Ash and Eze Visit Madrid to Merzouga

Ashlyn and Eze came for a visit the end of May, beginning of June.  After traveling to Tangier and taking Ryan Air, I met them in Madrid during the big Barcelona-Bilboa football game.  The game was sold out but after meeting Ash and Eze at the airport in the morning we were able to celebrate with the fans all day and party.
I did do some cultural site seeing the day before I met them.  I went to the Prado museum, free from 6 to 8 every evening, and saw Goya, Raphael, Murillo, Rubens,  El Greco, Rembrandt and many other classic artists.  It is quite the collection.

The night before, I went out with  few people I met at the Equity Point Hostel to see the football fans in action.  We got swept up in the festivities and did not make it back till early the next morning.  It was hard to get up the next morning and race to the airport to meet A&E.  Their plane was due in at 8:30, way to early after being out all night at the 3 euro bucket of beer and 5 euro for 6 Heineken's establishment.  The Bilboa fans were certainly excited to play Barcelona.  I did make it to the airport and met up with Ash and Eze after they cleared customs and were already walking toward the Metro.
We spent the day enjoying the parks and tapa bars, later returning to the 5 beers for 3 euros pub to watch the game.  Barcelona won 3-1 much to the disappointment of the Bilboa fans and Eze who had so much fun the night before.  The hit for the day was the Ham Museum.  The Iberian Ham was for sale at over 350 euros a kilo.  We opted for something a little less exotic.

Our hotel on game night was out of Madrid about 20 kilometers.  Everything we tried to book for the night of the game was full.  We took the last train of the night at 11:30 to the Que Hotel.  Next morning we missed breakfast because our plane left early and you have to be at the airport 2 hours before flight time.  We flew to Tangier, hopped a bus to Chef Chaouen and spent the night at Riad Baraka.

Next day we hiked up to the mosque on the hill and into the mountains beyond.
It was a vertical climb through a dry creek bed blazoned with flowers.  We saw sheperds high in the his and two other hikers who passed us and went off into the canyon.

Up there is where we went.  We climber higher and higher trying to get to the top of the ridge which was always just a little bit farther.  It was dry and we sucked up the water.  Dustin would love doing some technical climbing in this area.  Chef Chaouen was not open to Westerners till the 1950s.  It was a religious city restricted to non-muslims.  The Blue City is now one of the favorite destinations for tourists looking for adventure.  The Rif mountains are spectacular and several hydro projects are presently being built in the region.  There is  lot of money in this area but you need to be cautious as this is also where the Pot is grown for hash exports to Europe. 

After Chef Chaouen it was off in the CTM bus to Fez.  The CTM is a first class bus.  The air conditioning works, the seats have more room, it is clean and has less stops.  We had an hour layover in Fez and took a quick tour of the old Medina, a world heritage site.  Next was a souk bus to Midelt, more crowded, more stops and if you want you can take your goat in the baggage compartment.
After a good nights sleep in Casa Kahler Midelt we visited the carpet souk and the Berrem Canyon.

A visit to the Boumia rug school, lunch there and the ride back in Christina, Hayat's car, got us back to Midelt

Off to the Sahara, Merzoug, for a camel trek.  We had 12 people in our group, including Hayat and her sister SuSu, Hichem and my step daughter from the Canadian Nurses wedding a few months ago and of course Abdel Wahed who sang the whole way from the hotel to the desert camp.

Seville Too

There were so many interesting places in this town it was hard to get to them all.  I will have to go back and continue to enjoy the sites.  A landmark is the new birds nest looking structure with old Roman ruins preserved underneath.  You can go up to the top of the structure and see much of the town.

There are restaurants on the upper level and I had an awesome chocolate covered churro on the middle level. 

We climbed the bell tower and the sites from there were also great.  It was a long hike up and the bells on the top were numerous.  There is a clock built hundreds of years ago that is still working.

There is a beautiful building and park built I think in the 20s for a world exposition.  You can rent a boat and row around the complex.  On the inner courtyard there is seating with a tile map of each region in Spain.

The flowers around town were vibrant.

The bull ring is suppose to be one of the best in Spain.  Posters from past seasons covered the walls in one section.  Statues of big name fighters a located around the complex.  I rode a wild horse, lucky to get off with out killing myself.

The outside artwork is everywhere.

Went to a couple museums.  One has the largest collection of Spanish artists.

Of course no trip to Seville would be complete without a trip to the Flamenco Bars.  The gypsy section over the river in Triana is suppose to get wild at night.  we went to a very cool Flamenco Bar that opens at 11:00.  It is hard to find, look for the red doors, but the place was jammed.

I could put 100 more pictures of the trip and talk about what I saw for hours, but you will have to wait till you see me for the full report.  Enjoy.