Morocco here we come!

My goodness, I haven’t posted for years...wonder what I’ve been doing or where I’ve been.
This Sunday, Leena,  Nancy  and I are off to Morocco on an Overseas Adventure Travel tour.  We’ve got a non-stop flight from JFK to Casablanca.  Both ways!  Of course, we have to get to JFK and that’s no picnic, but perhaps OK Sunday afternoon?  I doubt it.

We arrive in Casablanca and are immediately bused 90 minutes to Rabat, one of Morocco’s ancient imperial city and its capital since 1913.  It’s on the Atlantic coast and has gardens and museums and, of course, a kasbah.  We are in Hotel le Diwan-Mgallery which looks the simplest of the accommodations we’ll have and only gets a 3.5 on TripAdvisor!  We’ll struggle through.

Then off to Fez (Fes) for 3 nights, Erfoud for one night on our way to the Sahara desert camp for two nights (tents and stars, we hope), then Quarzazate where lots of movies are shot for 2 nights, before back to city life in Marrakech for 3 nights, and then 1 night in Casablanca before we hop back on the plane home.

You see the activity level on this trip is 2, moderately easy with 7 locations in 15 days with two 1-night stays.  I think that means a lot of time traveling between places, so we’ll see lots of landscapes.  

Come traveling with us!

82 degrees Monday, snow this morning

Good Wednesday morning to you.

The storm left a frozen city in its wake.

Windshields are crusted in ice. Some roads are treacherous.

It’s 32 degrees, but with the wind chill it feels like 20.

A freeze warning is in effect, there have been many car crashes, and two lanes of the Belt Parkway are closed in Brooklyn because of ice.

Pity the garden plants with the audacity to bloom in April.

(New York Times, 4/16/2014)

 

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China Here We Come

Nancy and I are off on another Road Scholar adventure...this time to China.  That should be a bit more interesting than repairing the overhang in Fillmore. Here's a brief overview:

Arrival Beijing (China), 4 nights; flight to Luoyang, 2 nights; train to Xi’an, 3 nights; flight to Lhasa (Tibet), 4 nights; flight to Chongqing; Yangtze River study cruise, 3 nights; disembark in Yichang, flight to Shanghai, 3 nights; departure.  

 

 

Our accomodations are listed over there in the sidebar.

We're really lucky that we have a non-stop flight from Newark 

Thurs, April 24, United Airlines 89, leaving Newark at 11:55 a.m. and arriving in Beijing at 1:45 p.m., but that's on April 25!  Beijing (and all of China is 12 hours ahead of NYC, and 15 ahead of LA).  The flight is some 14 hours long.

Returning on United 87 from Shanghai on Weds, May 14, leaving Shanghai at 3:55 p.m. and arriving Newark at 6:30 p.m.  the same day.  That flight is some 14 and a half hours long although I would rather think it was the 2 and a half it is if you do simple math.

You can check the Road Scholar site for lots more information if you want to get ahead of us.

Overhang repairs

Once again, I've forgotten to take the before pictures. So I hope you remember how the top coat on the overhang was hanging down in front of the living room and the holes.

Next in process?..first wetting and removing the top coat...

then patching holes

Lots of spackling and plastering (needless to say I'm not in construction

 

Then priming and painting .......and the results

 

 

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Alps Arrival Sept. 13, 2013. Walking Below and Around Mont Blanc

Sept 11

Who would think I'd complain that a flight was not long enough. But, it's true, the 7 hours from JFK to Geneva were not long enough for a meal, and what passes for a night's sleep in the air.

So, we will arrive, sleep deprived, in Switzerland at 9 am. At 8 we've already had a brief breakfast and our first piece of Swiss chocolate.

Swiss International flight 23 has been uneventful and cabin crew very pleasant, although the seemingly random use of French, German and English is a bit disconcerting and keeps me guessing which language will be used next.

Landed about 9 am and meet most of the others in the group and our tour leader, Pedrojuan. By 10:30 am 16 of us had arrived and our little coach (bus) started the one and a half hour trip to Villars. We traveled along Lake Geneva to Montreux and then started up into the mountains. A lot of the same area we saw when Cathy, Fdo and I went to Lausanne. Lots of terraced vineyards, very green, cute villages along the hill sides, shopping malls, light industry a few small cities, and lots of netted apple orchards, something I don't remember.

The weather is inclement, cloudy and cool, and Pedrojuan says we are in for some rain.

Now we are in our spacious room in the Eurotel Victoria in the ski resort town of Villars. Very, very jet lagged, altho we just took a nap. At 6:30 pm we meet for orientation, and then dinner and to meet the remaining 4 who got here on their own.

All is well, just pray to the weather gods for a little, OK a lot, of sun.

Love, Penny

 

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Long Time No Posts

It's been too long between posts, but I am trying to reform.  Lots of travel has happened in the interim.  The retirement trip to Slovenia and Italy with Leena was wonderful.  So was my trip to the Galapagos with her.  I really enjoyed the Road Scholar trip to Costa Rica, and the OAT exploration of Turkey with Nancy.  The Outer Banks week with the Chaparro family was wonderful.  And I've spent a fair amount of time in Southern California with Mother.  And don't forget the Chicago to Upper Penninsula Road trip with Leena.  So there are lots of photos missing, as you can guess.  You can catch yourself up with my photo stream on Picassa

This afternoon I start another Road Scholar (aka Elderhostel) trip to the Alps with Nancy.  This time it's not just Switzerland, but a bit of Italy and France as well.  Walking Below and Beyond Mont Blanc.

One thing is for certain, though.  Since I bought my LL Bean duffle, I've forgotten how to pack light.  My sister, Susan, puts me to shame here. 

Leena's Big Retirement Trip with Penny

Stay tuned for a new adventure.  Leena is retiring Friday (that's today) and without skipping a beat she wants to travel.  She's lined up buddy passes on Delta from a work colleague's wife and she and I will be at JFK on Sunday at 5:15 p.m. hoping we will get on our flight to Milan.  Send your most positive thoughts our way, please.  The bones of our trip are posted in the left column.

The Rhone Valley - Weds, Aug 8

We took the gondola down to Betten Station, then the train to Brig where Klaus lead us on a quick tour of what looked like a prosperous and charming town.  Its older houses are very Italian in appearance, while its most prominent buildings (Stockalper Palace, former Jesuits' college and Ursuline convent) all date from the 17th century, and are due to the generosity of a single member of the local Stockalper family, the baron Kaspar Jodok von Stockalper.

Then we got back on the train to Ausserberg (3050 ft) on the sunny hillside of Loetschberg.

 It was quite hot as we walked the Lizard Train westwards to St. German (2480 ft) surrounded by vineyards, and then continued on to the Burgkirche, a church since the 13th century with some interesting frescos.  The highlight was a stop at a "typical wallisher" winery for a very nice wine tasting with air cured meats and cheese and at least six different wines .

 

Then the walk descended along houses of the 16th century into Raron (2090 ft).  We had an excursion to a church carved into the rock, unique to the continent, and then were rewarded with apricot tart in a local bakery.  We returned to Bettmeralp by train and gondola.

  walking time: c. 3 hrs

 Dinner was, as always, fantastic!

 

The Aletsch Forest and Villa Cassel - Tues, Aug 7

First a lovely breakfast buffet at the hotel.  Fantastic breads, cheeses, meats, fruit, yogurt, cereal, boil your own egg, and lots of coffee.










The field trip this morning began with a walk to the neighboring village Riederalp and up to Villa Cassel, a stately home built by a German/English banker at the turn of the 20th century.   The way was mostly paved and there were a lot of other walkers.

That's Lucy - very informative as well as charming

The villa is now the property of the Swiss League for the Protection of Nature and the first Swiss ecological center for the study of the environment.  We had a lovely young tour guide Lucy who told us about the ecology and efforts to preserve the environment.



Continued the walk to the Aletschwald, Forest of all Forests, on to Blausee (Blue Lake) and Bettmer Lake back to the hotel.

the forest and the Aletsch Glacier

Yes, we used our walking poles

We had a picnic on the trail.  The strong hikers continued on, and the rest of us returned a shorter route back to the hotel, but three of us stopped for pastry and cappucino/tea.

View from the bakery - the pastry wasn't bad either

Here we are coming up the back slope to the Hotel Waldhaus.





Field lectures:  Villa Cassel and The Forest of All Forests.  Walking time:  4 hours

Travel to Bettmeralp, Mon. Aug. 6

In the morning we left the Hotel Belvedere in Wengen, cogwheeled down to Lauterbrunnen and then we driven by private coach via the Grimselpass  to Bettmeralp.  Here's some info on cycling the pass
Bus was fine, but a bit hair raising watching those cyclists.  And there were motorcycles all over the place.

Grimselpass - glad we're not cycling

At Betten we took the gondola to Bettmeralp, another car-free resort village, this one on the south side of the alps.

Bettmeralp with Bettmerhorn in background

View from the balcony

The Hotel Waldhaus  is small, family-owned and quite close everything.   We checked in, and then attempted a stroll through the village but the heavens opened so we only got to see the grocery store. Our room is great - the Eagle's Nest
This photo of Hotel Waldhaus is courtesy of TripAdvisor on the fifth floor with views to die for.

We had raclette AND fondue for dinner

Field lecture:  Energy resources in Switzerland

The Maennlichen Walk & Jungfraujoch - Sat, Aug 4

We walked over from the hotel to the cable car station and rode up to the Maennlichen (7315 ft).

This field trip was over an alpine moor to the bottom on the Jungfrau Mountain, Kleine Schweidegg (6760 ft).

Eiger, Monk and Jungfrau

 From this location there is an excellent view of the majestic Jungfrau mountain range.  Description of the Mannlichen-Kleine Scheidegg walk (easy - except for the last bit- and with dramatic views)

Local guide Doris told us about the Alpine Pines

It was a rough scramble at the end, just before lunch, but I brought up the rear, and I even got a slap on the back from Katrin, as I made the final grade.

Eismeer from the Eigerwand

After an interesting lunch of macaroni, ground beef and french fried onions, I decided to take the plunge and join the members of the group (most of us) to make an independent excursion on the Jungfraubahn to the Jungfraujoch, the highest railway station in Europe.  The Jungfraujoch is a col or saddle between the Mönch and the Jungfrau in the Bernese Alps on the boundary between the cantons of Bern and Valais, inside the Jungfrau-Aletsch Protected Area.

Along the way there many snow sheds and tunnels, and two stops where we could look through windows at the surrounding glacier.  It was a spectacular landscape

Finally we reached the end and spend a wonderful hour or so admiring the glacial view, people watching and looking at the various exhibits such as an ice house with ice sculptures.

Great People Watching Opportunities

Then we took the train back down to Wengen and the hotel.  What a spectacular day!