Category: travel

The old and the new, the stone edition

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As you may know, I have been a medieval re-enactor for the past 21 years. In that time I have visited many, many castles, in various states of repair, and been privileged to camp at some of the most beautiful ones in the UK as part of our events.

For us as re-enactors we spend a lot of time in what is know as experimental archaeology, which is taking the archaeological evidence that exists, and in our case evidence from written accounts and paintings, and trying to recreate garments, weapons, fighting techniques, encampments and battles. One of the places that has been on my wishlist, and that of I think every other re-enactor I know, is the castle of Guedelon in France.

Guedelon was started in 1997, as an experimental archaeology project, to try and build a castle, using only 13th century techniques. It is impossible to describe the scale of the project, I have watched documentaries on it, and seen lots of pictures, but visiting was a dream come true, and I am so glad that I realised that my route would take me near enough to visit. The castle is located near to Orleans, at the lower green flag on this map below.

Seeing it was amazing, from the nearby quarry, where all the stone is cut and moved, to the scaffolding and pulleys needed to work on the higher levels, just absolutely mindblowing.

There is no end date for the castle, as there is no idea when it will be completed. It was fascinating to see how they were working on the higher levels of the towers.

Aside from the castle itself, which is a feat of engineering like nothing else that I have ever seen, there is a whole village surrounding it, full of the craftspeople needed to support the stonemasons. Basket weavers, carpenters and blacksmiths, work as they would have done, making and mending tools and equipment to support the stonemasons.

There are a few concessions to modern heath and safety, such as face masks, eye protection and sturdy boots, but otherwise it is how it would have been circa 1315. In this photo below the blacksmith is using the giant bellows on the left to enhance the flames, that was fascinating.

My favourite part of the village was where the painters and dyers work. They are using only natural dyes and available minerals, to produce all of the colours needed.

The paint workshop had fantastic displays of how they grind all of the minerals to make the 15 pigments they are using. They are currently painting panels to cover the windows, and one of the finished rooms inside the castle had already been painted.

It was a very emotional experience for me, not only seeing the work that all these hugely dedicated people are doing, but also thinking about the many cultures that still use these methods of construction, for whom this is daily life, not some experiment.

Nearly 16 years ago I was lucky enough to be part of Project Nepal, a Scout led initiative, where after two years of planning and construction training, a group of 40 of us flew out to a Nepalese village and built a school hostel, using many of the methods that these craftspeople were using.

The quarry reminded me very much of the pile of stone that faced us when we arrived, that we sorted into size, and we used wooden scaffolding and mud mortar. We were working with the local people, and every day women from the village came to teach us how to use the mud mortar, and build the walls, while the local stonemason trimmed the blocks.

Due to time constraints we did have access to one modern stone saw, but as the fuel for that also had to be brought from the nearest road, five hours walk away, we could only use it sparingly. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and the two weeks I spent living in the village some of the best times I have ever had. Definitely a life changing experience. If you would like to read more about this, I have two pages on this blog, one on the project itself, and one on the time in Nepal, which you can access from the top of the main page.

The above picture shows the 8 women from the Scout group, and the local women we worked with, just before we left the village.

For my overnight stop after the wonderful trip to Guedelon, I drove a few miles so a very lovely little village, to another Park4Nite find, in the village of Triegny.

This was a brilliant park up, with a bonus toilet which I wasn’t expecting, in a very quiet, peaceful, and very pretty village. Although the park up is free, they ask for donations to help fund trips for the local school, and that you use the local facilities, which I was very happy to do. After a lovely restful night, and a trip to the village shop the next day, I continued on my travels.

I am coming to the end of blogging about my trip back through France, just a couple more posts and then I can get back to all the ones I need to catch up on. There may actually be some crafting posts sometime soon, as I have been spending some lovely time knitting, and at my sewing machine. I can’t remember when I last posted anything that I have made! I also have some fab Trust houses to show you from my time in Surrey and the Cotswolds.

I will be back soon with more French medieval gorgeousness. Until then, have fun, take care, stay safe, and thanks for visiting.

The old and the new, the textile edition

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It was while I was at my friend Cate’s checking my route on the map, that I realised I was going to pass very close to the town of Aubusson. For anyone who is into textiles, you will recognise the name as being famous for thousands of tapestries, made in this town and the nearby ones, and they had a museum! So of course I had to go and visit.

Aubusson tapestry was designated in 2009 as one of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity aspects, and the museum is just a small part of the preservation of the heritage, along with preservation of other aspects of the craft, and exhibitions in the area.

Aubusson itself is a very gorgeous little town, with an essential river running through it. As in my home village in Yorkshire, once famed for its woollen mills, access to water is vital for the industry, and you could still see the mills around the river area, as well as the buildings that now house the original designs, or cartoons, for the tapestries.

As well as examples of the heritage of the weaving, apologies as they were understandably in low lit, glass cases. so no good photos, what was really interesting was the focus on the process of weaving, and the tools of the weavers.

Tapestry has never been one of my favourite textile forms, I think because most of the ones that I encounter in National Trust properties and castles are faded, and the subject matter is generally not that interesting to me. However I have always appreciated the huge amount of time and effort it takes to create these woks of art.

It was especially lovely to see photos of the weavers, both from the display of the historical archives, and the weavers working on current projects.

They had two exhibitions of modern weaving, which were really impressive. The first was of illustrations from a Japanese artist called Hayao Miyazaki. I am familiar with these, through my son Jake’s interest in anime, and these were illustrations from a film called The Moving Castle.

The level of detail here is amazing, the colours are so rich and the way that they have been blended is stunning, look at how the cloud has been woven over the other colours here. Just amazing work.

The other exhibition focused on illustrations by Tolkein, again such beautiful colours. It was also really interesting to see the back of the Rivendell piece.

Seeing these modern pieces really makes you realise how stunning places like Hardwick Hall must have looked when their tapestries were first hung in the 1600s.

Abusson also offered a free park up, in a car park just outside the town, with free water, free electric, and a lovely backdrop of woods and a little stream, so Katy and I spent a peaceful night there, once again very grateful for the foresight of French tourist boards.

A lovely, and totally unexpected day, and I am so pleased that I managed to visit. My next post will be about another unexpected visit as well, to somewhere that had been on my wish list for around 20 years.

I have had a great week with Sue and Ange, here in Spain. We have had lots of pool time, delicios tapas, and been to visit Cartagena, one of my favourite local cities. They are now in Granada for a few days, visiting the Alhambra, and I will see them briefly before they return to the UK. Meanwhile I have a fox outfit to finish knitting before they get back, there was a major error with a pair of dungarees so they have had to be unravelled, and knitted again ;-(

I will be back soon with the next unplanned stop en route. Until then have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

29 years later …..

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I left Cahors for a short drive into the Dordogne. One of the reasons for choosing this particular route, aside from seeing the beautiful countryside and towns of this area, is that my friend Cate has lived here for many years. Cate is another friend from Huddersfield Polytechnic days, in fact she was the very first person I met, in my halls of residence, the day I moved in.

We have kept in touch for nearly 42 years, but haven’t seen each other since her wedding in Ireland, 29 years ago. As I have mentioned before, one of the best things about retirement is the time to go and re-connect with people face to face, last year Dave in Cyprus, and Helen in Devon, and Ange and Sue over the past couple of years in Scotland and Yorkshire, and now in Spain!

It was another stunning drive, as you can see from the map above I was driving into the heart of the natural park of the Perigord- Limousin region, and it is the most amazing countryside. I am definitely going to see about getting a dash cam for my next European trip, so that I can capture more of the scenery as I drive. France is especially beautiful at this time of year, although the weather was not brilliant, the wisteria was in bloom everywhere and the clouds just added to the drama of the rivers and wooded valleys.

I stopped in Souillac, a little town on the Dordogne, for coffee and a wander. At this point I had decided not to use motorways for the middle of the trip, excellent though they are in Europe I was keen to do more small roads, and this little town was a lovely break in the journey.

Cate, and her husband Billy, bought a derelict farmhouse and barn in a tiny village in the Dordogne, and have spent the last twenty years rebuilding it. The views are amazing, and they grow most of their own food.

We had a lovely, if a little damp, walk with her two dogs, though the country lanes here. It really is a completely idyllic place to live, and I can see why so many British people have chosen to move here.

Cate was an estate agent before she retired so she knows the area very well, and took me to see some of the most beautiful places in the area. We went to the little town of Brantome for lunch, which has some gorgeous houses around the abbey and the river.

The abbey had the longest candles that I have ever seen. I always light two wherever I visit, one for the living, and one for all my friends and family no longer here.

We then went on to St Jean de Cole, one of the prettiest villages in the area, complete with a privately owned chateau. Cate had sold most of the houses in the village, and was based here during her career, what a gorgeous place to work!

I love the contrast of the blue shutters with the pale stone, and the wisteria on the houses here.

As well as the sightseeing, we had a brilliant catch up, and lots of lovely food. It was so nice to see her, and hopefully it won’t be 29 years until we see each other again! I know that I have said this many times before, but I am so lucky to be able to do this, and live this wonderful life.

My poor colleagues at the university went through a dreadful time last summer, with the closure of the department, and losing about half the staff to redundancy, and the same is happening again this year, with a further round of course closures and job losses. I feel so sorry for them, as I know how hard they have all worked, and it seems so unfair, especially after the stresses of the Covid years. I am eternally grateful to have been able to leave at a time of my choosing, and to have the life that I have now.

I will be back again later in the week, to share a surprise textile treasure, that meant a slight alteration to the route, that led to a wonderful extra visit to somewhere very special. More details in the next post. Until then, have fun, take care, stay safe, and thanks for visiting.

Sur le pont …..

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I was lucky enough to learn French from the age of 7 to 16. so my French is actually a lot better than my Spanish. One of the things I remember doing was lots of singing, including the song, ‘ sur le pont d’Avignon’… which means on the bridge at Avignon. I didn’t get to Avignon this trip, but I did get to see a stunning medieval bridge in the town of Cahors.

When I was route planning for this trip I had some fixed points that I needed to be at, but the rest was just looking in the general direction of where I wanted to be. That was how I found Cahors, which is the blue symbol just above Montauban on the map below. As soon as I saw it had an old bridge, and a park up, I added it to the stopovers list and I was really glad that I did, as it was a beautiful place to spend an afternoon.

The town is on the River Lot, in a wooded valley, so the drive in was lovely.

The park up that the town council have created only has three spaces, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to get in there, but there was a car park listed near it. I missed the sign for that the first time, and after a lovely detour up the sides of the valley, and some very steep roads, I spotted the sign on the way down.

This is why I love travelling in France, not only was there a large car park, but also a free bus into town in you wanted it. The park up also came with added chickens, sadly it was a bit wet the morning after so I didn’t get any free eggs for breakfast as they were all hiding.

However, I did meet some very nice fellow van lifers parked up next to me, a French man who had been fossil hunting nearby, the region is famous for pterodactyl fossils, and a French and Lithuanian couple who had just come back from 6 months in Spain. I love meeting people on the road, it is so interesting to hear about everyone’s travels. It is one of the best bits of van life.

The park up was a short walk from the river, so I wandered along the park beside it for a while, then into the town towards the Pont Valentre bridge. It was built in the 1400s, when Cahors was a very important town on the river for trade, and is a World Heritage site.

It is an absolutely stunning construction. There is a weir just beyond it, so boats pass through a lock under the end tower. You can take a boat trip up the river, and there were lots of people enjoying that and the little cafes along the river bank.

After the bridge there was time for a wander around the old town, there were so many gorgeous buildings, some in need of a lot of restoration, in the oldest part, and a beautiful cathedral.

It was a perfect day on the trip home, one that I will always remember. I was enjoying the driving so much, and it was brilliant to be off the motorways, and back on more rural roads. Just perfect van life!

I am back in Spain now, so fingers crossed my internet will stay stable and I can catch up with the many, many posts I have waiting. I have friends arriving on Sunday for a week, the same people I have just spent time with in Scotland and Yorkshire, so that will be brilliant. Before they get here I have to finish a dress and shoes for a fox, as one of them has just had a first grandchild. It is lovely to be back home, I would say chilling, but it is about 25 degrees, so a perfect temperature for relaxing.

I will return soon with more of beautiful rural France, until then, have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Life in the slow lane

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I am now on day four of my trip back, day two of driving in France, and am loving it. The few days I was back in La Marina were busy with seeing friends, celebrating Mum’s birthday, and getting the van ready for the return trip.

Katy has some new crafting decorations, completed this time in Spain.  It is getting to the stage that she is more a mobile craft display than anything else!

We had a macrame workshop before Christmas at the sewing group, and I was inspired by a post on Instagram to make this little hanging tray. I am so pleased with how this has turned out.

Ellen also helped me to make a crochet flower garland, and it looks beautiful. She did most of the complex ones, but I am still very pleased with my efforts. 

I have been really enjoying the driving  it takes me a while to get back into it after 3 months away, and as I have been doing mainly motorways so far, it has been Katy and I tootling along in the slow lane, admiring the castles along the way. The last two days have been especially exciting at we have had views of the Pyrenees. 

I can’t believe how much my confidence has grown doing this journey to and from Spain, it has been so good for my driving skills. I often miss turns, or am not sure about motorway junctions but I have learnt to just stay calm.

The first stop was at the La Brisa Aire in Peniscola.  The original plan was to visit the castle there, but traffic jams meant that I arrived very late. Apologies I can’t put in links to the site while using the app to write this post, but found this on Park4Night and it was €9.50 a night.

I did have a lovely lunch stop off though, at a nature reserve near Valencia. 

The village of El Palmar is built around a series of little canals, and the villagers used to use these little barges for fishing. There are still lots of the the thatched houses along the banks of the lake.

Now the main trade is tourism with lots of people coming for boat trips, or lunch at the many restaurants and bars along the canal.

A shorter drive the next day took me to just outside Tarragona, to a lovely stretch of beach called Torrembada. I had a very peaceful night in this pine tree aire, at Area 340. This one was more expensive at €16, but it was right next to the beach.

I also met a cute cat at Reception, and got a great idea for more van decorations.  I have been collecting stones, so now just need to get painting!

After the excitement of crossing the border, I ended up in the very cute little village of Port Vendres, at an aire just the other side of the port. This one was €8 a night.

It was beautiful weather, so I had a wander round and a cheeky vin blanc to celebrate my successful border crossing.  You may remember that Katy was only allowed to stay in Spain for 6 months, so we had to leave by the 24th April !

After a very windy drive today, which was definitely all in the slow lane, I have been able to come to somewhere I have wanted to visit for about 20 years, the cité at Carcassonne! Ever since I started re- enactment I have wanted to come here, and it was amazing. 

Even though I have seen so many photos if the walls, I wasn’t expecting there to be so much inside them. This next photo is from Wikipedia,  in the absence of a personal drone 😀

The medieval cité is now quite touristy, with lots of bars, cafes and gift shops, but it gives you a real sense of what it was like in the 1300s.

The views from the ramparts were amazing, luckily it was a clear day, with wonderful views of the Pyrenees.

I now have the luxury of a hotel for the night, with WiFi, so am taking advantage of it to do this post. Tomorrow is starting the non motorway part of the trip, up through the Dordogne, which I am so looking forward to.

I have another week in France before my tunnel crossing and am looking forward to more tootling through the French countryside.  There may well be some more châteaux coming soon!

Meanwhile have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting 😊

Normal service will be resumed shortly… I hope!

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I thought that I would just do a quick post to let you know that I have not fallen off the edge of anything.

I have had a lovely month visiting friends and family. I have just got back to Spain, ready to catch up on the rest of the posts from Cordoba before my travels start again, to find that my internet is broken!

I do have data on my phone, which I am using for this post with the app, but really need the computer to edit the Cordoba pictures.

Although it was wet a lot of the time I was in Yorkshire I did have a few sunny walks admiring the spring flowers.

I also met my sister’s new dog, Ryan, and went for some walks with him in the woods.

I have also been doing quite a bit of knitting, trying to remember how to knit in the round. I did pretty well with this hat.

It is possible that the internet will be fixed soon, however I leave again in 6 days on my return journey with Katy.

I will be able to do some quick posts from the road and am very excited to be spending 12 days, mainly in France. I am also doing some camping in the UK, and will share that with you all before I return to Spain in mid May.

I will also be updating my Instagram @katykangoo if you want to follow me there.

In the meantime have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Cordoba – architectural harmony

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Our trip to Cordoba had been long awaited. Mum had been briefly years ago, as part of a coach trip including other cities. We had planned to go back last year, however, life intervened. After visiting Seville some years ago, and Granada again a couple of years ago, I really wanted to go and see this third, very Islamic inspired city.

We stayed in a very well located little apartment, La Casa del Rio, part of a traditional courtyard house, just near the Roman Bridge, within walking distance of the old part of the city. They had a very clever little kitchenette in the cupboard and plenty of space for four people as the sofa turned into a double bed.

The views on the first night were stunning. This was a trip that we put together ourselves, so we went by train from Alicante, and arrived about 6pm. Train travel in Spain can often be a little longer as we had to go north to Madrid to get the train for Cordoba.

The first day was beautiful and we went straight over the bridge, past the defensive tower, over to the square just below the cathedral.

Cordoba is such a beautiful place, and as always with Spanish cities there were amazing doorways, and a little glimpse into the Bishop’s Palace.

I think the doors of the mosque / cathedral are possibly my favourite of any building yet. They are amazing.

The real joy for me was seeing how the original structure of the mosque has been incorporated into the cathedral. The arches that form the original part of the mosque are so iconic, this is another national heritage site so I have seen this image many times before. When you first enter you see these amazing, yet quite simple red and white arches that seem to just go off endlessly in the distance, like some kind of hall of mirrors in stone.

The original mosque was built in 785, and was a very small section, which is now in the centre of the building. Later developments as the Muslim population grew led to expansion, including this stunning ceiling, and the highly decorated doors around the mihrab, the alcove that shows the direction of Mecca. The decoration here is just breath-taking.

Further on is where the original part of the cathedral was first added, and you can see how clearly the lines of the arches have been used as the basis for the design. This then becomes an area with the classic Gothic cathedral architecture on the ceiling.

Towards the centre of the cathedral is the specifically Catholic part, added in the early 1500s, and this has been blended with the original pillars to form a unique religious space.

All around are places where the Islamic and the Catholic come together, such as this wonderful painting, on top of a zelige tiled plinth.

As well, there are the more traditional Catholic artworks.

The plaster work is all of different ages, from the original works, to the Royal Chapel in the second photo, finished in 1371, which used the Mudejar style of decoration.

Outside the main mosque the courtyard has the original minaret, now a bell tower, or giralda.

Tucked away on one side is a display of masons’ marks, some in Arabic, that have been copied by the teams that look after the building.

I loved this, as I said in my Burgos post, I always wonder who built these places, so it was brilliant to see this evidence, and imagine them making these marks throughout the centuries.

It really is one of the most wonderful places that I have ever been to, although there were lots of visitors it didn’t feel crowded, there is so much space to wander and to reflect on all of the changes this building, and this country has seen.

We spent a further two days in Cordoba so will be back next time with more beauty. The city has a very unique character and it was so nice to just wander around all the small streets. There was also plenty of my favourite tapas!

I am having a lovely time here in Marsden. I have been working on my writing and Frankie has been helping. She’s sitting watching me type now, I think she might be checking my punctuation!

Until next time, have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

A land of lochs

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I spent last week in Scotland, a wonderful place and one that I am so looking forward to returning to this summer. My Instagram feed is full of beautiful views of the country, and it was amazing to be there, especially after a month in Morocco. There is such a huge contrast between the two places, and it was strange being surrounded by so much water, after a month of desert views and palm trees.

I was visiting one of my closest friends. Sue and I met over forty years ago, in the first week at Huddersfield Polytechnic. We have survived motherhood, teaching, and now retirement together and it was brilliant to be able to spend time catching up with her.

She came out to Spain last May to see me, and will be coming again this May with another friend from Polytechnic. Aside from the wonders of travel, the best bit of retirement is being able to spend time with my friends all over the world 😉

Sue has lived in Scotland for the past few years, after many years in Yorkshire, and she has the most gorgeous cottage with views of the mountains. Just look at these! I spent so much time just sitting watching the sun and the clouds from the lounge windows.

There were amazing sunsets as well. I have missed my Spanish sunsets.

We had quite a busy week, even though I was only there for three full days, and I met lots of her friends and neighbours as well as exploring the area a bit more. She lives not far from Loch Lomond and so the countryside is stunning.

We went to Inverarary for lunch one day, and then on to a heritage property, the Auchindrain township.

This is a set of smallholdings, set in the valley just up from Inverary, and it has such a beautiful feel to it. You can really get a sense of what life was like there, getting water from the small burn that runs through it, and the farming that sustained the inhabitants. The township was inhabited from the late 1700s until the 1940s, and although restoration work is ongoing, nature is reclaiming some of the buildings.

It seems very fitting that the local wood, stone and heather was used to build these dwellings, and they are now decaying in a very beautiful way, being covered in mosses and lichens.

We also had a quick visit to Oban, stopping off at Loch Etive on the way for lunch.

I plan to come back here for longer in the summer, as I have about six weeks in Scotland planned between the end of July and September. I can’t believe I will be driving Katy on these roads, so excited!

I loved Scotland when I went two years ago with my sister Jacky, and am going back to Skye as well as meeting with her in the border area early on in the trip.

I also visited St Conan’s Kirk, on the shores of Loch Awe. Although the church looks really old, it was only finally completed in 1930, and was a labour of love for Walter Douglas Campbell, who had bought an island and built a house nearby.

It is such a beautiful build, with its interior arches, mix of architectural styles and Gaelic inspired design everywhere.

I love these two stained glass windows, with the beautifully Arts and Crafts inspired armour designs on the angels.

A quick trip back to Ellen’s, for a quiet weekend, and I am now in Marsden in Yorkshire, where I used to live. I am cat and house sitting again, as I did last year. This time thankfully without the heavy snow that meant Katy and I couldn’t leave the village and go camping as planned.

I will be here for the next two weeks with a very cute and furry cat Frankie. I am also spending time catching up with my friends and ex-colleagues here, cuddling new babies, and taking a few trips down memory lane on walks. I also will be finally posting about my visit to Cordoba in November so come back soon for that.

Until then I hope that you have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

The work of so many hands

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The lasting impression from Morocco is a culture with just so much rich adornment. So many beautiful wood carvings on doors and ceilings, incredible plasterwork, endless mosaics, decorated shoes, beautiful clothes, an absolute riot of colour and pattern that is breath taking and bedazzling. Now back in England it all seems a bit plain in comparison, and although it is lovely to be here, I am missing the tiles and the gorgeousness of it all.

Marrakesh was a great way to end the tour. I did originally wonder if I should have done it the other way round, and ended up at the peaceful seaside resorts of Essouria and Agadir, but on reflection am happy with the way it turned out. Morocco is a place of so much colour, and noise and vibrancy, (and traffic!), that it was probably better to ease into it.

Most days in Marrakesh I visited the Jemaa el – Fnaa Square in the centre of the city. I have been before and knew that it is the lively heart of the medina, with so many stalls, and restaurants, and entertainers of all sorts. It is noisy and chaotic and wonderful!

As well as all the daytime offerings, such as the horse carriages and the many cafes and juice bars, every evening from around 4pm a whole extra set of temporary food stalls get built, such a lot of work each day. I sat one of the days with another cup of delicious tea just watching all of the frantic activity.

I love the contrast in the last photo above of the traditional water sellers, who pose for pictures, and the silver ‘statue’ performer.

This trip I also went to the museum at one side of the square, which is housed in the old Moroccan National Bank building, constructed in 1927.

I didn’t realise that the square has been in existence since the 1600s, and has always been used as as place for musicians, storytellers and entertainers of all types. It was a lovely museum, mostly using old photos and film to document the life of the square, and really interesting.

This water seller was photographed in 1966. I also saw these little roundabout seats in the woodwork museum in Fes, but am not sure when they date from.

Near the square is the Koutoubia Mosque, thankfully it only sustained minor damage in the 2023 earthquake, and is being restored. It has parks and fountains all around it, so I usually had my lunch there.

The other museum I visited linked in really well to the Jemma El-Fnaa one, the Mouassine Music Museum is in another beautifully restored mansion, which dates from the 16th century.

If I thought the lower floors were impressive, that was nothing compared to the guest apartment on the upper floor. They hold music sessions here every Monday evening.

The building has been extensively restored and there were some really good videos showing the work. Apologies for the slightly grainy pictures, but this is when they were scraping off all of the plaster that had been put over the wall frieze, and cleaning the paintwork.

It is so brilliant to see so many skilled people being able to restore the buildings as well, there must be so much to do here, with so many wonderful places that need TLC.

There were excellent displays of instruments, but more importantly for me, lots of videos and photos of people playing them, and dancing and a great focus on the dress of the performers.

These facial tattoos, in the second photo, are fascinating. These are from some of the women in the Atlas hill tribes.

Although there was not much in the way of textiles in either museum, I did find a little bit. This gorgeous shawl had very delicate whitework embroidery. The main history museum is closed at the moment, so I expect there would have been more there.

I did see quite a few shops selling traditional embroidery and textile goods as I wandered through the medina, as well as more modern kaftan shops. I was also very excited to see a little zellige workshop in the medina near my riad. I stood and watched the artisan chipping the tiles for a little while.

In the same way that the Hassan 2nd mosque in Casablanca is supporting training of current artisans, there is an artisan’s centre in Marrakesh, just outside the medina. It is an amazing building and contains workshops as well as places to buy the wonderful creations.

Of course I must finish my Moroccan series of blogs posts with revealing the taxi colour for Marrakesh ! It is a creamy yellow.

I think in this city there must be one taxi for every three people, I have never seen so many in my life. That does make it really easy to get around, though most of the time I enjoyed walking. You can’t stop and take door photos as easily from a taxi can you 😉

I shall finish this post with some of the wonderful doors from my last few days of wandering in the medina.

I was really thrilled to find this lovely old door open, and was able to peek inside at an amazing riad. I think it was still being restored, but what a palace!

It has been such a privilege to be able to visit this country, to see where all the inspiration for the places that I love in Spain come from, and to find out more about its history. I have really enjoyed the visit and would love to go back, albeit next time with a bigger suitcase and a lottery win to spend on lamps 😉

I have had a lovely couple of days with Ellen. She came back from her month in Europe the day I left for Morocco. She visited Spain, Switzerland, France, Belgium and The Netherlands in her time away, everything from mountain cable cars, medieval Alsace towns, and chocolate museums, as well as a quick trip to Disneyland Paris where she met up with her friends. She loved everything and is now planning another month in Asia for later in the year. I am so proud of her for being a confident solo traveller and having such amazing adventures.

I am off again tomorrow, to Scotland, to spend a few days with my friend Sue, can’t wait as I am so looking forward to seeing her, and the beauty of Scotland again. I will be back next weekend, so until then, have fun, take care, stay safe, and thanks for visiting.

Hidden beauty

stitchesoftime4 Comments

It occurs to me after nearly a month here in Morocco that so much of its beauty is hidden, both from people who are visiting, and from the outside world. That is partly from a practical point of view, all the things that you can’t see, as a non-Muslim, or all the things that you just don’t know that are even there, until you go down a passageway, or open a door, and all the reasons that people might not come here, as they are concerned about visiting.

I would love to be able to go into more of the religious places here, but appreciate that is not possible. It was wonderful to be able to visit the Hassan 2nd mosque, that was amazing, as was the madrassa in Fes. I had visited one madrassa before in Marrakesh and they are such stunning places.

I am truly fascinated by how much of the medinas’ beauty is hidden from sight . The idea of the riads, the courtyard houses is just so different to what housing is like in many other cultures. I know that a lot of it is practical, to have houses that are covered so that they are cool, but it is that lack of externality that I find so different.

In the UK, and in where I live in Spain, we put a lot of emphasis on what our houses look like from the outside. We have this idea of ‘kerb appeal’, that a house should look good even from the outside, that you should have a lovely garden, that everything should be very well kept and neat.

Here, things are very different. Most of the time, and I have noticed this in Spain as well, in the more traditional places I visit, there is not that emphasis. The streets are narrow, they are often in need of restoration, they look as if nothing beautiful could be contained within. Spanish village houses often have very little kerb appeal, and look very ugly and unkempt.

This is the door to my current riad, at the top of the medina in Marrakesh. Not much to look at from the outside, and I wouldn’t even have stopped to take a picture usually 😉

The street is full of little food stalls, and bike and motor bike repair places. It is noisy and dusty, although there are lots of street sweepers going up and down, so it isn’t dirty. Motorbikes dodge past you all the time, and there are cars coming down as well. At the top of the street is a crowded marketplace. It doesn’t look like a place of peace or beauty at all.

And yet a few steps away is this, my accommodation, Riad Carol. The riad still has a garden in it, as it originally would have done. There is an orange tree and it smells just like home at the moment, which is great as I love the smell of orange blossom. There is also a banana tree, right outside my room, which is so cool!

My room is on the ground floor and opens out onto the courtyard. It is quite small and dark, to keep out the sun, so no good pictures, but has a very lovely painted door and window.

As well as the garden, and a kitchen and storage rooms, there is a large living area at the back of the space, it has the traditional sofas around the walls and this wonderful plasterwork ceiling.

I would love to know the history of this place, I can’t find anything online, but since this is one of probably a thousand similar places in this city I didn’t really expect it. It has clearly been restored, and so not all the paint work is original, but I would imagine most of the plasterwork is. It is still in need of some TLC, and the plasterwork is showing signs of damage, but I would imagine places like this are a DIY nightmare, with so much to try and maintain.

However, it has been really good to stay in another traditional house in a traditional area. I think it very much depends what kind of a traveller you are. I am very much a ,’budget accommodation and more to spend on experiences’, person. I would rather have something like this than a modern hotel, even if the plumbing in some of my accommodation in Morocco has been interesting. It is clearly quite difficult to fit en-suites into riads, so I have some unique wet room arrangements, a bit like the showers you see on van life videos!

The other thing that strikes me is that people might not come because they are concerned about travelling here. When doing research for this trip, there were so many websites that I visited that had warnings, or articles entitled, ’10 things to watch out for’, or ‘Is Fes safe to visit?’ As a solo traveller as well, people often worry that I am not going to be safe on my own in a country where people might approach me because I am European, and either want me to buy something, or offer to help me when I don’t need it.

I have felt very safe here, I have been asked so many times to come and see something, and I just say no politely. I wandered all over the cities, down little alleyways on my own and felt fine. One man in Fes medina asked me what I was looked for, and he was a little confused when I just replied ‘pretty doors’. These are some of the lovely ones just up from my riad.

I think, as in any city, you have to be aware of your own safety, but that applies to everywhere. Ellen and I visited New York last year, and the late night subway trip from the airport was one of the dodgiest experiences I have had in while.

As for the other things that people are concerned about, like beggars and poverty, yes it is here, obviously, however my old home town of Huddersfield had a lot of that as well, so sadly I am used to being approached for money. Again I just say no, as I would rather give money directly to charities who support housing and well being.

I really would urge people to not be put off, and come to Morocco, as it is such an amazing place. I feel as if I have seen enough now to say that I have got a real feel for the country, from the rolling green hills and mountains of the north, and the deserts here, the wonderful coastline, and the brilliant cities. I would love to come again sometime to see more of rural Morocco. There is a tantalising glimpse of the Atlas mountains from here, capped in snow.

The people are very welcoming and friendly, and I have stayed in some fabulous places, as you have seen from my posts. In case you are interested, I have spent an average of £20 a night on accommodation costs, and think that is excellent value for all the lovely places that I have stayed in. However there is so much choice that you can have very modern luxury with lots of ‘kerb appeal’ if you want it.

I had a wander in the newer part of the city yesterday and walked past the famous Mamounia Hotel. Mum, Jake and I did visit last time we came and it was beautiful, but it is also about £800 a night to stay there! I didn’t even try to get in this time, as they have a really strict dress code and these people in the picture had just been turned away. There are also lots of lovely places that don’t cost the same as I have paid for my whole month here!

I only have two days left here now, so am trying to visit as many museums, and see as many doors 😉 as I can before returning to the UK for five weeks. I am excited to be catching up with friends in Scotland and Yorkshire, as well as my sister and her family in Worcester. I will also be spending time with Ellen, who has been on a wonderful adventure of her own in Europe, which I haven’t had chance to hear about yet.

So I will be doing my next post from the comfort of Ellen’s house. See you soon and until then have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.