Dragonfly Journeys

Was it romantic or was it all about gelato? It depends on who you ask. To us, Venice was still beautiful and romantic, even with three kids in tow. To the children, Venice meant the return of familiar and delicious food and water that you can drink from the tap. IRC was happy to wear what she pleased again without anyone tittering at her, as the Moroccan women had the one day that she wore a sundress with shorts. This is still a bit of a shock to her, as I don't think she ever really believed that anyone would care what she wore. She has let us know that she has no plans to live in a place where it is expected that only her face and hands should show.

In Venice, we rode on the vaporettos, visited San Marco square (avoiding the pigeon police- see below), the Ducal Palace, the parks, markets, and marveled at the little canal outside our window in the early mornings as it came alive with the everyday life of Venetians- those going to work, making deliveries, and even the teenagers "hanging out" on their boats, listening to music. Aidan played soccer with some local children, who were shockingly good, obviously the product of a soccer-crazy country. We're still open-mouthed by the abilities of children who must be no more than four or five years old. We took the "Secret Tour" at the Ducal Palace, where we saw where Casanova was briefly imprisoned before he managed to escape and learned about other intrigues of the Venetian Republic.

Visiting Venice was exciting for the children for another reason as well. Over the years, they have listened to the audio story "Vivaldi and the Ring of Mystery" many times. The story takes place in Venice and is about a young orphan girl who comes to study music with Vivaldi. It includes most of his music of The Four Seasons. On our last evening, we went to dinner and then a Vivaldi concert, followed by gelato, of course. The dinner was overpriced (!) but the concert was lovely and brought to life the story, all in the very magical city in which it took place.

Don't feed the pigeons at San Marco Square or you'll have to deal with the Pigeon Police. Apparently, Venice has decided that there are too many pigeons in the square. These smartly uniformed guys stop all the tourists who are hoping the pigeons will land on them by holding out fistfuls of seeds. The kids managed to make a few pigeon friends anyway before we knew about this attempt to clean up the streets and on a day when the Pigeon Police were apparently elsewhere.

Fun times doing laundry. Still, after two hours of false leads, lugging two suitcases full up and down all the lovely steps and bridges, it was a major victory and cause for celebration.

Next up....how does Florence's mint chocolate chip gelato compare with Venice's? Oh, is that the Duomo?

After a few days in Marrakesh, we spent a day driving out to Merzouga, a village on the edge of the Sahara. Although we've been very careful with our water and food, A still had some stomach problems. There were a few sleepless nights for us! It looked like the camel (they are actually dromedaries having only one hump, unlike camels, which have two humps) trek might not happen for us but he managed a recovery just in time...

....maybe partly due to the village Medicine Man, recommended by Rachid. He made up a batch of herbs for A's stomach ailments and, yes, A drank it and it seemed to give him relief. The medicine man is also the village comedian (too bad we don't speak Arabic, but the crowd loved him). Here he prepares the tea to serve to Dan and the kids with all the accompanying theater.

Camp where we had dinner and spent the night

After our trek, we returned to the Sable d'Or.

Rachid, who is from a Berber tribe and an incredible musician, and his French wife, Isabelle, run the Sable D'Or. He treated all his guests to a beautiful night of music on our last night. We also went out on a desert journey in a land rover to see the local sites.

Traditional Moroccan musicians- we'll try to put a video of them up soon.

Dan and the guys pick up some supplies for our picnic lunch.

We drove by an old French Foreign Legion outpost, which now serves as a Moroccan military base. It's right next to the Algeria/Morocco border (closed since 1994).

We also visited a coal mine. I doubt the kids will ever get this close to such an operation again and seeing the harsh reality of the work involved made quite an impression.

Rachid's cousin took our picnic supplies, and with some delicious additions, presented us with a beautiful lunch in a Berber tent.

Grandparents- view the next photos at your own risk!

The kids' highlight of the day (of the trip so far?)- a ride on top of the Landrover through the Sahara.

The view from the top!

Isabelle, Rachid, and the kids at the Sable d'Or.

The date palms were ripe- you could tell by the flies!

On our drive back, we stopped at a women's cooperative that makes Argan oil. To make the oil is an incredibly painstaking process but it has given the women a new measure of economic freedom. The oil is wonderful and we are using it regularly now, while it lasts.

Traditional kasbah, a family housing complex

These women were singing and trilling as we walked through the gorge, and oogling A ("Baby!").

Our hotel in the Todra Gorge, where we spent a sleepless night with A, poor guy.

One last night in Marrakesh. One last photo with Siad.

Modern Marrakesh.

Next Stop- Venice!

We arrived in Marrakesh on the evening of the 21st of September, the Autumn Equinox. A driver from the riad where we stayed, Dar Bab Marrakesh, picked us up from the airport. After wandering through only a few confusing twists and turns, we arrived at our riad, Dar Bab Marrakesh. Siad, our host, showed us all around and served us some Moroccan mint tea. We relaxed on the roof deck for a bit, listening to the call to prayer, and watching the nearly full moon overhead. Incense pots were all around the riad and a waterfall fountain trickled gently from the courtyard below. We settled into our rooms and then sat down to a delicious meal that the riad had prepared for us. We loved all the delicious dishes that were brought out but then learned that we'd only just had the appetizers. We hadn't really saved room and yet, somehow, we found our appetites again after tasting the delicious tajine main course! After this beautiful welcome, we all felt full and happy and ready for bed. The kids had been feeling a bit nervous about Morocco but I think they were reassured by that first evening.

A and our host at the riad. Already an incredibly nice guy, he really became a hero once the kids learned that he had starred in about twelve movies that were made in Morocco, including Prince of Persia, Gladiator, and Charlie Wilson's War.

Siad took us out of the riad and made sure we could find our way back, giving us a cell phone with all their numbers in the contacts. We headed out to the Djemma el Fna, Marrakesh's amazing, magical square. The snake charmers, monkeys, and storytellers were all there, along with all the souks. We headed right for the fresh squeezed orange juice stands and tried to get our bearings. We decided that this first time out would just be for a wander and looking around. We still managed to get lost once, but it wouldn't have felt right if we hadn't! After our initial exploration, we took a horse and carriage tour to rest our legs and let the kids' henna designs dry.

Souks

Spice Bar

B and A decided to protect us from scorpions by becoming their allies.

IRC had a different idea.

Momentarily lost!

To be continued.......

I, B, and A went to the Tuileries with the babysitter, Julia, while Dan and I went to the U2 concert. The kids loved Julia who had just returned from a year in Australia and spoke great English. The concert was incredible and we had a great spot a few feet from one of the stage walkways. After the concert, it was a mad dash for the subway. Everyone was allowed to ride for free- a great way to get everyone out of the Stade de France area quickly. According to the hotel staff, about eight of us from the hotel were at the concert that night. Our hotel, Hotel Magda Etoile, was perfect and we would definitely stay there again. It was a great location (near the Arc de Triomphe and Metro and RER stations) nice rooms ( that fit our family of five) with breakfast and the staff was very friendly and helpful.

A being sketched at Montmartre

The kids wanted to see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night, so we made another trip after dinner one night, a fairly easy walk from our hotel. Here, A is slingshotting his glowing blue disc in the air. We found out that the Eiffel Tower had been evacuated due to a bomb threat a few hours after we visited the first time. Apparently, there were a lot of terrorist threats in Paris during the time of our visit. We noticed the increased presence of military police in the subways (there was a very specific threat to the Gare du Nord station) and newspaper headlines but not much else. All in all, we loved the energy of Paris and the whole family enjoyed our time there. The quote above from B is telling, as he often takes a bit of time to warm up to new places. None of them were ready to leave.

The street life was part of the excitement of Paris, especially for the kids. We had hoped to roller skate through the streets of Paris, an event that happens each Friday night and Sunday afternoon, where the route is cleared by the police (and a few ambulances follow!). We couldn't make it work this time but next time we visit, we're there!

Photos of our next stop on our journey, Morocco, soon to follow!

We made it! Ah, Paris!

Of course, our Paris journey begins with a climb up the Eiffel Tower, to the second floor, which is far as we could go on our ten feet, although six of the feet really wanted to keep climbing!

The view from the second floor- a beautiful Fall day in Paris! After climbing the stairs at the Eiffel Tower, we went on a boat trip on the Seine. It was pretty hard to stay awake at that point but we persevered.

The next day we visited the Parc d'Acclimation in the Bois de Bologne. Lots of good climbing and a few rides for the kids, and we enjoyed the view from below!

On Friday we visited the Louvre. We had a fairly set mission for the kids' first visit and it went really well. Afterwards, we had lunch in the Tuileries. It's great telling the children stories from history and having parts of it right in front of us.

More pictures to follow soon!