Canterbury tales

I know I owe you all the last Morocco update but we've just come back from Canterbury in Kent and I'm inspired to put some pictures up from there. It's a Bank Holiday weekend here (hooray!) and boy did I deserve a break after a whole 4 days back in the working world! The firm I work for is a US-based trial law firm doing commercial litigation and I think I'm going to love it. I have another 4 day week lined up this week, and then we're off to Manchester with friends, Mike and Kristen. I think I'm leading a charmed life.

Canterbury is the home of the Anglican Church and the Canterbury Cathedral, the birthplace of Christopher Marlowe and has loads of super cute cobbled streets and old buildings. There is a typically English river running through the town, and lots of rural country lanes to explore. Lots of the town was destroyed during WWII by German bombing raids but not the Cathedral, which is remarkable.

The food was delicious, the town was delightful and we had a lovely time away. Love to you all.

x

At the local farmer's market for lunch

The local cider and ale selection

Canterbury Cathedral

The central nave

One of several amazing stained glass windows

Hamish with "the Son of Man"

Wisteria in the Cathedral gardens - reminds me of my childhood

How cute! 

A house that Charles Dickens remarked on in the 19th century - wobbly!

All things travel related

Hello from London

We landed on Monday night and it has been a busy week setting up here and getting organized. I have found a job which I am really excited about starting in a week and we have found a lovely wee flat in Clapham Common. Hopefully we can move in this week. Hamish has several meetings with recruiters lined up this week so we are well on our way to being proper London dwellers.

I promised some travel-related stories from Morocco, and some pictures. I think this sequence of photos says a lot about our experience...

Between the four of us, we traveled by boat, plane, overnight sleeper train, local train (which broke down about 4 hours from where we were supposed to be), camel, petite taxi (mostly Fiat Unos and the like), grande taxi (old 1990's Mercs),  tourist bus, local bus, and horse and cart.

Petite taxis operate only within the city limits. Grande taxis can go between cities, if they make it. One of our grande taxis seemed to be missing 1st and possibly 2nd gear for at least part of our trip between our broken down train in the middle of nowhere and Moulay Idriss where we were headed.

Our train and luggage pre-departure

Getting off the train in the middle of nowhere

Our grande taxi on the way to Moulay Idriss

The other thing about grande taxis is that they're allowed to take 6 passengers. In fact, unless you hire the whole car for an extra fee, the operators will cram 6 of you in to maximize the fare. We had 4 across the back seat (two women from Moulay Idriss, Becs and me) and 3 across the front (the driver, Hamish and Christian). Hilarious.

Cosy in the front seat

Next up in the Morocco installments is the kindness of strangers. I'm on the way to being convinced that Moroccans are the friendliest people on the planet (I've got a fair few countries to go before I can confirm that but it's my starting point for now). After that we will be into our UK experiences!

x

A Moroccan food odyssey

Hey all

Thanks for your messages and emails, it's been great to hear from you over the last few weeks. We're in London now, staying with our friends Mike and Kristen (thanks SOOO much for having us guys!), again minus Hamish's bag which doesn't seem to like to board the appropriate aircraft at the appropriate time. Hopefully it shows up tomorrow.

I thought I would give you a quick update on Morocco, and promise to post more in the coming week. We had an amazing 2 weeks, 1 week of which was traveling with friends Becs and Christian through some cute wee sea ports and hillside towns in Morocco. The perfect way to end our trip, and we will miss the smiling faces of our travel buddies now that we're back in the real world!

My favorite Moroccan experience was in Essaouira, a sea port about 3 hours from Marrakech, and involved a delicious seafood lunch at the back of a fish market with not another tourist in site. We chose our fish fresh from the sea at the market stalls; it was filleted and gutted at a nearby stand and taken to a grill at the back of the market to be cooked and served up to us at little wooden tables with olives, harissa, tomato salad, bread and drinks. Delicious!

In fact, we ate like royalty every day in Morocco, with delicious tangines, couscous, brochettes (meat skewers) and fresh sea food. Oh, and pastilla! Chicken or pigeon filo pastry with almonds, cinnamon and spices and icing sugar (of all things).

Next update, crazy incidents involving modes of transport.

And photo credits to Becs, Christian, Hamish and me. This one has been a real collaboration.

x

Night markets, Jemaa el Fna, Marrakech

Cooking our dinner, Marrakech

Mint tea, or Berber whiskey

Olives for Africa

Freshly squeezed orange and grapefruit juice

The fish markets, Essaouira

Our fish salesman 

Sardines ready for the grill

Accompaniments 

The leftovers (not that there really were any)

Markets, Essaouira

Moroccan crepes with honey

Donuts, Moroccan style

Another fish dinner, El Jadida

Tagines and pastilla, Meknes

The most amazing sandwich ever

which was almost as big as my head

The team ready to depart for Fes

Our new friend, Aziz in Moulay Idriss