Weeeeee I’m sorry it’s been a bit sparse around here posting wise! Family has begun to arrive for our Christmas-in-the-cold celebrations and I have been otherwise occupied making wreathes, cooking and generally just enjoying everyone’s company :)
Here is the next Morocco installment.. these photos were taken around the Medina again, on various trips into the souks and around the surrounding streets, and also on/from the roof of our Riad.
On our second day in Morocco, we took a day trip out to the coastal town of Essaouira. It took about 3 hours to get there (inc. a couple of pit-stops to learn about the local oils, and pat some goats that climb trees) and turned out to be a lovely (and very sandy) little town with a laid-back beach vibe. I don’t think I’d be in a rush to go lounging around on the beach, but the back streets of the old town were gorgeous!
We’re back! Yes, we finally made it to Morocco without any more problems, and had a wonderful time! I would truly recommend going if you get the chance. We took way too many photos as per usual, so I’ve been agonising over how best to share them. I’ve decided to split them into a few different groups that I’ll share over the next few days.. I hope it’s not too much of an overload! :)
Out of the three, I think the Blue Mosque was our favourite. For a start – it was free, so we could keep going back. We also got to sit in on a prayer service, even though the sign says it’s closed to the public (pays to ask!), which was amazing!
We’re back!! And what an amazing time we had! I won’t bore you with the details – suffice to say that the weather was amazing, the people extra friendly (except one very upsetting carpet seller), and the sites, sounds and smells utterly overwhelming (in a good way!)! I’ve just finished going through all the photos and (thanks to us being such trigger-happy-snappers) I’m going to have to share them over a couple of posts.
So, I’ll just start off with some of general shots we took along the way.. tomorrow will be the Ayasofya, Blue Mosque and the Palace. Enjoy!
We took a trip home to Australia for 5 weeks over Christmas, which was the first time we’d been home in almost two years. It was fantastic – and much needed :)
Last weekend we had the privilege of staying with our American friends in their beautiful French country house. We had the most perfect summer weekend, and I came home desperately trying to convince Dave that we needed a French country house too, preferably with lots of land, a creek, a chateau.. you know – the usual. He quickly reminded me that money is required to purchase such things, along with the fact that they speak French in France.. and we don’t know French. Hm. Oh well.. I think it’s definitely worth working towards!
So anyway, while we were there we took a trip out to a beautiful town called Vézelay, where we managed to stumble upon an antique shop that had boxes and boxes of old timber letterpress letters just lying around on the floor. I agree that this might not be so exciting for most people, but I have been dreaming of this day for a long time… and wouldn’t you know it, now that the time had come, I had no idea what I should spell with my new found letters! We ended up just getting our names, but I might think about it a bit harder for next time we’re out that way!
This week we had the pleasure of having a friend from London come and stay with us for a couple of days. On Tuesday we took her for a drive into the Black Forest, ending up at a tiny lake (Nonnenmattweiher) where we could pick wild raspberries growing around the shore. We weren’t really sure what to expect, having never really picked wild berries before, but they were small and really sweet – great on pancakes the next day!!
I just thought I’d share a couple of photos of some old posters that were exposed in one of the metros in Paris. We had specifically planned the trip last weekend just to catch up with some family who were there over the weekend, but managed to extend our stay to 3 nights which was perfect!
On Thursday night we got ourselves caught in one of the most incredible storms I’ve ever seen.. it came up so suddenly that all we could do was just stop in the middle of the footpath while we were pelted with rain and bits of debris and hope the wind didn’t just sweep us off our feet . We were also hoping it wouldn’t pick up any stray coffee tables or chairs and throw them our way. We eventually managed to run into a restaurant (with staff desperately trying to hold down their awnings and tables) completely saturated and freezing.. far too much excitement if you ask me!
The rest of the holiday was much less dramatic I’m please to say!