June 29, 2013

July 29, 2012

  • 13.07.2012 Barcelona. Great sport.

    Last night, I caught a glimpse of the World Junior Championships in Athletics from Barcelona on a Spanish TV channel. I had no idea these were happening right now, and right in the city I'm heading towards next. Sounds great, though! So, when arrived in Barcelona early this afternoon, I decided to find out if I could attend some of these events.

    It was easier than I could have imagined. The ticket was only €10 and I could even choose where I wanted to sit in relation to the finishing line. Nice! This is a huge difference to my repeated and unsuccessful attempts at getting hold of tickets to any of the events at the London 2012 Olympics.

    The atmosphere at the stadium was really great, with the up-and-coming athletes from 178 countries doing a tremendous job. It was fun, and very different to my art-and-culture focus from yesterday in Cuenca.

July 16, 2012

  • 12.07.2012 Cuenca. A total-immersion cultural experience.

    Why am I in Cuenca? Why in the heart of Castilla-La Mancha? Well, I'm not crazy about Don Quixote, but I am crazy about Graham Green's Monsignor Quixote, so that's a huge reason. But when I read in my enormous copy of the Lonely Planet guide for Western Europe that Cuenca is a UNESCO Heritage Site, that clinched it for me. UNESCO seldom gets is wrong. And they didn't this time either. The Old Town of Cuenca is a medieval delight of winding streets, gorgeous-looking houses left, right and centre, millions of little churches, steep ravine-like walls surrounding the town, and the famous Hanging Houses which cheekily jut out over a vertical ravine.

    I started my exploration of the Old Town in Cuenca by walking up the winding street starting at the tourist bus car park, and I got some fabulous shots of the Hanging Houses - Las Casas Calgadas - from the San Pablo pedestrian bridge. However, when I discovered that the much talked-about Museo de Arte Abstracto Español was actually housed inside Las Casas Colgadas, that got my culture-vulture heart pumping hard. What can I say? The museum had a stunning collection of modern art while making the very most of this old, famous building. One room was completely white, for example, with white art. Surreal, but very memorable. I especially liked this huge, black painting in one room, with just a tiny cross and a small line in the middle. Don't laugh, but I really did! It was by Antoni Tapies, and I'm sure there are art experts out there for whom he's really famous, and who find this painting really remarkable. The painting is called Cruz y raya.

    There was also an entire exhibition showcasing work by Vladimir Lebedev. I'm not too keen on his illustrations for children's books, but I saw some really great drawings and
    portraits.

    The lunch deal at a small restaurant in Plaza Mayor was out of this world.

    • Bread
    • Green salad
    • First course (I chose tagiatelli with ham)
    • Second course (I chose lamb chops)
    • Mineral water
    • As much red wine as I wanted (they put a 1-litre bottle on my table)
    • Desert (I chose bread pudding with cream)

    Price: €10

    I have no idea how they make money on this. However, all the other restaurants in the square were empty and mine was bustling like Waterloo Station in rush hour, so I guess the volume is the secret.

    And, I forgot to say. The food was excellent. Oh, and I also forgot to say. It was while having this meal, that the holiday feeling finally kicked in. Totally.

    Memorable bits from the walk along the winding streets of old Cuenca include the Cathedral, the ruins from the a church of San Pantaleon, and the old remains of the Arab section and archway of the castle wall. The old residential quarters above the city - Barrio del Castillo - also had some houses I immediately fell in love with. Why don't I live here in Cuenca? No idea.

    So, is that it? Well, it's not. I walked past another art museum called Fundacion Antonio Perez after lunch but it was closed. However, I decided to wait until it opened again at 5.00PM, which turned out to be an excellent decision. This modern art museum had four floors filled with the most creative and interesting work I've seen in a very long time. This place was fun, oozing with energy. It had this kind of mind-meeting-mind stuff where you are challenged and intrigued. It truly was the cherry on the cake from my Cuenca visit today. I can't possibly remember everything I've seen there today - it was a kind of total-immersion-in-art experience - but Lucebert's extremely colourful and slightly disturbing characters remain in my memory.

    Tomorrow it's Barcelona. With two AVE trains, I should be there just after noon.

  • 11.07.2012 From 30 to 300 km/h. And a soul in fire

    Taking the morning bus to Malaga turned out to be more of a punishment than a relaxing holiday experience. The 120 kilometre journey took 3 hours and 55 minutes. That's an average speed of 30 km/h. In addition, the A/C was set to a fiercely subzero level and the driver practised his emergency stops three times a minute. In spite of driving past interesting places like Gibraltar and Marbella, it was just painful. Lesson: Don't arrive in Spain via Algeciras, unless you're happy to skip Malaga and take the train up north.

    In total contrast, visiting the Picasso Museum in Malaga in the afternoon was a terrific experience. The permanent collection included some fabulous paintings - my favourite was The Woman with a Green Collar. The short introductions in each of the galleries also added a sense of character and insight into Picasso's personality - his strong convictions and his sense of purpose. A soul on fire. Was Picasso worth the 3 h 55 min of unpleasantness? Yes, definitely.

    Today I've activated my Eurail train pass, with 21 days of unlimited train travel in 23 European countries. I also booked two seats on the super-fast AVE trains, Malaga to Cuenca via Madrid. With the Eurail ticket you can hop on any train you like for free, but you need to pay for seat reservations, and also for supplements on certain special trains. Flying through the beautiful Spanish countryside on the AVE trains, I couldn't help noticing that the speed panel in the carriage sometimes showed 300 km/h. That is ten times faster than the bus this morning!

    I had booked a hotel called Pedro Torres in Cuenca because it was only 300 metres from the train station according to www.booking.com. However, when I got off in Cuenca, the station was in the middle of the countryside and I had to take a special bus into town. Lesson: Don't assume that there is only one train station is small towns.

    Today, I've used my Spanish a lot and it is a world of difference compared to me buying train tickets in China last summer.

  • 10.07.2012 Between a rock and the African continent.

    The first-class train ticket from Fez to Tangier cost €18, and the journey took less than five hours. The train seemed brand-new and was very comfy. I love trains and this journey was fab, seeing a lot of the beautiful Moroccan countryside on the way.

    Finding the free bus to the new Tangier Med ferry port was decidedly more complicated, and I don't know how many people I had to ask before finding the pick-up point (next to the Total petrol station opposite the central bus station). Also, the "free bus" cost €2.

    However, once at the Tangier Med ferry port, things went very smoothly. I bought a ticket at the counter on the right side of the huge departure hall (dealing with all ferry companies) and was then taken by a minibus directly to the ferry. The time between me buying the ticket and the ferry sailing was only about 45 minutes.

    The weather was perfect for the one-hour ferry crossing to Spain, with not a single cloud in the sky. You could see the African coastline and the Rock of Gibraltar the whole time, one receding and the other becoming clearer and clearer. I like Gibraltar for the single reason that I'm intrigued by small countries (in my list, Gibraltar is a country, though not all agree). However, I'm giving Gibraltar a miss this time, trying to get to Malaga as quickly as possible and the new AVE high-speed train to kick off my train travels. This will be the beginning of my 21 days of train journeys across Europe, using my Eurail pass, and if all goes to plan, I'll be arriving in London on 30th July and the London Olympics. I'm a huge train fanatic and very excited about the next three weeks.

  • 09.07.2012 I better put this on Fezbook.

    When my friend Matt saw some of my pictures here from Fez, he said I ought to put this on Fezbook. And he's right, of course. The endless narrow, winding and twisting streets of Fez are a pure delight, and today's full day tour of the city has been marvellous. The Lonely Planet guide calls Old Fez "mind-boggling" and "a maze", and they are right on both counts. And it was really the walking around bit that I enjoyed the most today, even though there were some fabulous highlights along the way.

    Plans to make Fez the capital city were initiated by Idriss I - who founded Morocco's first imperial dynasty - in 789AD, and not much has changed in Old Fez for the last 1,000 years since it's kind of stuck between mountains and has nowhere to spread (new Fez has been built nearby). The number if Fassis (apparently that is what the inhabitants of Fez are called) living in Fez is around 150,000 according to the Lonely Planet guide, but our guide Mohamed mentioned 300,000.

    Our guide Mohamed also explained that a lot has changed in Fez since it was declared a UNESCO Heritage Site. At this point in time (as the Americans say), 800 houses have been restored, though 2,700 houses are still to be restored. If by "restored", they mean the spectacular transformation that must have taken place in making our hotel Dar Mehdi to what it is, then Fez as a town is in for a treat.

    One highlight today was the visit to the Medersa Al Attarine, an Islamic college and mosque founded in 1325. It was absolutely stunning, and I so wish more of the mosques in Fez were available to visitors. However, it took me quite a while to find out from our guide Mohamed why he kept saying, "Sorry, non-Muslims are not allowed in this mosque" every time we passed the gates of a mosque. After a lot of questions, it seems that only one out 786 mosques inside the city walls allows for non-Muslim visitors (Medersa Al Attarine being that exception) and that this is because at some point in the past "some French soldiers walked into a mosque with shoes on". I guess there's more to the story than this, but this policy towards foreign visitors still feels very restrictive compared to the open and welcoming attitude I experienced in Iran last month for example, where every single mosque was open to foreign visitors.

    Another highlight was the smelly bit of town where all the tanneries were. Apparently, there are over 50 tanneries in Fez, though the smelly ones underground are not open to visitors. I saw a large tannery with maybe 100 vats from the safe distance from above - where there just happened to be this large leather shop - and this spot was pretty much smell-free. This tannery had been founded in the ninth century I was told.

    After a quick visit to the Jewish Quarters and to an elevated point offering a panoramic view of Old Fez, we called it a day. Visitors to Fez would do well in staying longer than I did for my mini-visit, but my train to Tangier is leaving tomorrow morning at 10.20AM, so I've got to move on.

July 14, 2012

  • 08.07.2012 Play it again, Sam.

    The advantage of having the Lonely Planet guide for Morocco on my iPad (Kindle version) is obviously that it adds no weight to my luggage. The disadvantage is that it is tremendously difficult to pretend that your iPad is and old, well-read and a bit torn guide book and of no interest to potential pickpockets. Anyway, as today is Saturday and the centre of Casablanca was virtually deserted this morning, I decided to take my chances and just do the Lonely Planet city walk with iPad in hand.

    It was great to see all the buildings in Art Deco style in the centre of Casablanca - many of the 16 points of interest in the Lonely Planet walk were just that, Art Deco exhibits. Never before have I actually done a walking tour where a third of the stops were hotels, but there were some very useful stops as well. La Princiere Salon de The for example, where I stopped for a delightful pre-breakfast.

    Many of the stops also seemed to be favourite spots for ad-hoc football games, for example in front of the well-worn and deserted Cathedrale du Sacre Coeur (now turned art centre). However, the most interesting but least impressive stop was probably the pavement cafe Petit Poucet, where Edit Piaf and Albert Camus used to hang out back in the day. Perhaps the unimpressiveness of this place was due to the fact that it was closed and the street empty. The spot that was the easiest too recognize was the fabulous art-deco styled Cinema Rialto.

    A large part of today was taken up by a car journey to Fez - delightfully scenic but pretty uneventful. However, a must-do stop before leaving Casablanca was Rick's Cafe, where my sister and I stopped for tea and the opportunity to soak in the cinematographic atmosphere. When my sister walked up to the piano, grabbing a pretend-microphone, I'm pretty sure it wasn't the first time the waiters had seen that happening. "Play it again" Sam," my sister said in a husky voice. Not. But I'm sure she wanted to.

    The super-narrow alleyways in the Old Town of Fez made it a bit difficult to get to our hotel on arrival, but what they lacked in easy-access, they more than made up for in character and that tremendous old-town feel and atmosphere. We stayed at the Dar Mehdi Hotel, and I really recommend this stunning traditional-house-turned-hotel in the middle of the Old Town.

    Food was great, too. We found a restaurant with a roof terrace next to one the Bou Jeloud Gate. A great ending to a great day.

July 13, 2012

  • 07.07.2012 Fly west. Do more.

    The taxi picked me up at 4.00AM in Fujairah to take me to Dubai Airport. Can't drive, of course. The parking fee at the airport would be something like, let's see, $1,400 for seven weeks. Cheaper with a taxi.

    The only remarkable thing before taking off in the Emirates Boing 777 heading for Casablanca was the sheer volume of people at Dubai Airport around 5.30 on a Friday morning. I think I counted 27 people queuing up for coffee at one of the Starbucks outlets. I guess everybody is leaving the UAE today.

    I love flying Emirates Airlines. I watched three movies (out of the 200+ movies available), ate well and napped for a bit during the nearly eight-hour flight. Emirates was actually priced really competitively for the Dubai-Casablanca route. Just a tad above AirArabia in fact.

    So, why am I in Casablanca? Well, my sister is here. When she told me she was booking a trip to Morocco, I decided to swap my travels around a bit and make Morocco my starting point. Besides, last time I was here was in 1983.

    With a three-hour time difference and a late sunset in Morocco, I feel I'm getting two days for the price of one. When the sun had already set in Fujairah, my sister and I sat down for a shared couscous meal in traditional Moroccan style. Delicious. Best ever. Sharing with a Moroccan family, we ate from the section of the huge plate pointing in our direction. Fun. And less washing up.

    Next on the agenda was a sightseeing tour of Casablanca. The Mohamed II Mosque was stunning, with, I was told, the world's tallest minaret. Certainly looked it. We also walked along the corniche - where, according to my Lonely Planet Morocco guide for Kindle, the young and pretty things of Casablanca enjoy themselves at the weekend. By the time the sun was setting in Casablanca, I was a tad woozy. But we had coffee by the sea and an orange sky to go with it, so I managed to stay awake.

    We also managed to fit in a visit to the Morocco Mall as well as take in the City Hall by night. But by that time - it was now nearly midnight Moroccan time - I was only partially awake. With ice cream from Oliveri just before bedtime, we'd had a perfect day in Casablanca.

    I just can't believe it was this morning I left Fujairah in a taxi! You can certainly do more in a day when you fly west.

August 21, 2011

August 20, 2011

  • The Silk Road (Sort Of) Overland
    Saturday 20 August 2011

    Flying with the Airbus 380 was fabulous! What a plane!! The take-off at Beijing was absolutely awesome, and the flight was very smooth and the economy seats surprisingly comfortable, with decent legroom. And the in-flight entertainment on Emirates is, as always, second to none. I watched Unknown with Liam Neeson (quite good). This plane is not used on many routes yet, but if I ever get a chance to fly on one again, I'll take it.

    The contrast between the no-seat Chinese train ride between Turpan and Xi'an and the flight on the Airbus 380 last night couldn't have been greater. The Airbus is not exactly in the spirit or style of the ancient Silk Road merchants and their caravans, but perhaps a bit of a treat after some of the modes of transport I've tried over the past seven weeks.

    I'm extremely pleased I've been able to make this Silk Road journey this summer, and I also feel it's been a privilege, since I now have both the time and the resources to do it (I had neither five-six years ago). This region has opened up to independent travel very recently, and maybe going back only five years, it would have been more difficult than it was for me.

    It's true that quite a few issues have come up over these seven weeks - refused visas, delayed visas, fully booked trains for weeks ahead - and it's also true that several times I have very nearly thrown in the towel and almost booked a ticket back to Dubai, or perhaps to Thailand or somewhere where I could just relax and do nothing. However, with some changes to the route and by changing the means of transport sometimes, e.g. my flight from Actau to Almaty in Kazakhstan, I've been able to keep to the spirit of my Silk Road project, if not exactly to my original planned route. Also, at times, a few words from a friend have made the difference between giving up and carrying on.

    silk road map

    Looking at my Silk Road route in its entirety, now after the event, I feel that even my ambition of doing the entire journey overland has more or less been fulfilled. There is obviously nothing "overland" about flying the two thousand kilometres between Actau, on the Caspian Sea, and Almaty, not far from the Chinese border (instead of the intended 67 hour train ride). However, when I then had to re-route and travel back west - all the way to Khiva in western Uzbekistan and then back east again - I kind of "undid" all of that flying when I travelled those distances on Uzbek trains.

    My Silk Road project has been great fun. It's been a very hands-on, a very visual and real lesson in history, religion, art and culture - covering a huge area and spanning over two millennia. And above all, I've seen so many incredibly beautiful sights that I will need time to just digest it all.

    Following the Silk Road - the medieval Internet, the medieval Super Information Highway - is definitely worth the effort and all the hassles.