Author Archives: Fletch

Sidecar Tour Marrakech

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Our guide recommended a sidecar tour of Marrakech so we could see some areas outside of the old city.

The tour didn’t disappoint and I was excited to hear that we would be going to a park of palm trees. Palmeraie is a palm oasis of several hundred thousand trees which was man made hundreds of years ago. The area is now protected and nobody can build there. It felt more like a very hot desert and sand to me but was nice to get out of the city. The area around the park has very nice houses that are owned by very famous international celebrities. We also saw some of the new part of Marrakech. And at the end, the guide drove us back through the old town. We saw flea markets where you can literally find anything to buy, through a leather making district (I learned they make leather using pigeon poop) and then ended with a smoothie.

One of the original gates into the city. It has 3 turns which was used for protections years ago.

Marrakech, Morocco

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What a day. The tour guide arranged for a walking tour from 9 AM to 5 PM. I’m not normally a tour guide person but highly recommend it in Marrakech. I can’t even begin to tell you where we were in the old city and it seemed like we walked in circles for hours exploring all the narrow streets.

The first stop he took us was Medersa Ben Youssef. It was nice because we got there pretty much before all the tour groups. We only had it to ourselves for about 5 minutes before it started filling in. It was built in the 1550’s and was a school that could have up to 800 students. The rooms were very small and would have 4-5 students. It was used until 1960.

From there, we walked to the Bahia Palace. We were definitely greeted with lots of tourists by the time we got there. The Bahia Palace was a lot newer and was built in the late 1800’s. This is one of the most visited sites in all of Morocco. And the King of Morocco still uses the palace occasionally to host foreign dignitaries and events. It was pretty to walk around and everything there was crafted by hand. The ceilings are all made out of cedar and are hand painted. Our tour guide said there is a cedar forest near Fez where all their wood comes from.

After leaving the palace, we walked around old city until it was time for lunch. Again, our guide always knew right where to turn and we just had to follow. The old town is very touristy with a lot of little shops. You see the same thing over and over but you felt safe walking around and nobody was trying to get you to buy anything. Lunch was at a great rooftop restaurant where the food was excellent and great view. Only thing that could have been better is if it wasn’t 95 today which meant it felt like it was over 100. Places aren’t really air conditioned but luckily the rooftop restaurant had umbrellas. Here are some pictures of walking around the old city. We saw it all from donkeys working to doors for sale and lots of olives, spices and anything else you might want.

  • Fresh bread
  • Olives
  • lunch
  • lunch view
  • Doors for sale

We walked some more after lunch until our driver picked us up. He drove us and our guide to Majorelle Gardens. Yves Saint Laurent once owned the property, and one of two museums dedicated to him in the world is nearby. I never turn down an opportunity to visit a garden. The garden is 2 acres. I know I didn’t get to spend enough time there, but it was hot and probably for the best that I did not.

It was a great but long first day. The guide was very knowledgeable and was nice to have all day. He even helped us exchange money for smaller amounts. He bought us water when someone wouldn’t take our money because the denomination was too large.

Morocco

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Finally made it to my first African country. We arrived in Casablanca, Morocco last night and the driver drove us 3 hours to Marrakech. This makes for an extremely long travel day but it was worth it. The trip will be split up between Morocco and Portugal. The Morocco part was designed by a tour guide and I’m excited to see everything she has planned for us.

On the flight in, we saw a lot of farmland. Casablanca is the largest city in Morocco with over 6 million residents. We have a driver that will take us an around for the next week. He picked us up and drove us to Marrakech. It was a pretty drive without a lot of traffic. I saw many farmers working in the fields which mostly had sheep.

The first place we are staying is at Riad in Marrakech. The Riad is in the old city and is beautiful. Riads always have a fountain in the middle and that is surrounded by four sides with rooms. The middle is also open to the outside. Since the driver couldn’t drive the narrow alleyways of the old city, someone from the hotel luckily met our driver to walk our luggage to the riad and show us the way. We would have never found it on our own. And you learn very quickly to make sure you always stay on the right side of the streets here. Motorcycles and bikes go very fast down the alleyways and they don’t really care if they might hit you.

One Last Drive

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We drove from the lake to a town by the Milan airport. We made one quick stop at another town on a lake along the way called San Giulio which is on Lago d’Orta. The town was a cute place for a quick walk around and small bite to eat.

From there we drove Monza, Italy which is close to Milan and the airport. It is best known for Grand Prix racing which hosts the Italian F1 race. We really weren’t coming here for anything except that it is close to the airport and we have a very early flight tomorrow morning. It has been a great trip with the only exception is having major flight issues. Tomorrow will be no exception as we have already been rebooked going through Madrid which will take about 4 hours longer.

Bella and Madre Islands, Italy

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Today we visited a couple of islands on Lake Maggiore. Both islands have gardens that I wanted to visit. We first went to Isola Bella and had to walk through palace before getting into the garden. The palace was built in the 1600’s with the gardens being completed in the late 1600’s. The palace was packed with tour groups, and it made it nearly impossible to get to each room very easily. We really just wanted to get to the gardens before most of the tour groups got out there. The gardens didn’t disappoint. It is really hard to imagine how they could design some of these things that long ago. This was also my first time seeing white peacocks.

We then took another ferry to Isola Madre. There was a larger botanical garden on this island. A Cyprus tree that was planted in 1862 was one of the main attractions of the island for years. It is a beautiful big tree near the palace. It was uprooted by a tornado in 2006. They quickly replanted it and it now being held up by cables but looks very healthy. There were also pheasants on the island that had unique colors. We finished visiting the island right as a big rainstorm started. We got pretty lucky to catch a ferry back without getting too wet.

Lake Maggiore, Italy

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We drove from Cinque Terre to Lake Maggiore, Italy today. It was a fairly easy 4 hour drive. I think we spent half of the time in tunnels. The scenery is really pretty driving but you really can’t see that much when driving through the mountains because you are in tunnels for so long. Lake Maggiore is the second largest lake in Italy with the northern tip of the lake actually in Switzerland. We are staying pretty close to the border. We aren’t allowed to drive into Switzerland because of our rental car so we won’t be going to see any of the towns in the north part of the lake. The pace is definitely slower at this lake and there are a lot of campgrounds. We actually ate dinner in the middle of a campground at a pizzeria. It is a nice way to end the trip with a little slower pace. The town is small and almost everyone speaks German. It is challenging whether or not to order in Italian, German or English.

Cinque Terre

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Cinque Terre is made up of 5 towns. The best way to visit the towns is by boat, train or foot. The towns and the hillsides are now part of the Cinque Terre National Park which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. When they say millions of tourists visit Cinque Terra visit annually, I feel like we saw all of them today. I can’t imagine how the towns must be in the summer.

We decided to start in our town of Monterosso and hike to the next village. We are at the most northern village so it made sense to start here. You pay a fee to hike which is worth the cost for the views and how well the trails were maintained. I’m pretty sure I took more pictures from the trails that I actually did in the towns. You can’t buy the trail ticket until around 9 so you really can’t get an early start before the crowds get there. They do this in case they want to close the trails because of rain. They have had several issues with landslides over the years and the trail between two the of the towns have been closed since 2019 because of landslide issues. We started our hike up a lot of stairs. We made it to the next village and walked around the town a little before heading on the hiking trail to the next village. That trail was also a lot of stairs and people. There were a couple of nice breaks where you could by an orange and sit down with a view. From the third town we had to take a train to get to the fourth village. Just to get to the train station, there was probably 100 stairs down. To say the train was packed is an understatement. The ride was only 4 minutes long but you had to stand and it took well more than 4 minutes to get off the platform. The fourth town was so crowded with people that we literally walked to the town and then immediately left and head back to Monterosso. So we skipped the fifth town but kept some of our sanity by not trying to push our way on another train. The hiking trails are the way to go here and for sure give you the best views.

In all, we did the equivalent of around 150 flights of stairs. I think staying here 2 nights is about perfect as I’m not sure I could handle all of the tourists for another day. I really had a hard time picking pictures as the area is so beautiful.

Monterosso al Mare

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We are staying in Monterosso al Mare which is one of the five towns knows as the Cinque Terre. The town is very busy during the day with tourists that are trying to see all 5 towns in one day. The beach in Monterosso is the best beach to visit if you are looking to go in the water. The hotel is located up several stairs. Although I didn’t count is probably close to 100 stairs. The town is divided between an old and new part. A tunnel connects the two parts of the town. Most people don’t drive here because it is too difficult. The town is known for all of it’s lemon and olive trees. I see so many lemons on the trees that are going to go bad and shocked that people aren’t out picking them. I of course had to try the lemon gelato.

Drive to Monterosso al Mare, Italy

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We drove 4 hours today from Verona to Monterosso al Mare in Cinque Terre. To breakup the drive, we stopped in Modena, Italy. We found a very easy parking lot to use which is always challenging to find in Europe. Modena is known for being the producer of balsamic vinegar. Most likely you have seen Modena on one of your bottles. We walked around the town for an hour and checked out the market.

And finally we made it to Monterosso. There are lemon, olive and orange trees all around. You have to walk down stairs to get to the main town. Below is a picture from the hotel we are staying at. I can’t saying parking was enjoyable here but the hotel keeps the key in case they need to move cars around. I’m just hoping they turn my car around for me by the time i need to leave because I’m not entirely sure I know how to get it turned around.

Parco Delle Cascate

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We drove to Parco Delle Cascate today which is only about 30 minutes from Verona. The waterfall park is located in Molina, Italy which is up in the mountains. Molina means mill in Italian and the milling activity dates back to 910 AD. The town is very charming and also very hilly. We really are only talking a handful of buildings and homes. There are 10 different waterfalls in the park and you can see all of them depending on how challenging of a route you are wanting to do. Most of them can be seen on the easy/medium route though. With all of the rain the last couple of days, the ground was still slick in some areas even though we had plenty of sunshine today. The park was a nice day trip and always nice to be outdoors when it is nice weather.