St. Petersburg

September 9, St. Petersburg. Today we have a city tour. Its an overcast day which makes some of the buildings stand out. We visit many new sites from our last visit and we are struck by how many more tourists there are compared to our last visit.

We drive by the State Hermitage Museum, the winter palace, and the St Petersburg metro. We visit the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood and Catherine's Palace. We stop along the Neva river and the stock exchange.  It's a challenge to park, but our expert driver seems to always find a spot. We make a stop at a shopping location to satisfy the souvenir needs and it's back to the ship. We take it easy as the ship leave the Russian Federation.

Interior of the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood

St. Petersburg

September 8, St Petersburg. We dock in the morning to get ready for a new logistical experience, Russian immigration. You can only go ashore if you have a licensed tour, so we booked 3 before we sailed. We have to wait in line for about an hour to get through passport control where they look at you and then finally stamp your passport and an immigration card. We meet our tour of 9 people and are introduced to Russia, yes we do our second day tour on the first day, We take a bus through the city and to the beautiful Peterhof grand palace and gardens.

Peterhof Grand Palace and Gardens

We tour the garden and get the history of the summer palace of Peter the Great. It was destroyed during WW II and occupied by the Nazi. It has now been restored. The many fountains are operated by gravity flow. We see the surprise fountain that turns a walk into a showered area that children love to run through. We take a hydrofoil back to the hotel.

Surprise Fountain 

We have a second tour in the evening, a boat ride through the Neva river and the canals. We have a wonderful guide that seems to know every building in the city. The bridges are lit and it's a completely different view of the wonderful city. Some of the canals are quite small and there is only a few feet between you head and the bridge. A wonderful evening and passport control seems to have eased up. We will see on day 2 as we overnight in St Petersburg.

Night Tour on the Canals of St. Petersburg

Tallinn Estonia

Streets inside the walled city of Tallinn, Estonia

September 7, Tallinn Estonia. Today we are at the capital of Estonia and we have scheduled a food tasting tour of the town. We are met at the exit of the cruise ship port by our guide Anne and our driver. We first go to the upper town to tour where the nobility lived and now the home to government. The cathedral and old palaces are very impressive.

Catherdral

We continue our walk to the lower town which was were the merchants lived and worked. We are joined by the other 5 people on our tour where we discover all of us are from California. Our first stop is the pepper stock restaurant where we have pumpkin and parsnip soup with honey and pepper schnapps. we proceed to the Rvel for lamb dumplings and buckthorn juice. We wash that down with chocolates. We do a bit of walking and visit the oldest pharmacy in Europe to have a bit of medicinal treats. We visit historic Strutts restaurant for spiced sprats sandwiches which have pickled herring, tomatoes and cucumber, not our taste.

Town of Tallinn, Estonia

We finish our tour by going to a local market as the sky closes in for rain we are inside. We have a coffee. At another shop we get a local lemon curd in and ice cream cone, a healthy alternative. We toured the market and are picked up for a short ride to our ship and some rest. We really enjoyed Tallinn and learning a little about Estonia.

Market

At Sea

September 6, At sea. We have one day with no ports and its a pleasant day with nice weather as we head to Estonia. We spend some time in the library reading then some lectures about the history of Estonia and Finland. It was nice to have time to nap and read. We also have tea st 4 pm.

Tea 

We have dinner at Toscana a specialty Italian restaurant which was quite good and included calamari, carpaccio of tenderloin, caesar salad, cioppino pasta, lamb chops and veal scallopini. Tom was presented with a birthday cake. It sounds like too much food but the portions are small. We had interesting conversations with people before and after dinner, which is a very nice part of this type of travel.

Warnemuende and Rostock, Germany

September 5,

Warnemuende 

Warnemuende and Rostock. We land at the port of Rostock in Germany formerly in East Germany. We chose to tour the local area rather than the 12 plus hour tour to Berlin. We first visit the charming resort town of Warnemuende and luckily is was morning on weekdays and after the high tourist season. It was very relaxing and we were able to practice our hyge that we had learned the day before. Sunny pleasant and very low key.

Rostock

We then head to Rostock and our guide also a native of the area was very informative. We visit the gothic Saint Marien Church which was built as a catholic church but became lutheran after the reformation. It contains the 1472 astronomical clock and the only one with all its original parts. We stroll through the touw and see the restored merchant house and end at the main square where the university is and some of the original medieval wall. We finish by getting a local fish sandwich, Fischbrotchen, then coffee al fresco, when the rain started. Not to worry we all huddled under the cafe’s umbrella, the rain stopped and we were off back to the ship.

Fischbrotchen

We had some down time, taking tea at 4 pm and thinking about the fun we had in an unknown area to us. We ate dinner in the main dining room again with some shrimp, lobster bisque, risotto and osso bucco. We listen to a little piano music and it's off to bed.

Copenhagen to our ship

Hans Christian Andersen the beloved Danish author.
He is best remembered for his fairy tales. 

September 4, Copenhagen to our ship. We booked a morning walking tour that is an introduction to what the Danes call hyge. Our tour guide was a 20 something native of Copenhagen. We learn that is mother is a Danish doctor practicing in Norway and his father is Indian. He had a wonderful take on things in the city and Danish life. Hyge is hard to describe and has come to mean various things but it appears to be the good feeling that one has when they are content with their life. The 60 plus % taxes because they don’t have to worry about social services like healthcare, education and retirement.

Walking through a Copenhagen neighborhood on our tour.

After our tour we collected our luggage and head off to our ship, the Nautica by Oceania. It’s a smaller ship that has about 600 passengers. We have a very nice greeting and are quickly on board and in our stateroom, which is very nice. After some rest and exploring the ship we have a very nice dinner at the main dining room. We chose the mussles, and grouper, followed by a bit of ice cream. Then off to bed as things had caught up to us.

Copenhagen, Sweden

September 2-3, Home to Copenhagen. We travel to Copenhagen through Frankfurt on Lufthansa. The trip worked as planned and we enjoyed the Lufthansa service. The transfer to our flight to Copenhagen was easy and we arrived in relatively good shape to our historic Railroad hotel the Copenhagen Plaza.

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Entrance to Tivoli Gardens

We ventured to the Historic Tivoli Gardens across the street from our hotel. The garden and scenery are wonderful for the over 100 year old park. We watched some kids on the rides and had as a goal to enjoy Smörgås, Sweden's open faced sandwiches, for dinner. We found some wonderful ones at the new food court and sat outside with some wine and our sandwiches, watching people. It was funky Tuesday at the place we got the wine so we have some more wine and listen to the 50’s 45rpm vinyls. Welcome to Denmark.

Smoked Salmon Smörgå with soft boiled egg, pickles,
horse radish sauce on pumpernickel bread

Ports visited. Copenhagen, Sweden, Rostock, Germany, Tallinn, Estonia,

St. Petersburg, Russia, Helsinki, Finland and Stockholm, Sweden.

Ouarzazate to Casablanca

April 28 Ouarzazate to Casablanca. 

We are picked up at the hotel and transfered to the airport for a short plane ride back to Casablanca. While check in is ok, we have the strange experience of having 2 of our 4 bags torn apart for inspection for no reason. We arrive at Casablanca and have quite a bit of confusion in meeting our layover tour of the city.

Downtown Casablanca

Our tour guide turns out to be strange with many quirky opinions, the driver does not put on the air conditioning and its hot and there is lots of traffic. After our lunch along the ocean which was quite nice, we cut our losses and ask to go to the hotel. The Atlas hotel is quite nice and we decompress and have a nice dinner, ready to go home.

Merzouga, Todre Gorge and Ouarzazate

April 27 Merzouga, Todre Gorge and Ouarzazate. 

We meet another family today

This is our last day with our tour friends and we leave the dunes to pick up the bus in Efound. We are headed to the Todra Gorge, one of Morocco's most spectacular sights. It is a vast fault in the plateau separating the High Atlas from the Jbel Sarhro, two sheer cliffs over 95 ft high separated by a narrow corridor only 70 ft wide.

Todra Gorge

Later we cross the southern slopes of the High Atlas before arriving at the captivating city of Ouarzazate. We stop en route in the heart of the Dades Valley at the oasis of Kelaa Mjouna. We stay at the hotel Al Baraka which resembles and upscale truck stop. We decide we are too tired to back to town for dinner so hang out and have dinner at the hotel and prepare for the trip home.

Rissani and the Merzouga Dunes

April 26 Rissani and the Merzouga Dunes

Tafilalt Oasis

This morning we journey to the historic 8th century caravan town of Rissani to visit the Tafilalt Oasis. The first capital of the Tafilalt and the last stop on the caravan routes south, Rissani has a special place in Moroccan lore. The ruling Alaouite dynasty (from whom Morocco's current ruler, Mohammed VI, is a descendant) launched its bid for power here before triumphing finally in Fes and Marrakech. Today, a quarter of Rissani's population still inhabits a large 17th-century ksar in the center of town.

Our guide takes us through the mossoleum for the founder and then through the town, including a stop at a family’s home and lastly a school. We take a little time for shopping including a rug shop.

The family's tent

We have lunch at a local pizzeria which has a local specialty much like a calzone. Then in the afternoon we drive by 4WD vehicle to Merzouga to witness sunset over the dunes.

Bedouin Father

On the way to the dunes we stop by a family that lives in the desert and have tea under their tent. The children are very curious of us, as I am sure we looked very strange to them. The family is Bedouin, a group of nomadic Arab people who have inhabited the desert regions in North Africa, the name Bedouin means "desert dweller." After our stop we are on our way through the desert.

Sama, our tour leader and one of the girls we met

We have time to explore the dunes on foot or by camel. We opt for some rest and watch night begin over the desert dunes. This is a magical landscape, with huge drifting expanses of sand dunes reaching heights of more than 150 ft. Their color shifts from pink to gold to red to white depending on the time of day. We have dinner at the hotel and retire for the evening.

Camels in the Sahara desert

April 25 Fes to Erfoud

Traveling through the Middle Atlas mountains

Today we leave for the Middle Atlas mountains, a region of folded mountains and high, windswept plateaux, vast forests of cork oak and cedar, and lakes and streams full of trout. This is Berber country and sheep and goat-rearing is the main occupation. We drive through the Berber villages of Imouzzer du Kandar; Ifrane, a fairy-tale town unlike any other in Morocco with white-walled French-style villas with steep red roofs and gables. As the altitude increases, we come to a bare, arid, sandy plateau with another range of mountains in the distance. We arrive in  Arfoud, a city known as "the Door to the Desert."

Mint tea at the hotel

We stay in the Kasbah Hotel Xaluca which was built with adobes, the traditional Moroccan building bricks, and it is a perfect place to relax and enjoy the moment. It combines tradition with modern amenities and is a fantastic place, situated among the dunes and palms. After dinner at the hotel we sit by the pool and enjoy some local music before retiring for the night.

Our room at Kasbah Hotel Xaluca

Fes

April 24 Fes. 

Walking in the narrow alleys in Fes El Bali

Today we did a walking tour of Fes El Bali, the extraordinary medieval walled city. Once inside the gates of this great spectacle, we saw an entirely different view of life in Morocco. In contrast to the well-planned Ville Nouvelle of Fes, the old city is a labyrinth of alleys and lanes lined with shops, mosques, homes and schools. In 1980 UNESCO designated the medina a World Heritage Site.

Lemons and olives

Our guide took us to the medina to view the market shops, or suks. Everything from food to clothing and handicrafts of all types are for sale and bargaining. We see the famous fabric dying area with the brightly coloured cloth hanging to dry and the leather tanning.

Leather Dying

We visit the Royal Palace, several mosques, theological schools, and shops where we can see craftsmen tailoring their work. We also walk through the jewish neighborhood. It is an amazing look into the life of the Moroccan city dweller where little has changed over the centuries.

Donkeys still bring in goods to Fes El Bali

Fes, Voli and Meknes

April 23 Fes, Voli and Meknes.

This morning we visit the impressive site of Volubilis, the best preserved Roman site in Morocco. Situated on the ledge of a long plateau, the dramatic site was once one of the Roman Empire's most remote outposts. Unfortunately it’s raining and cold, but the local guide gives us a very good tour of this impressive site. We do a photo stop due to the rain at the town of Moulay Idriss it is a dramatic sight, houses and mosques piled up around two rock outcrops.

Volubilis

We continue to Meknes, Morocco's youngest Imperial City first stopping at the Bab El Mansour gate dating from 1752, complete with its Corinthian columns. The city was built by a massive army of slaves, both Moroccan and Christian, and the Sultan was in particular famed for his barbaric treatment of these people, supposedly interring them in the walls. The city contained within it's walls all that was necessary for such a large population and military machine, with store houses, stables, armouries, exercise areas, gardens and ponds.

Bab El Mansour in Meknes

We are all cold and wet as we return to Fes. We stop at the equivalent of Walmart and stock up for the rest of our journey. We have a nice dinner at a local restaurant before returning to our riad and collapsing.

Heri es-Souani granaries in Meknes

Casablanca, Rabat and Fez.

April 22 Casablanca, Rabat and Fez. 

This morning we visit the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, a glorious structure believed to be only second in size to Islam's most important site, Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The mosque was inaugurated in August 1993, the culmination of five years of intensive labor by over 30,000 workers. We may only enter only as part of a guided tour.

Hassan II Mosque

From Casablanca we travel to Rabat, Morocco's third oldest Imperial City and modern capital. We visit the the Hassan Tower and the Mohammed V Mausoleum. Before leaving Rabat we have lunch at the Art Cafeteria which proves to be quite entertaining with all the confusion that our group generates.

Fes

We then travel to Fes arriving just in time for dinner. The historic city of Fes lies in the Oued Sebou basin, on the traditional trade route from the Sahara to the Mediterranean and the path.from Algeria and the Islamic heartland beyond. For centuries the dominant axis within Morocco was of Fes and Marrakech, two cities linked by their immense power and rivalry. Fes is still seen as the spiritual and cultural capital and holds an enduring fascination for visitors with one of the largest historic medinas full of monuments reflecting the different periods of Morocco's imperial past.

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Our riad is nestled at the end of a quiet street, near the heart of the ancient labyrinth of the medina of Fez, the Algilà Fès is comprised of three inter-connected 18th century residences, each an architectural gem in its own right, offering modern comforts in a traditional setting. It has 15 guest rooms around three separate courtyards fitted with fountains, palm trees and sitting areas. We have dinner in our riad which is quite good with a local flavor. Each riad has its own character as if you were visitings people’s homes. Some of our group would like more modern conveniences but we like the uniqueness.

Sitting area in Algilà Fès 

Marrakech to Casablanca

April 21 Marrakech to Casablanca. 

Today we take the train from Marrakech to Casablanca to meet our group to tour the rest of Morocco. We are very tired from yesterday so hang out in the riad. We have a lovely lunch in the riad, then off to the train station for our 2.5 hr ride to Casablanca. In our 6 person compartment there is a couple from Ireland backpacking through Morocco, 2 local women and us. The 2 women talk nonstop the whole ride as the rest of us sleep, read and watch the scenery.

Le Gare Train Station in Marrakech

Getting off in Casablanca it is an easy uneventful taxi to the hotel. We meet our group of 18 and head off to a local restuarant. We have some tangine lamb as we get to know our traveling companions. Our easy day ends with a glass of wine at the hotel and off to bed.

Marrakech

April 20 Marrakech. 

Palais el Bahia

Marrakech is one of the world's most enchanting cities, a former imperial city in western Morocco. It is a major economic center and home to mosques, palaces and gardens. The medina is a densely packed, walled medieval city dating to the Berber Empire, with maze like alleys where thriving marketplaces. Our morning tour takes us to the Koutoubia Mosque from the 12th century, its minaret nearly 230 feet high and emulating the classic Moroccan design. We go through the Mellah, or Jewish quarter. Mellah means salt in Arabic and the Jewish community in Morocco were known for their trade in salt and meat preservation. We then proceed to the Palais el Bahia where we see grand halls, gardens and the harem quarter. We also visit to the Saadian Tombs where we see the graves of the regime that made this city so important.

The floor-to-ceiling decoration at Palais el Bahia were begun by
Grand Vizier Si Moussa in the 1860's and finished in 1900.

We are then off to shop and we end up purchasing spices, Moroccan slippers and a Berber rug. Susan turns out to be the master barginer and gets the rug she wanted and has it shipped home. Tired from our adventures we stop by a cross cultural cafe near our riad for a lunch of camel burger and beef burger. We rest up because we have a special night.

Morrocan slippers or Babouches

Our Berber salesman

We go on an urban adventures food tour of the medina. We meet our guide Omar and it ends up we are the only 2 on the tour due to cancellations. In the 3 hours we stroll the market place we have Moroccan donuts and pancakes, a local soup called harias, olive tasting and tangina beef, topped off with sweets Omar picked up a from a local bakery. The owner of the restaurant was the former chef to the president. We conclude with a very flavorful spice infused tea. We walk home to our riad very full and tired.

Making donuts

View of Medina from restaurant

Spiced tea to help digestion