about our flight from Barcelona to Morocco. Sigh.

another day, another hurdle...

2009-06-16T18:49:00.000-07:00

Hi, my name is Sunny, and I'm a compulsive planner. ("Hi Sunny")

When Wil and I first started talking about this trip, we didn't want to over-plan. Just book the big things -- like the flights to and from Europe, and the nights in the refuges during the trek portion. But the more we researched, the more we realized we needed to book some things in advance. Like when we discovered that, for some reasons, all the economy class flights between Morocco and Egypt were sold out during the 4-day stretch we wanted to travel.

Originally I that thought that we should take the train from Spain to the coast, take the ferry across the strait of Gibraltar, and arrive in Tangier. I don't know... the idea of the night train from Barcelona to Madrid seemed charming, romantic even -- as did a long train journey down through Spain, and a ferry ride across the strait. And then we started looking at costs -- both in time, and in money. I mean, what if the night train to Madrid was late, and we missed the day train down to Algeciras? I was already building in a day of padding in Barcelona in case we missed the 1:30 bus from Vielha. How much padding is too much padding?

So then Wil discovered a flight on a Moroccan budget airline (um, have more frightening words ever been typed?) called Jet4You. Not only was it a 90-minute, direct flight from Barcelona to Tangier, it was at a great time, departing Barcelona in the early evening, arriving in Tangier in the early evening, and it was dirt cheap... quite possibly cheaper than the two trains + ferry tickets. And it would save us 36 hours of travelling. They even had a slick website, where you could reserve a seat (for a fee), prepay for your bag, and order an e-ticket. The only problem was that their systems can't accept American-registered credit cards.

We even tried having Wil's dad make the booking for us -- over an hour this morning talking via Skype while Tony valiantly and patiently tried using his cards. Still, no dice.

Jet4You suggested using a travel agent; unfortunately we couldn't find a travel agent. I did some research and found a travel agency that's based in Oregon and specializes in Moroccan travel. I wrote them a friendly little note, asking if they were a booking agent. I received a curt reply: "We only book flights as part of a tour package." No salutation, no signoff, and certainly no apology. Not even any "would you like to learn about our fantastic tours?" sort of selling. Just a dismissal. Meow. I love good customer service!

Anyway, Wil did some research as well and discovered a site that would allow booking... for a hefty fee. There didn't seem to be any place to reserve a seat, or any way to prepay for bags. But we *think* it went through. (We've received confirmation from the site, but not from the airline... we shall see.) So now it's more expensive than the train... but it will still mean we save over a whole day. And on a trip like this, that's worth more than money.

One month and counting...

2009-06-13T12:34:00.001-07:00

One month from today we'll land in Barcelona and kick off our 2009 Dream Trip... 4 weeks in the Spanish Pyrenees, Morocco, and Egypt. I keep making lists... that's how I keep myself sane. It seems like there is a lot to do, but at the same time, I know that we could just throw stuff in our backpacks and get on a plane and be fine. Oh, as long as we remembered to give Matt -- our dear friend and cat-sitter extraordinaire -- his set of keys to the house...

In the month to come we'll tell you more about our plans. I'm feeling both excited and nervous at the same time.