Curt & Deidre - Fés el-Bali

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Salaam from Fés. The keyboard is not your stqndard QWERTY type so we are hunting and pecking right now. Forgive us for any errors in the blog. Our trip to Germany was long and uneventful, with the exeption of Deidres misplacing of her passport at the Portland airport and vomiting in the plane on the stewardess, just kidding she made it to the toilet. The car rental didnt go through so we trekked it by train to Grosslittgen via Cologne-Bonn, Koblenz, Cochem, and Wittlich. Dont worry, I got my money back for the rental. Conny and Uwe were more than hospitable and fed us Rolladen, kartofeln, and red cabbage. After dinner, we grabbed a couple Bitburgers and I proceeded to give Deidre a tour of the town. At the arrival of my old apartment, we encountered Haiku and Sabina, my neighbors. We drank 7 bottles of wine with them. The rest of the night is hazy, needless to say we made it home safely.
Our next day, we flew to Morocco.
We got in to Morocco about five oclock in the evening, and spent about an hour trying to convince the taxi drivers that we knew the exchange rate, and 50 dirham for 20 euro was not fair. the exchange rate is 100 dirham for 10 Euro. After waiting another two hours for the bus, which had more people on it than we thought possible, we made it to our hotel. After dinner with a friendly french couple, we caught up on sleep. We got an earlier start than we thought this morning, because our clocks were off still. We decided to be brave and ventured into the medina without a guide. It was very interesting, crazy and worth seeing. Its 35 sq kilometers of souqs, shops, tiny alleys, no street signs and the ever constant fear of being run over by a donkey. The buildings are stacked on top of each other so tightly that there is no way to get your bearing straight. A compass would have been helpful, but we, of course, do not have one. we walked about 5 miles, counting the doubling back and the pretty serious hills. We visited some mosques and gardens;all of which are on our pictures.

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Photos

Grosslittgen
The town square

Mosque Door
As noted above.

View of Fès
This is from the Riad Moqri. This is a school for muslim architects. We got lost in that mess of buildings. Find the satelite dish. Oh wait... there 10 million.

Curtis
We started drinking out of a horn. This is at about wine bottle 4. I am flexing by the way.

Comments

[andy]

man...
i have wanted to go to morocco for years! I am so jealous. im glad you are having a good time. But I've got a job to do, too. Where I'm going, you can't follow. What I've got to do, you can't be any part of. Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that. Now, now... Here's looking at you kid.

[Steven]

cat news
We are watching Deidre's 2 cats while she's away TAKING A FREAKIN' VACATION SANS US. Both have been indoor cats, and I think we have created a monster. Jake, the scaredy cat, rarely ventures out of the dungeon (aka basement). But POW (or BAM as her grandmother calls him) has been so curious about the world "out there." We have begun letting him out and he loves it. Still gets a little confused when we actually open the door and invite him to go out; no more darting through my legs when I'm not looking. He stays in the yard. Loves hiding in stuff, though always staying within 20-30 feet of whoever is working in the garden. He seems calmer; answers to his name, loves being rubbed, rubs against me when I get up in the morning. Actually, every one of the 4 cats rubs against me in the morning. Some sort of cat jealousy: he's mine, no he's mine, you're both wrong, I marked him last and he's mine. Anyway: She left us with 2 cats and there are, still, two additional cats waiting here for her when she returns.

[Sarah VanderVort]

I'm Jealous
I don't know Deidre and Curtis it's been years but this is for both of you. You guys are having an amazing life adventure and I am so happy for both of you...and jealous. Be careful and come home safe and have a blast!