Tangier
Whenever I heard that name, I pictured swashbuckling pirates… Perhaps I had seen paintings by famous Dutch painters from the Middle Ages… Or perhaps I read too many books? But Tangier does have a rich history that did, indeed, include pirates. Founded as Phoenician city, between the 10th and 8th century BCE.
Meknes - How had I never heard of this jewel?
Meknes is one of the imperial cities of Morocco.
Bab Mansour, the monumental gate in the city wall, was build in The 17th century. It served as the ceremonial entrance to the kasbah, or royal citadel. It still stands today, echoing with images and voices of its past.
After reading the book The Caliph’s House by Tahir Shah, I wanted to see Morocco. I had never been to the country and the history and customs described in Shah’s book made it sound fascinating.
It just so happened that I would be in Portugal in the Fall, so why not take a short flight from Lisbon to Casablanca?
It all started with a book! The Caliph’s House is written by Tahir Shah and immediately appealed to me. When the short content told me that it was in the tradition of A Year in Province and Under The Tuscan Sun, I took it home. I learned about Morocco, a country I had never visited before. And then the author invited me to tour his house. I went from turning pages to walking into a book in Casablanca…
When I walked the Camino de Santiago for the second time, several years ago, the last part seemed more like a parade than a nice quiet hike. I decided to look for other long distance trails to walk for a few days or weeks. Italy offered that opportunity with a 400k section of the Via Francigena through Tuscany. Then I learned about the Rota Vicentina, a trail network in south western Portugal that was fairly new (2012) and not so crowded yet.
We were searching for a comfy but affordable place to stay during our four days of exploring Lisbon. ‘Perfect For Two’ - the VRBO site said.
We knew we wanted a small apartment with a kitchen and not a hotel room. We also knew we wanted to be in the heart of the old city.
So when we found this listing, we studied the photos, the reviews and the approximate location on a map. It seemed a good fit so we booked it.
Having booked a 15 day trek across Cambodia, we knew that we would be doing a lot of hiking in the heat. We wanted to end our visit to Cambodia with a relaxing time on a beach. We did a lot of online research to find a good spot. We’re not really into just sitting on the beach but we did want something beautiful, a place to rest and swim after our hiking adventure.
In this second part of Tales of the South Pacific, we’ll visit Easter Island’s Tapati Festival - one of the highlights of our life! The gods smiled on us when we booked our trip to remote Easter Island. Totally by fluke it turns out that we are here for the grand finale of Rapa Nui's annual Tapati Festival. This huge festival celebrates the local culture, and honors the ancestors who created the famous Moai statues.
In previous blogs about Indonesia, I shared stories about our time on Borneo and Sumatra. This time, I’d like to take you along to the island of Java. It is a long skinny island with the capital city, Jakarta, on it. Java is one of the most densely populated islands in the world with more than 140 million people. I spent most of my time in the city of Surabaya.
