10. Merzouga

The desert has me spellbound, as ever.
Off on a camel tomorrow.  See you sometime...................................

9. Proud to be cornish

(Well, a quarter cornish!)
They've left a pretty wonderful legacy here in Meknes have my Cornish forebears - an imperial city of huge, beautiful buildings still in use today and all built without JCBs, cranes, lorries or cement mixers, to say nothing of portaloos and teabreaks!

I have to confess that in Tangier and Rabat the sheer logistics of finding what I wanted to see threatened to overwhelm the finding.  Of course what is hard won is all the more precious but it can get you down - relentless urban sprawl, seething masses of humanity and a complete dearth of any sort of signing or interpretation.  Needles and haystacks come to mind.  Take the trains for example.  Modern, efficient, functional, with lovely new stations but those all look the same so when you are on the train be careful when you blink or you may well miss that small, half hidden sign telling you which station you are arriving at.  Even the locals can get it wrong, but it all aids conviviality!

But here in Meknes the things I came to see are absolutely in your face.  No way could you miss these wonderful, huge, spacious, beautuful buildings, like 300 year old stabling for 25,000 horses, or fail to be awestruck by the perfect dimensions and the intricate mosaics and fabulous stone and wood carvings, and the tranquility of these beautuful holy islamic places.  Wow!

One spectacle of this sort of travel is the busloads of tourists looking very clean and superior, following their guide and being very careful not to touch anything.  I really would rather muddle along my way with all its frustrations, and miss things, than be a clean shiny white tourist!!!

I've found the most gorgeous place to eat, right by my hotel.  It's really somebody's house turned restaurant and its lovely and so are they, and the food is  superb.  They have just wished me a fond "bon voyage" after my last meal there.

Other nice things - even the urban sprawl here (less of it) is arabic so at last I feel I have arrived; and the birds chattering everywhere especially in the delightful courtyard gardens.  And today I palled up with a bunch of slovenians for a great trip out of town to Moulay Idris and Volubilis.

And its sunny!  Oh bliss!  Shoes and socks dry!
Off to the desert tonight on the overnight bus.

8. faces and smells

What is a moroccan face?  I remember on my last trip here thinking just how very english so many moroccan faces are, and its no different this time - even an arty postcard of a sketch of a berber nomad could have been the bloke next door for many of us.  My cornish ancestors did a good job of contributing to the moroccan gene pool!!!

Talking of my ancestors I've found the square where they got sold - now its a souk selling modern cheap household goods but it takes little imagination to replace all that with people jeering and throwing stones at the latest batch of christian slaves to arrive - bound, chained, in rags, sick, starving and beaten - herded into the square to be sold to unimaginable fate.  My imagination is helped a bit too far by my background reading which paints a picture of a people who were, quite frankly, bloodthirsty.  Bit of a job to nip to the library for something else.

And smells - I mentioned these earlier and they're all here - spices, dates, mint tea, frying fish, cut wood..........and of course other smells that one doesn't look forward to so much.  But we have those at home too.

I'll be glad to get out of the big city tomorrow.  Like ludlow there are very interesting old bits of town providing glimpses of past lives, beautuful houses and interiors and doubly interesting by virtue of being in modern use.  And all surrounded by miles of urban sprawl where most people live their lives.  But rabat/sallee is just massive compared to ludlow!

Meknes tomorrow and imperial palaces! 

7. saying hello to my ancestors

This morning I stood on a rampart in the ancient kasbar in Rabat - circa 10th century, looking across the river at Sallee - similar antiquity - down to my right the attractive, French colonial "new rabat", and in between the most massive building /reclamation job in progress in the river bed - trendy new appartments and facilities.  And to my left the sea.
Us island brits like to touch base with the sea pretty often, especially when travelling but there's an added certain something here because this is where my cornish forebears landed, captive slaves,  to start their new lives.  In chains.

If I had to live in a city I could live in Rabaet, but I'm not a city girl.  Its cosmopolitan, very few minarets and mosques shape the skyline here and so far only one very  faint call to prayer so it doesn't feel particularly exotic or even moroccan.   Even the medina - medieval bit of town - is just that - old but not exotic or atmospheric.  Definitely interesting though.  Very solid and functional.

So far there have been more downs than ups prompting my usual travelling determination that this WILL be my last trip..................til I turn a corner as happened in tangier and the sun came out and I looked out at the straits of gibraltar sparkling in the sun.   I could see spain, portugal and britain (gibraltar!) from my stance on african soil.  It was glorious.    The downs have been dark gloomy and even grotty hotels, staff unhelpdul to the point of surliness, pissing rain, wet shoes and socks, an unpleasantly unfresh bed..................and the feeling generally that the moroccans dont want us here and would be quite happy if we all pissed off back home.   Are we that unfriendly to our tourists in britain?   Quite probably!   But then I sat on the terrace of aforementioned gloomy hotel and watched the new moon rise and the lights coming on in the port below and across the bay and listened to a protracted and beautiful stereo call to prayer and it was quite simply magical.

As always when landing in a new country the first challenge is crossing the road and staying alive;  Acclimatisation is when you  can do it without tagging on to some locals.  I thought I was getting there but pride as ever comes before a fall...............there I was quivvering on the edge of a big main road with not a local or  a traffic light in sight and ready to concede defeat when a nearby workman appeared grinning his head off, grabbed my arm and trotted me over in perfect safety!

Well, that and a change of hotel and it ain't so bad!!

Sallee tomorrow and the slave markets!

6. landed!

Tangier..................got here in one piece!
First stage of the trip successfully completed and Ive had my first tagine and been woken by the call to prayer.
Boat trip over was brillliant.  Now planning next leg of journey to Rabat to look at those slave markets.
Arab keyboards challenging so pl excuse any oddities!!
More to come.............watch this space...................

5. A breather on the way

Algeciras - and a pause on the journey after 2 days of travel.  This is a brilliant way to get there, hugely better than being parachuted suddenly into a different culture.  This way I get to experience the journey and the countries I travel through, and get a real sense of where I am going.  Its great to look out of the train window and see the different landscapes and imagine where we are on the map. 

 Its peeing down!  And whale watching seems to be off...................and even I dont feel like going to Gibraltar in this rain!  So this is a day of drawing my breath ready for Morocco tomorrow, and sleeping, and doing mundane things like sewing a button back on (good job I brought that strepsil tin with my old sewing kit.  Not all the needles were rusty), and I'll go to Gibraltar this afternoon.  Or even tomorrow morning.   Everybody tells me it wont take long!

I've met French women on the last leg of a pilgrimage walking right across the north of spain, and a spanish woman returning to spain having retired as a librarian in Belgium, and an Italian-English woman living in Madrid who came here with her spanish husband.  All have their stories to tell and I just love listening to them.  Goodness how my French is improving!!!

This hostel is absolutely brilliant.  I have a lovely clean room with my own shower and loo and clean towels and even a TV(!!) all for the amazing price of 19 euros per night plus amazingly helpful people determined to arrange for my every need.  I just cannot imagine why people put negative comments about places like this - if they want a hotel they should stay in one.

 Morocco tomorrow where I will have the interesting experience of arriving before I set off as it is 2 hours behind..............

4. Trial run

Ludlow to York on the Train.   Hmm.................doesnt have quite the ring about it of "Ludlow to Tangier on the train" but hugely enjoyable nevertheless.
Staying with aforementioned neice which is wonderful, went to a brilliant gig last night - there's nothing like a good gig!  And this morning have signed my new will (last week I got my hair cut and teeth fixed, good to get these things done before setting off).  My solicitor has been my solicitor for more than 25 years but this was only the 2nd time I have clapped eyes on him, we usually do it by remote control.  He represents a bit of consistency in my inconsistent lifestyle and its good to know that he is there and familiar with the things that matter in my life, and ready and willing to see  me through life's major steps - house purchase, divorce, and heaven forbid, sorting out my estate..................
Havent seen much of Yorkshire tho' as the mist was down for my bus journey to Malton this morning.  But its lifting now and the sun is coming through and this afternoon I'm going up the scaffolding to the top of York Minster - awesome!
Next post will be en route to Morocco............................