A Travellerspoint blog

Morocco. Marrakech and Essouira

sunny 23 °C

The train from Fes to Marrakech took 61/2 long hours. We booked first class and it was a cabin with six seats, other passengers came and went as we stopped at various stations, but it was always full. The scenery was interesting as we rolled though large and small cities, areas of agriculture and also some desert. No one talked to each other the entire journey
I had arranged a pick up from our Riad at the station and we drove though the new part of Marrakech which is very modern pristine and affluent looking. Green boulevards lined with palm trees and many parks and flowers. Quite posh looking. The weather is so much warmer here.

Eventually we got to the old town, Medina, where we are staying. What a difference from Fes. All of you senses are assaulted at the same time. The taxi dropped us at the end of the grand square where we had to once again walk as there are no cars allowed. We are met by Mohammed from the Riad who walks with us and our bags through the chaos. Motorcycles, bicycles and many hand carts try to negotiate though the many hoards of people. The square has many vendors, performers, music bands, monkeys dressed in clothing on a leash for photos, snake charmers and acrobats all hoping for you to part with some dirhams. Once again however no one is pushy or assertive.

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Riad Irhalne is only about a 10 minute walk and upon arrival we are greeted by Mohammed 2. We are on the ground floor in a very cute, small but charming room. We find the Riad rooms all very dark, so bringing a flashlight is a good idea

Dinner was prearranged and we enjoyed a tagine before retiring to bed.

A walking tour was arranged and it was okay but it is so noisy I had a hard time hearing what he was saying and it was so crowded and busy we felt we were left behind a lot. We did cover a lot of ground though and got the lay of the land in this area.
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Marrakech was not a favourite place but still glad we came. Money seems to be an issue, not just here we had a problem in Fes as well. This is a cash society, cards are rarely accepted. But we had to go to five different ATMs to find a bank with money left. Weekends are bad so don’t wait until you are broke to get more cash. There are lots of ATMs around , they just get used a lot so run out. This has happened to us in other countries as well.

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We took the 8:30AM CTM bus to Essouira and arrived at 11:30. I bought tickets on line for 80 dirham each way.
Our hotel Riad Borge el Baroud, was not ready for check in yet so we left one of our day packs and went to explore. Once again we left our suitcases in Marrakech for this one night getaway
It is so much quieter here, smaller Medina, less tourists and a calmer vibe. We wandered around the Medina and as this is a fishing town there is fish on every menu. Doug had a large plate of sardines he really enjoyed. I had a vegetable pastry but it was very bland unfortunately.
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The evening was spent down by the port watching the fisherman come in with their catch and the beautiful sunset It was very busy with tourists from all over the world enjoying the changing colours of the sky,
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Dinner was at Mandela society and I was in heaven. It is a vegan/ vegetarian resterant but they do have a couple of fish dishes. I had a vegan bean burger that was the best I think I have ever had. We came back again the next day for lunch I loved it so much
Wandering around the Medina we saw so many interesting doors.
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We took the bus back to Marrakech at 5 PM the next day, but not before buying a lovely old small rug that we are happy with.
The square was very busy and crazy when we arrived at 8 PM. We had a light dinner on the terrace of a restaurant to watch the goings on below.

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The last day sometimes create panic to buy stuff before you leave. We fell into that a bit today. I bought Doug a t shirt, I found some water colour powders made from plants that I can’t wait to try and a couple little things.

A visit to the Palais Bahia was interesting and glad we did that. Wandered around the Medina, finding new little streets. But the controlled ( or non controlled) chaos is too much. So many people being dodged by motorcycles, donkeys and carts, bicycles and hand carts. It was just too much for me. The diesel fumes were awful. It was exciting in a way, but give me Fes and the other two towns we went to any day. So many people just love it here though, so don’t take my opinion.

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Doug likes to get a hair cut when we travel and found this little hole in the wall. The barber was quite young and very stylish. They agreed upon a price for haircut only, but when I came back he also had his moustache and beard trimmed, eyebrows and his nose and ear hair waxed. The fulll meal deal and three times what they agreed on. The barber never spoke English but Doug looks good
Then he wanted to tackle me, but I politely declined.

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Packing up after dinner for our flight to Amsterdam tomorrow morning. Two nights there and then home again. We enjoyed Morocco, the people especially were wonderful and I loved meeting other travellers from all over the world and learning more about this area of North Africa.

Thanks for coming along with us.

Note about leaving Marrakech from the airport
I read to give yourself three hours which we did and got to our gate 15 minutes to spare. Long lines to check in ( could not get boarding pass beforehand) long lines to get through security and then again through passport control. We arrived at the airport at 8:45 for our noon flight. Go early

Posted by debbep 19:35 Archived in Morocco Comments (0)

North Africa. Morocco

Fes and Chefchewan

sunny 14 °C

A continuation from the France blog.
In Lyon I reserved a taxi to the airport through Booking.com and it came in at 52€, much better than the one we took here
We flew on Translavia and arrived in Fes in around 3 hours.
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A car was arranged with the hotel to pick us up to make things easy. Fes is huge, over two million people. It took a long time through heavy traffic to get to the old town, Medina, where we are staying. Our driver is telling us all sorts of things about the area, but it’s all in a very fast French, so we can understand about a third of it.
We finally arrive at a little parking area where two young men are waiting for us, one with a wheelbarrow type wagon to which he deposits our luggage. There are no cars inside the Medina, so we now walk on foot down narrow high walled alleyways.
We are greeted like family and sat down in the lobby, brought some mint tea and delicious cookies. A young woman speaks perfect English and she shows us the map of where we are and how to , hopefully, get around the Medina. There are 4,000 little streets. Could be a challenge
A riad is a small hotel that used to be a family home. Families would all live under one roof, so if there were four sons each would marry and move into the family home ( always of the boys) and have children as well. There could be 64 people living in one big house. Ours is lovely and comes in at around $120 CDN a night including breakfast

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They made us some dinner and Doug had a couscous tagine with chicken

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Day one Fes, October 26
It’s a little chilly this morning. The bed and pillows were so comfortable though and we slept right through the night . In the lobby we were served a huge breakfast of all sorts of things, mostly sweets.

I managed to figure out how to install the ESim for Morocco and the GPS worked thankfully as we had an arranged walking tour at 10 this morning.
There are 14 of us from all over the globe once again and our guide is fantastic. He is a retired university professor of linguistics and has not only a great deal of knowledge but a wonderful sense of humour as well
Our three hour tour took us through the Medina, which was all down hill, quite steep at times and very busy. It is Saturday so busier than usual apparently. Here are lots of photos
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Each area specializes in different wares, sweets, produce, clothing, and leather to name a few. Chouara is the largest tannery in the city and one of the oldest, going back as far as the late 8 th century AD. They use the skins from animals that they eat, so goats, cows, sheep and dromedary ( one hump) camels . The hides are first soaked for three days in water and pidgen poop to break down the leather with men stomping on the hides for up to three hours to soften them. .Pidgen poop contains ammonia which softens the hides. Then they get dyed using all plant based dyes. Yellow is the most expensive because it is made from saffron. Other dyes are henna for orange ,poppy flower for red, indigo ( blue) and mint for green. The final process is to put into limestone vats with water. This process has not changed for centuries
We are given a sprig of mint to put under our nose because the smell is quite pungent.
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Our tour is over and we now begin the challenging task of finding our way out of the Medina. All uphill now, and very steep in areas.

Walking up one particularly difficult hill we saw a sign for a restaurant, our saving grace. It was a little hole in the wall, actually called ‘Le Cave’ which turned out to be a great find. We enjoyed some mezzes and I had grilled vegetables and Doug had a beef dish. It was all delicious

Only getting lost a couple short times and exploring more of the market by accident we finally made our way home and just flaked out for a couple hours
Tonight they prepared us a wonderful array of vegan vegetables and couscous. We could not begin to eat it all but it was delicious and so many different flavours.
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Day 2 Fes
Last night we spontaneously booked a tour to the middle Atlas Mountains for today. We found our way to the blue gate to the Medina and met up with our driver. Turns out that only one other fellow booked for today so we went in a Skoda SUV instead of a van. Mike was from Auckland and had just finished a triathlon in Malaga Spain and now taking a few days holiday at the end. I figure he was maybe early 60s but hard to know. We got along great and had wonderful conversations and similar world views

Our first stop was 40 minutes out of Fes at a historic Berber house. The people of the local Berber tribe lived in caves and a young fellow showed us around his family’s home from years ago.

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We were served tea made from various herbs and he explained about the Berber flag and the weaving and rugs in the home.

It was a miserable day. So cold, I did not pack clothes for this, and it’s raining quite hard. The rains came early it seems. Our next stop was the town of Ifrane, an affluent town in the mountains that looks like it should be Switzerland. There is a business university here that a lot of local and international students go to. It looks like a lovely town, beautiful parks, but we just wanted to go int the resterants where it was warm and dry and have a coffee.

Now on to the Cedar forest. Large cedar trees here but they don’t look like our trees and a lot of them were dead. There were a number of men with decorated horses offering rides around the parking lot for a fee. Children are on a school holiday here so there are many kids everywhere
But the main attraction are the monkeys , known as Barbary macaque or ape. They are not an ape, but because they don’t have a tail they have been called apes. They are on the endangered list and only live in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and also Tunisia. I hate monkeys because they are usually aggressive and quite often mean. But these guys were very well behaved and quite passive. They were so fun to watch.
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There were some young babies and this big guy who seemed to be the guy watching everyone, he was about 3 feet high
Ismail our driver took us to this tiny hole in the wall family restaurant for our lunch. It was okay but nothing amazing.
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We were then given time to walk around the small town, but there really wasn’t much there and we were freezing and wet
Back to Fes. The sceanery was great when the fog lifted, it looks like the Italian countryside in many ways.
After saying our goodbyes we walked back to our Riad to pack up for our trip tomorrow.

CHEFCHEWAN
Our bus left at 8 AM so we arranged to have breakfast early and then take a cab to the bus station, but a bit of drama ensued. The same driver who picked us up from the airport was there waiting and through a miscommunication with the riad fella thought we were going to the airport. He was really pissed when he found out we were only going to the bus station. He said 250 MAD. It’s 300 to the airport. I said no. It’s only 50. He was so mad he took off. I said okay 100. He drove right past, steam coming out of his ears I think. Now what? Sometimes my hissy fits don’t work out well. We had to be at the bus station in half an hour.

I hoofed it up the the main road and thankfully there was a “petit taxi” there. Small older run down little cars. We only had day packs so good enough for us
“ how much?”

30 dirhams. That’s what it should have cost. Yahoo. Let’s go
I gave him 50 when we got to the bus station and we were both very happy.

The CTM bus is modern and comfortable and cost 100 Dirhams ($14) for the four hour trip. I loved the scenery, olive trees for miles and miles and very rich dark chocolate coloured soil. The terrain was quite hilly and really looked a lot like Italy in places.
There was a bathroom break half way thankfully. We stopped in a town to drop off some passengers and saw this small bus with people crammed inside and all the bags tied on to the roof. A very familiar scene in both Africa.and Asia.

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Upon arrival we looked for a little blue cab which took us to the gate at the top of the hill ( or mountain) to walk to our Riad. Once again we are in a Medina so no cars inside. It is very steep cobblestones. Really steep from the starting point, then just got average steep. Lots and lots of stairs with no handrails so again we are thankful for our walking sticks.
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The GPS is a bit unreliable because many of the little road don’t have names. It also describes this area as mostly flat!

I had arranged a walking tour at 3 PM but decided to cancel and just explore on our own. We don’t want to be holding up all those 20 year olds.
Dar Yakout is the name of our Riad and it is so beautiful it is a major instagram site for photos. We were able to check in and it is lovely. 612 MAD or $86 CDN a night.
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But we are hungry so set off to find this restaurant I really wanted to go to “Cafe Clock”
Our eight minute walk took well over half an hour. GPS was very confused, and every time we asked someone for directions we were sent a different way. Sometimes you wonder if they are just messing with you. But everyone is super friendly and nice and certainly not pushy about selling anything.
Getting lost and seeing all these great little alleyways was wonderful
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We finally arrived and went up to the terrace for a delicious lunch. The walk home also had us meandering all over the place but every turn seemed to have a beautiful photo op. Most of the day trippers have gone home so it wasn’t very busy
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It seems all the restaurants are at the bottom of the hill. I did not relish the thought of taking all those steep uneven stairs in the dark but our lovely hotel guy suggested take out delivery. He chose Bilmos. I ordered a vegan tagline and falafel. It was massive when it came, 6 different containers and a huge wheel of delicious bread. All for $23. This was the best meal I have had since being in Morocco. I wish we could have eaten all of it but there was just so much. What a great find. And very glad we didn’t go out as it started to rain torrentially shortly after I ordered.

Day 2 Chefchewan. Tuesday October 29
It was so freaking cold in here last night. We had the heat on, what little it provided and about four blankets. Who knew Morocco would be so cold? At night anyhow. But a nice bed and pillows.

We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast up on the terrace. The couple beside us kept to themselves and I figured they were speaking Russian. I met some Russians last night walking around as well. I asked them where they were from and he very guardedly said Moscow Russia. As soon as I said that we had been there their whole demeanour changed and big smiles and very happy to chat. They were probably late 30s and have already travelled to 85 countries! Not Canada yet however. It was great to talk for a bit during breakfast and one of my favourite things about travelling is meeting other tourists.

Our Riad Is at the top of the Medina so we spent a few hours making our way down towards the Kasba at the bottom. There is one main small roadway that the motorcycles and carts take, but a lot of the magic is at the top or bottom of the stairs, off of the little pathways
You can find fresh Orange juice on every block, but one fellow ,Said, set his up as a photo point . A very smart and personable young man and the fresh squeezed juice was delicious. And his cat was delightful

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Doug found a small shop that had fresh roasted cashews. It looked like a rock tumbler but the cashews got roasted inside and although he had to wait a half hour it was worth . The shop keepers as I say are all very friendly and helpful but of course gently ask you to come look at their shop. We looked in a carpet shop but there was nothing that fit what we wanted and although disappointed the seller was not aggressive or pushy which was nice.
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Another shop was selling fabrics and I noticed some gorgeous blue ( my favourite colour) scarves and table cloths. I ended up buying one for the end of the bed. It looks like silk but made from Agave which I had ever heard of before . It’s called Sabra silk and very durable, dyed with plants and blended with wool and cotton. It is quite expensive, for here, but well worth the 800 MAD (112. CDN ) I paid for it . It is hand woven on a loom in the shop. I think you can buy something similar in Mexico.
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We reached the bottom, where the Kasba and most of the restaurants are. We ate at Bilmos again. We had a Harira soup ( very much like minestrone) and shared a vegan couscous. One again it was far too much food and we had to dash to catch a cab for our 3PM bus back to Fes.
Many people come here just as a day trip but I am so glad we had an overnight. Much more relaxing.
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We had the front two seats on the ride back. The great thing about having the front seats is that you can see everything. The bad thing about having the front seat is that you can see everything! Our driver was great, careful and all but like many countries outside North American they tend to be much more aggressive, coming up fast behind other vehicles and passing on semi blind corners. I had to close my eyes a few times but we arrived in good order. Another consideration is that you don’t have the seat in front to put your feet under, so for a long journey it can be cramped for your legs .

A petit taxi took us to the Batha post office where I found an ATM and we had dinner at Encanto next door. Fantastic food and great conversation with other travellers at tables around us

Riad Amor is our home again for another two nights but this time we have a room up on the terrace and it includes our own living room. The bed and pillows once again are fantastic.

Fes last day

A welcome lazy morning. We never made it down to breakfast until 10. The couple next to us was a Muslim couple from England and we had wonderful conversations and they were very curious about Canadian views on Muslims. It was great to have open and frank conversations about so many things. I personally find the Muslim people in every country I have been to the nicest, friendliest and kindest people.

What is that??? Sunshine and warmth. I spent some time on the terrace enjoying the warmer weather for a couple of hours and just having some down time. I think that the staff figure everyone is gone and playing music in the lobby quite loudly and singing along at times. Various genres but right now I am listening to some beautiful classical piano music.

Wow stayed in the room till 4 just enjoying the terrace and some down time. Went out for dinner to Culture box near the Blue Gate and it was good, but not the best we have had. Popped into the market to get some fruit for our trip tomorrow .

We are packing up now to take the Marrakesh Express tomorrow. Goodbye Fez and hopefully going to warmer weather.

Posted by debbep 18:52 Archived in Morocco Tagged fes. chefchewan. Comments (0)

France. Again

A few days in Lyon

semi-overcast 20 °C

Our journey started by taking a helicopter (Helijet) from Nanaimo to Vancouver. We were having a lot of rain and high winds for a few days and helicopters can manage weather better than ferries or small planes. Living on the island this is the one drawback, catching a flight from Vancouver and depending on ferries to get there on time. It was a pretty good deal too at $100 each and up to 50 lbs of luggage per passenger. Not that we needed that, we each just had carryon and a daypack .

After taking the sky train from downtown Vancouver we managed to kill a few hours in the YVR airport until our KLM flight left at 5:45 PM.

I was offered to pay a small fee to reserve the middle seat which I did and it turned out to be a great decision as the flight was packed. We had a couple of hours in Amsterdam and then connected to another flight to arrive in Lyon at 7PM.
I had purchased a eSIM at home but could not get it to work, so went to a shop to get a real SIM card and we were all set for data in France
We could have taken a train and a couple of busses to get to our VRBO, but we were so tired and it was getting dark so decided to splurge on a cab. Yikes! It was indeed a splurge 120 €. Or $180 CDN.

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Our host was waiting to show us around our little apartment that will be home for the next four nights.
This building used to be a monestary and now converted to apartments. We are on the Saone river, but just have a view of the courtyard.

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Everything we need is here and we are quite happy. At 9 PM we went to bed and fell asleep immediately

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Day one in Lyon

I was wide awake at 3:30 AM but lazed around till 9 before heading off to meet up with our pre arranged walking tour. There were 10 of us from various parts of the world and we had a wonderful tour and learned a great deal about the history of this area. Lyon is famous for its murals and graffiti art on buildings. There are also a few little monkeys and art works around on the walls.
Some very old and ornate buildings, narrow walkway and roads in the old town. A few Roman ruins as well. It was a cloudy day but only a bit of drizzle now and then. Around 18 degrees C.

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After the tour we found an outdoor cafe for some lunch, poked around for a while looking in shop windows and then did some grocery shopping on the way back to our apartment
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Two very tired travellers by the end of the day

Lyon day 2

I stayed up till 11 PM last night only to wake up once again at 3:30! Jet lag. Hate it. I was dragging my butt again today but after breakfast we walked across the pedestrian bridge again to Old Town.
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Once again we poked around the shops and people watched. I find cobblestones very hard to walk on and the roads slope to the middle for rain so it made me look like a drunk walking down the streets
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Give your child some coloured markers and a white chair and voila you have a masterpiece for $500!
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We wanted to go up to the hilltop for the view and to see the Basilica Norte Dame de Fourvière and considered ( for about a half a second) walking up the six hundred stairs, but instead took the funicular.
It was a beautiful sunny and warm day. The view from the top looked over all of Lyon which is huge about 1.8 million. We are just in the small touristy area with the old buildings and history.

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We stopped for a much needed coffee and I enjoyed a pear tart as well. I figure we are doing over 12,000 steps a day and the equivalent of 4 or 5 flights of stairs, so no guilt. It was delicious

Roman ruins are close by, an amphitheater, which we explored a bit.
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We limped back to our apartment at around 4 PM and had a nap for two hours and then got ready to go to dinner at a place that was only a 10 minute walk through some narrow alleys

Les Mauvaises Herbes is a vegan resterants that had great reviews. I was on wait list for a reservation but got a message that we could get in when they opened at 7 PM. We joked that where we are from in Qualicum everything is closed by 7 where here things are just getting started.

It was a very cute two story restaurant in an old building and the menu changes daily and on a black board. Thankfully one side was English. The vichyssoise was delicious. My main course was a disappointment unfortunately but the raw chocolate salted caramel dessert made up for it. It was a great find and a bit of a splurge.

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Day 3

This is our last full day in Lyon. I am so thankful I got a full 8 hours sleep finally. I feel human again. We decided to walk to the outdoor market which was only a 25 minute walk but up hundreds of stairs and steep roadways. It took us a bit longer than 25 minutes.

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Lots of stairs like this everywhere. We got there just before they closed and wished we had come on the first day as there were so many delicious looking food items. We did buy some Albanian dates though
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In 15 minutes we were at another painted mural on a building. They are so detailed about the people and lives here
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Now we are off to the art gallery. We decided to take the metro because walking down stairs is much tougher than walking up for us. We were there in 10 minutes, stopped for a quick bite at Pret, and then spent a few hours in the museum. It is known as one of the best in France and maybe Europe and it did not disappoint. I love the masters and most of them were represented here, Degas, Renoir, Matisse, Rembrandt to name but a few. They were very well presented as well with great lighting.

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There was also a modern impressionist floor as well. Sorry, I just don’t get it.
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I did like this one however.
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Naturally we stopped at a bakery on our way home to pick up some more amazing bread for our dinner. We shall pack up and be on the way to the airport at noon tomorrow for the second part of our trip
We really enjoyed our three full days here in Lyon. The people were lovely and very kind with us trying to speak French.

Posted by debbep 16:38 Archived in France Tagged lyon Comments (0)

France and Germany

sunny 25 °C

Colmar, France

We had to pass through France to get to Frieberg Germany so spent the night in Colmar. It was a great decision. We arrived late so just had dinner and then checked into the Colmar hotel which was lovely, clean modern and comfortable. Such a nice change from where we had been
The next day was spent exploring the city on foot. We did take the hokey little sightsee train to get the lay of the land though.

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They sell plastic love locks which are much lighter and probably less stress on the bridge
This is little Venice

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A visit to the museum was quite interesting
We loved Colmar. It was quite crowded but the buildings and architecture were fantastic.

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Frieberg, Germany
I had arranged a home exchange with points to spend four nights in Rothenberg ob Tauber but while in Scotland found out it got cancelled for some reason. I was so disappointed. Home exchange said they would help me find another place and some people from Germany were at our hotel and said Frieberg would be great. So we arranged that
It was a lovely home but we were not overly impressed with the area. Not for more than a day anyhow. We spend the following day walking around the town. The cathedral was very impressive.

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Eguisheim, France

The next day we decided to make the short drive back to the French border towns that were recommended. They did not disappoint and I think this one was my favorite

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Riquewihr, France was a few minutes down the road and just as charming. It was the inspiration for the town set in the movie Beauty and the Beast
This is wine country and known as the Alsace wine route. So many vineyards. The countryside is gorgeous and another beautiful sunny day.

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After three nights in Frieberg we decided to leave a day early and drive to Rothenberg ob Tauber after all. I found a hotel in the old town for a great price so we left in the morning. The autobahn is crazy! No speed limit. Four lanes. We are on the second right, the far right has hundreds of transport trucks. So many trucks. The left lanes are for passing. All of a sudden from nowhere you would see cars racing past you at insane speeds. Sometimes we saw four cars together, usually black, seeming to be in a race with each other weaving in and out of lanes at high speeds. One incidence of road rage that was a little scary.

Then traffic would stop. For hours we crawled along with all the big trucks. There are lots of pull offs though with picnic tables and washrooms which is nice. Lots and lots of trucks pulled off at these to rest. We chose one to have our picnic lunch and give Doug a break from the stress of driving.
Our 3 1/2 hour trip took over 6 hours. We were glad we were spending the night here. We had the entire next day as well to explore this beautiful town. This was the inspiration for the town in Disney’s Pinocchio. It was lovely the evening we arrived, there was hardly anyone here. But the next day was very busy with tour groups and day trippers from other areas.

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This is the famous shot of Rothenberg ob Tauber that everyone wants

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Taj Mahal was a wonderful Indian resteraunt we found and enjoyed a great meal. And non alcoholic beer too!

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We drove the 2 hours to our next stop, Bamberg Germany, where we checked into our lovely studio apartment with kitchenette. We made a light dinner and relaxed after our busy day.

This morning we decided to drive for an hour to Nurenberg and arranged a walking tour. It was very interesting, but a bit exhausting walking mostly up cobblestone hills and it was quite warm. But our guide Andreas was very informative telling us the history for medieval times up to the present. Of course we also learned about Nurenberg and its roll in the Second World War.

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After a bit of lunch we drove to the colosseum ( Kongresshall, also known as the documentation centre) where they held the Nazi rally’s which we learned more about during our tour. The Nazi rally’s started in 1923, but the first major grand scale one was 1929 The place was massive. Hitler would have very long speeches, along with others, but his major events were here from 1933-1938. The largest rally was in 1934 where 700,000 Nazi supporters attended. It was a very an interesting day.

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Bamberg.

Decided to take a break from the car and figured out how to take the bus to the old part of Bamberg. With my google maps it was pretty easy. It took around 25 minutes but we got a nice tour of the regular part of Bamberg. We wandered aimlessly for a while. First stop was city hall. Story has it that the Bishop of the time, 1386, did not want the town hall built so the mayor and townspeople made a foundation in the middle of the river and built it there, joined by two bridges.
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We had no idea how pretty this town is, the old part anyhow. We wandered about, found a bench by the river to have some sandwiches I made and just had a no agenda kind of day.

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The postman in the car free zone.

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the painting on the building is fantastic, but someone also did a sculpture of a leg off it which was fun. Third one is blurry but gives you the idea

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We really enjoyed our time in France and Germany. The towns and countryside were more picturesque than I imagined

Posted by debbep 17:16 Archived in Germany Tagged france Comments (0)

Switzerland.

And parts of Bavaria Germany on the way

sunny 26 °C

September 16,2023
The train arrived in Munich at 10:30AM and the party was well under way. Octoberfest is in September, not October.
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So many people of all ages dressed in Bavarian clothes, most with beer in hand already and looking to have fun. It was Saturday and the good times were starting early.

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Dragging our luggage a few blocks we finally found out rental car, not without a few hiccups, but a couple of hours later we were trying to negotiate through the crowds to get out of Munich. A small automatic Corsa was the car we were given, much smaller than the one in Scotland thankfully.

We headed south, towards Bad Tolz and the scenery was gorgeous. It looked like what you would expect Germany to look like

First stop was food and drink. We lucked out and found this great outdoor patio where Doug was able to get some schnitzel and I had soup and salad, and a pretzel. I had to get into the spirit and wash it down with a zero beer as well
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The reason we came to this area was to visit the final resting place of Dougs Uncle Doug, who was in the airforce and shot down in the Second World War over Germany at the age of 21. This is a cemetery for those in the airforce that are from countries in the Commonwealth. It is very well maintained and if you look up the name of the airman you are told which row and number his grave is at it’s very well organized. It was so sad to read the tombstones to see that most of these young men were 19, 20, and 21. Australia, UK, Canada and India were represented here.

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It was an emotional moment for Doug, his uncle was very missed by his Dad.

The drive to our guesthouse was down some back roads in a town called Reichersbeuern. It was a very typical Bavarian home, with about four guest rooms.

The next day we drove to Lindau stopping a various small towns on the way.

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Our favorite was Fussen where we stopped for a couple of hours and had lunch before exploring the town.

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Sunday. A lot of the stores close on Sunday, the same as when Taylor and I were in France and found out the hard way. We arrived in Lindau at 7PM starving. We could not pick up any groceries and the one restaurant in town was full.

The main server took pity on us and found us a seat outside. We ordered food to go, as it was getting dark and buggy out, but during the wait I had a zero beer and Doug had two regular ones. They were local and very good, I tasted them. The lady serving us is had been to Vancouver island last year, even Coombs, so we had a nice chat.
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SWITZERLAND

It was just after 10AM when we left and checked out Lindau’s waterfront area before we left
We had to buy a decal to drive in Switzerland. They only have one, good for a year and a half, and costs $60 CDN! But the fine is bigger if you get caught without it. We were also driving through Austria for about 15 minutes on the way and had to buy a decal for that too, but at least it was only $15.

Lucerne was on our way so we stopped for a few hours to break up the trip. Old town is gorgeous with so many ornate buildings and a covered bridge. We loved it. When we arrived we found a parking garage that had a grocery store and restaurant as well as other stores
I had to pee so bad! Switzerland is not part of the EU and still has its own currency, the Swiss Franc. The bathroom cost money, coin, Swiss franc! I didn’t have any. I had to finds an ATM, withdraw some Swiss francs and then buy something to get the change, But I did it, in the Nick of time

We enjoyed a lunch before exploring old town for a couple of hours
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Behind schedule as usual. Our apartment is in a small hilltop village of Grandvaux near Lausanne. We arrived in the dark, thunder and sheets of lightning in the hills and black clouds overtop. We were going on one lane twisting roads up a down the mountain with road construction thrown in the mix. We finally arrived at 8:30PM and there is no parking, which we knew but there really wasn’t! Doug pulled off into someone’s private empty spot while I looked for our place. It was pitch dark, tall medieval buildings, no lights, and crazy tiny roads. I am talking to myself, “ well I think this is it but there are no F’ng lights who would I know?”

A woman yelled in French something that made me figure out it was the right place. She said we can pull into the parking spot in front for two minutes to unload, which we did. Another woman yelled at us in French from one of the apartments that we were in private parking and I was assuring her we would be only five minutes
In Switzerland there are three areas where people speak either French, Italian or German. We are in the French part.
The parking lot was not far away but we could only park there till noon and then leave until 7 PM. We found the whole parking, or lack of it, in Switzerland the worst part of our travels. We had hoped to ride the trains between towns but didn’t know what to do with the car. It was complicated.

The apartment was very old, basic, and dark. Things always look worse at night and we were so tired we figured we would just wait till tomorrow to see where we were at.

Parking was an issue the entire four nights we were here, but we survived it. We drove a fair amount exploring. Montreaux and Laussane are close by and on Lake Geneva, very wealthy and prosperous small cities. We spent a little bit of time at each
Freddy mercury spent a lot of time here and this is where he wrote most of the Queen albums . They have a statue of him.
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We are on a mountain, everything is on a mountainside and it is very green and lush. This is wine country and the grapes are ready to harvest. Mostly green grapes from what I could see.
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I think the highlight was driving to Tasch, up small twisting mountain roads, to then take train to Zermatt, a car free town at the base of the Matterhorn. We walked around the town a bit and had very expensive cappuccinos sitting on a park bench looking at the Alps before taking the cog train up to Gornergrat
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We saw the Matterhorn from the train but by the time we got to the top it was in the clouds, so we were lucky to have caught a glimpse. It was a beautiful trip as we climbed slowly to over 10,000 feet. I could feel myself being very winded when we reached the top. We stayed up for a couple hours, ate the lunch I brought from home and just marvelled at the amazing site.

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The next day was spent in the small town of Gyereres where the cheese is made. One thing I have notice is that all the cows seem to be free range out in the fields not chained to an industrial barn somewhere which is great.
The Chateau Gruyère was interesting to visit as well
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we drove around out little town for a bit seeing the beautiful landscapes with all the grape vineyards
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On our last day we stopped in Bern for a few hours. Going in and out of large cities seems to really test us because the GPS says go straight when she means turn, or bear left when she means turn. We spend a lot of time being rerouted.
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Bern was a great stop as well. They had some brown bears in an area where you could look down and watch them roaming around. There were three of them, quite large and very healthy looking

Good bye Switzerland. We are now heading to France for the night.

Posted by debbep 19:18 Archived in Switzerland Comments (0)

Copenhagen and Vienna

sunny 28 °C

Copenhagen. September 10 -13

We flew to Copenhagen from Edinburgh and after flight delays finally arrived close to midnight. There was a train that was very easy to use which took us to the central station where we had an 18 minute walk to our hostel
We chose Next House hostel, very reasonable for here, $400 Canadian for three nights. The smallest room we have ever stayed at was in St Petersburg, Russia a few years ago. Until now.

I knew it was going to be small. But holy cow. I don’t have a photo because it was too small to get one, but did the job for three nights. New place, very clean and modern, really encouraged socializing especially for single travellers with tables and benches in the entrance, dinner night for singles, walking tours etc. Most of the guests were young people of course but also some families and a few older folk like us.

We had three nights and two full days here. We did a hop on hop off bus tour ( not worth the money) and a canal tour. Our live guide on the boat tour was hysterical and gave us lots of great information.

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He also did a tour called ‘politically incorrect tours’ which would have been fun. He showed a bit of that side of him to us on this one. He really had a thing for the Swedes. There has been an ongoing battle for years.

The weather was cool and overcast in the mornings but got super warm and a bit muggy during the day.

We visited the very scenic and crowded Nyhavn which was very picturesque with lots of interesting old buildings with many colours and great signs on the walls .

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A pedestrian bridge took us to the Freetown Christiana. Very colorful both in history and the buildings as there is a lot of graffiti on the walls. Walking there we found an area with food trucks and stopped for a very good poke bowl which was super filling.

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The national museum of Denmark was very interesting and we spent a few hours there.

We decided not to go to Tivoli gardens as it was expensive and mostly an amusement park which we were not interested in.

The cost in Copenhagen were outrageous. They are not using the Euro but keep their Danish Kroner and I guess our Canadian dollar is very weak against it. Took a lot of the joy out of it for me looking at how much everything cost. The hotel had a good deal for a continental breakfast with a great muesli and toasties for only $15 which we took advantage of.

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My $20 piece of bread with Nutella and blackberries

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Vienna. September 13-16

We flew to Vienna and upon arrival took the very convenient and easy to use CAT train to the main station in the centre. It was 1PM when we arrived and found Fat Monk cafe and had a fantastic Poke Bowl before continuing on to our apartment which was a 15 minute walk.

We booked the Central Living Stephandsom Apartments for $642 CDN for three nights. It was old and a bit run down but clean, had a kitchenette and huge compared to our last place. Our studio apartment offered good bed, nice pillows and no AC but a fan which was great because it was super hot and muggy. We reached our self check in apartment and flopped out on the bed for a couple of hours with the fan on high speed to try and cool down.

There was a grocery store around the corner, Spar Gourmet, and we picked up some food and had a bite to eat for dinner before heading out

Our location is great! Just a short walk to all the main areas of old town.
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We figured out the subway system which only costs 1.5€ for seniors no matter where you go and on the honour system
I had purchased tickets for a Mozart performance at the Golden Hall which is done in period costumes. The hall was over the top ornate, lots of gold and chandeliers. This was the most expensive of the three I booked, 99€ each but we had great seats and could see the facial expressions and costumes very clearly. There was also male and female opera singers as well. We really enjoyed it

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On the way back we stopped for a fantastic vegan chocolate gelato. Yum

We signed up for a free walking tour ( not really free of course because you are expected to give a big tip). It was interesting and we learned quite a bit about Austrian history
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I had booked a reservation at Cafe Central at the suggestion of people on trip advisor and glad I did. The line up to get in was very long and up to an hours wait otherwise.
The restaurant has been around since 1876 and was a place many came to spend their days drinking coffee and reading newspapers. Trotsky, Lenin and Stalin were known to frequent here.
Doug ordered a beef stroganoff which he really enjoyed and I had soup and salad to justify the decadent but totally delicious Viennese chocolate pastry which we shared.
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The Europeans are such classy dressers, even the ones on vacation look so chic and stylish. You can certainly tell the American and Canadian tourist from the European. We dress for comfort. However I am still surprised when I see younger women in gorgeous stylish dresses trading in the high heels for white running shoes. Very practical and smart.
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Another night time concert, Mozart and Beethoven in St Anne’s Church. It was also very good.
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On our last day in Vienna I signed up for a tour to see the Schönbrunn Palace, the Baroque style summer palace of the Habsburg from the sixteenth century. Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elizabeth were the most well known residents.

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We toured the inside of the palace and all the lavish rooms, which held wall to wall tourists and it was so hot and muggy it was stifling. It was very interesting though. Doug did not come with me as he is not interested in this type of thing.

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We spent some time in a small part of the acres of gardens both French and English inspired. This is a smaller version of Versailles as all the nobility were in completion with each other but the Austrians ran out of money.

I took the subway home, had a quick lunch and then Doug and I went to the Albertina Art museum. I did stop on the way for my big splurge of a pair of gorgeous blue Swarovski earrings.
The museum was defiantly not my cup of tea. I am more interested in the masters paintings etc, but can’t win them all.

A quick dinner back in our apartment and we are off to our last concert, the best for last in my opinion. It was in the Karlschurch which in itself was spectacular. I bought tickets for the fourth row so we had a great view of the musicians and their facial expressions. The conductor was the lead violinist and he was incredible. We heard Vivaldi’s four seasons and it was the best classical concert we have heard. The acoustics were amazing. The one hour 15 minute concert was over far too soon and afterwards we made our way back stopping once again for a chocolate vegan ice cream.
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Today is the 16th, Saturday, and we made our way to the subway and on to the train station at the ungodly hour of 5:30AM. But we arrived at the right place at the right time which is good.

I am writing this blog while on our four hour train journey from Vienna to Munich Germany. The Austrian countryside is beautiful and we are enjoying our relaxed morning. Going through Salzburg now and the scenery is amazing. Rolling green hills and rugged mountains. Quite a few of our train mates are dressed in traditional Bavarian garb, lederhosen and all. It is Octoberfest in Munich ( it happens in September, not October for some reason)
One family we talked to was just going for the day from Vienna. Everyone is in a party mood.
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Posted by debbep 18:55 Archived in Denmark Tagged vienna austria copenhagen Comments (0)

Scotland. Again.

Northern Scotland NC500

sunny 28 °C

September 4, 2023

It was a very long travel day for us, but we planned it that way so as not to be stressed with short connections.
We left Coombs at 12:30 PM, flew to Vancouver on the float plane at 1:45 to have a five hour wait at the Vancouver airport. BC ferries has been so unreliable lately and we did not want to take any chances missing our flight
Air Canada left on time at 7:45 PM and it was a full flight. I had booked Doug a window seat and me the aisle leaving the middle seat open which is a gamble but especially today as there were virtually no vacant seats on the plane. Except that one! We were so happy.
I tried to sleep but only got a couple winks here and there
Arrival at Heathrow was on time, customs was a breeze and because we did not check luggage we were through in no time.
We now had to get from terminal 2 to Terminal 5, and thankfully I had done this a few times recently. It is an incredibly long walk, and with carry on luggage and little sleep it seemed longer
We now had another five hours to kill. Grabbed something to eat and then people watched for quite awhile. There are folks from all over the world so it is always an interesting show. What some people wear to travel in is quite outrageous sometimes.
Our flight on British airways to Inverness Scotland was half hour delayed and then we sat on the tarmac another hour. But once again we had the middle seat free which was great. I dozed off quite a bit on the hour and a half flight and we finally arrived on September 5 at 10 PM. Inverness airport is very small and so easy to get in and out
A short walk across the parking lot led us to the Courtyard Marriott hotel, which was our big splurge on this trip and we are so glad we did. We walked there in under 10 minutes.

It was one minute to 10, the kitchen closed at 10 but the staff said they would let us order, as we were starving. Again. Thank you.

Our room was nice, beds and pillows super comfortable and we were asleep in minutes, at around 11PM
I set up a UK SIM card on my phone to be able to use the GPS and look things up, which was great.

Up and wide awake at 5 AM but not too bad for the first night. We watched you tube videos and articles that went over the rules of the road and how to drive on the left before picking up our Enterprise rental car. The van was waiting outside the hotel to take us to the office
The rental staff, like everyone we have met here so far, we very helpful and friendly
Unfortunately however the small car I reserved was not available
“ I’ve upgraded you”
Well thank you but I don’t want a bigger car.
“ sorry this is all we have”
Apparently about 15% of the cars returned need body work and repairs done. So lots of smaller cars were not rentable. Not a good confidence builder for Doug
So we agreed ( what choice did we have?) on the Mazda SUV, about the size of our RAV4. Lovely car, we just wanted something tiny for the small roads. He set us all up and off we went
Doug has driven here before a few times, but not for a number of years. So it’s on the other side, and a stick shift. It took some getting used to but he did a great job.
Our first stop was an hour north in the the town of Tain to do some grocery shopping. We did not want to go into Inverness for this as it is too busy
The car had a built in GPS which was great. Lots of round abouts to navigate but the first part of the journey the road was one or two lanes on each side.
Grocery shopping complete and put into the insulated grocery bag I brought with us, we head north again to Dunrobin Castle
We were glad to have studied the road signs as there were a few unusual ones that came up on the way
A lunch was enjoyed in the tea room prior to visiting some of the stately rooms in the castle. Doug tried the haggis and said it was good. The gardens were very elaborate and we both enjoyed our short one and half hour visit here.

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Now we continued north west on A9 and then onto A838. The highway became a one lane track for quite a few hours. Every 20 yards or so thankfully there is a small pull out so that oncoming traffic can get past or vice versa. The drivers all wave as a courtesy and take turns pulling off the road . It was a pretty nerve wracking drive at some points but Doug did a great job. I was the navigator reminding him which side to drive on and any hazards ahead, etc.

Once we got to the town of Tongue the scenery got better and better. The hills were now small mountains, and we saw lots of sheep grazing on the rolling pastures and lots of purple heather with beautiful stone houses everywhere. It is so picturesque and warm. The weather is incredible, I never expected blue skies and temps of 25C in Scotland! What a bonus.

Dunross was stunning. I wish we could have stopped but it was getting late. GPS said we’d be at the next town in half an hour, but that is based on going 60 miles per hour. We were going 30 most of the time and even that felt fast. Not sure even the locals would go 60.

There are so many caravans ( trailers and camping vans) parked at the side of the road for the night. This is allowed here in Scotland which would be a very economical way to travel as the costs here are so very high for hotels and BNBs.
The jet lag was kicking in and the narrow roads, standard gearshift and driving on the left was really taking a toll.

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At 7PM we finally arrived at our AirBNB in Scourimore, and it was none too soon. The little town is gorgeous and we have a fantastic view from our tiny little room
We enjoyed some of the food we bought today and relaxed in our cute little room while planning out tomorrows adventure.

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September 7.
It was so hot last night even with the fan on. And this is northern Scotland! After making ourselves some breakfast we headed out to explore some more of the north. Amazing scenery, and the roads got narrower if that was even possible.

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There seems to be more sheep than people here. You have to make way for them on the road too.

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Narrow one lane roads one person must use a pull out to pass
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In Lochinver we walked around the small village and then popped into a shop for some coffee and a vegan haggis which was quite good.
I made some sandwiches for lunch and we found a bench overlooking the water in Coigach a few miles further on, and enjoyed our food alongside the cows and sheep

The landscape is very unique but also reminds us of Norway and Iceland as well.
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We had planned a couple more stops but once again our day took twice as long as google maps said it would because they assume we are doing 60 miles an hour, and we averaged 25.

I nodded off in the car so we missed our turn and ended up adding another 40 minutes to the trip which sucked but finally arrived in Strathcarron to check in to our little apartment for the night. There may be all of 50 people in this little town and the woman who owns our apartment lived next door and was lovely. We even have a washing machine which will be put to good use tonight
There is a hotel pub a five minute walk down the road so we decided to have dinner there and met some other travellers including two women from Calgary. Doug had a chicken curry and I had a vegan one and they were both great. The owners were a lovely couple and very friendly.

September 8.

After some oatmeal and fruit in the room we packed up and headed for the Isle of Skye but wanted to find some highland cows on the way. Naturally this took us down some very narrow one lane roads for a few hours. When we arrived we found out the cows have just calved and were all put away until the babies were a bit older. Bad luck for us. We did see a couple from a distance though
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To reach the island you can do so by car ferry or a very long but modern bridge. We chose the latter. The weather was once again unusually hot, 30 C , but clear skies so we decided to do a hike up to the Old Man Of Storr. We had packed our walking poles with us and glad of it. It was an hour up very steep gravel pathway and in the heat made it quite gruelling. But the views made it all worth it. We did not do the last bit as it was very steep with lots of loose rock, but wish I had. The views from there were even more spectacular
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We started from down here in the parking lot

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Arriving back at the parking lot we enjoyed some sandwiches I had made this morning. We were famished so it was very welcomed.

We headed to our BnB, Thistle guest house, which was about ten minutes into the countryside from the town of Portree. The owner came out to welcome us and we had a half hour to freshen up before heading to Portree for dinner reservations that I had made on line a couple of weeks ago.
Dulce and Brose was a lovely resteraunt in town and we enjoyed a delicious dinner.
Afterwards we walked around the town and down to the seafront and took in the views before heading back to our home for the night
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September 9.
Out little room included a full breakfast which was nice, seeing as how it cost $300 a night, a bargain here. Costs in Scotland are very expensive but Isle of Skye is crazy.
What a difference a day makes. Very windy and rainy today and the temperature dropped to 16c, more in line with what I thought it would be like. We have been so lucky
After packing up we headed north again to Quiraing, another hiking spot. It warns not to hike during high winds, but we were optimistic the weather would break soon. So we’re many others it seems . The road up was another single lane twisting route but wonderful views.

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Should we or shouldn’t we? It’s looking pretty grim. But it will burn off right? We put on our rain coats and grabbed our walking sticks to head off. The wind was very strong and as we travelled down the path it got narrower and narrower and right at the edge of a steep drop. I don’t have photos of the worse part as I was concentrating on not falling off the cliff. If I did not have my walking pole there is no way we would have gone. Some parts the path disappeared and we were scrambling down into rock ravines and up again. Basically it was a goat trail. I was glad it had been dry for the past week as it was not too muddy. But the mist lifted, it stopped raining for a bit and the view made it all worth

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The trail is a loop that takes about three hours but we were seeing quite a few people coming back the same way. They told us the wind around the corner was very strong, so we picked a spot up ahead to target as our finish point. We had hiked around a hour and a half at that point and figured we might not want to push our luck.

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See the people at the top of the hill.

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When we turned around the wind started to howl and the rain was pelting down, towards us. I had a hard time seeing because there was so much water pouring off my face. We were so lucky we started earlier. By the time we reached the car we were drenched and the weather was even worse, visibility was very poor.

Down the hill again to our next stop, Kilt Rocks. It is called this because the lines in the rock resemble the folds of a man’s kilt. The waterfall in front just added to the photo.

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Leat Falls was the next stop, but the weather was pretty bad and I was not that impressed so we headed off. Goodbye Isle of Skye. We are now heading to Fort William area for the night. It was about a two hour drive but we stopped at this viewpoint for Eilean Donan castle from the 13th century, first built as a defence measure against the Vikings. We didn’t go in, but stopped to enjoy the view for a bit.

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Our home tonight is Corran Bunkhouse, simple rooms but a communal kitchen and lounge which is great. We finished up the rest of our groceries left over as our dinner and hit the hay.

September 10, last day in Scotland
We spent a lot of time this morning packing up our suitcases as we could only carry on 10 kilos and had to check one of the bags. They never even looked at the weight in the end.
The drive towards Edinburgh took us through some beautiful landscapes especially around Glencoe. This area is very popular for hiking and walking in the hills. The parking lots were packed with people in their hiking gear and poles set for a long day of trekking.

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At around one o’clock we passed this cute little hotel, bar, resteraunt church combo. A lovely lunch was enjoyed before heading off again.

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The day once again got away from us, it always takes a lot longer than what Google maps says it will. We had planned on spending some time in the small town of Culross but we had to do a whirlwind tour instead. This small village is from the 6 th century and used as a set location for many movies and shows, Outlander is one of the more famous ones

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The Red Lion Pub, again used in Outlander, has been around for 600 years.

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We finally arrived at the airport, dropped off the car and prepared to say goodbye to Scotland. Our flight left at 9PM. We are off now to our next destination.

Posted by debbep 18:25 Archived in United Kingdom Tagged scotland Comments (0)

Kenya safari

sunny 28 °C

Our trip to Kenya
We flew Rwandair back to Nairobi and spent the night once again at the Hilton garden inn
In the morning we were picked up by Gamewatchers, a company I used in 2017 and also in 2019.
Driving through Nairobi on the new expressway had us a Wilson Airport in just over half hour or so. The airport has changed since I was last there and the restaurant is bigger now and upstairs where we enjoyed some coffee and muffins for breakfast

The Kenya Air plane was much bigger than the Safari Link I flew last time, it left 20 minutes early and four stops later we were landing in Nabosho, a conservancy near the Massai Mara . A land rover was there to meet us and the drive to Porini Mara Camp was delightful with so many wildebeest and zebras with many many newborns. Pumba ( warthogs) we’re also in abundance with lots of babies as well.

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Our camp is very small, only eleven people at present, and we are tent number 5. A single and queen bed is inside, desk, chair and full bathroom, but all environmentally friendly. We have fresh drinking water put into our tent twice a day into decorated wine bottles. There are lights that work, from solar, and if we request a shower a bucket of warm water is put into the water reserve at the top of the tent at a time we specify.

Lunch is served outside at 1PM near the river overlooking a hill with wildebeest, zebra and giraffe wandering by
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Our jeep mates are two women in the Canadian military, Rebecca is 38 and in intelligence living in Qatar. Her wife Tish is 48 and also in the military stationed in Croatia, but they are from Comox, an hour from where we live which is so ironic. We became great friends right away.
The other couple, early 50s were both pilots for Qantas airlines. The six of us laughed and had so much fun over the next couple of days. We were all so happy to have such a wonderful like minded group.

We had two game drives a day, 6:15AM until around 11 in the morning, stopping for a outdoor breakfast around 9AM. Eggs, bacon, toast, potatoes, pancakes, coffee etc and fruit and juice. Quite the spread

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We saw a lot of animals and as I say this time of year there are tons of babies. Lots of food for the carnivores.

One morning we came upon a lone female lion who was calling for her pride, she was separated. Our driver Stanley and spotter Dalton went looking for the pride and we came upon 17 lions of various ages from 2 to adult resting in the grass. As soon as one got up to move the rest followed and all 17 walked towards our jeep and passed by. It was amazing. The pride is a group of 25 in all.

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Lots of lions, but only one shy cheetah in this area. We had a leopard in our camp at night after monkeys, but never saw him.

We spent three nights here and enjoyed it so much, but a great deal had to do with our amazing travel buddies. Food was good and they catered to my vegetarian needs . I am vegan at home but flexible with dairy when I travel.

Stanley and Dalton drove us to our next camp, Porini Lion Camp, with a game drive on the way.
I have been to this camp twice before and some the long time staff recognized me which was great. The kitchen and dining staff, James and Daniel were so engaging and full of fun just as before. They remembered I was a “grass eater” and again catered to my needs
Our driver was Julius who was my driver in Amboseli when I was here in 2019 and the spotter Wilfred was our spotter here at Porini Lion the same year

Our tent was similar but the furnishings and camp is upscale from Porini Mara, and also quite a bit bigger. 10 tents I think. We left out tent flaps up all the time for air flow and did not have as much privacy as the Mara Camp. Both camps had their good points but I do have a great fondness for Lion camp, for one reason I love the cats and there are just so many in this conservancy.
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We chose not to do the offered game drive in Massai Mara because I did go last time and did not like it. So many trucks at any sighting. 10 or more. In the conservancy you can only be here if you are in a camp here, and maximum five trucks at a sighting, and you don’t have to stay on the road like you do in the park, you can drive across the field to get a closer look. The rangers were very active at many of the sightings counting trucks and chasing off those who did not belong.

Again same routine, 6:15 AM game drive, bush breakfast, back for lunch at 1, rest until 4 for the evening game drive and sundowner ( drink of choice and snacks) and back for dinner at 8PM

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The weather was unseasonably warm ( low 30s) which was only an issue during our down time at camp. It was also very dry, it had not rained in Nairobi and some of the other parks for a year. Amboseli was having some problems with the animals dying and suffering from lack of water and food
Our area still had watering holes and was quite green

Three nights here again. We rode with a man around our age from Germany, an avid safari goer with expensive and enviable cameras and lenses. We had a slow start but we eventually got along quite well and had a few laughs, but not like our group from Porini Mara.

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So many cats, and many with babies. Lions cheetah and leopard were a daily sighting.
Two brothers looking for each other by roaring, so we followed and when they found each other it was amazing. They almost hugged and kissed. It was so touching to see how much they loved each other

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We saw one lion with a fresh kill of a zebra, a hyena with a wildebeest kill and hyenas circling a young leopard which had us on the edge of our seats but mom was hissing and keeping them at bay

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During the night we were serenaded by lions roaring close by and hippos eating grass outside our tent

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Three nights were up and after a morning game drive we were taken to a different airstrip and flew back to Wilson on a smaller 15 seater I think.

We arranged a day room with Gamewatchers at the Sheraton four points near the airport which was a great idea. We relaxed, repacked, had lunch and waited for our midnight flight back to London

We used our points to upgrade to business class on British airlines which was another brilliant plan as we were able to lay flat and sleep most of the way.

We had an amazing safari , again, and will cherish my memories photos and videos for years to come .

Posted by debbep 06:26 Archived in Kenya Tagged safari lions Comments (0)

Rwanda gorilla hike

sunny 27 °C

Feb 14, 2023.

A long time friend and I flew from Vancouver to London on Air Canada.
We decided to overnight in Heathrow at the Hilton garden inn right in terminal 2 which was great. Comfortable beds, great pillows and towels and fantastic food in the roof top restaurant.
Linda and I had our first adventure in 1973 after graduating high school backpacking through Europe. Now 50 years later we are going on another big expedition to Africa.
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The following morning we flew BA to Nairobi and decided to spend two nights there to try to get over our jet lag before the hike. Being retired we have that luxury. Again at the Hilton garden inn but near Nairobi Airport, and we’re happy with everything. We did have to show our Covid certificates upon arrival at airport. We had purchased East African visas ahead of time and it all went seamlessly

Our full day of relaxing was spent by the rooftop pool and a short trip to the Nairobi national museum which was well worth it.

At 11AM the following morning we flew to Kigali on Rwandair and with the time change arrived at 11:30. We needed to produce a negative PCR test to the rangers tomorrow taken the day prior to seeing the gorillas and upon arrival saw some booths near security that said “free Covid tests”. There were quite a few booths and a number of attendants but no patients. I asked them and sure enough they gave us each a test for free! Our driver was amazed, he did not know they were offering free ones. They may have only been supposed to be for locals, not sure. They cost $50USD at the hospital. They gave us some codes we would need to check the results on line in 3hours.

Our driver was Norman from Gorilla trek Africa and he met us at the airport to take us on the 2 1/2 hour drive to Tiloreza, our home for the next two nights. I had used Gorilla TA in 2019 and thought they were great so used them again. We used the ATM outside the terminal to get Rwandan cash for the tips.

The scenery of course is breathtaking , I had forgotten how incredibly beautiful it was.

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Our hotel is very small, a nice pool, rooms all on the ground floor. The food was good, not amazing but good. Staff were wonderful and our room was large and nice.
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The staff checked our Covid results on the Internet and thankfully we were negative and good to go. We were so relieved and then just chilled for the rest of the night

Feb 19, the big day has finally arrived. This is my friends first gorilla trek and first trip to Africa. I have done two previous treks to Uganda and one in Rwanda and found the one in Rwanda so much easier so chose to come here again.
Our lodge provided us with gators and after much agonizing about footwear I once again just wore my gortex hiking runners. We only travel with carry on so not much room for extra boots.
I love people watching at the meeting point, some folks look like they just came from a shopping trip to LL bean in all their crisp brand new safari gear, while others are in yoga pants and white runners

Our group was to see the new family Muhoza. A silverback broke away and found 10 females to join him and now have 8 youngsters making a family of 19. One baby was born that morning. This was supposed to be an easy trek as they were last spotted close to the base of the mountain and rarely go high.

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The gorillas had other plans. We drove up an extremely rough road for about twenty minutes or so until we got to the potato fields. One of the rangers rode with us which was great because we learned a lot from him about the gorilla family we were about to visit . There were seven of us, we hail from Canada, a fellow from Columbia, woman from Mexico City and another couple from Israel. There was one other fellow but never did talk to him. We were by far the oldest, actually I never saw anyone else much over 60. We are both 69.
Linda and I were the only ones who hired a porter, mine was a young woman who did not speak English and Linda had a lovely young man.

I was just in hospital in Bangkok for a few days at the end of my trip to Asia in November for a sudden and unexpected back issue where I couldn’t walk for a few days. I was advised not to come on this trip but this was all paid for and non refundable. I did lots of physiotherapy and small hikes beforehand and took drugs in the morning . I knew I could do it.

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We started to walk down a flat path for about 15 minutes and the ranger was talking to the trackers constantly. Patience was his name but he admitted he didn’t have any. He suggest we sit and wait for a half an hour cos the gorillas were still travelling and had headed up the mountain.
Patience finally heard from the trackers and we walked back to where we started, much to the surprise of our drivers. From there we walked through potato fields for another half hour or so and then headed up the mountain. It was very steep and there was not a path or trail of course, just what the guys had macheted through for us. It had not rained for a few days so it was hot but no mud. I was grateful for the gators and I had brought garden gloves for the stinging nettles which were needed.

My porter was awful. I have had porters before but I think this must have been her first day. Because of my back issues I welcomed the help, but she would grab my hand pull me and went too fast. When I let go of her hand she would walk in front and just let the branches hit me in the face and chest.
We got to a very steep part, straight up and the soil is so rich that it just falls way when you try to climb it. She was yanking on my arm and almost pulling it out of the socket. I actually yelled at her, I was so frustrated and worried about being hurt. Unbeknownst to me the ranger assigned a second woman to me as well. She was yanking on the other arm and grabbed so tight I ended up with a huge bruise
Finally Patience came and told them how to just lend an arm for support and let me pull myself up which was great
The other woman then grabbed my ass from behind with both hands and literally pushed my fat ass up that hill which I appreciated. I think the really steep part was around 30- 40 minutes but it is really all just a blur and I was not looking at my watch.

As I say it was very steep but now we were heading crosswise. Patience told us to put down our walking sticks and water bottle and get our cameras as we were there. He took my hand and assisted me the rest of the way.

Our first encounter was a mom and young one who we watched for about 10 minutes, and then made our way down the hill to find more moms and babies eating, sleeping, and playing. One gorilla was heading down the hill but we were in her way so she climbed a tree and went over us.

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Working our way down the hill we find the silverback and more females and babies eating and chilling. Linda was sitting down taking a photo when I looked over and saw a big female walking right towards her. The ranger came and put his hands on Linda’s shoulders and was talking ,( grunting) to the gorilla letting her know ‘everything is okay’ . She passed mere inches behind Linda and I was able to get it on video.
A little later another large female came and sat right beside me, maybe a foot away, to eat some especially tasty bamboo. The ranger told me ‘quick stand up’ which is not an easy feat at my age.

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We had to wear masks while we were with the gorillas as they are susceptible to our illnesses especially Covid. One guy continuously had his mask below his nose and Patience kept telling him to wear it properly and five minutes later it was down again. I eventually even yelled to him ‘ put your dam mask on’! Idiot
All too soon our hour is up and we make our way back to the parking lot. It was much easier going back because we had been slowly following them down for the past hour. It was a wonderful and very close and intimate visit.

We met a woman the next day who had asked for a challenging hike and it ended up to be a half hour walk through a field that was right beside the hotel they were staying in! The gorillas decided to come down that day.

So you just never know if your request for easy will be hard or hard will be easy. The gorillas don’t follow the script

Later in the afternoon we went to the Guardian Village which was fun, explaining life in Rwanda. There was dancing, singing and drumming and a mock marriage procession where I was the bride and carried to the honeymoon suite to meet my new husband. Great fun and a good income source for these people who used to be poachers
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The following morning we did the Golden Monkey trek which was supposed to be very easy and just over a half hour apparently. But once again they decided to head up the mountain. It was on an actual path unlike the gorilla hike and after going through the potato fields we made our way up the mountain for about an hour. It was very hot and again no rain. We hired porters again and this time my guy was fantastic.
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The golden monkeys were very cute and fun to watch. They are endangered and only found in Rwanda and Uganda .There were a few dozen together in the area we were in.

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We said goodbye to Rwanda after our short visit and caught the 5:30PM flight back to Nairobi .
It was such an amazing experience once again.

We were never asked for our yellow fever vaccine card, only proof of Covid vaccines upon arrival in Kenya which surprised me .
We headed back to Nairobi to start part two of our adventure.

Posted by debbep 06:06 Archived in Rwanda Comments (0)

Cambodia

Siem Reap

sunny 34 °C

November 11 to November 15, Days 41 to 45

We flew from Hanoi to Siem Reap in the afternoon and the arrival process was very smooth and fast for the visa on arrival. After we picked up our luggage we had an arranged pick up from Memorie D'Angkor Boutique hotel.
The staff at the hotel were wonderful and we were upgraded to a large suite which was nice.

The hotel arranged a car for us the following morning for 7AM to take us out to Banteay Srei before the heat got too intense. First stop was to get the Angkor pass. A three day pass for $62 USD good for any three days out of 10. I see Lana is anxiously waiting behind me for her pass ha ha.

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The crowds were not too bad which was nice, but it was very hot and humid even at that early hour.

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We stopped at a couple of more sites on the way back, but came back in the early afternoon for lunch and a rest in the room to read and escape the heat.

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A tuk Tuk was arranged for 8AM the following morning to visit Angkor Wat. I was feeling pretty bad from this cold so told Lana and Doug to go on without me and I just rested in the room. These are Dougs photos.

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That evening we took a Tuk Tuk to an Indian restaurant that was good and then walked around Pub Street for a bit. It was pretty crowded with lots of partiers.
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I felt a bit better the next morning so we all filed into the Tuk Tuk at 8AM and went off to Bayon temple, one of my favourites. Again the crowds were low but the heat and humidity very high. We walked around and over to the Elephant Terrace and then to Old Tom.

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Ta Prohm is my all time favourite and we arrived there just before noon. When we got there the crowds were very light, but a few smaller groups from France arrived and it got a lot busier. I love this temple.

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In the evening we took a tuk tuk to the Apsera Theatre to have dinner and watch some Cambodian folk dancing in a beautiful small theatre. The show was around an hour and a half and we really enjoyed it.

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Our short trip to see the temples of Siem Reap was over and we flew to Thailand for a few days to end our farewell to Asia trip. Thanks for following along. Until next time.....

Posted by debbep 02:04 Archived in Cambodia Comments (0)

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