Tag Archives: travel

São Miguel – Sete Cidades and West Coast

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We were hoping for some blue sky today but it turned out to be pretty cloudy. It is still warm and humid so we still didn’t need to worry about a jacket. We made our way to Sete Cidades which is probably the most visited spot on the island. There is a very small town located near the center of a volcanic crater. The volcanic crater is almost 3 miles across.

The park contains a lot of volcanoes and many lakes. We did a couple of hikes to see the two main lakes. One hike was a lot easier than the other hike. We hiked around one of the main lakes. It starts out nice and flat for a long time before the trail turns into a steep up and down terrain. We were already well into the hike when we started to wonder how much harder it could get. There weren’t a lot of people on the hike which is probably one sign. And the people that passed us the other way would tell us it is very difficult where they came from. But we kept thinking it couldn’t be more difficult than what we just did. I think we made the right call to keep going and not back track because it seemed easier than what we had already done. We did have to climb some large rocks but at least they had ropes to help us. One of the rocks was almost my height. And then there were a lot of trees branches down in the area that you had to climb through. It was a good challenge but I think the view was better from up top instead of close to the lake.

Once back to the car, we drove to the west coast of the island. It was still pretty cloudy but the ocean is so calm and blue. And the rocks were very black. They don’t have the normal sandy beaches here and I’m sure the water is still probably pretty cold. One more full day on the island before heading back to LIsbon.

Setti Fadma Hike

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Our tour guide arranged for a hike in the Atlas Mountains on Tuesday.  The driver picked us up and drove a little over an hour into the mountains so we could meet our guide for the hike.  It was a beautiful drive through the mountains but also very touristy. 

We also stopped at a typical Berber house that is still used by a family.  A guy from the house gave us a little tour to explain how the family lives and everything is really still done manually.  It was interesting to see each room and even a lady making bread.  By the way, they have amazing bread in Morocco and it is always fresh tasting.  The bedroom is shared by the parents and kids under the age of 5.  After the age of 5, the kids are split into separate rooms with girls and boys having separate lbedrooms.

  • Bread mill
  • the kitchen
  • Making bread
  • Bedroom
  • living room
  • making a new way for water

From there we made it to our starting place for the hike.  The road pretty much comes to an end for motor vehicles.  After that, the only vehicles allowed are 4×4 and mules.  Our guide was a nice kid who is from the region.  He self taught himself English by watching different videos and movies online.  He said learning languages is way for him to connect himself to the world because he will never be able to travel.  Many people know 4 languages here (Berber, Arabic, French and English).  

The hike started by crossing a bridge over the river.  It isn’t that full right now because a lot of the snow has already melted but in the winter, people can kayak down the river.  The hike is mainly uphill to the waterfall.  It was a rocky hike but also plenty of shade on the way up.  There are also a lot of stands to buy souvenirs or things to drink on the way up.  They keep the beverages cool by utilizing the water from the river.  I did finally buy one thing at one of the stops because the guy sold me on the fact that it helps the local villages.  And I’m not good at bargaining so I really hope I did help the locals out.  There were a lot of tourists on the hike.  Most of the people do a day trip from Marrakech.  The waterfall was pretty and full of visitors.  Our guide took us a little up past the main part so we could take a different route down.  It was beautiful to see the mountains in the distance even if it was less shady.

One the hike was done, we had lunch along the river.  There are so many restaurants along the river.  It is very charming and the food is all so good.  You sit on pillows on the ground next to little tables along the river.  You take your shoes and socks off to eat but you can also cool your feet off in the river.   A very fun experience.  Some of the restaurants actually set the table and chairs up in the river so you just eat in the river.  It was a fun day and I’m always going to love a hike and exploring a new part of the world.

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.

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.

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.

Lake Garda Day Trip

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We are staying in Verona for 4 nights and using it as a base to explore areas within driving distance. Although we have been to Lake Garda in the past, we didn’t spend a lot of time on the east side of the lake. Lake Garda is Italy’s largest lake and it can take a long time to drive around it. We drove to a town called Torri del Benaco and walked around the charming town. Parking was easy for once as they had a large lot and we are here before the high tourist season. The jasmine is in full bloom and smells so fragrant. We ended up walking so long that we decided to stay and have lunch there since they had charming restaurants with tables on a dock over the lake. The water has a pretty greenish color and is very clean.

From there, we drove north to Monte Baldo cable car which is located in Malcesine. We found parking pretty close to the cable car and timed things pretty perfectly so we didn’t have to wait too long. The ride was really two rides as they make you change cars half way up. The second cable car did one complete circle on the way up so everyone had a view at some point. A good amount of people on the cable care were going up to paraglide back down. It is a hiker and mountain biker paradise at the top. Unfortunately the weather followed us and we were pretty much above the clouds. That didn’t stop people jumping but we did get stuck in a hailstorm at the top. I would for sure come back here for a day of hiking if I could.

Rainy Day

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Today was a travel day between Vienna, Austria and Lake Bled, Slovenia. Driving out of Vienna is always challenging but after 40 minutes, we finally made it out. The first hour of the drive was dry but then the next 4 hours was a series of downpours. It made the drive extra long because it was raining so hard you couldn’t see the road. Our plan was to go a couple of hours and do a hike around Grüner Lake in Austria. We stopped there and were one of the very few cars in the lot. It looked like it might stop raining enough for us to run out and see the lake, so we did just that. The thunder and lightning storm came in right as we got to the lake so we really saw one little corner instead of hiking around the lake. From what I could see, I will have to make sure I come back some day to see the full lake.

From there, we got back in the car for another 3 hours. It was a constant downpour for most of it. We had to pay a toll before entering a very long tunnel between Austria and Slovenia but finally arrived at Lake Bled. The person working at the hotel said it has been a very raining April and May. I don’t think today was any exception. It wasn’t raining too bad in the evening so I was able to get a little walk in. Fingers crossed tomorrow isn’t has rainy.