Morocco

I survived my week in Morocco!

Things I learned on this trip:

• I am not a natural surfer, but I can manage to be in the ocean.  With a wet suit.  And no sharks.
• I really enjoy Moroccan food and I love the mint tea served after meals.
• The pictures online are not true to where I went, I would like to go to those places instead; the Morocco I visited was a little dirtier and had more garbage on the beaches.
• 5am prayer calls are interesting, but are just late enough that if they wake you up it is hard to fall back asleep before the day starts.

Overall, I had a good trip and it was an experience.  It started a little rough (it took over an hour and a half to get through customs and people do not form queues well, they just fill in space and make it take even longer), but the people I met were really nice and the room we stayed in was pretty incredible.  The surf camp has a hostel right on the ocean, as in you walk out the front door, there is a two foot wide walkway, and then ocean; all the rooms has little balconies and tables to enjoy the view and there is a big eating area on the roof.  

We went surfing the second day and I actually had a fun time in the water, which is huge for me, but I was exhausted after lunch and had a really hard time just paddling to get out to catch any waves.  The second day disaster struck: a majority of the camp got sick (most thought it was from drinking too much the night before, but then people that didn't drink at all got sick and we knew it was something else).  Somehow I managed to get by without getting sick, but there was not a lot of surfing to be done.  The third day was spent relaxing and getting everyone feeling better and eating again.  The fourth day we went to Paradise Valley and jumped off cliffs.  We went back to the beach the next day where I rode a camel and my adorable freshman roommate bought many items from the men walking the beach selling... things.  The last day we went into Agadir and spent a couple hours at the market before having lunch on the beach and then quickly returning to our room as it started to rain.  

While I enjoyed my time, I don't know that I will be returning to Morocco anytime soon, so I made sure I took a lot of photos and had as many "authentic" experiences as I could.

Our private patio

A view of Taghazout from our patio

Camels were everywhere we went

Mike doing a cannonball off the cliff... Not as good as either of my Uncles have done, but a solid effort

My roommate Kittsie... she didn't buy them all but her "friend", Fatima, wanted to show her all he had to sell

Yup.  Me.  On a camel.  And not a comfortable ride at all...

Apparently this one bites

A sight we saw everyday at the beach

When it is clear, it really is beautiful and so, so blue

Street Art

While out and about in Paris, we came across many instances of pixel art.  They are all over and some were very large and elaborate, while others were quite small and very easy to miss.  As most are related to early video games and sci-fi, they may not be for everyone.  I, however, loved when we would find a new one and took pictures of as many as I could.

Mega Man

Mario Bros. Star

C3-PO and Chewbacca... right outside our studio apartment!

Space Invaders

Another Space Invader

Not all of it was pixel art, this was a great addition to a no entry sign

8 bit at its finest

Caen

Monday was our last full day in Caen, so we spent the day walking around and visiting Le Chateau, Abbaye aux Hommes, and an antique shop we had passed while out earlier in our trip.  Much of Caen was hit hard during WWII and Le Chateau was used as a bunker during the war and took a beating during the fighting.  Le Chateau was built in 1066 by William the Conqueror; today there are still parts of the castle up, a history museum and an art museum on the property.

View of a cathedral from the front of Le Chateau

Castle residence, today used for the Musée de Normandie

Foundations from the original buildings

View from the top of Le Chateau

After Le Chateau we walked over to Abbaye aux Hommes where we saw William the Conqueror was burried.  The Abbaye aux Hommes and Abbaye aux Dames (which we did not make it over to) were payment from William and his wife Matilda because their marriage was not approved by the church.  The Abbaye aux Hommes is beautiful we even were able to witness organ practice for the next service.

Courtyard outside the Abbaye

Today the Abbaye is also used as city hall and government offices

William the Conqueror's burial site

Beautiful carvings around different sections of the cathedral

An excellent view for the service

Organ practice is what kept us there after we had explored the cathedral

We then walked around town and stumbled upon this gem:

Original house-fronts built in the 16th century

Le Mont-Saint-Michel

Today, Sunday 5 January, Eric and I took a guided tour out to Le Mont-Saint-Michel.  Our tour guide picked us up in Caen at 8:45 and we started the drive out to the coast.  When you see Mont-Saint-Michel for the first time, it just springs up out of nowhere and is magical.  The first church on site was built around 708 and was added to until an entire town was built on the rock and it became a historic monument in 1874.  There are hotels, restaurants, shops, homes that people live in, a mayor (who also lives on site) all crammed onto this rock/island.  The area around is interesting, during high tide the mont is on an island, during low tide there is a road that can be used to access the site.  The water is from both the English channel and a river, so the dirt becomes quicksand like and can be quite dangerous to walk on.

Since today was the first Sunday of the month, there were no admission fees to enter and we were able to observe part of the weekly service.  There are still monks and nuns that live at the abbey all year long and people are allowed to stay with them if you are willing to live in their simplistic ways (no electronics, regular schedule of sleeping/eating/praying/working).  There are no assisted services on the mont, so in order to visit people have to be able to walk up the cobblestone street and climb the stairs (which I expected there to be more of, so I was happy with the amount of walking we did today).

The abbey and town are beautiful and what I imagine castles in fairy tales to look like.

View of Mont-Saint-Michel from the farm town out front

Line made by the two types of water mixing during high tide

More destruction from the Revolution time

The abbey and parts of town were built right into the rock and carved around stone instead of making it flat and enclosed

A picture I borrowed from inside the abbey as it was not dark enough to be lit during our visit

Archangel Michael, who told Aubert (Bishop of Avranches) to build a church on a mountain

There is still a post office on the mont, but was closed as today was Sunday

Bayeux

Eric and I took the train to Caen on Friday, 3 January, found our hotel, had a crepe for lunch, and then went to the tourist office to get information on how/what to do and see.  We walked around town and bit and then came back to make a plan on what we were going to do with our time while in this part of France.  Our first stop, Bayeux.

Saturday morning we got up, took the train to Bayeux and headed to the Musée de la Tapisserie de Bayeux.  Pictures are not allowed, but I cannot recommend this enough.  While not a true tapestry, it is an embroidered cloth that is about a foot and a half tall and 230 feet long and tells the story of William, Duke of Normandy, and his battle against Harold, Earl of Wessex.  The tapestry was commissioned around 1070 and your entrance fee also covers an audio guide that tells you what each section is depicting.  Mainly this was used to tell the story to the towns-folk because they could not read, so the cloth would be hung around the church each year and the story told.  I have borrowed these images from the web as the gift shop was closed when we finished and I could not even get a post card.

One of the battle scenes

I loved the Viking boats, there was a replica upstairs to give perspective

All the museums close down for two hours in the middle of the day, so we had lunch and then walked over to Musée Mémorial Bataille de Normandie.  We were, again, not allowed to take photographs inside, but was a really fantastic museum for World War II information.  The layout was chronological, key people from all sides were mentioned, and there was a film shown both in English and French.  The French were, and those still alive from that time still are, so very thankful for the Allies that came to free them; many feel they cannot express that enough or have done enough to show it properly.  It is difficult to not burst open with pride for being an American when there is such a lovely tribute in a foreign country.

As we walked back through town to head to the train station, we stopped into La cathédrale Notre-Dame de Bayeux.  The more cathedrals I am able to visit, the more I am falling in love with them.  So much history, beauty, and tradition in one building... fantastic.  Here are some of my favorite photos from the cathedral.

La cathédrale Notre-Dame de Bayeux

A pillar in the crypt under the main section of the cathedral

An angel painting in the crypt

View down the main rows

 

Les Catacombes and Musée National du Moyen Age

Today, 2 January 2014, was our last full day in Paris;  tomorrow Eric and I are taking the train out to the Normandy region where we will spend our last week in France.  To make the most of the day, we set the alarm and got over to Les Catacombes around 9:20am.  The catacombs open at 10am, but the queue was already forming and from where we were it took us just over two hours to get in.  If anyone wants to see the catacombs, make sure to get there first thing in the morning and plan to be in line for a while; as it was, the staff were turning people away around noon because they would not be able to get in before it closed at 5pm.  Crazy.

Anyway, the catacombs are crazy interesting and the 2km that are open to tour are only 1/800th of what is really under the city!  I have heard rumors that there is a whole city under Paris, but the access points are closed off and it is technically illegal to get into them, but after what we saw today, I could believe there is a whole other city below the surface.

The catacombs came about in 1785 after there were so many illnesses and infections from what had been used for around 10 centuries.  The contents were removed and relocated to disused quarries left over from all the limestone that was pulled out to make some of the most famous buildings around the city.  Bones are stacked floor to almost ceiling and several rows deep and were meant to be a place people could come and pay respect to lost loved ones.  Very interesting, very old, and pretty dark.

Carved from memory by a guy that remembered this from the five years he spent in prison

Another carving from memory

Cool passageways leading to the catacombs

The black line on the ceiling was how people found their way around while in the catacombs

A heart of skulls

Cross of skulls

Small alter area

I see you...

A pillar made of bones and skulls

Skulls?  Stick man?  Who knows...

Just rows and rows of bones and skulls and it went on and on

After les catacombes, we went to the Musée National du Moyen Age (the Museum of the Middle Ages).  It was in an old church and monastery and was surprisingly interesting.  There were tapestries, stained glass, statues, and more.  Not one of the biggest museums, or the most popular, but full of beautiful pieces and incredible history.

Yay stained glass

These were on statues at Notre Dame, and during the Revolution people thought they were for French kings and knocked them off and tossed them in the sewers.  Some were found as late as 1977 and brought to the museum to be preserved.

We don't know if the hands and face were ivory or gold or some other valuable material

I love that lions were in several carvings and paintings, but the artist had clearly only heard about them... 

Ivory carving

Ivory box for church offerings

Don't blink... 

I like my monkey to be chained to my toilet paper roll as well, keeps them out of trouble and clean

What does the fox say?

So much detail in this one

I love the colors, especially the blue

Beautiful

Early sheet music