Happy New Year- Bonne Annee!

We wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season and we hope that 2009 is a wonderful year for our entire world! Peace, prosperity, love and contentment to us all!

With love,

Howard, Kathy, Ginger and Ines (our service dog puppy that we're raising).

Christmas in Morocco (Howard Speaks) Day One

As we have lived here now for three winters, we discovered that we need to do what the Belgians do: get the hell out here and go to the sun. We decided that Christmas in Marrakech sounded like sun and adventure, and it definitely had both. I had been to Marrakech in 1975, but it seemed like time to return. And besides...we can practice our French! Their first language is Arabic and their second is French. What's not to like!

Flew Royal Air Morocco on Xmas Eve. The Arabic writing starts you thinking....hmmmmmmm.......

Kathy had found La Maison Arabe, a very nice riad (hotel) in the Medina, the old walled city where the sights are. The hotel was owned by an Italian company, so it had all the Italian design flair a la Morocco. Certainly a step or two above my lodgings in 1975. Absolutely beautiful actually!

We landed mid-day and made our way immediately to Place Jemaa el-Fna, the internationally famous marketplace and UNESCO World Heritage Site.

As we started walking towards the square from our hotel, a "friendly" Moroccan gentleman bumped into us, said hello and introduced himself as working at our hotel, having just ended his shift and was walking home. Oh, you're going to the square? I will show you the way! Classic Moroccan hustle, but at the time we did think he worked at the hotel. Oh, I take you to the best store, only authentic antiques, the best. We went along for the ride since it was in the direction we were going.

Down this alley, up that alley, past unbelievable poverty, feral cats, donkeys pulling carts, put-puts zooming by in narrow passages, people in native dress on their mobile phones, and some guys were having a decent looking chicken tangine lunch amid the squalor.

We turn a corner and enter a store and Lo and Behold! It's the same upscale antique store that my companions and I were hustled into in 1975! It hasn't changed, looks exactly the same! The store has been there since the 1920s, and I am sure the hustle hasn't changed at all because it probably works! Nice stuff downstairs and loads of carpets upstairs. And our "guide" didn't work at the hotel after all, Doh!. (The hotel had a framed disclaimer at reception which I saw much later that warned against this type of potential "swindle". It looked like it was written by an Italian lawyer).

The square hasn't changed much since '75; it still has the same hustle and bustle. And when I say hustle, I mean watch out for your wallet!

"Non, je ne veux pas votre singe sur mon dos! No I don't want your monkey on my back!" Kathy said as she was being accosted by a Monkey Man. The ploy is that they put the monkey on you, but charge you a "fee" to remove the monkey; kind of like when I was a management consultant!

Since Kathy has an affinity for snakes that remains a mystery to me, she wanted to get some snake pictures. There looming ahead of us was a team a Snake Guys with cobras, vipers and other green looking snakes (OK, no jokes about senior management). It was really loud with the drums and chanting and they were rattling on about the cost, which I couldn't hear and we never agreed to.

C'est votre serpent gentle? Is your snake friendly? Oui, Oui. Yes, Yes. Quelle race est votre serpent? What species is your snake? Cobra. Cobra. C'est possible que votre serpent est gentle? Is it possible that your snake is friendly? Oui, Oui. NOT!

After 3 minutes of having snakes draped around my shoulders and a cobra staring me in the eye, I was given the "snake blessing" with a green snake head pressed to my forehead and wishes of good fortune and children. (I told him that he could skip the children part).

That blessing quickly turned into a Snake Curse because I didn't want to pay their rip-off price, so I started negotiating after the fact as five threatening Snake Guys in robes surrounded me. (It's definitely a position of weakness to be arguing with a guy waving a cobra in your face). Let's just say that I got the Friends & Family discount as I tossed a bill into a tambourine and we skedaddled across the square.

Christmas in Morocco (Kathy Speaks) Day two

Christmas Day we took a Moroccan cooking class through our Riad (hotel). What a great way to spend the day! The facility was absolutely beautiful- outside of the city in a walled garden with a beautiful swimming pool. We had a translator and an authentic Moroccan cook. After the class we both got very excited about cooking Moroccan food after the class. We learned all about spices and types of dishes. It really took the mystery out of this type of cooking and the food is fantastic!

The tall man was our translator and the woman was the cook.

We made a beautiful tangine and some cooked salads.

The building was traditional Moroccan and quite beautiful. After the cooking class we went back to the main square for some action. The colorful guy is the "water seller". In the old days you could buy a cup of fresh, sanitary water from the water seller. He would squeeze the water from a giant leather boda bag into a bronze cup. The only problem is that the water was pure but the cup was everyone's cup! No double dipping!

A large percentage of the women wear head scarfs and then some also wear the more traditional veils. Here are a couple of women selling their wares.

And a young girl selling cookies.

When we walked through the square women kept coming up to me to get me to let them "henna" my hands. It is a type of impermanent tatoo that they do. If you have tatoos on your palms, you are married. If you have flowers on your fingers, you are single. Still, they used a needle and who knows where that might have been. I'm getting old...

We returned to the square at night and here are some scenes to give you a flavor. During the late afternoon, several dozen portable kitchens with seating set up shop.

You can choose a place and have dinner! Each place has its set of Barkers to drag you in...best food...cheapest price....remember booth #29 for later!

We walked down the middle and it was like walking the gauntlet. It smelled great: Tangines, grilled meat, frites, snails, sausage, chicken, cous cous, seafood, just about everything. This description and pics really don't do justice to the scene!

Christmas in Morocco (Kathy Speaks) Day Three

After a few days in the throngs of Marrakech we decided to take a day trip to the mountains. We hired a driver and went to the Ourika Valley which is about 40 miles southeast of Marrakech. It is known for wonderful views of the Atlas Mountains and at the end of the road, there are waterfalls. Here is a stop along the way with great views of the mountains and a fairly terrifying bridge to cross.

So as is true with all of Morocco, there is a hussle. So our driver stopped at about six places along the way to see if we wanted to buy something or see something or do something. A beautiful "Berber" house with lots to buy!

We were required by the government to hire a guide to take us to the waterfalls. Howard is here with...yes... Mohammed, our guide. He was a kind, soft-spoken man who helped us climb over the large rocks on the way to the waterfalls. All the way there we were greeted by vendors selling "stuff".

Here is where we crossed the river to go see the waterfalls. Guide books show this area as though you are the only ones there. In reality, there are a trail of tourists and non-tourists climbing up the hill with little restaurants along the way!

And then here we are at the first set of waterfalls.

And my personal favorite sign of the trip...

Christmas in Morocco (Howard Speaks) Day Four

The Souks are the alleys that lead from the square with literally hundreds of booths and shops of all sorts of "stuff" that anyone would not know that they needed or wanted. Shoes, clothes, spices, lamps, blankets, djelabas, jewelry, carved wooden items, leather, fruit, furniture, mirrors, tools, junk, etc,

The alleys have groupings, like all the shoe booths are generally together. It's probably the most organization you will see in Morocco. The alleys are covered and crowded, claustrophobic at times. The shoppers are a blend of Moroccans and Tourists from Other Lands.



Here is Kathy at a heavy negotiation for a mirror. When I was a kid and we lived in the Philippines, my mom used to haggle with street vendors all the time. She taught me to set the price you are willing to pay, put the money in your hand, talk them down to the general area of your price, wave the money in their face, and be able to walk away with conviction. I must say it seems to be a good strategy! We always got down below 50% of where we started, which shows you what the markup for Westerners is! We think we are pretty good negotiators but perhaps the merchants laugh at us when we leave! That's Ok, I don't mind being hustled, as long as I'm having fun and think I'm getting a deal!

There is a nice garden that was created in the 1920s by a French artist who settled in Morocco, which was bought by Yves St. Laurent in the 1970s. YSL died this year and his ashes are scattered in the garden. There is a huge collection of cactus and the buildings are painted in Moroccan colors.

Christmas in Morocco (Howard Speaks)- Day Five

I thought driving in Belgium was a challenge, but driving in Morocco cannot be described. It makes Mexico look tame. Crossing the street is like being in the video game Frogger. Here is a picture of a rent a car place which looked a bit dubious, and then the ultimate Formula One training: learn how to drive at a driving school in Marrakech! What a great story that would be!


Two things that are noticeably different from 33 years ago are the satellite dishes that are on "every breeze block shack" (as one of our Irish cooking school students put it), and...drum roll pleeeze....ATM Machines! Next to the Oil Shop, where you go to buy your cooking oil in this case is a handy bank and ATM.

The other edgy thing was the "call to prayer" five times a day starting at 4:30am. Yes, you read that right. The five times are supposed to be consistent and they kinda are, like the 4:30am, noon-ish, and 7pm calls were the ones we noticed the most. Look at the picture below to see how close the mosque and minaret across the street were!


We were sitting in the sun by the pool after a "Royal Hammam treatment" (we are so full of it), wondering if the minaret callers had sound systems or were really yelling without such help. Just then we heard "phoooooffh......phoooooofffhh" like someone blowing into a microphone from the minaret across the street. A 500 Watt version of "Can you hear me now?" It was close to the noon prayer time, and about a minute after he started his chant unfortunately his mike went dead, so the sound guys were likely going to hear about it. The mosques and minarets are close enough together where they can compete a bit for the sound space. Since this guy's mike went dead, we could hear the next guy one neighborhood over. The 4:30am call to prayer was our wake up call to be able to catch our 7am flight home. It was right on time!

Bastogne and Luxembourg in November (Howard Speaks)

One of the last, largest and fiercest battles of WWII took place in December 1944 is known to Americans as the Battle of the Bulge. In Belgium it is called the Battle of the Ardennes. The key village in the center of it all was Bastogne. Without giving you a long history lesson, the US 101st Airborne Division was surrounded and held the town during a bitterly cold winter. You may remember in the footnotes of your mind the famous response from US General McAuliffe when the Germans demanded the US surrender: "Nuts!" The Germans were confused and didn't know what to make of it. It was a very inspirational response and apparently kept the soldiers warm with laughter as they hunkered down for the onslaught. In the movie "Patton" when Patton hears of the response he says something like, "We need to rescue General McAuliffe because we can't let an eloquent response like that go to waste". Patton led the charge to rescue Bastogne. Below is a picture of the war memorial to the US soldiers who fought and the 80,000 who died in the Battle.


One thing about Belgium is that they haven't forgotten in both Wars how the Americans rescued them. If there is an intact tank around, it will be on display in a village. In this case at the WWII museum in Bastogne, but there is also one in the town square with a monument to Gen. McAuliffe. The museum has an extensive collection of US and German military uniforms, weapons and other paraphernalia. An original town sign for Bastogne that was taken as a souvenir by a GI from the Bay Area and was returned in the 70s is displayed, complete with a bullet hole. I thought it was pretty cool that the guy returned it after 30 years.

We like to take back roads and somehow found our way to Bras. Who would have known?

The tiny village of Vianden in Luxembourg has a large lovingly restored "Chateau" or castle, hovering over the village. You can meander through the castle at leisure. It gives one a sense for the incredible work it takes to keep up a castle!






In a nearby village is an interesting monument to the liberation of Luxembourg by the US. There is a bronze statue of a GI and on the adjacent building on the second floor is a bronze of the ecstatic population being freed. It is a moving scene in totality, but here is a deconstructed version to give you an idea.




Did I mention that if there's an intact tank around it will be on display as a monument to those that fought, died and liberated Luxembourg. Since I used to have army toys as a kid, and I lived on a US Naval Base, I tend to be drawn to these types of displays.