Some Catching Up

Life has been pretty crazy the last few months.  We have been on so many trips and visited so many wonderful places that I have forgotten to blog about the everyday things we do.  I have also had to say goodbye to two wonderful people over the last few weeks, not fun.

May 1st 2011, our 12th anniversary.  We went to the Hermitage Garden in Bayreuth.  The flowers were beautiful and the sun was shining, what more could you want?

Emerson and Townsend climbing on some rocks at the garden

Julian liked all the flowers

Oma enjoying the fountains

Family photo at the Hermitage garden

May 2nd.  I took Oma to Nuremberg to visit with her cousin Erica.  I think Oma really enjoyed the visit with her cousin.

May 6th.  I convinced Paige to come and spend a few days with the family before our big trip to Morocco.  We went on a river boat cruise down the Danube river to a cute Monastery.

Oma enjoying the view from the deck of the boat.  The boat ride takes you right through a beautiful gorge, it's very peaceful.

A view of the Monastery as you come around the river bend

Julian's favorite thing to do at the Monastery is throw rocks in the water.  Julian and I headed down to the water while Oma and Paige enjoyed walking around the Monastery and chapel.

May 6th.  Townsend had his "crossing over" ceremony.  He is no longer a Tiger scout anymore, now he is a Wolf scout.  I really don't know anything about scouting but I had to walk over the bridge with him to symbolize his crossing over.  Sort of corny but I think he was proud of himself for getting his Tiger badge.  Emerson wasn't at the ceremony because he was sick, but he also got his Tiger badge.

Mommy helping Townsend with his new bandana.

Oma left Germany on May 12th.  What?  How am I supposed to get along without Oma?  I had to do laundry again for the first time since the end of March!  Oma was such a wonderful guest.  She was very helpful with Julian and watched him each morning so I could go to the gym.  She was a great help in the kitchen and I am truly missing all the wonderful cakes she made.  We love you Oma and we will see you in Utah in a few weeks.

Paige left Germany yesterday, May 29th.  Here is a photo of her playing Operation with the twins.  I don't know what I'm going to do with Paige gone.  Christmas will be so lonely without her here.  She was so much fun to have visit, she was great with my boys and always let me come to her house for a break when I didn't feel like being a mom anymore.  Goodbye Paige, we will miss you but we know you will have great adventures in Alaska.

Morocco, Part Two

Monday morning (May 9th) we woke up to a beautiful sunny day.  What a great way to start our trip into the mountains outside Marrakesh.  Our destination for the day was Imlil, the jumping off point for trekking up the mountains.  We did not come prepared for a full 2 day trek, required to hike up to the top of Djebel Toubkal, but we did have a fun 4 hours exploring the foothills and the villages surrounding Imlil.

Hyrum and I in the cab at the beginning of our journey (remember this photo, we'll call it the "before" shot)

Paige chatting with the taxi driver in Arabic.  I love this photo.

The beautiful Atlas mountains

Many people use donkeys for transportation, the poor animals looked extremely overworked and underfed.

Visiting Morocco in the springtime is great, everything is green and fresh.

Paige and I on our hike

So, we were on a trail to what we thought might be the right destination but just to make sure we asked these two boys if we were heading the right way.  I guess they assumed we needed personal guides because they insisted on showing us the way and then, of course, wanted money for their time.

They did lead us to a pretty neat waterfall, we probably wouldn't have found this on our own.

Ummmm, is this a trail?

I'm not 100% positive these kids knew where they were going but we sure got a great hike and an insiders look into how the locals travel around the foothills..

 If you look closely you can see the town of Armed in the background.  We had hiked up there because we were told it had the best view of the mountains.  Unfortunately, by the time we got up there it was rainy and the mountains were covered in fog.  Oh well, we still had a great time.

A highlight of the trip, hearing the call to prayer from the mountain village of Armed echoing off the surrounding mountains, magical.

These ladies obviously didn't want their picture taken...oops.

Crossing the river on a "Berber bridge" Not quite so easy as it might seem.

On our hike back to Imlil we met this guy selling things from his little shop.  Paige and I both bought earrings from him.  He was very interesting to listen to and quite funny.  He kept saying, "no money no honey, no worry, chicken curry."

Right as we got into Imlil it started raining pretty hard.  We stopped at a local cafe and ordered some hot mint tea, it warmed us right up.

And this is the "after" shot.  We were pretty exhausted after our adventures so we slept during the two hour taxi drive back to Marrakesh.

Back in Marrakesh Paige and I got the obligatory henna tattoo's.  

Paige and I showing off our henna.

After a long day we decided to have a quiet evening.  We went to this bakery near our hotel and picked out a few treats....

...then we took the treats to the rooftop of our hotel where we watched the sun set and enjoyed watching the Djemâa el Fna come to life at night.

Tuesday, May 10th, our last day in Morocco.  We had seen enough of the crazy markets and wanted to escape the heat and madness of the city.  There are many gardens in Marrakesh but we decided to pay the small fee to get into the Majorelle Garden.  This garden was owned by the designer Yves Saint Laurent.  It was sure an oasis amid a loud and dirty city.

This garden was the perfect setting to say goodbye to Marrakesh.  It was a really hot day but inside the gardens it was about 20 degrees cooler.  There were little streams and fountains.  Tall bamboo groves grew everywhere, and the beautiful blue color that was used to paint all the buildings was amazing.  Goodbye Morocco, I don't know if I will see you again but you have given me wonderful memories and a new gratitude for what I have.

Morocco, Part One

My sister Paige had a long list of places she wanted to visit while she was stationed in Germany.  She crossed all of the places off her list except Morocco and she is leaving at the end of May.  So, being the wonderful sister that I am, I volunteered myself and Hyrum to accompany her to Morocco so she could feel like she had completed all she wanted to do and see while here in Europe. 

A great big "THANK YOU" goes to Oma who watched our boys for us so we could go play in Africa...What an amazing and generous woman!

I never thought I would visit Africa, I guess I was a little scared of the whole idea of going to someplace that was so foreign and, in my mind, hostile.  I have to say I really enjoyed the trip.  Everyone was very friendly and kind and willing to help out lost tourists (for a fee of course!)  That was one of the crazy things, no matter where you turned people were asking for money.  Money to take their picture, money to show you where something is located, money to look around their workplace, etc.  At first I thought it was a bit rude but in the end I realized this is how they live, they survive off the tourists that visit.  I didn't feel so bad giving them a few dollars here and there, I have so much when compared to what they have.  Visiting Morocco gave me a great lesson in humility and being grateful for the many things I have.

We left from our house, Saturday May 7th, to drive 4 hours to the Frankfurt/Hahn airport, our first flight with the ultra cheap Ryan Air Airline.  When we arrived at the airport in Mararakesh we experienced culture shock just trying to secure a taxi from the airport to our hotel.  You never know if the price they quote you is a fair price or it they can tell you are tourists and want to squeeze you of every penny they can.  We were grateful for Paige and her Arabic language skills, I think she shocked many a taxi driver when she busted out with her Arabic.

There are a lot of photos here but you have to really visit yourself to truly understand this place.

The courtyard of our hotel.  All three of us stayed in the same room, I felt safer that way.

Cafe Argana.  Al-Qaeda planted a bomb here the week before that killed 16 people, this cafe was about a block from our hotel.  I have to admit, the first evening we were walking around the square I was totally nervous and anxious about everything and everybody...I even had myself a mini panic attack.  Don't worry, after the first night I calmed down and enjoyed the rest of the time we spent in Morocco.

There were lots of people in the marketplace, Djemâa el Fna, selling food, playing drums, dancing, charming snakes and painting henna.  This man is holding a cobra, inches from his face.  When Hyrum didn't give him enough money for this photo he started chasing him with the snake...needless to say I was scared out of my mind...I don't like snakes.

We decided to get a nice feel for the layout of the city by taking a carriage ride around.  It was sort of nerve wracking because the carriages share the road with insane taxi drivers and crazy men on motorcycles.  Those horses have nerves of steel to weave in and out of that traffic day and night.

Djemâa el Fna at night.  All the stalls have bright lanterns and the locals come out at night after the heat of the day has passed.

We tried a bit of this Moroccan dessert, sort of like a really dry pudding.  They give you a glass of hot tea to wash it down.  Very spicy, very interesting.

 The next morning we headed out of town a bit to see where they cure animal skins to make leather.  On our way we passed what we later found was a common sight, a giant pile of garbage with multiple mangy cats enjoying the leftovers.

The tanneries.  Let me quote from our Fodor's guidebook.  "For a whiff of Marrakesh life the old way, the tanneries are a real eye-waterer, not least because of the smell of acrid pigeon excrement, which provides the ammonia that is vital to the dyeing process."  Why did we want to see this?  I don't know.  The smell stays with you for a while.  I couldn't believe the workers that were standing, waist deep in these vats full of toxic chemicals and "pigeon shit" as our guide called it.

One of the many vats full of sheep hides.  They soak for over 2 months before they are dried and stretched and prepared for leather goods.  Do not go here if you are a member of PETA!

Our next stop was El Badi Palace.  This 16th century palace is now sandstone ruins but you could tell it was impressive in its day.  

Some of the mosaics still survive on a few of the walls and floors.

The Saadian Tombs were our next stop.  The beautiful mosaics and Italian marble pillars were amazing.  These tombs gave us an idea of what the palace would have looked like if it had not been plundered multiple times by invading armies.

Probably our favorite sight in Marrakesh was the Ali ben Youssef Medersa.  This was an extraordinarily well preserved 16th century Koranic school.  As many as 900 students from Muslim countries all over Africa would study here at one time.  The mosaics, the intricately carved stone and wood, the beautiful tile work, all of it was amazing.

Our last stop for the day was Musée de Marrakesh.  There were a few rooms with some interesting displays but the main attraction is this crazy huge atrium with this chandelier that resembles a UFO.

The Colorful Marrakesh Markets (or Souks)

 Everywhere you turn in the winding labyrinth that makes up the Marrakesh Souks you are wowed by the colors.  Spices, shoes, jewelry, purses, makeup, potions and powders, clothes, pottery...it is a bit overwhelming but also a real treat to see such an amazing array of stuff in one location. 

After all the walking we did we went back to our hotel for a rest.  This is a photo from the top terrace of our hotel.  It was a beautiful evening.

One of the cool things about Marrakesh is that it still has the old wall running completely around the city.  Eight of the 14 original babs (arched entry gates) leading in and out of the city are still used.  This is us in front of Bab Agnaou, one of the prettiest and best preserved arches.

We splurged one night and ate at a fancy restaurant.  The food was amazing.

Did I mention our fancy dinner came with a belly dancing show?  Oooh, la, la.

The Koutoubia Mosque lit up at night.  One of the real treats of our visit was hearing the Muslim call to prayer five times a day broadcast from the many Mosques in the city.