Live Laugh Love Travel: Spain, Portugal & Morocco

Almost a year ago i had decided that i wanted to visit Morocco as one of my best friends was living there, this is what sparked my interest in visiting this amazing country. She ended up moving but i still wanted to visit so i thought 'why not include Spain and Portugal in this as well. You might want to get a cuppa while you read this as it may be long... :-)

I arrived at the airport early as i was flying on Easyjet, which meant no allocated seating. So i got there early to try and get a seat near the front. An easy flight on 2 hours, it was a little harder to get my luggage and got talking to an English Lady who was on my flight. Turns out she was in my tour group! We arrived at the hotel in Madrid and decided to head into Puerta De Sol.

The next day saw us going on an optional excursion to the city of Toledo. If you get the chance it is well worth travelling to visit this small town. A small town surrounded by big city walls and a river around it, beautiful. We also visited a Damascene factory where they make the Toledo jewellery which was really quite interesting and saw one of El Greco's most famous paintings 'Burial of Count Orgaz'. Next to do was a city tour to see the Bullfighting ring of Madrid and the Royal Palace to name a few. This is a beautiful city!

Coimbra was next on the agenda, however on the way we visited Avila and Salamenca. A full day of travel (520km). I must say that travelling on a bus as much as i have been this trip so far hasnt bothered me as much as i thought it would, just stick some music on my ipod, sit back and relax! The next day we had a small city tour by Miguel (our tour director) before it was time for a hot chocolate break with a custard tart which is known as speciality in Portugal. We headed onto Batalha and The Sanctuary of Fatima. Before hitting Fatima, we had a port tasting. This was my first official 'tasting' event and i must say, the port is delicious over here! (We tried 5 different types) The Sanctuary of Fatima is a huge pilgrimige place very similar to the Vatican but bigger! We arrived into Lisbon where my roommate and another lady from the tour caught the subway to downtown, where my main aim was to try Cherry Liqueur from a chocolate shot glass (Miguel had recommended this) It took us about 45 minutes to find a place that had the chocolate glass but when we did it was well worth the search! (I may have even bought a bottle of liqueur to bring home so you can all try it but we will see if it makes it home!)
An easy 15 minute bus ride where we wandered around and got a little something to eat. It is no wonder that Marid is known for its pickpockets, so many people! We met the tourgroup at 6:45. 36 people from Australia, America, India, Malaysia and Canada with a range of ages from 14-72.Our tour director, Miguel, is from Portgual and speaks French, English, Portugese and Spanish (it makes you realise how lazy we are in Australia when it comes to learning other languages when you visit European countries) I wasnt quite as lucky this time with my room share (i got away with having a room to myself last tour) and ended up with a girl from Vancouver. She was nice though so it wasnt too bad.
The next day saw us going on an optional excursion to the city of Toledo. If you get the chance it is well worth travelling to visit this small town. A small town surrounded by big city walls and a river around it, beautiful. We also visited a Damascene factory where they make the Toledo jewellery which was really quite interesting and saw one of El Greco's most famous paintings 'Burial of Count Orgaz'. Next to do was a city tour to see the Bullfighting ring of Madrid and the Royal Palace to name a few. This is a beautiful city!
Coimbra was next on the agenda, however on the way we visited Avila and Salamenca. A full day of travel (520km). I must say that travelling on a bus as much as i have been this trip so far hasnt bothered me as much as i thought it would, just stick some music on my ipod, sit back and relax! The next day we had a small city tour by Miguel (our tour director) before it was time for a hot chocolate break with a custard tart which is known as speciality in Portugal. We headed onto
A city tour guided us around Lisbon to the Belem Tower, the Moorish Citadel and the Black Horse Square. Most people went on an optional excursion in the afternoon but i decided to relax in my room as once again i wasnt too well health wise, before catching the subway by myself back into downtown to have a look around during the day.
8 hours of driving the next day to Seville, Spain with an optional excursion of a Flamenco Show. It was a tad expensive through the tour company so David, Miranda, Maureen and i decided to find our own local one which was a lot cheaper. Tapas and an intimate flamenco show of 6 people later, a good night was had by all. The following day was yet another optional excursion which Miranda (my room-mate) and i decided to opt out on and took ourselves around on our own walking tour around Santa Cruz and into the Cathedral here which is bigger than St Peters Bascillica in Rome!
Morocco was next on the agenda, which i was so excited about. After my visit to Egypt a couple of years ago (which i loved), i was ready to be hit with the way of living in an Arabic country.
The drive from Seville to Fez was 11 hours travel time which included a ferry crossing. When we first started driving the relisation didnt take long to hit me when i started seeing donkeys and mules carrying things around. The only down side of being is Morocco was the smoke, as they are allowed to smoke anywhere!
We had an included city tour of Fez which took us into the Medina/Souke. Well i thought Egypt was an experience, well Fez was a step above that. I think that everyone needs to experience this kind of thing once in their life. We walked in and as soon as we hit the medina, street vendors were onto us. You walk through the medina spelling all sorts of smells including spices and tagine. Some smells were good, some not so good. In this tour in the medina we visited a shop where they make carpet, traditional clothes and scarves as well as a leather shop where you go up the top and can look over the area where they clean the skins to make leather. When i got to the top a man offered me mint, i expected having to pay for it, and why would i want mint anyways? When i got to the edge i soon found out why. The smell was foul. Needless to say i ran back to him and got some mint and basically stuffed it up my nose! This experience of the medina included someone offering 3000 camels for me and getting called 'my shakira'.
11 hours travel time again saw us arrive in Marrakesh.After getting an orientation drive of the city we had free time for lunch so 3others and i headed for the medina, passing snake charmers, henna artists and people selling other cheap things. We fed out stomachs with Lamb Tagine with the locals in a cafe and it was so delicious! Whilst in Marrakesh, we also had the option to visit a Berber family in the Atlas Mountains. A 45 minute drive out of the city and we saw Omar. The dad of the house. He gave us mint tea and Moroccan bread.
Rabat was next on the list with a short lunch break in Casablanca. In Rabat we visited the worlds 3rd most important Mosque before heading back to the hotel for an early night. A 4:30am wakeup call to catch the ferry and drive up to Granada in Spain. A huge day of travel....12 1/2 hours later we arrived.
The cathedral in Granada is stunningly beautiful inside and is well worth the visit if you ever get there!
Another big day of travel to head back up to Madrid. Rain greeted us in Madrid which is the first rain i have seen since i left Australia so i have been very lucky with the weather. The aussies on the tour all had tapas and sangria to top off our Spainish experience before saying goodbye.
This tour was such a contrast to my central Europe tour but in a good way. Some beautiful buildings and landscape and amazing food! In Morocco you certainly have to be open to trying new and different types of food.
I am now in Switzerland where i will basically be spending 3 weeks or so with Issy (my friend from home) who is over with her mum at her Grandmas house in Fluelen.