What a Load of Bloggers: 2022

Thursday, October 20, 2022

Morocco 24 September 2022

Took the train from Biggleswade straight through to Gatwick south terminal then the airport shuttle to the north terminal. Flight on time - hooray, and the airport queues at Marrakech were short, unlike on my last visit.

We drove from Marrakech in the lovely warm weather through Asni and small Berber villages to Iimlil where we decamped and walked for an hour to our comfortable and hospitable riad - the Dar Tagine.

The Dar Tagine is set in a lovely valley above the village Aroumd. Sunrise, sunset and the local mosque below:

The area is peaceful and full of walnut and apple orchards. Scenes in and around the village below. Day two was a bit damp!

Before the tea ceremony where Jo and I were transformed to become Fatima and Mohamed.

Large lumps of sugar. The Berber people like their mint tea sweet!

Very tasty nibbles to go with the tea. The nuts coated with fennel seeds were particularly tasty.

Our guide, Abdeljalil was an absolutely wonderful man - cheerful, funny, gentle, knowledgeable and a very capable mountain man.

On our orientation walk around the villages we were followed by a dog - here with a goat's leg in its mouth. Didn't see any three-legged goats though.

Having crossed the flood plain we are about to enter the National Park from the south, travelling up the Isougouane valley, past the small settlement of Sidi Chamharouch and its shrine. We stop for fresh orange juice. Then its on to the dreaded Refuge du Toubkal.

At the refuge we crammed into a small room. The six ladies slept on the bottom bunks and the three gents on the top. Hard to describe the experience really, the word squalor comes to mind...

Our hosts at the Riad Dar Tagine provided marvellous food. Tagine, vegetable and couscous are staples. All accompanied by tea. The roast chicken was superb!

My lungs were giving me grief at about 3500m on Day 4 and I didn't even try to make it to the summit of Toubkal on Day 5. It came as no surprise that when I got home I tested positive for covid.

However, the rest of the group made it to the summit and well done them! What a great bunch of companions they were.

Wednesday, September 21, 2022

Rome, September 2022

(Click on the photographs to enlarge them)

We stayed at the Trevi Palace Luxury Apartments - not at all accurately titled but basically a three-star hotel. Comfortable enough and a good starting point for walks. It was just a few steps from the ever and very crowded Trevi Fountains. The fountains are indeed very impressive but the size and density of the crowding takes the edge of the experience.

Santa Maria in Aracoeli

Piazza Madonna di Loreto viewed from the magnificent Il Vittoriano.

Il Vittoriano is the monument to Victor Emmanuel II and provides some of the best free views in Rome.

From Il Vittoriano looking towards the Colosseum.

Saint Bambino in Santa Maria

Santa Maria

Filling up the water bottle at the Baraccia Fountain at the bottom of the Spanish Steps

Spanish Steps with Trinita dei Monti at the top

The Temple of Antonius & Faustina in The Forum. A church has been built behind the facade of the ancient temple.

In the Piazza della Minerva. A very small obelisk held up by an elephant.

The beautifully decorated Galleria Sciarra.

The frescoes were completed in 1895 and depict Roman ladies' fashions of the period.

Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza. Beautiful!

Pasquino the gossiping statue

Piazza Navona. The unexpectedly cloudy morning gave us a break from the 35 degree heat.

The Pantheon. This is one of the best preserved ancient temples of the ancient world and now the church of Santa Maria ad Martyres. The dome is the widest masonry dome in Europe. At its centre is a 27ft diameter circular hole through which the sunlight, rain and, on very rare occasions, the snow can enter.

Il Villa Borghese

The Borghese is a relatively small but spectacular museum containing marvellous Bernini sculptures and a collection of paintings that includes some by Caravaggio.

The rape of Prosperina

Venus Victrix

Anointed by John the Baptist

Apollo & Daphne

Sleeping Hermaphrodite - positioned so that you cannot see the front!

St Jerome

The Vatican may be the world's smallest nation but it houses what has to be the world's most staggeringly huge collection of sculptures and paintings in its museums.

The entrance area to the museums is like an airport concourse and the crowds were enormous - sometimes uncomfortably so. There would be many casualties if an evacuation alarm sounded I am sure.

You need to have a very good knowledge of the museums to be able to find and enjoy the key exhibits without a guide. Our guide, Pasquale, was excellent and the radio earpieces enabled us to hear his detailed commentary. Fact/fiction: If you were to spend one minute looking at each of the exhibits it would take you two years to complete your visit. We had a good 3 hours!