Hi Everyone
How are you all? We've covered a lot of territory since I wrote last. We spent another 2 weeks in France, which we loved, then moved on to Spain and Portugal. I thought of you Napoleo when we visited Belem-didn't find your old school. We thoroughly enjoyed southern Spain, it's the Spain of you're imagination. There' a magnificent palace in Granada called The Alhambra ( worth googling) that was built by the Moors in about the 12th century, they were later conquered by Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain in the 14th century and Islam was driven down to Africa. I read a great historical novel about Isabella- very interesting!! We've been enjoying Morocco, it's a nice change from Europe. Cheaper too! We left Tangiers and went to a small town in the hills called Chafchouen- it has a fascinating medina, painted in all shades of blue-every single building, every single wall, all shades of blue, it was like looking into an ice cave. Then we moved on to Fez, which has an amazing 1400 year old medina- and it's huge! There's no way you won't get lost. We ended up paying someone to show us the way out.
At the moment we're on "the Marrikesh Express" headed for you know where. We've just left a town called Meknes, nice little place with a good medina but the best thing was the Roman ruins of Volubilis. They command magestic views over a very fertile valley with high hills behind. There were no hords of tourists, just a few, and what's left standing shows the grandeur and beauty that it once had. There are still some beautiful mosaic floors, althouth they are exposed to the weather and wont last forever. After we've poked around Marrakesh for a few days we're going to head for the desert and some cranky camels. We've got plenty of time, maybe too much, because we're not going to Tunisia now- there was a terrorist bomb that went off in a tourist area 12 days ago. It's a pity but it's not worth the risk. We may fly somewhere else in Africa but we're not sure yet.
I've included a couple of photos from a medina we were in recently.
I hope the course is going well for you and that everybody's still hanging in.
Anyway, take care, and say high to Mersaline and Philip for me.
Best wishes
Debbie
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