Day 16 – Saturday 21 May 2005

This morning was our Madrid city tour and visit to the Royal Palace with local guide Maria. Our Royal Palace tour included about 24 rooms which are open to the public in the Palace. An interesting tour with some beautiful ceilings and rooms.

After dropping some of the people back at the hotel around 11 am the rest of the group headed off with Maria for our optional Excursion to Segovia. First a stop at a vantage point for photos of the Alcazar before leaving the coach at the Aqueduct. The Aqueduct at Segovia is a huge construction of massive arches and I still don’t understand how it manages to take water uphill.

After a walking tour through the narrow streets to the square we were given an hour and ten minutes for lunch. A quick baguette and coke gave us time to go into the massive Cathedral at the edge of the square before meeting up with Maria at 2.20 pm for our visit to the Segovia Alcazar. After an interesting guided tour of this 14th century castle we walked down to the bottom of the hill where our coach was waiting to take us back to Madrid.

Segovia was a thoroughly enjoyable optional however because it required a fairly steep walk back down to the coach, with a fair few steps, this could cause some discomfort to a person with walking difficulties.

We arrived back at our hotel in Madrid at 5 pm where we said goodbye to our Tour Director, driver, and many of our new friends as we are all leaving at various times in the morning.

Overnight Hotel NH Euro Building Madrid

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Day 17 – Sunday 22 May 2005

Our last day.

Up at 5.45 am and left for the airport on our 7 am transfer but no breakfast this morning as breakfast at the hotel doesn’t start until 7 am.

Surprise, surprise, we had our Tour Coach, Driver and Tour Director to take us to the airport as they were leaving at the same time. There were five of our group on the coach – 2 Canadians, 1 other Australian plus my wife and myself.

We had quite a long walk to our departure gates as we had been dropped off at Terminal 1 and we were departing from Terminal 2. At first we were too early for breakfast but eventually the cafeteria opened and we had a small breakfast with our Canadian friends who were on the same flight as us to Frankfurt. Eventually we boarded our Spanair flight to Frankfurt where we said goodbye to our Canadian friends before boarding our Lufthansa flight to Berlin to start our next tour that evening.

So ended another great tour with good travelling companions, an extremely knowledgeable Tour Director, and an excellent driver.

All agreed that the best part of the tour was Morocco.



Footnote: I forgot to mention the storks and their nests. It was the breeding season and lots of nests had chicks in them that we could see from the coach as we passed by. In Spain the storks and their nests are protected because the storks return each year to the same nest. We were told that if a stork builds a nest on top of a house’s chimney (and many did) they are not allowed to knock it down – instead, they would have to build a new fireplace or chimney and leave the old one for the stork. We saw many, many storks and nests in the villages or balanced on top of power poles in the fields. In fact in some areas the power poles had large wire baskets built on them ready for the storks to build their nests in rather than balance the nest on the top.

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Hi Dragons
I have just been reading your tour report on S P & M and also rereading the one on Egypt. You do a great report with lots of detail. What tour did you do from Berlin and is there a tour tale for this one?

Thanks CMR.

The trip from Berlin is reported at:
Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, etc.

We had a great time with all 3 tours.

Nice report Dragons! I enjoyed reading about SPM. We did the shorter tour of SPM and it brought back pleasant memories to me!

Thanks Sandra.

I loved Morocco and, as I have frequently said to anyone who asked me, that it was like stepping back into the past when you visited the Berber Market at the foot of the Atlas Mountains, or the Medina in Fez, or the Jemaa El Fna Square in Marrakech on a Sunday night. A fantastic experience.

I agree with dragons - of all the countries we have been to, Morocco has been amongst the more memorable. We never ever felt in the least bit threatened, even in the Medinas or the aforementioned square , our one regret is that we were not able to do the tour with Insight because of lack of interest, so we went with tour which was guaranteed to go if two people were booked - we were very surprised to find that we were it, despite the assurances from the tour company that the bus would be full.

My doubts were reinforced after our driver met us, escorted us to his minibus, and then was challenged by the local police. The Police officer was not able to speak English, but a comic conversation took place, wherein the police officer asked what my name was, I gave my first name only as I was not happy at this stage, for some reason my first name didn't correspond to my surname on the placard the driver had. After a few perplexed looks, and much conversation between the police officer and our driver, I asked our driver what time the next flight out of Morocco was, with the adjunct that I did not want to holiday in a country that treated tourists this way, in a very annoyed voice - it seemed to do the trick - the Police officer via the driver asked if we were the people on the placard he had - we said yes, retreated into the distance, I apologised to the driver if I had caused him any embarrassment or any future trouble, and we went on our way.

I still have no idea what the confrontation was about, but there is a time and place for everything, harassing visitors to a country in an airport car park is neither the time nor the place! A wonderful country, but an enormous contrast between the haves and the have nots.

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To all lovers of Morocco and particularly the Medina in Fez here is a must read. It is a book recommended to me by a member on Trafalgar's sister company BB and is truly a fascinating read.

The book is called "A House in Fez" and was written by Suzanna Clarke. It is about an Australian and her husband who bought a house in the Medina in Fez and renovated it. It is a beautifully presented book and includes some wonderful pictures.

Anyone that has been through the Medina will relate to the book. And if you are planning a visit to Morocco I am sure you will also find it absorbing.

Whilst it features an Australian I am sure any westerner attempting the same thing would encounter the same problems.

quote:

A HOUSE IN FEZ by Suzanna Clarke
When Suzanna Clarke and her husband bought a dilapidated riad, or traditional courtyard house, in the ancient Medina of Fez, their friends thought they were mad. Located in a maze of donkey-trod alleyways, the house was beautiful but in desperate need of repair. Walls were in danger of collapse, the plumbing non-existent. It was a state common to many of Fez's exquisitely crafted houses, which were falling to ruin for want of local funds to restore them. Or worse, they were being bought by foreigners and modernised. With a view to living there semi-permanently, Suzanna was determined to restore the riad to its original splendour.

Never mind that neither she nor her husband spoke Arabic and had only a smattering of French, or that doing business in Morocco is a little like being transported back several centuries in time. All the rebuilding was done by hand, by artisans using techniques as old as the Medina itself, in a process that veered between frustration, hilarity and moments of pure exhilaration.

But A House in Fez is no do-it-yourself book: it is a rich and insightful account of engaging with Moroccan culture at its most intimate level. With its history and with Islam, with traditional Sufi rituals and the world of women. With djinns and spirits and other folklore. With the pressures of the modern on the ancient; with the vibrant, life-filled marketplaces and the irresistible Moroccan cuisine. And most of all, with the people themselves - warm,
friendly, hospitable to a fault.

A thoroughly enjoyable read with great pictures. It brought back so many wonderful memories of our visit to the Medina.

I saw this posted on the other message board. Thanks, dragons, for bringing it here. It sounds like a fascinating book and I'm sure it'll bring back a lot of wonderful memories from my Morocco tour.

quote:

Originally posted by Suitcase_of_dreams:
I saw this posted on the other message board. Thanks, dragons, for bringing it here. It sounds like a fascinating book and I'm sure it'll bring back a lot of wonderful memories from my Morocco tour.

My wife finished reading the book yesterday as well and she also thoroughly enjoyed it.

Is it just me....(probably) but I cannot find this book on Amazon. I've looked under the title and also the author. Help!!! Im off to Morocco in Oct 2008 and would like to read this book! Where do I buy it???

Leanna ~ Here you go:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/House-Fez-Building-Ancient-Morocco/dp/0091925223

Thanks Dimpz.

Leanna it appears that it has not yet been released world wide. I know it is avalable in Oz, in hardcover, because that is the one that we borrowed from our local library.

The author only finished the book this year so it is still probably in the process of publication and distribution. I notice that the link from Dimpz states that you can order it in paperback.

I have enjoyed your account of the tour and this is one we have planned for 2009. Now I will go on to your tour that follows and read that as it's another we are thinking of doing. Thanks for a great and informative report.

Thank you Aussiebird and so pleased that you found it of some interest.

If just one person feels that they get something out of it then it is worth the time taken to write the tale.