Geo: 40.9494, -4.11921. Today we set out to drive to Madrid but the distance was short and instead our focus was on other famous cities in Spanish history, Ou first stop was Avila. This is an ancient city and is a complete walled town. It has 98 gates to protect the perimeter. We went through the main tower, St Vincent's and proceeded into the Tourist Information Centre. We were able to access the town through a series of escaltors which led us into the main townWe walked as a group up to the Cathedral. Lucy pointed out some of the attractive old palaces along the way. These were the homes of the nobility and prominent families but most have now been turned into boutique hotels. In the square outside the imposing cathedral we were let loose ... read more

Geo: 41.15, -8.61024The weather had changed when we got up this morning. The sky looked threatening and as we met our guide, Riccardo, It started to rain. We first were driven to a lookout from where we could see the city which is dominated by the University. Last night we had seen groups of students in their black suits and gowns, obviously graduation parties. As we drove back to the city itself we went up to a garden where we were shown stone slabs on which poems were written. Graduating students would write a poem in praise of their learning and pay for it to be erected in this garden, however just as we were looking at them the heavens opened and we all scurried back to the bus. We then drove to the University which ... read more

Geo: 38.7167, -9.13333We left Seville at 8 am and drove north-west towards the border with Portugal. We stopped for a break after 90 minutes at a roadside cafe Le Gran Familia. These roadhouses are far better than the ones we have in Australia.Our road took us through agricultural land and, more importantly, many vineyards.Our first major stop was at the town of Evora. This is an UNESCO world Heritage protected site. There has been a town here since Roman times and it has a city wall and typical narrow streets.We all walked together to San Francisco's church. While others explored inside we were drawn to the small handicrafts shops on the other side of the square. these contained many handmade products and lovely artefacts from cork handbags to jewellery to linen and rooster figurines. In one ... read more

Geo: 33.9905, -6.8704Karim had given us an alternative for today's travel from Marrakesh to Casablanca, that is a trip on a local train. After the 11 hour trip from Fez we were all for not spending all the time on the bus, even if it does have WiFi. So this morning we were all up for breakfast at 5-30am and left the hotel at 6-15.We were driven to the main Railway station and then our driver Mohammed took off to drive to Casablanca with our luggage while we caught the 6-45am train. We were in a first class carriage with six of us in each compartment. The trip took us through fairly barren country side with many cactus plantations and small towns,We arrived in Casablanca about 10-20am.We left the station to find our bus waiting for ... read more

Geo: 34.0331, -5.00028We left Tangier at 8am heading to Fez. We had not seen much of Tangier but we have been promised a city tour when we return on Sunday. We headed out on the road through very arable land and through some small villages. While we had found the city very clean the countryside had much more litter. Our first stop was at the Roman archaeological site, Volubolis. This was once a Roman settlement and has now been partly excavated. Our local guide took over from Khareem and guided us through the ruins. The most striking thing here are the number of beautiful mosaics which have been uncovered. The first house had several of these and some archaeologists were painstakingly drawing them on a grid to ensure they have been recorded carefully. There has been ... read more