We had arrived in the city of Ouarzazate, the name meaning "without noise,” in late afternoon the previous day. We spent our one and only night here at the lovely Ksar Ighnda which had been a memorable experience for me – the beautiful architecture of the ksar, the lush gardens surrounding the beautiful pool, the exceptionally good dinner, and the small though very comfortable room. It was yet another in the mix of interesting accommodation types chosen by our tour company and the Ksar Ighnda was one of my favorites. We’d had a relatively late wakeup call at 7:30 am on this sunny morning followed by breakfast in the larger dining room which was positioned to have a lovely view to the gardens and pool. After our meal we used the remaining free time to take ... read more

Nearly every day thus far in our journey around Morocco, like a good omen, good weather had followed us. Waking up on Day 7 in Erfoud, we found the weather was once again nearly perfect. The sun was shining, the skies were blue, and the air was warm and pleasant. In early morning, the Sahara has a subtle way of exerting its influence on its visitors -- an unhurried calmness which overtakes the senses while dreaming of what the day will bring. We always looked forward to the day's adventures, but it would be the evening that we most anticipated. Staying at the Kasbah Xaluca Maadid Hotel had been a delight as it was yet another example of the many types of accommodations we would experience while in Morocco. This hotel had a lot of positives ... read more

Leaving the remarkable ruins of Volubilis behind us, thoughts about what we had just seen in the historic Roman city still rambled around in our brains but it was time to move on. Driving in an easterly direction, our destination was the city of Fes, once the capital of Morocco and an important trade crossroads. So far the landscape had been rather bland and sparsely populated with only a few unremarkable buildings and houses making an appearance. The most interesting sights for me were several huge stork nests perched atop spindly electricity/phone poles near small buildings.They were a nice surprise. Only 20 miles from Fes, the geographical monotony was broken when we unexpectedly saw a lake peeking out of the nearby valley with the Middle Atlas Mountains as a backdrop. Near the far end, the sky-blue ... read more

The allure I felt to visit Morocco had been growing stronger over the last several years. Honestly, I had felt drawn to visit this mysterious country for many years. As a youth I had read Marguerite Henry’s “King of the Wind,” a story about the famous Godolphin Barb horse fictionally set in Morocco. Romantic notions of Morocco filled my head after seeing movies such as “Casablanca,” and “The Wind and the Lion.” In October, 2018, that which my heart had known for many years finally overcame any doubts that my mind had harbored about visiting Morocco and I booked a tour for early October, 2019. After fighting heavy traffic to reach the airport with little time to spare, all the necessary lines were cleared and we left a cloudy New York City on an overnight Air ... read more

It is Sunday morning and we had now been in Bulgaria for a week. Each day had been an education on Bulgaria: its ancient and recent historical treasures, its art & architecture, traditional culture, food and even modes of transportation. We had seen sites spanning many historical eras: the 20th-century remnants of the Communist era, Koprivshtitsa’s 19th-century Bulgarian National Revival architecture, the Ottomans’ 14th century mosque and 1st century Roman engineering in Plovdiv. Today’s scheduled jaunt would take us to sites from the early Medieval or Middle Ages period, roughly the 5th to 15th centuries. Our Euromeet host, John, had arranged a day trip to two significant sites built in this time frame: Asen’s Fortress and Bachkovo Monastery. We had a very light breakfast at the hotel before taking a taxi over to ou... read more