PARIS AND BEYOND

You never thought we'd do it did you? Hello? You there? Yes, it's us - we're BACK with some more photos. But this is it, no more blogs from hereon in - unless we take it upon ourselves to travel overseas or something loony like that.

Oscar Wilde's grave - other prestigious folk in the neighbourhood include Jim Morrison, Chopin, Bizet and Edith Piaf.

Parisian Santas!

We'll always have Paris.

Lisa and our dear friend Helen (affectionately, Edwardo)

And it's goodbye from me and it's goodbye from him.

Thanks for sharing our holiday with us.

Home again home again...jiggerty jig.

In case any of you were wondering...we're home again.

Had a lovely last couple of days in Paris and nice dinner with our friend Helen on our last night. Fantastic to come back to long hot summer days and family christmasses (christmassi?).

One day, for you die hard blog fans (if there are any) we really will do a fuller blog and lots of pictures. Probably.

Paris. It's lovely but....

it's not home AND surprisingly Ian's ready to be done with our holiday (I could do this for YEARS!!!).

Yes, we're in Paris. Had a fabulous time in the UK (although our wallets didn't - England is jolly expensive). We would post photos but can't from our hostel SO....

when we do get a chance to write a more lengthy blog and post some photos you'll see:

the Lake District
the frozen Scottish highlands
numerous cute country pubs (with CUTE names like "Wig and Quill", "The Larrikan and Buttock" - believe it...or not)
lovely old castles
Eiffel Tower (and all the other Parisian bits we'll see over the next few days)

If we don't say it before the 25th, hope you all have a lovely Christmas with friends and family.

Much love and Christmas cheer from both of us.

Old blighty

It really is lovely being back in the UK. Shops you can walk into, out of or even just past without being hasseled to buy anything. We can even understand what people are saying most of the time.

On arrival from Morocco we made our way to our good friend Helen's place for some home cooked meals and TLC. The next day we wandered around the Tower of London before checking out the Christmas decorations/ lights/ shennanigans at various department stores (Harrods etc) and at the winter festival in Hyde Park. Lovely lovely.

On Monday we picked up a rental car, spent a couple of hours at London Zoo (catching up with an old friend) before heading onto Chester.

Tuesday was a lap of Chester's city wall (started by the romans don't ya know it) and a drive up to Windermere in the Lake District.

Wednesday was a fantastic day spent bumbling around the Lake District which was looking absolutely gorgeous. When the sun set we headed on up to friends Heley and Forbes in Scotland (Stirling to be exact).

Have spent the last couple of days catching up with our generous and lovely hosts (who have also had the honour and privilege of hosting me at their homes in Sydney and Perth (Australia) and spending some time in Glasgow and in the Highlands (we drove up to Glencoe today).

Anyway, pictures tell thousands of words so here you are....













......side note from Lisa: while in the UK I have felt just like Jane Austin (or Fanny Price or Elizabeth Bartlett or Emma et al, and Ian has morphed into Mark Darcy minus the wet shirt - for all you P & P folk)

So. Morocco.

Fascinating, fascinating place and we were glad to share our few days in Morocco with friends Jamie and Tiffany and, not to gloat, but our riad was half the price and twice as good! = ) Riad Dar Ihssane if anyone's thinking of travel to Morocco any time soon.

Our first day in Morocco was spent being whisked to the tanneries (Morocco has a healthy leather trade). Interesting biz visiting a tannery and unbelievably smelly (well, believable I guess but I've certainly never experienced anything like it!). Ian bought himself a lovely leather satchel but cannot use it due to stinkiness. Tried to mask stench with Tiffany's peppermint oil but the result is kinda like toilet spray in a stinky loo......NOT nice. Then spent the afternoon exploring the medina and souks (shopping gone mad - and in a country that doesn't have a Christmas season. We didn't partake although we were certainly invited to - a thousand times). We also checked out the Museum de Marrakesh and a wonderfully restored old building previously used to teach Islam to young boys.

Bit of a lazy day the next day bar a visit to some lovely gardens outside of the medina and a visit to the bus station to buy tickets to.....

Essouira, which is a small city on the coast. The countryside between Marrakesh and the coast is mostly flat although in the distance we could see the picturesque snow-capped Atlas mountains. Essouira is a walled town with fortified ramparts that we spent some time walking along. We also enjoyed looking at the fabulous array of fishing vessels (while dodging seagull poo) before taking our lunch near the waterfront at some touristy cafe. Rest of the afternoon was spent having a quick look in the market and avoiding dodgy young fellows selling happy/magic/hash cakes.

Other highlight of our time in Morocco was the trip to the Atlas Mountains (although poor Ian caught Morocco Bot and couldn't join us). Most memorable bits included visiting a berber house, a herb and spice centre and a couple of pretty average waterfalls. Our driver, who enjoys his tobacco, often stopped the van so he could have a fag (and left us to be harangued by the good Moroccan folk who felt obliged to press us into buying their stuff - in the same manner of the good Moroccan folk in the medina). Very scenic though and the day was beautiful and clear. Wish Ian could have enjoyed it with us. Unfortunately Moroccan Bot is catchy but we're both on the road to recovery.

Morocco (sort of)

No opportunity for photos yet and a French/Arabic keyboard that I can't get on top of but here's a quick note to say that Lisa and I are currently spending our days having a fabulous time in Marakesh. We are staying in a lovely riad (traditional two story house built around a central courtyard) that was converted to accommodation a few years ago.

As soon as we step out the door we have to start dodging the crowds, the bicycles, the mopeds, the scooters, the donkeys, the taxis, the porters and the hustlers while all the time being careful to not look at anything at all too closely lest we attract any extra attention; its all quite a fascinating challenge.

But we have a great base in which to retreat from the maddening crowds, so it all works out in the end.

Promise to write more and post some imqges when we get to the UK in the wéékend.

Barcelona and cheeky monkeys

Have spent three wonderful days in Barcelona - it really is a delightful city bar the cheeky monkeys we encountered on our first night here. I refer to the scoundrels that attempted to pick pocket us. This happened on two occasions within the space of an hour. All possessions and dosh intact because we're savvy travelers now, so we are.

Had a wonderful first day visiting some of the Gaudi modernist masterpieces including the famous La Sagrada Familia. An ongoing project estimated to be completed in 2020. Foundation stone laid in 1882 and only half way done so can't imagine how they'll knock the rest off in the next 12 years! Extraordinary church though and unlike anything we've seen or will ever see! When visiting Gaudi museum, read that one of his university professors said he wasn´t sure they were giving degree to a genius or madman - very apt and says a lot when you see his stuff. Also visited La Pedrera, Gaudi's best known secular creation - again, beautiful and bizarre.

Next day slept in - it's getting very chilly in these parts so felt like being cooped up for a bit. We have been fortunate enough to stay at a hostel where there are no other guests (probably because of chilly season), a fabulous kitchen, free internet - the works. So am making the most of it! We did venture out to see more Gaudiness before taking a lovely stroll along Barcelona's La Ribera (or waterfront).

Today we made a day trip to a 1000 year old Benedictine monastery in Montserrat which is not too far from Barcelona. The monastery sits on the side of a 1200 metre high mountain which we didn't climb, but rather took a gondalier. Jolly cold day but worthwhile! Highlights included attending mass and hearing the wonderful boys' choir, taking a funicular to the top of the mountain, and then another to a cave where a statue of the Virgin Mary was found a long, long time ago (similar story to Christmas story in that shepherds in the area were guided by some kind of light to the cave where statue was). Hmmm. All very Catholic (Mary gets a LOT of cred).

And that´s us. Madrid tomorrow and Morocco after that. Moving south and looking for the sun.