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Published: August 2nd 2023
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We’re a bit slow off the mark this morning after a long day of travelling yesterday. We decide to catch up on a bit of admin including reviews of some our recent experiences in Morocco. I think it should be OK to let the world know about some of the less savoury aspects of our experience out in the desert now that we’re safely out of the country - the guide who didn’t do any guiding, paying top dollar to “sleep” on wet towels in an oven like tent only to find out later that the guide’s tent had air conditioning ….. I think my blood pressure might finally be starting to return to something close to normal.
Our next stop is Bologna in Italy, and the guys who run the apartment we've booked there seem keen to make sure that we really are who we claim we are, and not members of the Albanian mafia or whatever. We need to register on line with pictures of our passports, our address back in Australia, the name of Issy’s mother’s first cat … well not quite, but that’s what it’s starting to feel like. But is that enough? Well it seems
not. Now they insist on video calling us to make sure we look roughly the same as the pictures in our passports. I think all passport photos look like criminal mugshots, so unless we look like gangsters in the video there will presumably be yet another step after this. I wonder what that might involve - fingerprints, DNA samples perhaps? I can only think they must have had a really bad experience with guests at some stage. I wonder what happened?
We head out for a wander. We enjoy some lunch in a fountain filled square, and then stroll into the very attractive Genoves Park behind the waterfront promenade. The standout feature is a wide avenue of tall palm trees and finely sculpted American cypresses.
Next up is the waterfront Castillo de Santa Catalina. We read that this place is inextricably linked to the city’s history. The British attacked Cadiz in 1596, drove its citizens out, took hostages, looted the place, and demanded that the Spanish pay a ransom. The Spanish government was bankrupt and couldn’t cough up, so the British burned the city to the ground, and then turned around and went home. The Spanish were perhaps
understandably not too keen on a repeat so construction of the Castle commenced shortly afterwards in 1598. The views from here back towards the city’s main beach, Playa de la Caleta, are excellent.
We head back for a siesta and I take the opportunity to read up a bit about the city. It seems it’s located on what’s technically known as a tombolo - a bit of land that’s joined to the mainland by a narrow isthmus. It was founded by the Phoenicians in the tenth century BC. Hannibal set out from here with elephants in tow in his attempts to conquer Italy, and it was at one time the Roman Empire’s second most populous city. It was reconquered from the Moors in the mid thirteenth century and became a key Spanish port during the age of discoveries - Christopher Columbus sailed from here, as did many of the conquistadores. In more modern times it became a support base for rebels during the Spanish Civil War. In 1947 someone got a bit careless with the gunpowder - the resultant explosion produced a mushroom cloud over the bay, and the noise was heard as far away as Seville and parts
of Portugal where it was assumed there’d been an earthquake. A hundred and fifty people died and another 2,000 or so were wounded. Hmmm.
We head out for a quiet meal, followed by an aimless backstreets wander. We agree it feels so much more calm and peaceful here after the frenetic stresses of Morocco, not to mention cooler, almost need long pants in the evenings type cooler.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Forget Morocco
I'm glad you are out of Morocco and sorry the experience wasn't top notch. Bologna is one of our favorites. Eager to hear your journey.