Lisbon, Fatima and Salamanca

During the stay in Lisbon we stayed at the Marriot Hotel which wanted to charge an arm and a leg for internet.  Lisbon was big, full of history and great things to see.  I went on an optional tour to the Atlantic coastline to Estoril, Caiscais and Sintra.  It is like the Gold Coast plus some of Portugal, very nice.  This morning Lisbon was left behind and the bus travelled to Fatima to see the Shrine.  Quite interesting, took communion.  It has mainly been a travel day with us being in Salamanca , Spain tonight.  Tomorrow we get to Madrid again and Sunday it is on the plane to Brisbane via Dubai and Singapore.
I will see you all again on Wednesday. All in all a fabulous time , busy, different.  If you send more money I will stay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Anyway, I will sign out from the trip for this year.

Serville

Yesterday we travelled from Morocco on the ferry, the crossing was as smooth as ice.  It takes an hour though by the time everyone is loaded and unloaded.   Before we started the bus driver had to shift two stowaways from the engine compartment with a stick as they were going to hitchhike to Spain from Morocco.  Apparently this is a common occurrence and he knows all the spaces that they hide.  On the way to Serville there were lots of bulls in the paddocks getting ready for the bullfights.  Big bulls!!!
Today has been a morning of walking around Serville looking at buildings, gardens and Christopher Colombus's burial spot.  Last night there was a Flamenco Show which was fiery and intense.  Their faces showed great concentration.  I think the men looked like that because their pants were too tight!  This afternoon I had a long sleep in the hotel.  Tonight we attend a Be My Guest Dinner where we go to someone's house to eat.  Hope they have a big dining room as there are 40 of us.
Tomorrow is Lisbon in Portugal.

The Bullring in Serville

Flamenco Dancers with their Swishing skirts

In the Jewish sector of Serville, town wall behind.

Small car with motorbike engine, registered as a motorbike so only need a bike licence to drive it. 

This is carried through the streets during religious festival times.  It weighs about 360kg and is all silver.

I can do no more shopping as my luggage only has 600g to go before I reach my 30kg limit!!!!  I can hardly lift my bag onto the suitcase holder or the bed.  I have given that up and open it on the floor.  Thank goodness for 4 wheels.
In the morning we travel to Lisbon

Tangier Again!

Whoops, been busy. Morocco is a land of antiquities and modern all together.  Donkeys and Mercedes Benzes all sharing the one lane in the traffic.   I have been to Fes which is a busy exotic city.  We went to the Medina without getting lost.  Next the trip was to Marrakech which I really enjoyed.  It is a little easier to get around in on your won.  I teamed up with a Canadian lady called Louise and we went to the market place in a mini taxi - Petit taxi.  We had to negotiate the fare first before getting in and enjoying the 360 air conditioning and the missing engine and smoke from the exhaust.  Not one of the window worked.  Not sure it would pass a mechanical.  When we cam back to the five star hotel we waved to the gate man as if we were the Queen in her carriage.  We went to an Arabian nights show with horses and a cat in the middle of the arena!  Lots of gun fire and fun.  The food was great.  It was all in tents except the horse riding.  A cat wandered across, sat in the middle of the arena and then wandered off in the middle of the show.  There are cats everywhere.
Today we have travelled to Tangier via Rabat.  The king is supposed to be coming to town so the place is spruced up.  Tomorrw we get the ferry at 6.15am so the call to wake up will come at 5am.
We went to the royal family mausoleum on the way through Rabat.  It was a very beautiful building with marble and carving everywhere.  The ceiling looked almost like a mosaic glass dome.I hope that Patrick has lots of time on his hands when I come back to hang my wall hangings and my new stained glass lamp.  Shopping and bargaining in the bazaars, medinas and sooks has been great fun.. Sometimes I have been called in to negotiate for some of the others as I am supposed to be the hard headed!!!  The salemen always say that you are going to bankrupt them and put them out of business etc.  But they never lose I'll bet.

Donkey and load sharing the street with the modern car in the background.

This is a waterman where people can buy a drink if you want to take the risk!!

Might use this rifle on the crows when I get home!  At the Arabian Night.

This is the tannery where they give you some mint to put under your nose so that you can tolerate the smell.

Tomorrow is Serville, back in Spain for a couple of days which will be nice.  I am going to a Flamenco show tomorrw night so we will see how that goes.  Don't think I will take any lessons thought.  And besides that I don't have the fancy clothes.
Abdul our Moroccan government assigned guide has now left us.  I thought there for a while we would all end up Muslim converts!!

Tangiers, Fes

Since I last posted I feel that I ahve been half way around the world in a bus with 40 people.  Yesterday we caught the ferry from Spain to Tangier.  On the way to the ferry The Rock of Gibralter was appearing from the morning cloud.  It is joined to Spain by a narrow isthmus.  Underneath the rock is now honeycombed with about 25 tunnels from side to side our tour director says.  The place we caught the ferry from was exceedingly windy.  After disembarking from the bus, immigration wanted to see the passport many times and then the Moroccan people wanted to see it and gave a police number for me for my time here.
Tangier was just as windy.  Again customs, security and police checking before embarking on the coach again.  The ferry is made by an Aussie firm and reminds me of the ones that cross from Tasmania to Melbourne.
Then the real day began.  We went back in time two hours for a start making our time difference from Brisbane now about 10 hours.  The bus started for Fes along what I thought was going to be a highway, but no it was the scenic route so that we could see the 'breadbasket' of Morocco.  Plenty of farms with fruit, veges and olives growing everywhere.  Quite pretty scenery but unfortunately after about 500 km it fails to stimulate the imagination any more.  I did have plenty of Granny naps.  We arrived at the Royal Mirage in time to tidy up and go out to dinner and a belly dancing show.   It was quite exotic.  The best part of the evening was the building and its interior.  I think I might have seen enough belly dancing for a while.

On the dock at Tangier waiting for customs, security etc

In the Medina, donkeys have right of way.

Camel head for sale at the butchers, low cholesterol we were told.

Mosaic tiles in huge amounts on the palace gate wall

Today we continued on in Fes with a trip to the Medina and Sooks.  The Medina is the old part of Fes and the streets are narrow alleyways (about 1200 in all).  We had to stick to our guide like glue because if we became lost we may never have seen the light of day again.  We went to the leather shop and factory - ponged a bit.  We also went to a carpet shop where I was very restrained. Animals have right of way so when a loaded mule or donkey came along you had to splay yourself against the wall to avoid trampling.  Every now and then the cry of "Donkey doo" went up and so you watched where you put your feet.  Step" or "Hole" were the other cries of warning included  Tonight is dinner at the hotel. 
We have been warned to only drink bottled water, don't open your mouth while showering and use bottled water to brush your teeth with.  The other warning was to only eat fruit which could be peeled and don't eat fresh vegies.  In this way the Morrocan belly wog may be just avoided.

Toledo, Granada , Marbella

I know now why we say Holy Toledo!  It has many churches, synagogues and mosques plus 18 plus convents where the nuns make fine marzipan.  It is also the home of Toledo steel.  We went to a factory where they inlay steel with gold.  Of course, as usual we were encouraged to buy.  From Toledo the tour moved to Granada.  On the way we went through the state of Mancha where Don Quixote fought the windmills.  There are still some old windmills in this part of Spain.  Quite pretty.  There were lots of olive trees everywhere.  Apparently olive picking is a purely manual job so it must be all hands on deck when it is harvesting time.
We crossed the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  The viaducts and roads through these mountains are astounding.  Very good indeed.  Each road is only one way.
Before we left Granada this morning we went to the Alhambra Palace which is is large Moorish building once the home of the Moorish kings.  The gardens were very beautiful.  About 90 acres and 35 gardeners.
Last night I went to a Gypsy Dancing night in the caves near Granada.  It was quite fiery, fast moving and loud, but very popular.  They have two caves on the go with 3 lots of guests in each, each night.  Quite a lot of people and given what we paid, quite a lucrative little venture.  The caves were interesting, the dancers almost standing on your toes if you don't put them under the chair.
Tonight we are on the Costa Del Sol at Marbella which I guess is like the Gold Coast.  Quite an expensive and exclusive place we were told by our guide. 
Tomorrow we leave for Morocco.  We cross the Strait of Gibralter by ferry, I'm assuming vehicular at this point.  Apparently it is two hours behind Spain as Spain at the moment is enjoying daylight saving.  It isn't dark until about 8.30pm and still dark and quite cool when we leave at about 6am - 7am.

Madrid

Left the hotel in Cairo this morning at 6.15am.  To get to the airport in time for the 9.45am flight we needed to leave then because of traffic.  Of course we got there at 7am and then I waited.  We boarded the plane at 9.20am and waited then for another hour and a bit for clearance as it is difficult for the plane to get out of the busy airport!  Hmm.  The seats in the 737 didn't recline at all.  All in all very uncomfortable.  But I did find my way through another airport.  This hotel is five star so they say.  We have had our briefing by the 'lady' from the tour group.  There are 4 Aussies in all out of about 30 I think.

I have decided not to do the Madrid by night trip which is optional because I am dead tired.  We are off to Toledo at 7.45am in the morning.  The big story we got from her is to be very aware of pickpockets and thieves.  She made it sound worse than Egypt and Turkey.  Anyway tomorrow will be a whole new day and we shall see.

Cairo

Today has been a very busy day in and out of the bus and travelling around Cairo with lots of horn beeping and lane changing - well I assume lane changing as there doesn't really seem to be any.
First stop at 8am this morning was the Pyramids of Giza - 4 in total and the Sphinx.  We went down into one of the pyramids into the burial chamber but of course there was no body there.  The French had already taken it years ago.  The Sphinx was large and actually carved from limestone, not built out of two and half ton blocks like the pryramids.  The guide told us that at the present rate of decay there would be no Pyramids or Sphinx in 60 years.  Sounds like they might have to get a bit busy about looking after them a bit better.
All around the Pyramids and Sphinx is urban development etc - even a golf course.  It just sits on a few big hills.  Not what you expect at all.  I thought at least there would be plenty of desert as depicted in comic books and magazines - but no not at all.  The area is very dusty of course and hawkers every where.  There are the obligatory horse and cart rides and of course the camels.  Poor things, not well cared for at all.  When I came back to the hotel this afternoon I could feel the dust and sand on my face.
On the way back the bus passed the Israeli Embassy.  The place was bristling with military for streets around.  Today there wasn't much of a demonstration at all and it was in Tahrir Square which is a bit of a way away.  The Marriot hotel is actually on an island.  The Australian Embassy is also on this island.

My modelling career - the latest Chanel jacket for winter

Belly dancing in Turkey

Horticulture on Aswan Dam

Tomorrow morning after a 5.45am start I am off to the airport to fly to Madrid.   Not sure what the internet situation will be but we will see I guess.