Arrival in Lisbon

Smooth flying on Royal Air Maroc from Marrakech -- with a transfer in Casablanca -- and we arrived this afternoon in Lisbon.
So we unpacked our stuff at our hotel, which is across the street from the Campo Pequeno bullfight square and shopping center, and headed out to explore. That's right, a shopping mall built below and around a traditional bull-fighting ring. It's a great arrangement-- keeping the functionality and facade of the old-school bull-fighting ring while adding a modern shopping mall.
Trying to make our weak dollar go further against a strong Euro (it's now at 1.46 or so), we wandered down to the "food court" and checked out the scene. We scored a delicious hamburger at H3 for a reasonable price. Check the link for more details; they make one very tasty burger. Later we took the metro down to old Lisbon, and I took some pictures with my iPhone camera. See the collage above. On the last day in Africa I dropped my Canon SD 1000 and it's not working anymore.

Berber carpet

Scott and I set out on a field trip with Achmed, our Moroccan friend. He's a Berber that we happened to meet in our first class compartment on the "Marrakesh Express" from Casablanca. An accountant for the Moroccan National railroad who lives in Marrakesh, Achmed took an interest in us and things developed from there.... We have bulit a wonderful friendship. He speaks good English, has a dog, drinks wine and laughs at my jokes so it's not exactly your typical Muslim that we've befriended.
So we got up early this morning, our new friend joined us, and we hired a car and driver to go to the weekly "Berber market" about 30 miles out of town. The main market day for this community, it is a Berber-only affair and we were the only over-sized white-tourists (indeed Scott was wearing a Hawaii print shirt) in the big market day crowd of 2-3 thousand seller and buyers. That was a total scene, including a special "donkey/burro parking lot" where you leave your beast of burden with an attendant while you shop.
I'll do my best to describe the traditional Berber market in more detail later, including how Scott and I escaped an encounter with a gang of 5 pickpockets. Scott has the best photos and descriptions and I'll link to them when he finally posts 'em to net. (I have a collage of some of the Berber market sights and scenes posted below).
Later, we drove up into the foothills of the High Atlas mountains and visited a traditional Berber home and have lunch with a view toward the 12,000 foot peaks, the highest in North Africa. On the way, we stopped at a artisan coop and I made my first-ever major carpet purchase. The photo (above) is my friendly Berber carpet salesman and some of his inventory.

Atlas mountains

After the market, we traveled through the foothills of the High Atlas mountains in search of lunch and Burber carpet.

Berber Market Day

Scenes from a traditional Berber market day about 40 km from the city. In the center of the collage, Scott and Achmed are in the "meat department. "

traditional Berber house

Scott and I visted an old Berber house with mill for grinding flower (center top photo). The mill stone and water-wheel has been in operation for 5 generations, according to our host.

North African savanna (video)

Come along for a car trip across the North African savanna between Marrakesh and Essaouira. It's late October and the start of the rainy season. On the way back, you can see wide-open African skies with beautful clouds and rain falling in the distance. Our journey took 7 hours but you can just watch the 2 minute audio/video slide show ... (Be sure to turn up your computer's sound before you click the link).

Essaouira - a Moroccan Atlantic port

Essaouira, a Moroccan Atlantic port, is a wonderful place with a touristy but distinctly laid-back feel. Originally called Mogador, the city was settled before the fifth century BC and has been an important center of commerce ever since. Today, the city is dominated by the remains of a historic Portuguese fort with its rows of gigantic canons that point out over the Atlantic Ocean.

Essaouira - tourists

Long after these canon have fallen silent, tourtists in Essaouira now crew these weapons. In this scene, in the lower left of the picture, there is a French boy sitting astride the gun. At his signal, his mother would make the sound of the canon firing. He would giggle with delight, look out toward the ocean and exclaim, "Encore!"

Essaouira - the fishermen and their boats

The fishermen of Essaouira return to the protection of the harbor with the morning's catch.

Essaouira - the Atlantic

A view of the Atlantic from the seawall of Essaouira.

Cafe du Jimi Hendrix

Near Essaouira, Morocco, is the Village of Diabat where Jimi Hendrix stayed during his sojourn in Morocco during the summer of 1969. Scott and I sought out the location of "Cafe du Jimi Hendrix," where the singer was said to hang out with his friends.
After driving around a bit we found the tiny building, went inside. Not knowing what to expect, we sat down and ordered two Fantas and some Moroccan cookies.
All in all, there wasn't that much. We looked at some photos on the aging walls of the small café and I tried to imagine what it might have been like in 1969.
Indeed, what was once a remote location on a hill overlooking the Atlantic and the ruins of Portuguese fortifications was undergoing tremendous change. There is a new 18-hole golf course under construction across the street. The neighborhood is destined for extensive hotel and condo development and this likely will efface the remains of its counter-culture charm forever.
If you have an extra moment, read this unintentionally hilarious tale of "Greg's Moroccan Adventure" that I found on the Internet. In this episode, 23-year-old Greg, a writer and cannabis smoker, arrives in Essouira from Canada and immediately attempts to score some weed and get stoned.
Or watch this little video I made featuring the words and music of Jimi and the voice of Patti Smith.

Marrakesh - Djemaa el Fna

Near the ancient Mosque tower is Djemaa el Fna, the Main Square and marketplace in old Marrakesh. It is filled with a bewildering array of food, spices, activities, hustles and street entertainment.
One of the photos (below) is from the morning scene when the square is practically empty. By this evening it was wall-to-wall people (see photo above).
From a distance it's like the scene from the lyrics of the "Marrakesh Express" song (by Graham Nash, Siquomb, 1969):
"... Colored cottons hang in the air, charming cobras in the square, striped djellebas we can wear at home."
But unfortunately close-up the Djemaa el Fna can have a much harder edge. As with any, this marketplace has the potential to seek out the unsuspecting and turn seemingly benign practices distinctly ugly with a predatory feel. If you walk slowly and make eye contact you are likely to be approached ...  and it all has a bit of a shakedown feel to it.
(Scott has the time-lapse photos of the tourist shakedown in action …look for it in his posts. And ... later he willingly participated in a spectacular way. So look for those photos, too)
Walking among the fortune-tellers, belly-dancers and seated men playing music to their cobras, my attention was captured by the costumed Berbers.
Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa and the largest number of Berbers is found in Morocco. They speak both Arabic and French due to French colonization. Indeed, we met a few Berbers in Tangier. My favorite was Momo, a tall, elegant man with an authoritative demeanor. He was our driver for a day as we toured the city. When asked about his name he explained that "momo" was the sound that cars make when they accelerate quickly from a complete stop.
So back in the square, a song-and-dance routine was performed for me by two colorfully dressed male Berber entertainers with tasseled hats. For a brief moment they played, sang and made the tassels on their hats rotate with circular motions of their heads. Then they turned on the charm with beautiful smiles and made their pitch for a few Dirham.
Next in my view were Berber water-sellers dressed in elaborate traditional costumes and colorful hats with old-school leather water-bags and brass cups. The sun is really hot here even in late October but I was not tempted to purchase a drink.

Djemaa el Fna - night

The Djemaa el Fna comes alive at night as the heat of the day passes.

Djemaa el Fna

In the morning, before all the fun has started ...

Koutoubia Mosque

Marrakesh is the third largest city in Morocco after Casablanca and Rabat. The 220-foot-high Koutoubia Mosque (built 1184-1199) is the most prominent building in Marrakesh.

Tangier - train

Wouldn't you know we're riding on the Marrakesh Express.
We're taking the train and I can't get that song out of my head.
Sing along at: http://tinyurl.com/vk7ou

Tangier - sunset

On our last evening in Tangier, I took some pictures of the sunset from the roof our hotel, La Tangerina. (The name tangerine comes, of course, from the port from which tangerines were shipped to Europe.)

Tangier - people

The street scene in Tangier makes for wonderful people-watching.

Tangier - harbor

This morning Scott and I went to a overlook near the casbah and took some pictures of Tangier's harbor.

Tangier - around town

After yesterday's heavy rains, the sky cleared, the sun returned and Tangier displayed its unique charm.

the Cave of Hercules

The Cave of Hercules is located on Morocco’s Atlantic coast about 14 kms west of Tangier, and this is where it is said that the mythical figure Hercules rested after finishing his labors.
The mouth of the cave resembles a reverse silhouette of Africa, a fact that held extreme significance for our Moroccan guide.

ordering coffee in an unfamiliar land

Tangier is multicultural. So when English doesn't work, Scott prefers to order in Spanish while I am much more comfortable using my extensive restaurant French. Today at the Cafe de Paris in Tangier we ordered in two languages, with the same result.

a Tangier moment -- Saveurs de Poisson

Hidden away along side a steep and crumbling staircase (Escalier Waller) near Rue de la Liberté in central Tangier is restaurant Saveur de Poisson. It's prix fixe and you do not choose but what you get is the best fish lunch, ever: Five courses served at communal tables, including a mixed fish soup, squid and shrimp in a spinach casserole, and a perfectly grilled bone-in local white fish. The cooking style is rustic French but don't do like I did and ask for a glass of vin blanc with your meal. The proprietor of Saveur de Poisson's name is Mohammed.

Cape Spartel Lighthouse

Yesterday, we took a day trip out of Tangier by taxi. Our destination, about 13 miles away, was the Cape Spartel Lighthouse on the most northwestern point of Africa.
This is one of Africa's great lighthouses as it marks the southeastern entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar from the Atlantic Ocean and the western boundary of the Mediterranean Sea. The 80-foot-high lighthouse was built by Sultan Mohammed III in 1864. It was collectively maintained by Britain, France, Italy and Spain until Moroccan independence in 1956. It is still in operation today but has been allowed to fall into disrepair and suffers from general neglect and deferred maintenance. The lighthouse today remains an important navigation beacon and generates four white flashes every 20 seconds that are visible for a range of about 30 nautical miles.
We gain admittance to the tower and climbed up the spiral staircase with its old iron railings to the very top where the view was simply beautiful.

the old medina in Tangier

The old medina is one of the most fascinating parts of Tangier and you will immediately find yourself walking in narrow streets with intriguing but unfamiliar sights, smells and sounds. Here is an overview, looking north (uphill) from the roof a rather large store where we were looking at weapons, jewelry and carpets. Satellite TV is very popular here ... and I am still trying to understand how the old and the new are blended together.
On the first night of our arrival, Scott and I spent some time in a traditional Tangier street  cafe. We were waiting for the dinner hour to start and were simply passing time. The Colon cafe is a men-only alcohol-free establishment, where they serve very fine mint tea in the traditional style. As we sipped our tea, we observed that there were two large-screen plasma TVs on, each with its own constituency. In one corner was news and public affairs programming from Washington, DC on Al Jazeera, the Arabic-language news network. In the other corner, also on a large-screen plasma TV, played the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005) featuring an endlessly smirking  Brad Pitt and tightly-fitted Angelina Jolie engaged in serial portrayals of vicious but light-hearted violence. The movie had the full attention of a serious-looking older man who, for lack of better words to describe him, was dressed in a manner similar to that of Obi Wan Kenobi. He sat next to his friend, also an older man, who was wearing a red fez. They said not a word to each other during the entire time the movie was on.

shopping

Scott, on a shopping spree in in Tangier's media, pauses for a moment in the old quarter of Tangier. Ah and no, I won't tell you what he's the market for ... you'll have to ask him yourself.

La Tangerina

While in Tangier we are staying at La Tangerina, in the historic kasbah near the sea wall and with in walking distance to the maze-like medina.

stopping in Tangier

Tangier is an ancient port city of northern Morocco (pop. about 700,000). When you get of the boat at the maritime terminal you know that you have arrived in a completely different place. It's a multicultural modernizing country of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities, along with myriad other foreign immigrants. You can hear both the traditional call to prayer and global pop music blaring during the day.
Tangier is a mysterious and exciting place. Scott and I are staying in an old but elegant 10 room guest house overlooking the Atlantic. When we arrived, I could see Spain from the bedroom window about 15 miles across the blue water. There is a huge brass muzzle-loading canon, still in place atop the sea wall, 100 yards from our rooftop. It is currently being used to secure one end of a clothesline. I'll share some Tangier impressions and stories in a later post.
Tangier has attracted writers like  Burroughs, Kerouac and Tennessee Williams (and the Rolling Stones), who all lived in or visited Tangier during different periods of the 20th century, according to my Wikipedia sources. Tangier acquired the reputation of a spying and smuggling center in the 20th c. and Tangier makes an appearance in one of my favorite spy movies, The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). In the film, Jason Bourne, former CIA assassin and amnesiac, tracks a man through Tangier to uncover his real identity and then fights and kills Desh, an agent sent to eliminate him.

crossing the Strait of Gibraltar

Just 14 km wide at its narrowest point, the Strait of Gibraltar connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Spain from Morocco. This 20 second video clip of the strait of Gibraltar was taken looking eastward from the rear deck of a Tangier-bound ferry on October 19, 2009. On a sunny day with good visibility, I started with a view of Tarifa, Spain and panned the camera to Morocco, and back again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO3x-Ijpv-c

Sailing past Gibraltar

After one final bocadillo de jamon (a Spanish ham sandwhich -- there's a story here ... I'll tell you later) Scott and I got on the Algeceris - Tangier ferry. We selected the "fast ferry" for the trip. Unfortunately, the boat was delayed a hour, which makes it the same overall speed as the slow ferry. The slow ferry, however, was delayed more than two hours. As we left the dock, we sailed past Gibraltar with its huge fortified cliff facing the Spanish mainland.

The train in Spain ...

... runs mainly in the plain.  Yesterday, Scott and I got up early to take the 7:15AM Renfe Media Distancia train from Granada, Spain to Algeciras, Spain. A true bargain at under 25 Euro. Algeciras is a rough-around-the-edges port city on southern coast of Spain. One cool fact: You can see the enormous Rock of Gibraltar towering in the distance off to one side of the city as your train rolls into the station.  

the Granada scene

Granada (pop. 240,000 + about 100m tourists) is a true hot spot among cultural and tourist cities in Spain. In terms of the density of fun-seeking well-dressed pleasure-seeking young people, Grenada rivals Barcelona or any other city that I have been in, for that matter. And often you can get free tapas with each drink.

Tales of the Alhambra

The Alhambra is a palace and fortress built by the Moorish rulers of Granada in southern Spain in the XIII century. The Alhambra is one of the most widely known of all Islamic works of art. To me, Alhambra's relation to Granada resembles the Acropolis' relation to Athens. The Alhambra is built on a hill over looking the town of Granada in the foothills of Sierra Nevada mountains at the edge of the plain of Granada.
Nasrid, the palace complex, is impressive in both its size and attention to elegant detail, and blends form and function in an especially pleasing way. While the exterior is plain and even austere, the interior details the theme of "paradise on earth" and features column arcades, fountains with running water, and reflecting pools. In the 1800s, American writer Washington Irving reflecting on the red and golden yellow hues declared, "How unworthy is my scribbling of the place."

Granada street scene

Granada is an old town with a young feel. What else could explain the Friday night-long parade of fashion and style in a huge crowd of elegantly dressed Spanish girls and cool kids hanging out in front of the plaza de Burger King in central Granada. Hey, it's not all about the Alhambra de Granada.

Spanish school children view Guernica

Guernica is housed in the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid. The mural is about 26 feet wide and 11 feet tall and depicts the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica by German planes in support of General Franco's Nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War.

It is of course one of the most famous anti-war paintings in the world. It was a great privilege to see it in person, and I was even more impressed by the presence of the Reina Sofía's docents who thoughtfully and interactively engaged the young students in the painting's meaning.

Here's the context: On a Monday afternoon in April 1937, German Junkers and Heinke bombers commanded by Colonel Wolfram von Richthofen bombed the Spanish town of Guernica for about two hours, resulting in many causalities.

The German air force was acting in support of the Nationalists. Franco's forces opposed the "Republicans" which included a variety of factions including the Communists, Socialists, and Anarchists. The Franco's Nationalist movement sought a return to "the golden days" of Spain based a foundation of law, order, and traditional Catholic family values.

People-watching in Madrid ...

Madrid is one of largest cities in Europe, following London, Paris and Berlin. My impression is that Madrid is a generally unfriendly and inaccessible city of 5-6m people. As impersonal as a city like Madrid can be (like a Dallas or a Mexico City) we found that many of the individual residents we met were wonderful and very congenial. One memorable encounter included a dashing young Spanish engineer with a bright green neck tie who we met on the train. He generously helped us navigate our passage in the Madrid central station from the Alta Velocidad Española "Bullet Train" terminal (200 mph transport from Barcelona to Madrid) to the local train that took us to our hotel.

For whatever reason, we found it very difficult to get good and inexpensive eats in Madrid. The low-end Spanish food did not appeal to us. (More on that topic later.) Here are some pictures of the street scene in central Madrid that I took while sipping a large iced coffee (a USA-only import) at a table on the sidewalk in front of a Starbucks.

Museo del Jamón, Restaurante, Madrid

This may be the best Spanish eats for the whole trip. Plus, the place was having a special promotion: Everything was just 1 Euro. So good and fun that we ate here twice. Frommer's says: The displays on the walls of this unique establishment explain the bewildering name: "The Museum of Ham." As in an art exhibition, large amounts of different kinds of hams -- cured by a variety of methods -- hang from the ceilings. The popular chorizos are hooked in rows reminiscent of one of those scenes in Golden Age paintings. This is indeed a real museum of the most celebrated fast food in Spain.
Museo del Jamón products are generally not available in Muslim Morocco, however. We will miss them.
There's a good story about ordering "crab" sandwich in Madrid that did not turn out well for us that I will share later.

Esta tarde en Barcelona

Yesterday was a national holiday in Spain. So this evening Scott and I left the hotel well after lunch. Because of the national holiday, most of Bacelona was closed, including the little bodega near the hotel where I usually purchased beer and bottled water. Recently I've been drinking Damm Lemon, a rather refined mix of beer and lime juice. One beer writer has described it: "Hazy golden with tiny white head. Very sweet aroma with lemon notes.Ends sweet and refreshing. Lots and lots of foam. Aroma is strongly citric, but also has some hints of hops." And it's really good stuff at .50 Euro/ can so it's my current "summer" drink of choice.

About the national holiday: Spain has complicated politics and since 1987, Spain has celebrated the anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the Americas as its Fiesta Nacional or "National Day", an odd kind of compromise between conservatives, who wanted to emphasize the status of the monarchy and Spain's history, and Republicans, who wanted to commemorate Spain's burgeoning democracy with an official holiday (this is according to Wikipedia).

Scott and I walked down Barcelona's wide diagonal boulevard toward Casa Milà, by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, on the Passeig de Gràcia in Barcelona. This is truly a marvelous building and has an open roof with magnificent views of Barcelona, the harbor and the Mediterranean Sea in the distance. Indeed, Scott the Professional Photographer spent more than two hours taking a variety of photographs from the roof and the interior. I took a few shots myself and you can see them, above, and by clicking on the "slide show" link to the upper right.

We stayed on the roof of Casa Mila until the sunset. Then we wandered around Barcelona's Barri Gotic (old town) with its ancient Roman Walls and narrow streets and we took in the sights on a warm October evening among thousands of other tourists.

At the park ...

Danza con mí toda el dia

Locals dancing in Parc Guell, Barcelona

On a sunny Saturday afternoon in October, Scott and I walked up to the top of Parc Guell and were treated to a great show of local music and dancing.  This whole scene has a great vibe, and you just wanted it to go on  forever.



Read more about the Park (click here)


Watch the short video of the dancing
(click here)