No one recognizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow- Lin Yutang I‘m writing this sitting on the couch, watching Coronation Street episodes that we recorded while we were away, having a coffee in my Moroccan mug, and eating macarons from Paris! Pretty nice. It’s a lovely sunny day today. I may rouse myself for a walk later or I may just stay on the couch ?. We got back about 10 pm the day before yesterday, after a long journey home. We were up early on Tuesday for our flight home. Our alarm went off at 5:15, and we finished packing, and making sure everything was ready to leave our apartment. We took it in turns each going down in the elevator with ... read more

We had another beautiful day in Paris, starting with our breakfast in the apartment, then taking the metro to the Musee d’Orsay. We stood in the security line for a short time, and quickly got into the museum. Immediately I liked the museum, housed in a former railway station. It was far less busy than the Louvre, and it was much easier to find our way around. The art was beautiful, and I found the place had a peaceful feeling about it. It really was lovely. We must have spent at least three hours roaming around, enjoying all the exhibits. It was pretty amazing seeing so many works of art that we’ve seen in books or maybe owned prints of (like Manet, Renoir, Degas etc). I especially liked seeing Degas’ sculpture of the ballet dancer because ... read more

We had a glass of champagne at the top of the Eiffel Tower today - my Paris visit is complete! :) We had a light breakfast in the apartment this morning, and left around 8:30, heading to the Louvre Museum. We walked the couple of blocks to Rambuteau station (now I know the right direction!), took line 11 two stops (well, one stop because the next stop is closed), connected to line 1 and took it a couple of stops to the Palais Royal Musee du Louvre stop. The connections involve a lot of walking, and lots of stairs. We followed the signs to the Louvre, and found the right entry to use with our museum passes. The passes worked great, we didn‘t have to wait in the line up, and got in quickly. We got ... read more

The more I travelled the more I realized that fear makes strangers of people who should be friends- Shirley MacLaine Greetings from the City of Light! We arrived safely and managed to find Mom at the Charles de Gaulle airport :) We had an extremely early morning, with the alarm set for 3 am. I woke up at 2:54 so I didn’t even need the alarm (or the back up alarm). We showered, sorted our bags, and were downstairs in the lobby before our pick up time of 4 am. The driver was there early, so we set off for the Mohammed VI airport in Casablanca. It generally is a 40 minute or so drive to the airport from central Casablanca, but it was faster since there wasn’t much traffic at that hour. In case I ... read more

Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life. - Jack Kerouac We are now back in Marrakech for the last night of our tour. I woke up this morning feeling like crap, and unwillingly dragged myself out of bed about 9:30. Susan was feeling better this morning, and she went down for breakfast, which I skipped. She brought me back some yogurt and bread. I slowly got ready, packing up and showering. I felt a bit better after the shower. Our group has been dropping like flies. Practically everybody has gotten sick, to various degrees, even Abdul. Four of the group had to go to hospital for treatment, all with gastrointestinal problems. After Susan got back from breakfast we headed off on ... read more