16 DAYS IN MOROCCO, Part 1: Guest Post by Tom and Susan Weisner

Chechaouen, "The Blue City", Morocco

Our friends Tom and Susan Weisner went on a 16 day tour of Morocco in June 2019 and have kindly agreed to share a few of their wonderful photos and memories of the trip. This is Part 1. Part 2 will post next week.

Our trip to Morocco was part of a group tour organized by Reed College, where Tom was a student in the 1960s. There were fifteen in our group, including Paul Silverstein, an anthropologist who teaches at Reed and who does fieldwork in Morocco. We had a great Moroccan guide too!

Rabat, Capital of Morocco

Palace near Rabat.

Morocco is a kingdom with some parliamentary government. This is the palace near Rabat. There are other palaces as well.

Rabat fort and inner city at night.

The tomb of Mohammad VI (former king) is in Rabat. Rabat has a huge market in old city walls with narrow streets.

Casablanca, the largest city in Morocco

Susan and Tom at the mosque in Casablanca.

King Hassan II built the second largest mosque in the world in Casablanca (Mecca is #1). It is marble, vast, on the Atlantic coast. Non-Muslims can only enter as part of an official tour.

Typical Moroccan dish.

A beautiful restaurant.

We enjoyed wonderful food! Tajines! (Tajine dishes are slow-cooked savory stews, typically made with sliced meat, poultry or fish together with vegetables or fruit.)

Synagogue

Hundreds of thousands of Jews once lived in Morocco, but most left during and after WWII, going to Israel, Europe and elsewhere. Morocco does not recognize Israel, but the Israeli passport is recognized since so many from the diaspora do sometimes return. We saw a number of museums and synagogues that are protected. Morocco is about the only Muslim Middle East country that has religious pluralism in the constitution.

Catholic church in Casablanca

There are thousands of black sub-Saharan African immigrants arriving in Morocco, trying to get to Europe. Many are Christian. This is a Catholic Church in Casablanca for them. A very rare sight.

Romans in Morocco: Volubilis, Ancient Roman City near Meknes

Roman ruin with mosaic floor.

The Romans, of course, settled all of North Africa including Morocco. We visited Volubilis near the city of Meknes, for example, an entire former Roman city with over 40K inhabitants.Volubilis is a World Heritage site.

Ancient Roman Empire included northern portions of Morocco.

Morocco is in the lower left corner of this map in red.

Tangiers

American National Historic Landmark in Tangiers.

A landmark to the American legation is inside the Medina, or interior market in Tangiers. It was the first American government office outside the US. It is also the site of a Paul Bowles museum.

View of Tangiers

Morocco gained independence from France in 1956 and Rabat became the new capital. replacing Tangiers as the capital city. You can see Tangiers city in white in the distance from our beautiful hotel on the Mediterranean. Spain is faintly visible on the far horizon just a few miles away across the Strait of Gibralter.

Chechaouen

Chefchaouen is a city in Morocco that's famous for its blue hue. While it was founded in 1471, it didn't get its distinctive color until 1492, when it received an influx of Jews escaping the Spanish inquisition, who brought a tradition of painting buildings blue.

Chechaouen, the Blue City, is between Tangiers and Meknes.  Beautiful! We saw many stalls and shops as we walked through the narrow alleys everywhere. Lunch and tea there.

Market stall in Chechaouen.

Purses, shoes and more!

Part 2 of 16 DAYS IN MOROCCO will post next week.

September in UMBRIA, ITALY, Part 2: Lake Trasimeno and Isola Polvese

View from Isola Polvese across Lake Trasimeno

Lake Trasimeno, located in the northwest corner of Umbria, is the fourth largest lake in Italy and about an hour’s drive from Perugia. It was the site of Hannibal’s defeat of the Romans on 21 June 217 B.C. and has long been an important place in Italy’s history. The lake is surrounded by low hills dotted with medieval fortified towns and castles. In the middle are three islands: Isola Maggiore and Isola Polvese (both accessible by ferry), and Isola Minore (privately owned). We decided to spend a day exploring Isola Polvese, the largest of the islands.

Ferry to Isola Polvese

We drove from Perugia to the town of Magione and from there followed signs to the small lakeside village of San Feliciano where we caught the ferry to Isola Polvese. It was midweek and we were among just a few passengers for the ten minute ride to the island. Most of the island is a nature preserve. There are no cars on the island, although one can rent bikes. Near the ferry landing is a cluster of buildings with a restaurant and small souvenir shop and a few meeting rooms, but except for a youth hostel in the middle of the island, the island has few other buildings except for some ancient ruins in various states of disrepair.

Flowers were abundant along the coastal path

A path at lake level circles the island, while another path goes up and across the center. To begin with, we decided to turn left toward the castle ruins and go clockwise around the island. It was a beautiful, sunny day, perfect for a walk. Lake Trasimeno is extemely shallow and most of the island is surrounded by reed beds, an ideal habitat for waterbirds such as ducks and herons, which we saw stalking prey and flying up from the water. Much of the path was shaded by large oak trees and in many places the ground was carpeted with patches of bright pink flowers. In the sunny spots, lizards scampered among the stones.

Lizard

It took us an hour or so to circle the island as we stopped to take pictures or admire the view. Then, after a cup of coffee at the snack bar, we followed the sunnier path across the top of the island through olive orchards to the ruins of San Secondo church and monastery, currently in the process of being restored.

Path to the church and monastery of San Secondo

 We returned to the dock in time to catch the 3:45 ferry. (Ferries ran about once an hour.) It had been a peaceful and relaxing day in the out-of-doors.

Ferry landing, Isola Polvese

The following day our plan was to drive to Assisi, home of St. Francis, Italy's patron saint. (To be continued next week.)