Morockin' it out: Marrakesh and Atlas Mountains

     This Christmas break Marisa and I decided to go Katy Perry style and do a little "hot" and "cold".  For the "hot" portion we took a dreadful Ryan Air flight from Frankfurt down to Marrakesh, Morocco for a six-day tour of the Atlas mountains, the southern landscapes, the Sahara, and the cities of Marrakesh and Fez.  Going off of a tip we got from a co-worker who just came from a 3-year stint of teaching in Morocco, we decided to hire a personal guide/driver for the week and we couldn't have been happier. If you're looking into a trip to Morocco I can highly recommend our guide, Mohamed:  http://www.colours-of-morocco.com/ or his trip advisor reviews.  He can pretty much put together a customized tour of any length and to any destinations in Morocco.

     Our stay in Marrakesh was short as we groggily trekked around the city with a local guide and took in the sights of a place that was very foreign to most places that we've been.  On the one hand it felt like Aladdin with tight streets, colorful markets, beautiful tile everywhere, snake charmers and monkey handlers present in the main squares.  On the other hand it also seemed to resemble other developing countries: dusty streets, lots of mopeds, donkey-powered carts, lots of street food, hand-crafts being peddled, and harassing salesmen at markets.

     After arriving at our "riad" which is like a bed & breakfast in this part of the world, we were welcomed with a pot of mint tea (the national drink of this country) before heading out on foot to take in the sights of Marrakesh:

We never get tired of seeing the beautiful mosaic patterns found in different palaces, riads, kasbahs and mosques.  This was in the Bahia Palace in Marrakesh.

Bahia Palace - Even the cedar ceilings were beautifully recessed, carved, and adorned with this colorful mix of geometric shapes.  In Muslim architecture (probably not the technical style) you typically see continuous patterns of geometric shapes or beautiful Arabic calligraphy since representations of objects, people, or animals is forbidden in certain buildings.

Bahia Palace - Here we've got carved wall decorations that are usually out of cedar or plaster.

A glimpse of the crowded markets in Marrakesh.  Moroccan hand crafts include lots of leather goods and metal goods such as lanterns and copper cookware as well as beautifully painted pottery.

We only wish we had more time staying at this riad since the weather was so nice, the place so quiet, and the ambiance so perfect.  Riads are basically old homes in the city that are huge and tend to be open in the center.  It was amazing to come in off of the bustling streets into a real refuge.

We had a nice little private dinner in the riad that featured three courses and a bottle of wine.  We ordered in the morning, they did the shopping during the day and prepared it for whenever we wanted to eat at night.  Afterwards the night duty staff person even started a fire in the fireplace and put on some bluegrass music - not sure how he knew because I wasn't wearing one piece of camouflage.  Great start to the trip.

On day two Mohamed picked us up and took us by the Majorelle Gardens on the way out of town.

We drove south through the High Atlas mountains and stopped by a few interesting sites such as this kasbah of Pacha Glaoui.  FYI a "kasbah" is basically either the large and fortified home of a wealthy person or a fort in general.  This one is in serious disrepair, but it was really neat to walk through.

This gives you an idea of the windy roads that you go through while driving through the High Atlas mountains.

View from the kasbah of Pacha Glaoui near the village of Telouet.

I love seeing the stark contrast throughout the landscapes in Morocco.  Water is indeed necessary for life and it's amazing how clearly it can be seen.

We continued on towards the city of Ourzazate, but stopped for lunch near the famous kasbah Ait Benhaddou, which has been used in many films such as "Lawrence of Arabia", "Prince of Persia", and "Gladiator".  Our local guide, resembling Obi Wan Kenobi, made me feel like I was on a Star Wars set wearing his thick wool coat that is still in style here.  Hoods like these went out of style a long time ago in the U.S.

Ait Benhaddou kasbah

A man can only handle so much mint tea before he has to slam "the real thing".  Now's a great time to mention that Arabic is the official language in Morocco, followed by French due to its status as a colony until the 1950's.

Mohamed took us for a little 4-wheel driving to mix up the monotony of the Moroccan highways on Day three.  Lots of fun but apparently scary if it were to rain (flash floods).

As you can see, no rain in our forecast for the whole week.

We came across several "National Geographic" moments as we passed plenty of nomadic people with their sheep, goats, and camels in really remote locations.

I really enjoyed this trip because we got to see a lot more of nature than we typically get to in European cities.  This is a view from the Dades Gorge in the Atlas mountains.

Our "cave-like" hotel room in Dades.

After a few days of picturesque driving through the Atlas mountains we headed down towards the Sahara desert which is the topic of the next blog post!

--Justin

Eintracht Upgrade

As you know we have been fans of our local soccer team, Eintracht Frankfurt, since the beginning and we make it to a game or two every year. But this year we have more reason to be fans of the team...... one of our friends plays for the team now! One of my volleyball comrades from Orange County married a soccer player and they have been traveling around Germany for the past few years and he has been playing professionally. They recently moved to Frankfurt in August with two adorable babies in tow and we have had the pleasure of hanging out with them and caught the last game of the first half of the season before the Christmas holiday. They hooked us up with some player tickets and man were they an upgrade from our smoke-infested nose-bleed seats from before. 

Kick-off (the first one we have actually been on time for)

Our awesome upgraded seats right behind the team bench and on half field

Up in the action of post game interviews

Our boy, Rob #29. (Sorry not the best picture, but more action shots next time)

Thanks Rob and Mari and looking forward to cheering on #29 some more this season! Go Eintracht!

-Marisa

The Sound of (Christmas) Music: Salzburg, Austria 2011

     If you've been reading this with any regularity then you know that we love to go to Christmas Markets this time of year.  We try to make a trip out to at least one major city each year to find something different and this year we decided to head down to the beautiful city of Salzburg, Austria.  This town is most famous for "The Sound of Music", which was both filmed there and inspired by the von Trapp family that lived there.  It's pretty popular to take a minibus and do a Sound of Music Tour with one of several companies that trek you around to famous sites from the movie, all the while playing your favorite hits that Americans love to sing-a-long to.  This is all heresay because we did not give in to the tour.  We had other things in mind..........

The old part of the city as seen from atop the Hohensalzburg Fortress

Although we didn't go on the tour, we did walk through a special exhibit dedicated to the lives of the real Trapp family.  Basically it sounds like the Maria von Trapp gal was a hippy chic that loved to sing and play guitar and she happened across this older widowed military fellow with a bunch of kids, married him, had more kids, then got all of them singing and took them to the U.S. to go on tour.  I still haven't seen the film, but I think I get the picture.

St. Peter's Cemetery - this place was very cool with simple iron crosses for tombstones, but very ornate floral decor for each grave.  Apparently you rent your grave in Austria, so if you don't have family that is able to make your payments then you could be exhumed and your spot sold to someone else!  Not sure if this actually happens but quite shocking anyways.

St. Peter's Cemetery

St. Peter's Cemetery

View of Hohensalzburg Fortress from the old city.  This bad boy was never attacked and thus, never taken until Napoleon came through - when he asked they just gave it up.  That's why it's still in remarkable condition.  In the foreground, a piece of public art commissioned in 2008.  Each year since 2002 the city selects one artist to make a piece for the city.

We ventured into a smaller Christmas Market atop the Hohensalzburg Fortress for some hot orange punch, gluhwein, and some tailgating games.  I would say "reindeer games", but this appears to be a unicorn.  For the record, Marisa and I played to 5 and I won - we don't keep records of wrongs, but I tend to keep records of rights!

Hohensalzburg Christmas Market

Next, we headed out to a summer palace called Hellbrunn Castle which was built in the 1600s to visit another small Christmas Market. 

This one had lots of great handcrafts and a children's area with a petting zoo.

Of course the donkeys were the highlight......at least these kids thought so.

"Weihnachts Postamt" - where kids go to write their letters to somebody......St. Niklaus? Weihnachtsman? Christkind?  Christmas angel?  We're not sure.

While the lamb was certainly cute, I couldn't help but see the inspiration for Jar-Jar Binks in Star Wars I.

Hellbrunn Castle

Hellbrunn Castle

Hellbrunn is famous for its collection of trick fountains that apparently are notorious for getting visitors wet during the warmer months.  This one was interesting because he kind of looked like he was throwing up.

As close as we get to a fisheye lens.

Hellbrunn market in all of its glory.  It's really nice when these castles host Christmas markets because otherwise they wouldn't be used that much.

If you didn't know, I'm a dog lover!

Marisa prefers unicorns.

Steingasse - a nice little street across the Salzach river from the old city; I just like the font on these signs.

Also on Steingasse is a sign that claims that the words for silent night were penned at this very address.

Before heading out we had a quick brew at the Augustiner brewery restaurant.  It's similar to the bavarian brewers of Munich, but apparently it's distinct from the Augustiner in Munich.

It was an excellent weekend trip with plenty more that we wish we could've seen.

--Justin

Not too many digs in Dresden

The weekend after Portugal I headed down to Dresden for our school's annual volleyball tournament. Yes, I coach our girls volleyball team.  Let me make one thing clear.........it is nothing like the States, but the girls are great to work with.  Besides the volleyball, the highlight of the weekend was the opening of the Dresden Christmas Market(s). Not only did their main Christmas market rock but they had about 3 or 4 all over the main part of the city.

The main Christmas Market

Just glorious!

Sipping on some gluhwein with the my assistent, Katie, boy's coach, Laura (taking the picture), male chaperone, Scott, and our athletic director, Ulli. This was Scott's first Christmas market ever and I know the ladies and I showed him a good time!

These bad boys are famous all around German and come in all different sizes. They are called Weihnachtspyramide and every house should have one.

The beautiful Frauenkirche. I love the story of this church. Read about it in our summer post about Dresden.

It was as amazing as it looks

Ulli introduced us to the most amazing dessert I have ever had. It might sound simple but it was incredible, a baked apple. Add some vanilla sauce, cinnamon and sugar and you have heaven and it even includes an edible bowl.

The Christmas Market with the Frauenkirche in the background

More old lit up buildings in Dresden made for a cool effect

Der Furstenzug- a tile parade of former leaders of Dresden or Saxony the state, not exactly sure

One of the most interesting markets was the medieval market in the castle courtyard. 

My girls and even though we only won one game out of nine at least we had fun doing it

Having been to many Christmas markets at this point in Germany, I will say that Dresden might be up there as one of my favorites. It was spread out which made it less crowded and I love how all the different areas offered different things. I hate when the different areas just sell the same stuff. Dresden is a great city and definitely one you should put on the list any time of year but especially in December.

--Marisa