Introducing...Chester!

A bit late getting started this morning! We wanted to come up to Ruth's dad's place fairly early for Easter Monday, so today's blog post had to wait until we got up here.

Our daughter Lindsey and son in law Justin had a spa gift card from his work that they wanted to use up, so they took advantage of the fact that Grandma and Grandpa are now here visiting. And that was fine with us, so we spent the day looking after Cameron (6) and Sadie (3 1/2), Boy, they sure are growing!

Back in the motorhome!

Yes, we slept in our motorhome last night! Felt great to be back in our own bed again, even if it's only for a few nights.

It was a long travel day yesterday as we flew from Barcelona, Spain to Montreal, Canada and then Montreal to Ottawa.

Here's the whole story...

One night in Barcelona

We were up at 5:00am Friday morning! Probably could have slept until 5:30am, but this way we didn't have to feel rushed. We were outside at the corner waiting for our pre arranged taxi driver at exactly 6:30am.

But he wasn't there!

Getting ready to go home...

Writing this Thursday evening because we will be up at 5:30am Friday to get on our 8:30am flight from Tangier to Barcelona. Then one night in Barcelona, and Saturday we fly back to Canada!

We had booked the overseas flight a long time ago...back in early September of last year! So I wasn't really paying attention at the time that April 15th was in the middle of Easter weekend. And that Easter holidays are a big deal in Spain.

We had a very successful day!

We planned an afternoon trip from Tangier to Tetouan, a small city near the east coast here in northern Morocco. But first, we had to figure out how to get there. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a whole lot of detail online, so I'm going to include those details here for the benefit of future travelers.

Unless you hire an expensive guide and private driver, there are only two choices of transportation... the bus, or what they call a "grand" taxi"!

A good hike, but with some obstacles...

Another beautiful day here in Tangier, Morocco. So we decided to go for a hike. We had wanted to take a coastal trail all the way to the Cap Spartel lighthouse that looks out over the Atlantic Ocean, a distance of about 12 kms (7.5 miles), and then take a taxi back home.

But we encountered a few obstacles!

I'll bet not many Americans know about this...

We had planned to do a couple of day trips during our four full days here in Tangier. But so far, we haven't got any ambition to sit on a bus for any length of time. One of the day trips we had planned is to the popular "blue town" of Chefchaouen, or simply "Chaouen" as the locals call it. But it's 3 hours each way by bus! Apparently it's slightly quicker in a collectivo van, but we're still not ambitious.

Another is to the beach town of Asilah. It's only an hour bus ride away, so we may still do that.

Anyhow, yesterday we just wandered around Tangier. There are a few interesting things to see here, and we managed to (almost) match up a couple of my dad's photos from his visit here in 1954.

Made it to Tangier, Morocco!

We didn't have to rush yesterday morning because our train wasn't scheduled to leave until 12:30pm. And so we finally got caught up on our blog posting and photo editing from our three days away in the desert without internet.

We said goodbye to our AirBnb hosts Jamila and Mohammed. They were really good hosts and we're glad we found a common ground communicating in Spanish. That wouldn't be the case with our next host!

Exploring Rabat, the capital city of Morocco

We planned a long walking tour of Rabat, leaving from our AirBnb apartment at just before noon. Clear blue sky all day, with a high around 28C (82F).

First stop was the nearby train station where we bought two more rail tickets for Sunday. We fly out of Tangier next Friday, so we decided to head directly there for five nights and do some day trips from Tangier.

Marrakesh to Rabat train ride

This is the second post for today as we get ourselves up to date. If you missed it, you can go back and read the earlier post here.

We were up and out by 9:15am Friday morning and on our way walking to the Marrakesh train station. We had tickets for the 10:45am train to Rabat.

Avoid the Marrakesh street food market!

Still getting caught up on our blog posts after our three day desert tour. So this post details our day on Thursday the 6th.

We stayed in the room all morning, getting caught up on internet and sorting through photos. You have to take a down day every now and again, and we were certainly due for one. But, we had to get to the train station to buy our tickets for Friday so we were going to have to get out and do that.

Besides, we just can't sit around doing nothing!

We were dreading the long ride back

This is the third and final post regarding our Sahara Desert camel excursion.

We were up right at 6:00am as the desert guide had told us. They had said to get up, watch the sunrise, and then we would be hopping on the camels and returning to where the van was and having breakfast.

We climbed the big sand dune and watched the horizon for the sun to appear. And then we heard a voice yelling at us.

Camel riding in the Sahara Desert!

This is the second post of the day as we're catching up from our three days without internet. So you might want to start with the earlier post if you don't want to miss anything. You can access it here.

We were up bright and early Tuesday morning and arrived at breakfast right on time. Apparently breakfast in Morocco is typically bread, crepes, two different types of jam, and tea and coffee. Oh, and olives.

This tour reminded us of why we don't do group tours!

Well, that was a pretty wild three days. As always, we're going to write  it up as three separate daily blog posts, so if you're just reading this one now... stay tuned because another one will be posted later today! Hopefully we'll be all caught up and back on schedule by tomorrow.

Okay, so we had booked a 3 day 2 night group tour to the Sahara Desert. We don't often do group tours because we like to make our own schedule. And we haven't done a group tour since we were in Iceland in the fall of 2012.

This tour reminded us of why we don't do group tours!

You may not hear from us for a couple of days...

We're up early this morning because we're heading out into the desert for a three day/two night getaway. No idea what kind of cell service we'll have where we're going, so you may not hear from us for a couple of days. I'll try and do up a blog post when we can, and worst case scenario you'll hear all about it when we return on Wednesday evening.

But, we still have to tell you about our day yesterday!

March Expenses

Wow. March was a great month, wasn't it?? We were in six different countries... Spain, Italy, San Marino, Monaco, France, and Morocco!

We had a fantastic time, and we pretty much did it exactly as we wanted to. But, it came at a price. Definitely one of our higher months for expenses. Italy is certainly not as cheap as Spain! We spent a total of $2,448 CAD ($1,836 USD) for the month.

(The following figures are all in Canadian dollars. For U.S. dollar equivalent, you can subtract about 25%.)

We like to try and blend in...

Many women in Morocco wear a head scarf...or a "hijab" as it is called in Arabic. Hijab is actually just the Arabic word for "cover". It's a tradition related to the Muslim religion, and it essentially is a means of displaying modesty.

I say many women, because while Morocco is a Muslim country, it is not an Islamic country. There is no law here saying that women have to wear a hijab, and it is not necessarily expected. While in Islamic countries (such as Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iran) it is a different story.

And so here in Morocco, many women do not wear a hijab. It is a personal choice.

Every few steps there is something interesting to see...

We were sitting having our morning tea and hot chocolate (no, we don't drink coffee) when our host Marco came downstairs and offered to take us out  for breakfast. Sure, we're up for that thanks! We explained about our gluten intolerance, and he said he would do his best to ask about the ingredients.

And off we went on the busy inner streets of Marrakesh.

Why don't we just walk to the airport?

"Well, because people will think we are truly nuts!", says Ruth.

After all, who walks to the airport with their bags? Especially when it's 9 kms (5.6 miles) away. Apparently we do.

From where we were staying, I figured it was a 9 km walk. And either downhill or level the entire way. And, it was a beautiful day and most of the walk was on a paved path that follows the beach in Nice, France.

Monaco...country #32 for us!

If you're staying in Nice, you can't help but want to visit Monaco...the second smallest country in the world. And fortunately, there's a very inexpensive bus service from Nice to Monaco.

So yesterday morning we walked the 2.5 kms from our apartment down to the bus stop at La Port. Buses leave for Monaco every 15 minutes and cost only €1.50 ($2.20 CAD, $1.70 USD) for the 20 km (12 mile), 40 minute trip.

We made it to France!

I can't believe it took us 55 years to make it to France! Country #32 for us. Now, we're only going to see a tiny corner of the country so we'll have to make it back for more at some point. But at least we're here!

The day started off in Savona, Italy. Our train didn't leave until 1:30pm, so we did some computer time and then went for a walk along the waterfront in Savona.

We finally managed to have pizza in Italy!

Travel days are always interesting. You just never know how smoothly things are going to go! And we had quite a lot to accomplish. First, we had to return our little red rental car. We had picked it up at Bergamo airport exactly two weeks ago at 10:00am, so we needed to return it by 10:00am.

And that meant getting an early start.

Crawling across the top of the hiking trail...

First on the agenda yesterday was to get down to the main grocery store in the nearest large town about 4 kms away. We were originally planning on walking down, but with the time change here in Italy early Sunday morning, we were late getting started. The grocery store  closes at 12:30pm on Sunday, so we packed a  lunch and hopped in the car to make that our first stop.

When we had come through this town on Saturday, it was the middle of the afternoon and things were very quiet. So we were surprised to find it very busy, and we even had a hard time finding a parking spot.

It is definitely spring in northern Italy...

Well, our time in Europe is quickly coming to an end. We fly on Thursday from Nice, France to Morocco...Northern Africa. So we're making our way towards Nice. But first, we have to drop off our rental car Monday morning at Bergamo airport. So I found us a place to stay about half way to Bergamo.

So we did that drive yesterday. And we could have taken the toll road almost the whole way. But the more direct route was through the mountains on a narrow curvy road! That sounds much more interesting, doesn't it??

The Leaning Tower of Pisa, and the Walled City of Lucca

With a decent weather forecast for the day, we headed off down the mountain to go to both Pisa and Lucca. We decided to take the toll road, figuring that it wouldn't be too expensive. Plus, we had a lot to see at our destinations so didn't want to waste our day driving.

When we got off the toll road after a distance of 70 kms (42 miles) and the bill was €8.30 ($12.20 CAD, $9.00 USD). Hmm. Expensive enough!

More travel plans confirmed

We woke up yesterday morning to rain...buckets of rain. It was pouring! And the rain continued on and off all morning. So we stayed put and got caught up on some internet stuff. In fact, it's quite a lot of work planning our onward travels, and so it has to get done sometime.

It might as well have been yesterday. We've now got all of our accommodation booked right up until and including our March 30th to April 3rd stay in Marrakesh, Morocco.

Castles and Yachts

We set out yesterday morning with plans to go to both Lucca and Pisa. But we got a bit of a late start. It was just after 10:30am when we set off down the hill. We got to the valley where the road heads to Brugnato, and sure enough, the "road closed" sign was still there.

So, just like we had to detour the day before, we now had another long detour to contend with.

Detour!

After our long hike on Monday, we were pretty happy just relaxing indoors yesterday morning. Besides, the weatherman was once again wrong, and the sun didn't look ready to make an appearance. So it's not like we were missing a beautiful day.

But we just can't laze around all day, so after lunch we decided to go into the nearby town of Brugnato (pop 1,270) to pick up a few supplies and just wander around.

A long day at Cinque Terre National Park

We had been waiting for a nice sunny day to do the popular hiking trails along the coastline in Italy's Cinque Terre National Park. It had looked like either Monday or Tuesday was supposed to be half decent, because they are forecasting clouds and rain after that.

So we set off at about 8:20am to do the 50 minute drive down the mountain to the coast.

Hiking up in the clouds

We like this area so much that we've extended our stay. We were supposed to leave this coming Thursday, but now we're here the whole week. We'll move on Saturday the 25th.

One of the things we like here is the number of different walks we can do right from the village itself.

Grocery shopping in Italy

We woke up yesterday morning to a heavy wet fog. Quite a change from all the sunshine we've been enjoying for the last several days. The forecast said it was supposed to burn off within a couple of hours, but by 11:00am we still felt like we were up in the clouds,

So we decided to go into the city of La Spezia (pop 95,000) and do some stocking up on groceries and maybe have a walk along the waterfront.

We're pretty sure the whole village must know about us by now!

We love to travel, but moving around all the time can get tedious. So we were really looking forward to staying in one spot for a whole week. And yesterday morning, we did nothing but relax indoors, despite the fact that it was a gorgeous day and we really should have been outside doing something.

We made up for it in the afternoon though!

After yesterday, we are not in the mood to drive anywhere!

Yesterday was a pretty busy day, mostly because of the long drive we did. And driving in Italy is not what you'd call relaxing. By the time we arrived at our destination, I felt like I had just finished a NASCAR race!

We were driving from Rimini to the mountains near La Spezia. Clear across the country! We drove right by Florence, and didn't even stop. Who does that?? But the problem is, there is so much to see in Italy that we have to pick and choose what it is that we want to see. Especially when we only have just under three weeks.

Welcome to the Ancient Land of the Free

The Republic of San Marino is the 5th smallest country in the world. It is only 24 sq miles in area, and has a population of under 35,000 people.

An official Republic since 1600, San Marino remains the oldest constitutional republic in the world, almost twice as old as the second place United States. It's been an independent neutral country since the year 301 when it was founded! And, it's a really fascinating place to visit!

Long driving day!

We left our Airbnb host Fernando at 8:00am when he was ready to leave for work. We had a long driving day ahead, so we didn't mind getting an early start.

We were driving from Bergamo to Rimini...a distance of 335 kms (208 miles). Definitely a long day for us, but even longer because we wanted to stay off the toll highways.

I drive like I'm in a Ferrari...

First order of business yesterday was to get us some wheels. I had booked a super cheap car rental, but we had to go to Bergamo airport to pick it up. We were prepared to take the bus to get to our 10:00am appointment, but our Airbnb host Fernando insisted on driving us.

I booked the car through a rental car reseller...in this case, www.economybookings.com. They don't have a good reputation because they are very strict on the rules when you book. And, you have to pay in advance and there are fees if you cancel.

But, if you follow the rules, and you don't need to cancel,...you can get a great deal!

When in Rome...

We haven't had a "do nothing" day in almost three weeks. And even on our last "do nothing" day, we had still gone for a walk. So, after trekking more than 24 kms (15 miles) in the previous two days, we both agreed that yesterday would be a day of rest.

So we stayed in for the morning and had some computer time and reading. The computer time was productive though, in that I got some more of our future travel plans set into place.

We thought we were going to Milan!

When we first started looking at visiting Italy, our place of arrival was determined by cheap airfare! The flight to get here from Alicante, Spain was on sale, and I booked it without doing much research. In fact, we originally thought we were coming to Milan. The airport was listed on the Ryanair website as Milan (BGY).

So based on that, you'd think you would be flying into Milan, wouldn't you? But, you'd be wrong!