Travel is the only thing that you buy that makes you richer- Anonymous Greetings from our riad in Meknes, as I sip my gin and tonic, waiting to meet the group shortly for dinner. Last night we met our fellow travellers and trip leader Abdul, who we all love. We are: eight from Australia (John and Barb from Sydney, Greg and Wendy from Queensland, Matthew and Nicole from Sydney, Jeff and Kathy from Brisbane - originally from Canada), two Americans (Linda and Annie - sisters from Chicago), and Susan and I. We had the usual meeting then walked to Les Fleurs restaurant for dinner. There were tourists there (including the Intrepid tour group that leaves Casablanca the same time as us), but there were lots of locals there too. I had a really tasty couscous with ... read more

There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it. - Charles Dudley Warner We are very excited to be travelling again, this time to Morocco and Paris! We booked this trip many months ago, and it is hard to believe we are finally (almost) on our way. Our flight leaves Vancouver tomorrow (at the civilized hour of 10 am), and we have a bit of a milk run getting to Casablanca (via Calgary, Halifax, and Paris). As most of you know, Susan works part time for WestJet, and we got a super cheap fare to and from Paris (confirmed not standby), so it was worth it to have a few stops along the way. Ah, Casablanca ... it immediately reminds me of the movie of the same name. My absolute favourite ... read more

We set the alarm for the first time in a several days (just for 7:20) and had a leisurely breakfast before leaving Carolann's at about ten to nine yesterday morning. We walked to the nearby tube station and took the District Line to Earl's Court, where we were picked up by the mini van to take us to Windsor Castle. The original castle was built in the 11th C. It has been used by all monarchs since the time of Henry 1, and is the longest occupied palace in Europe. The drive to Windsor was extremely slow as there was some sort of traffic problem on the M4 (or M something or other). We couldn't take the highway so instead wound our way through various cute villages. After some time I realized we were actually almost ... read more

We landed in Heathrow last Friday (Oct 21) about 9 pm, after a 5 hour flight from Cairo. It was another one of the old Egypt Air planes, with the monitor that comes down from the ceiling, so no individual entertainment system. The man sitting in the window seat moved a couple of rows ahead where there was more room so we could stretch out a bit. I think we had the worst seats possible in the plane, the row ahead of the emergency exit with seats that do not recline. Luckily there was no one in the aisle and middle seats ahead of us, and I was mostly sitting sideways across the window and middle seats, so it didn't matter when the woman in font of me put her seat back a bit. I had ... read more

Today was the first day of our entire trip that we did not have to set the alarm! It was so nice to sleep in after so many early mornings. We didn't get up till about 8:30 (I was woken briefly at 4:30 ish as usual for the really loud call to prayer. It's especially loud here). We had a really nice breakfast here at the Acacia Hotel. They don't have the breakfast buffet any longer due to the lack of tourists, but they have several different breakfast options you can choose from. We both chose the Egyptian breakfast, and it was delicious. It consisted of foul (fava beans), falafel, egg, cheese, cucumber, tomato, and pita bread. We started with a Turkish coffee, and then had regular coffee with the meal (they don't have brewed coffee ... read more