Find out what precautions we plan on taking and how we are handling booking private tour guides and tipping. For our itinerary, travel and accommodation plans, check out our previous blogs! Travel Safety With food and fuel prices rising over the past year and the ever deteriorating state of the economy, there have been protests and increasing security concerns. Being aware of the political, cultural, and economic environment and what's happening when in Egypt and always being vigilant is important in keeping safe. In addition to avoiding demonstrations and staying away from areas where they are expected to take place, our hotel and restaurant choices, travel and transportation plans take security and health into consideration. When travelling to developing nations, hotel and transportation choices are important to ensuring safety. Although staying in a 4* or ... read more

10 weeks and counting....and we will be heading off on our Egyptian adventure over Christmas break! Touring around Egypt, immersing ourselves in Egyptian history and experiencing Egyptian culture are definitely going to be a highlight of 2008. Not to say that 2008 hasn't been an interesting year so far! Thankfully, Papa Canuck's gall bladder won't be a problem because he doesn't have one anymore! We are just hoping for a full and speedy recovery since he is in charge of baggage handling when he takes a short leave of absence from his new and electrifying job! Mama Canuck can't wait to take a break from her taxing job and missing 5 days of school for Junior Canuck is an early Christmas present! Once again, Mama Canuck has risen to the challenge. Determined to travel Egypt independently, ... read more

Arrived at Madrid Barajas Airport, one of the bigger airports we have flown into on Tuesday afternoon. Terminals T4 & T4S , which are celebrating their first anniversary, are very impressive! Older terminals, T1, T2 and T3 are drab. Took the metro to our hotel, Hotel Room Mate Mario, a trendy Spanish hotel chain with reasonable room rates for Madrid, centrally located near Plaza de Oriente , Teatro Real and Palacio Real. The Madrid metro is cheap and efficient; however, carrying luggage up and down stairs is a definite negative! We ended the day by hitting our favorite tapas bar at Plaza Santa Ana for great tapas and wine, called the Vinotecha! Our favorite? Brie triangles, they are delicious! Our first full day of sightseeing in Madrid started early, when after having breakfast at our hotel, ... read more

For our first day-trip out of Madrid, we took the picturesque train ride from Madrid to Segovia. As the train approached Segovia, the temperature had dropped from 8C to below 0C and it was snowing in April! So it doesn´t only mainly rain on the plain in Spain, it snows! We were freezing cold and Segovia was tourist-free! Having left Madrid at 8:ooam without breakfast, we headed off to the first open coffee shop at 10:00am! After 4 lattes, 1 orange juice, and 5 croissants between us, we finally could feel our toes and hands again (short-lived)! Although Mama Canuck was not that popular dragging the Travelling Canucks out of warm beds in the dark, taking the metro to the train station, running for the train without breakfast, they soon forgot and forgave her given the ... read more

We took the train from Marrakech (southern city) to Fez (northern city) and saw the cities of Casablanca, Rabat (capital city), Menkes from afar, arid regions, lush countryside, farms fenced in by cactus, glimpses of the Atlantic Ocean, more satellite dishes than we could count, and two camels! A time to relax before visiting Morocco's first Imperial City, Fez, the ancient capital and centre of religious and cultural life in Morocco. The city with a hat named after it! Not completely unexpected, the trip took much longer than anticipated. Due to the Prophet's birthday, the Mouloud, which is the fourth largest religious holiday, Moroccans and Pilgrims from North Africa travel across Morocco like we planned to do two days prior to the festivities! While it gave us the chance to get to know our compartment mates ... read more