One day in Bilbao.

We spent a cloudy old day walking around Bilbao admiring the architecture and taking in the amazing artworks before we boarded the 25 hour ferry across the Bay of Biscay to Portsmouth.

Hanging out at the Guggenheim Museum

Bourgeois' Maman Spider

Jeff Koon's Puppy

ArchetecturalLee

Christmas in Pau.

We spent Christmas in Pau with  David, Sandra, William and Guillaume. On Christmas morning, when we stepped outside, we saw a thin layer of white on all the roofs.
It was the first frost of the season!
 ALMOST a white Christmas.

 For breakfast we had delicious smoked salmon and eggs on toast and then opened our presents. Maisy, William and I had bought and wrapped up a Barbie doll for Guillaume as a trick, and in return William and Guillaume wrapped up an onion and nuts for us, it was pretty funny!!! Guillaume played with his Barbie all morning rearranging all the different body-parts and turning it into a headless monster.

Guillaume also got a kite and a trumpet. William got a magic box and a puzzle. Maisy got hoop earrings and Moroccan pyjamas. I got a beautiful heart locket necklace and a watch. Then we all got a massive surprise…we all got our own Kindle with a different coloured case with books already loaded onto it. I had the Skulduggery series, Percy Jackson series and Twilight series on mine. I was so totally amazed! Maisy spent as much time on hers that day fiddling and working out EVERYTHING, she was even more than a quarter of the way through one of the Percy Jackson books by the end of the day.

As a tradition, David and Sandra took us to the Pau Race track to watch the horse race. I thought number 3, a stunning brown horse would win and that number 4, a magnificent Black Beauty would come second looking at the shape of the horses, their stride and how the jockey was positioned. Amazingly the 2 that I guessed got the places I thought they would and the number three only won by a nose. I don’t know how I guessed that!??? But sadly, all the horses were panting so heavily and breathing the frosty air some had very, very red nostrils that looked like they were bleeding.

Then it was time to go back home and have a Christmas feast with one of the neighbours, Albert. We had turkey and loads of roast vegetables with brussels sprouts and chestnuts and heaps of gravy, then lemon tart, toffee oranges and a chocolate log for pudding. All D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!!!
I loved it all. 

We even fired some party poppers and party crackers with small gifts and jokes;

What is always coming, but never appears?

Tomorrow.

&

Why did the skeleton not go to the Christmas party?

Because he had no-body to go with him.

That night we watched Ratatouille and then Doctor Who.
 Such a fabulous Christmas.
We were all so lucky.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE
 AND A HAPPY NEW-YEAR!!!!

From Charlotte
X X X X

A White Christmas Eve.

The day before Christmas we went on a freezing walk in the snow. It was meant to be a 2 hour walk but we were all so frozen we could only stand it for like 20 minutes. David and Sandra took us up to the top of the Pyrenees. It was a windy road all the way up and I don’t like windy roads at all but the snow outside my window was bedazzling. It helped me to forget how I was feeling. At the top we got out of the car and threw snow balls at each other and soon it was too cold to move (or at least that is how I felt). Charlotte, William and Guillaume slid down a little hill and got wet bottoms and looked like penguins sliding on their bellies. Mum and I fell over on the ice. It was so slippery and then we had to go so carefully.

We all decided we wouldn’t continue on our walk so dad and David walked back down the hill to bring the car up for us.  We drove a little bit further and then we were in Spain again. We all had a cup of hot chocolate except Charlotte who had a cold chocolate. We also had a big slice each of Spanish chocolate cake. There was a fireplace in the café but it couldn’t even warm us up. We were sooooooo cold.

The Carr Brothers direction sense...

When we were all in the car ready to drive back down David came up to us holding a plastic water bottle, he explained to us that if you keep a little water in the bottle with the mountain air and screw the lid on tight when we get down to our normal altitude the bottle will crumple from the pressure of the air so we tried it. The bottle did actually slowly cave in and it was like someone had squeezed the air out. We also all had a guess at what time we would get home. Our ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival). Mum guessed exactly right. Boooo! Any way it was a wonderful white Christmas Eve.

M@D!$oN

School in France.

Whilst we were staying in France with our cousins, William and Guillaume,

we thought it would be an excellent experience for Maisy and I to go to school for a little while with Guillaume. So on Guillaume’s second last day of school Maisy and I joined in. Mum walked us all to the gates, and by the time we were in the playground Maisy and I were like tourist attractions. Guillaume said there were only 108 people in his school but I think the whole 108 people were staring at us. With Guillaume and I a clear head taller than anyone else everyone came to look at us. Guillaume got asked more than 100 times what our names were, how old we were and where we were from. When the lunch bell rang we were lining up for class. The teacher was also smaller than me and we were the tallest in the class. We were doing Christmas art and craft. We made clever Christmas cards and baubel type decorations. The card was an A4 piece of paper folded in half with a neat rectangle cut out of the front. In the inside of the card we stuck a sticky sheet of see through contents and the decorated it with little sequences and stickers. Because the front was now sticky, we then had to put another piece of contents on top so the sequences were stuck in the middle and could not escape. We then wrote ‘Joyeux Noël’ meaning Merry Christmas. The next step was to cut 4-5 circles out of wrapping paper and then stick them on the card to make balloons. In the end, the card looked like this:

inside

front

We had an excellent time at French School and would love to go again. Thank you Guillaume for being our translator.

Charlotte

JJJJJJJ

San Sebastian.

We all loved this town in northern Spain but only spent a very short day here.

Great tapas.
Beautiful shopping.
Spectacular coastline.
Marked down as a place to return to.
San Sebastian  Donostia

A drink with old friends - Santillana del Mar.

Before going back to my brother's in Pau for Christmas, we looked up an old friend that I grew up with in Harrow. Rob is now married to Becky and has Francesca (10) and Tobias (6) and now lives near Santander in north western Spain.

Living on 13 acres of countryside with beautiful sea views, they have renovated a large farm house that now combines a family home with 3 self-contained flats that get rented out as a nice little income. We stayed 5 nights and the days went by so fast.

The time was spent enjoying wine and beer and great food and hospitality only to be marred by a fall by Francesca that ended in hospital for 6 stitches above the eye and 2 front teeth broken off. She was so brave and was back to herself the next day. What a trooper!

After Christmas we left Davids on the 28^th Dec to get the ferry from Bilbao to Portsmouth and guess who was on the ferry to surprise us??? ------------------ More drinks!!






Thanks for a super week Becky and Rob.
Hope to see you Down Under sometime soon.
Paul

Picos de Europa.

We have been staying with Rob, Becky, Francesca and Tobias in Santillana del Mar in the north of Spain. Rob and dad were friends at school a loooooong time ago. Yesterday we went on an 18 kilometre hike in the Picos de Europa.

First we went on a cable-car up to the top of the mountain. When we got up there, there was snow. We went on a metal grated floor over- hanging the cliff and we all jumped on it, and got our photo taken. Then we set off for the long, long walk over mountains back down to the little town.

Rob was in the lead with 2 baguettes hanging out of his back pack {they looked like ski poles}. We followed him wherever he went because we knew we were going to put chocolate in them for lunch. The Spanish like to eat a roll with half a block of chocolate in it. Dad really liked it but I had to eat mine separately.   So about 3-4 hours later we stopped by a river to eat and drink water. Tobias and I walked up stream a little, crossing over one way then back to the other.

Another few hours later we were walking in the woods and a big, black bull jumped down onto the path and blocked our way. Dad dared Rob to go over and try to get it off the path. Rob went about 5 metres close to the bull and tried clapping but it didn’t even look up from drinking in the puddle. It had huge, pointy horns so we had to go up into the bushes and around on the high ground and 20 metres after the bull we hopped back down on the well-worn track.

After another couple of hours we were all very tired and our thighs were burning red hot and by then we were at the end of our walk, it ended where we had left the car. And to our delight and joy there was a restaurant there that sold very good hot chocolates.

 So it ended like this, we all had a hot chocolate each and some nuts. What a lovely day.

M@D!$oN

Back to Barcelona.

After a fabulous 5 weeks in Morocco we were back on the 26 hour ferry to Barcelona. Our original plan was to drive up through Portugal and Spain but a smashed car window and staying an extra week in Northern Africa we were pressed for time and needed the glass replaced (in France for insurance). The boat trip back was very easy this time and we decided to stay in Castelldefels again.
It was fiesta time in Spain with Constitution Day and the Immaculate Conception which gave the Spanish a 4 day weekend and another reason to party. 

The little town of Castelldefels put on a great fireworks display right on the street infront of our very eyes. I'm sure it would have broken every rule of Australian Health and Safety regulations but we had a spectacular time dodging the sparks and waving away smoke. The town was lit up with Christmas lights and a pretty Nativity scene. The night market was thriving and the girls had their hair cut and coloured (see below).

One last shopping trip into Barcelona to find Santa and learn about Uncle Pooper (not his real name - I can't write it here ) who teaches people that at Christmas time no matter how poor you are, you always have something to give...
The streets were heaving with Christmas shoppers and we had never seen so many people since 5pm on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City. It was mayhem but everyone was happy and the Christmas spirit was alive and sparkling.

Happy Christmas

JoyfulLee

Last night while we were walking around the town, Maisy and I got our haircuts. Dad and Mum thought that we should both go for a different style sooooo Maisy decided that she would try a side fringe. Then when she heard that this hair dressers salon was known locally for dying hair, Maisy thought she would have a go at a blue and red streak, the colour of the Barcelona football team. Dad showed me a picture of a lady with a fringe just above the eyes and with a hot pink streak. The salon didn’t have pink though, so instead I decided to get a red streak and a fringe. Here’s how it turned out.

                                               Charlotte

Fantasia.

Mum and dad had both heard about a horse show called Fantasia which had been recommended by a friend, and they knew how much I loved horses so as a treat, they booked 4 tickets to go to Fantasia.
www.ilove-marrakesh.com/chezali

At 8pm we walked next door to a tour company, that had organised a mini bus to pick us up. It was about a half an hour trip to Chez Ali, where the show was held, and the mini bus was packed with other people from around the world.

When we pulled up at Chez Ali, there was a row of smart Arabian horses in 2 neat lines in front of the main entrance, allowing us to walk through. The Arabian horses were very large and had thick, thick necks. The men on the horses let us hold their guns whilst we took our pictures with them. The horses were all different colours and were all beautifully groomed and decorated. I wished I could ride on them. We then walked through the horse gate and were seated for dinner.

We sat in a lovely, big blue tent with some other tourists. Musicians and dance groups would come around performing and would try and get you up to join in. They weren’t that enthusiastic because they have to do it twice every week and you could see it on their faces. Then after they had performed, dinner came.

Entrée was a bowl of vegetable soup which I devoured. For main there was half a lamb spread across the table. I did NOT touch that!!! Then there was another main, it was another massive serving of couscous, vegetables and chicken. I ate some of this and for dessert there was an excellent selection of fruits and biscuits. I think with so much food, you could have fed double the amount of people. It was then time to watch the show.

We were the ONLY people prepared for rain and in this instance, the only people who didn’t get wet. We had each a rain coat, a towel to sit on and blankets.

The show started off with a line of horses galloping down the arena as fast as they could and then all of a sudden the men on the horses swung their guns around and fired them into the air at the same time to make it sound like one very loud bang. It made me jump and mum screamed. They did this lots more times during the show. Then one by one the horses all galloped at full speed in a circle with their masters performing tricks of balance, sitting side saddle no handed, jumping on and off the horse, wrapping their feet around a stirrup and pretending to fall off. All of this was amazing for me and I couldn’t believe half of the things I was seeing. We then saw a little boy race around the track on his donkey and then stood up while he was galloping. One clever horse then paraded around the arena prancing, side stepping, walking backwards and even standing up on 2 feet. At the end of his performance, the clever horse did an amazing bow where he bent one front leg and pointed the other ahead of him and lowered his head. I was so impressed by him. In fact, I was impressed with every horse, donkey and camel in the show.

In the finale, all of the horses (22) were led by a camel and a donkey in 2 straight lines and fired their guns all in sync.  Then each animal paraded around so that everyone could see them. I called the camel Stumpy because although he was big he had tiny, knobbly legs. I felt sorry for him because he also had a wire muzzle around his nose and mouth and it was really digging into him. He had very watery eyes and a sad, sad face. I wish I could have freed him. I also wish I could have been in the show with the horses and made friends with them, for I really love horses, donkeys and camels.

Thank you very much mum and dad  xxx
Charlotte
Charlotte

A donkey ride and cooking lesson in a 200 year old cave.

A few days ago Charlotte and I woke up and we were working on our schoolwork in the courtyard of our Kasbah near Ait Ben Haddou and when we stopped for a break we found 2 really cute donkeys outside.

Mum and dad came out and told us we were going on a 3 hour donkey ride and a picnic. We called the donkeys Gwenny and Lionel. My first one that I rode on was called Gwenny, and she loved eating anything green and drinking at the streams. We stopped half way at a stream and Charlotte and I swapped. When I got on Lionel he literally jumped across the stream. He was always in a trot and never wanted to walk.

To make a donkey go you say rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr or TOCK-TOCK by suction cupping your tongue to the top of your mouth. To stop you say ssssssssssshhhhhhh and pull back on the rope.

There is no saddle, you just sit on a blanket and there are no stirrups or reins. You just hang on to a piece of rope and jiggle around. Some of the time I went side saddle and sometimes I hoped off and walked with my donkey.

Girl donkeys don’t make much noise but boy donkeys are really loud and EEEEEAAAWWWW a lot.

In Morocco the donkeys are really small and cute. The bigger ones are called mules but they are the size of normal donkeys.

Gold mine caves in the cliff face.

When we got there we saw a mountain with lots of holes and soon discovered it was a 200 year old mine for gold. We tied the donkey’s feet together and left them on the flat and then we climbed up the cliff and into the caves.

Brahim and Abdul had packed a tagine and lots of fresh vegetables and chicken. In the cave we all had a cooking lesson on how to make a tagine and it was the best one I have ever had.

I hope that one day I can go back and ride a donkey.

M@D!$oN

How to cook a tagine

Things you will need:

Salt, pepper, mixed spices, potatoes, beans, carrots, eggplant, onion, garlic, tomatoes, chicken, zucchini, bread, gas fire, clay tagine, oil.

Method:

v Clean and peel all the vegies and cut them thickly.

v Heat the Tagine on a low temperature.

v Put in oil and onions first.

v Put the garlic and potatoes in.

v Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

v Make a hole in the middle and put the chicken there.

v Put a lid on and let it cook for 10 minutes.

v Open the lid after 10 minutes and add more oil if needed.

v Then flip the chicken and add carrots and tomatoes.

v Put lid on for another 10 minutes to let it cook.

v  Then put beans and zucchini in and the mixed spices.

 v   Put the lid on to let the ingredients cook for another 10 minutes

v Now you should be able to hear it sizzling and smell the spices and you should be hungry.

You don’t need to set the table when you eat a tagine because you eat with your hands and a piece of bread.

Always use your right hand to eat.

Extremes of life and landscapes in Morocco.

Our journey in Morocco began in Tangier where we disembarked from our 25 hour ferry trip from Barcelona. The hour long process to pass customs and passport control was an exercise in patience as our paperwork got lost somewhere between one policeman and the next customs officer. In the end, nothing at all happened as we sat in the car for one very hot hour contemplating how under-prepared we were for this part of our journey and then all of a sudden we were allowed to pass and Paul’s blood pressure came back down.

We drove high over the mountains into the clouds where we could have had an incredible view north to Spain with the Atlantic to the west and the Mediterranean to the east if not for the pea-soup fog that blacked out the light and heat.

Quite by accident we found ourselves in the Spanish seaside town of Sebta. It was the long way to Tetouan but we were finding our way in a new world without a Sat Nav. Tetouan saw us driving through a massive sheep market with shepherds and traders handing over jumbuks for dirhams.

The light was fading as we continued driving south through arid tundra and pot-holed roads winding around the country. Darkness had long fallen when we drove into Chefchaouen and somehow found our way to Riad Baraka and a clean and colourful place to stay with our host Ann for 4 nights.

From Chefchaouen it was a wet days drive to Fez. Coming into Fez we were followed for more than an hour by a man on a motorbike even reappearing after we stopped to go shopping at Marjane. It was late, wet and we were hopelessly lost when he called out to us on our second lap around a large roundabout to ask if we needed help. Of course we did, so what else could we do but follow him and hope. We seemed to go on a very long route around Fez until he stopped at a carpark and tried to tout us for his services as a guide and stay at 'his' riad. Paul put on his policeman’s hat and we made our escape to call Anthony, the owner of the riad we had already arranged. He came to meet us and walk us through the medina in the rain with all our suitcases in tow to the sanctuary of Riad del Waha. Anthony had moved here 4 years ago from Melbourne and now, one wife, a two year old daughter and 3 riad renovations later he is one of the locals and was a tremendous help and wonderful friend to us for our week long stay in Fez.

Fez is the largest car-free urban area in the world with over 9000 streets and alleyways only accessible by foot, it was thanks to Anthony’s instructions and a bit of good luck that we never got too lost during our stay in the Fez medina. It probably did help that the first three days were rainy and we didn’t venture far and then the next 4 sunny days were Eid Al Adha and the streets were somewhat empty.

Thinking we had survived without getting lost we left Fez for the hour long drive to Ifrane. Well, long over an hour later we were still driving in circles around the outskirts of Fez trying to find our way out. The problem was that what signs did exist were written in Arabic and the people we stopped to ask only spoke Arabic, French or Spanish. So in frustration, Charlotte pulled out her French dictionary and quickly learnt how to say left, right, roundabout and straight ahead. The next stop was a friendly policeman who put us back on track.

Ifrane was beautiful, however, we had no time to stop as we needed to meet our guide in Azrou.  

Brahim was to become our guide and friend over the next 10 days, taking us to the real Morocco and sharing with us his generosity and kindness to everyone he meets. Whether it was an old lady by the side of the road who needed a lift to get to the bus stop, a sister with a toothache or a hungry stranger, Brahim showed us so often that everyone needs help at different times in their lives and while we are healthy and able - it is our time to give. The girls really got into the spirit and we shared, pencils, clothes, lollies, medicine, food and our time to help those in need. It was very rewarding and hopefully our eyes and hearts can remain open.

We drove towards the mountains and to our utter disbelief we found ourselves in knee deep snow and wide open blue skies. Brahim told us that three nights earlier, the snow fell and 200 cars were trapped overnight in the freezing hills. Another lucky choice of days for us.

 

We spent 2 days traveling through the snowy Atlas Mountains. Stopping late one afternoon at a crater lake to view an incredible sunset we turned away from the sinking sun to be stunned by a full moon rising behind us through the valley. It took my breath away. Sensational !!

Sun setting over the Atlas Mountains and then within minutes

 we had the full moon rising on the other side of the lake.

Driving into Middelt at night we passed the King’s entourage of about 800 official vehicles driving from his visit to Erfoud back to Marrakech. It was an unbelievable procession of all sorts of vehicles that went into the night and still the next day, more and more of the King’s cars were driving past.

Middelt itself is a thriving town surrounded by snow covered mountains. Newly surfaced roads and an abundance of crisp new Moroccan flags lined the streets into Erfoud for our (or maybe the King’s) visit.

From the snow covered mountains we drove another half day off road from Merzouga to reach the edge of the Sahara desert. The flat, dark plains gave way to red sandy dunes however it was night time yet again when we reached our final destination for the day.

In darkness, we packed our backpacks for 2 days in the desert and boarded our ships of the desert to take us 6 bumpy kilometres over the dunes to our campsite. If not for the full moon lighting the sandy path I don’t know how we would have found our way.

Bed for us that night was a mat on the sand under a multi-coloured tent made of Berber rugs. The blankets were many and heavy, but so warm. I fell deaf to the moans of “There’s sand in my bed” and fell asleep to the sound of desert drums and the distant murmur of voices from the campfire.

The one and only night of my stay in Morocco that I wasn’t woken by the 4.30am call to prayer (as there are no minarets in the desert), Paul woke me and convinced me to leave the warm comfort of my Bedouin slumber to climb the monstrous sand dune behind our camp to view a sunrise over the Sahara. How could I say no. So half asleep and very cold we trudged up and up. It was like climbing Ayers Rock covered in quicksand. Every step sunk ankle deep into the sand and slid half a step back down slope. It seemed impossible to make any ground and nothing was going to stop the sun from appearing. Our burning lungs could hardly draw in another chilly breathe and our legs were trembling jelly when we collapsed and turned to see an amazing sunrise. The light gave colour to the sand and showed us the unending salmon pink dunes that were hidden in the darkness when we arrived the night before. We sat on our dune and watched the camp wake up and the desert come to life. It was extraordinary.

One lunch stop in this first week with Brahim captured the moment for me.  We stopped by the side of the road at an eating house of sorts. The girls joined a young boy kicking a soccer ball against a crumbling wall. A giant JCB with back hoe and bucket pulled up in front of us while three men tried to fill the petrol tank of their Renault from a plastic bucket. The diesel spilled down the road as onlookers stopped to look and light up cigarettes as they offered advice. We ate a chicken tagine with our hands and fed the town cats living under our table the leftover pieces of offal. A man in muddy jellaba with no teeth came up to our table and told Brahim he was hungry, so we made him up a plate and he was very grateful.

A camera cannot record the experience of life in an ancient place. It is only through living the moment and etching it in our memories that we can remember some things.

NomadicLee