Author: Jane

April 9-11

We arrived at our bed and breakfast (which is also a wine producer) in St. Hippolyte late on Monday night and went straight to bed. With two full days in Alsace, France, I was promised some time to rest and I (mostly) got that. We found out about Alsace from watching the documentary “Somm, Into the Bottle” on Netflix which is about sommeliers, wine and wine regions. It sounds boring, but it’s actually done really well and very enjoyable to watch.

Alsace is an interesting region for a few reasons. First of all, they produce really delicious Rieslings. Dry Rieslings. Second, I find it interesting because the area borders Germany and Switzerland and over the centuries has alternated between German and French control. So the area reflects both cultures.

Our first stop in wine tasting was Sipp Mack which Michael claims to have found on the interwebs. It was just a small shop a few towns over from St. Hippolyte. The guy who did our tasting was great. He spoke English well which made it very easy to do the tasting and he was very friendly on top of that. Apparently he had spent 9 months in Traverse City, Michigain, working at a cherry farm in the early 80’s, which is a fun coincidence. Plus the wines were delicious.

The Sipp Mack tasting guy pointed us to Riquewihr for our next stop. The town was just like the opening scene of Beauty and the Beast.

We popped into Famille Hugel for some more delicious Rieslings. The wines were good, but the town was the real show stopper. We grabbed some macaroons and a bottle and headed off to our next stop.

That next stop was Paul Blanck which also had delicious whites and a great story surrounding their family tree and the history of the winery.

Next we grabbed a baguette, some charcuterie and cheese and headed back to our bed and breakfast. It was still relatively early and we were going to just snack a bit while watching a movie and calling it an early night. Before that, however, we had a tasting at our bed and breakfast (remember I told you it was also a wine producer).

Sylvie Fahrer & Fils is the winery and the wine was pretty good. The cool thing about the tasting, however, was the communication method. Everyone in this area speaks French. The second language for most is German, and then a lot of people speak English as well. Sylvie speaks German and French which makes a descriptive wine tasting tough. But another couple visiting from Eastern Germany spoke German and English and became translators. It was actually a fun way to do the tasting and was a great excuse to chat with the Germans.

The Greatest Showman and a bottle Hermitage Syrah that we’d picked up from a wine shop made the evening really great. If you haven’t seen that movie, it is a really fun one to see.

Then this morning we went for runs through the vineyards which was beautiful and hard. Hard because it has been a long time since I’ve been for a run and Michael is coming off that pesky marathon. But it’s time to get back into it.

How about this swan we saw on the run?

Afterwards we took a trip up to Chateau du Haut-Koenigsbourg which is the local castle. Built in the 12th century, it was destroyed and then rebuilt in the 15th century then destroyed again in the 17th century before it was abandoned. Then in the early 1900’s, the castle was fully restored by German emperor Wilhelm II. Similar to the Alsace region, the castle was transferred from one country to another over the centuries depending on who was in power.

These are the really pretty stoves. As early as the Middle Ages, stoves were used in this region for heating purposes. They would surround the stoves with detailed ceramic tiles.

Plus just some random cool castle stuff:

Interestingly, someone we spoke with mentioned that there are a lot of wild boars in the area. Too many. Michael asked the standard US question: do many people hunt them? The man’s response: No, we don’t hunt. We don’t have guns here like you do in the United States. Touché.

But best of all were the views from the high vantage point.

After the castle, we grabbed lunch in a nearby town before heading to our last Alsace tasting at Maison Trimbach. This is the winery from the documentary that made Michael so geeked to come visit Alsace. Maison Trimbach’s wine maker appeared in the documentary and had a really neat experience with his son opening up a 1962 bottle of wine together. The (younger) wines we tasted stood up to the high expectations we’d set for them. Plus, the wine maker came into the tasting room and I snapped this creepy stalker picture.

We didn’t speak with him (Michael was way too star struck), but we were excited to see him and bought a few bottles.

Now we’re back in our bed and breakfast looking at another movie night and early bedtime. See? I am getting some relaxation here!

April 7-9

We jumped on a morning train from Troyes into Paris. We thought this would be cheaper/easier than bringing the car into the city and trying to find parking. The train in was super easy and cheap and we made it in time to visit Sainte-Chapelle which is a royal chapel within the Palais de la Cité which was the residence of the Kings of France until the 14th century. It was commissioned by King Louis IX to house his collection of Passion relics, including Christ’s Crown of Thorns. We didn’t see any relics. But we did see these amazing windows:

I know what you’re thinking:

After this, we headed over to pick up Michael’s bib for the Paris marathon. Oh? You didn’t know he was running? No surprise. Only a few people knew and he spent the better part of the last six months saying he wasn’t going to be running even though he had signed up.

Although still in decent running shape from his Chicago marathon training, we didn’t have a lot of opportunities to run while we were in Africa. After an 18 mile test run about 9 days prior, he decided he was definitely going to do it.

So here we are, carb loading in an Airbnb in Paris on Saturday night:

Now, some of you know this. Some of you don’t. But marathon Sunday is THE BEST DAY OF THE YEAR. It is my absolute favorite day. If you have been in New York City for marathon Sunday, you probably know what I’m talking about. If you have watched other marathons, you may have an inkling.

Imagine this scenario: an entire city of people who are busy and cranky and traffic is bad and people don’t know their neighbors or say hi when walking down the street. You work long days, probably weekends too. When you are not working, you are trying to maximize the short amount of time you have with the most fun. But for the most part, you are just tired. But then once a year it is marathon Sunday. In New York, they shut down streets and everyone gathers to cheer on random strangers. If you park yourself on second avenue, in the 70’s or 80’s, you can grab a beer from a local pub and watch for hours. My first five years in New York, I didn’t know a single person running the marathon, but I would stand on the street for five or six hours screaming at the top of my lungs. The runners love it and are energized by it. They write their names on their shirts so you can cheer them on by name. They run 26.2 miles in tutus and costumes. It’s just one day where everyone has a good will type of attitude. Don’t even get me started on those people who run it while pushing a disabled child. Unreal.

What’s not to love about marathon Sunday? It is my favorite.

It’s a little different in Paris for a few reasons. First of all, I didn’t have anyone to cheer with. Not an issue. I can do it solo. Second, I don’t speak French, so screaming my standard phrases was less effective. For your reference: “let’s go!”, “you’re nailing this!”, “keep it up!”, “don’t stop now!”, and the more generic “yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh”.

Michael is ready to go:

And so was I. I was determined to meet up with Michael at three or four locations. Marathon Sunday isn’t the easiest spectator sport. It’s hard work if done properly.

I got to mile 4, ready to start my day. The important thing is knowing that you have to stay on one side of the course. I chose the inside of the Paris marathon route because I could easily jump from 4 to 14 and also there was a subway close to take me towards the end.

I got an espresso and croissant and waited for the runners to come to me at mile 4 which was right at the hospital. There were about five doctors that had come out of the hospital to watch the runners. Otherwise, it was just me… clapping nonstop for about an hour. I got a few “merci”s from random runners and I gave some extra love to anyone who was clearly from the USA, Mexico or South America. Those countries fall into the languages that I speak and the people who I assume get the least amount of support from a French speaking crowd.

Here we have Michael coming up on mile four – he’s nailing it! It turned out that the bad drop was super far away, so he carried it with him to the start and left it with me at four.

So far so good. I headed off to mile 14 for the next viewing. He was still doing great!

The interesting thing that I learned at mile 14 is that Paris does not really block any of the streets or monitor who is crossing. So you can enter the course at almost any time. Apparently there was a church service that had an entire group of people trying to cross the street: wheelchairs, strollers, kids, old people, adults who have zero self awareness. It was crazy. A woman in a stroller walked right out into the elite men runners and knocked right into a runner. I can’t imagine running a marathon competitively and having to worry about random people pushing their baby right into their path. It was awful and you could never get away with that in New York.

Mile 21 – Michael was on the struggle bus. Still doing well, considering, but I knew it wasn’t as well as he would want to be doing. As such, no video or picture from this stop. No way was I going to put the camera in his face at this point.

Mile 25.5 – ok, so they’re basically done, which makes it a great point to watch the runners. Even the runners who are walking often start jogging again since they’re so close. That said, there was a guy who looked really rough that walked right by me. I called him by name and told him to keep going. It was that point that he collapsed in front of me and had to be carried off the course. It was one of those reminders of how stupid it is to push your body to run 26.2 miles.

But here came Michael and he seemed pretty good. I have video of it but it’s terrible because when I saw him I threw my hands up in the air. Here is a screen shot that I pulled from that video.

And then it was over. I hustled down past the finish to meet up with Michael who was tired. Very tired.

But also very pleased to have finished with a great time – 4:18:31. Not as good as his Chicago time, but amazing for having done no training.

After the race we headed back to the AirBNB so Michael could shower and then off to drink some beer and have a nice dinner. I deserved at least that after my strong showing.

My analysis of marathon Sunday, Paris edition: Not exclusively, but for most of the day people either stood in silence as they watched the runners pass or they cheered exclusively when their friends passed. Also, there was no wine or beer or food along the route. Perhaps a glass of wine in these “fans” would have improved their moods. Regardless, it’s still my favorite day and it makes me excited for the next time I’m back in New York for my favorite day of the year.

The toughest part of the day for Michael? Facing these six flights of stairs to get up to our Airbnb.

Or maybe trying to figure out how to eat escargot directly out of the shell:

That was new for us. We’ve always had the snails removed and put in one of those escargot dishes. We were too proud to ask for help, but not too proud to pull up a YouTube tutorial.

The next day we spent the majority of the morning trying to figure out how to get back to our car in Troyes after the train strike shut down every train and there were no buses. It was definitely a fiasco that negated any attempt at saving cash by leaving the car outside the city. Oh well – we got back to the car finally and headed back east to French wine country.

April 6

We got up at 6am so we could get on the road. We had a ton of driving to accomplish in one day. We had packed up the night before so it was an easy departure from the hotel.

1. Italy: We started our trip with a few hours in Italy – we drove out of Cinque Terre, enjoying the sun rising as we twisted and turned out of the towns.

We drove past Lake Como and waved at George Clooney. We didn’t wave at Amal – I’m sure she’s too busy saving the world to be hanging out here on a week day.

2. Switzerland: Our next country was Switzerland. We passed seamlessly into the new country. As previously mentioned, Michael had visited Switzerland with Chuck. But this was a new country for me! We didn’t spend any time here yet, but we got to drive through the beautiful Alps!

Very scenic way to spend a few hours.

3. Liechtenstein: Next stop – the tiny country of Liechtenstein for lunch. On the drive, I googled what you can do in the country of Liechtenstein. I got a lot of suggestions that confirmed the fact that we did not need to spend any additional time in this pretty little country. We grabbed lunch and then continued on our drive, back into Switzerland.

Having uploaded these pictures I’m realizing that Liechtenstein doesn’t look that cool. It was a really beautiful tiny country and these pictures do no justice to it. I mean… what is that van picture? Is that really the best we could do? Yes. Apparently, it was the best we could do. I’m sorry.

4. Germany: Now this is a new one for both Michael and me*. It was also a surprise. We didn’t take a very good look at the route apparently. Germany didn’t really look that different than Switzerland. The buildings look the same and since we were in the German speaking portion of Switzerland, all the signs looked the same as well. We drove through Germany for an hour or two before getting into France. No pictures. You’ll get pictures when we hit up Munich or something more German looking.

5. France: This portion of the trip was 4 or 5 hours straight west towards Troyes. Troyes is a city outside of Paris that we were going to be spending the night in. We got to drive through Alsace, part of wine country that we are actually returning to in a few days.

The highlight of this drive? This street sign! We’ll have to investigate when we come back in a few days.

The lowlight? All of the towns were creepy and empty. Like super empty. Zero people. A few cars parked along the street, and buildings that are well taken care of, but no people. It was around 7pm on a Friday night. Where are the people? We had a few theories: everyone was gone on vacation for Easter week, or something to do with upcoming planting season. We didn’t know. But it was strange. But we got this beautiful sunset as we were approaching Troyes.

So that’s how you see five countries in one day. It was too much driving, but we wanted to knock Liechtenstein off the list and also get close to Paris in anticipation of our weekend in the city.

*The first time I came to Europe, with my family, Betsy and I had a layover in Munich. It was a very short layover – possibly 2 hours. Definitely not long enough to leave the airport and go into the city. That said, we exited security, and went out into the plaza in front of the airport so that we could experience “Germany”. It was about 15 minutes of running around and was an absolute blast. Michael says this doesn’t count, but I would never belittle the experience we had there.

April 3-5

After our quick stop into Nice and Monaco, we continued East into Italy to hit up one of Michael’s favorite places in the world: Cinque Terre. Michael has been telling me how much he loves these five cities since the first weekend we started dating. He visited about 12 years ago with his good friend, Chuck, on a trip around Italy and Switzerland. So needless to say, the expectations were high as we drove into the area… always a dangerous way to visit a new place.

We arrived pretty late on the 3rd, so after getting to our hotel in Monterosso, the furthest north of the five towns, it was one of those tough decisions if we wanted to go out for dinner. I was still feeling pretty terrible and after a day of driving through the mountains, with all my ear popping glory, I was definitely in the “just go to sleep” camp. But I knew Michael was pumped to be there, so I got myself out of bed and out the door for dinner. And, as usual when I’m not feeling inspired to leave the apartment or hotel on this trip, I’m so glad we did. Even though it was rainy and cold, the city was alive with a ton of shops and small restaurants just starting to get busy for the night.

We walked around for 15 or 20 minutes before settling on a restaurant that has a window into the kitchen from the main street. Here was the view of the seafood. Looks great!!

The meal was delicious: a seafood risotto, some stuffed mussels and tiramisu. It was a reminder how great Italian food is!

We had two full days in the area, with a lot of rain in the forecast. Wednesday looked rainier than Thursday, so we decided to take a train on Wednesday and to hike on Thursday. There was a winery in the next town over, Vernazza, that Michael had reached out to. They were bottling but invited us to come over. Super cool! We slept in, had some breakfast and then took the 10 or so minute train ride to the next town. When we arrived at the winery, the gate was locked and any attempt to get the winemaker’s attention was a bust. Ha. So much for that.

Time for a new plan. We headed down the road and into a restaurant to grab something to drink. Still feeling poorly, I ordered a hot tea and Michael got a glass of vino. The cafe was super busy and once they finally got an order from us, they brought me hot water without any tea bag. But we also got a pizza with prosciutto that was the best pizza we’ve had in a really long time. The service didn’t get any better, but the hot water was nice on my soar throat, the food was delicious and it gave us some place to sit and stay out of the rain.

With a ton of the day left, and the rain seemingly dying down, we decided that we were going to do the hike back to Monterosso instead of taking the train. I wasn’t too thrilled with the idea. My main concern was that I was wearing my tennis shoes and I was worried about getting them wet and then having a full day of hiking the next day in wet shoes. Oh well. We started the hike and a sign said it was going to be a 3.5 hour hike. What the heck! I knew that the entire 5 town walk would be about 5 hours if you do the shorter hike. How could this one piece between two towns be 3.5 hours? My mood was souring. Fast. It was cold and I was not prepared for a 3.5 hour hike without any water. Plus, it was super cloudy. Like… we were walking through the clouds.

See how hard it is to see Michael up there?

Takes away a lot of the fun if you can’t even see the beautiful scenery.

We did have one good view of Vernazza but then it was just clouds.

Pretty incredible, isn’t it? But not the time to enjoy it. My bad attitude spread over to Michael and we were both grumpily hiking when the skies opened and we got hit with some pretty heavy rain. Perfect. It was about this time that I jokingly suggested to Michael that he probably had more fun hiking with Chuck. He didn’t think my joke was very funny. It was definitely that moment when I decided I needed to adjust my attitude. There was nothing to be done about the decision we made at this point except try to enjoy it. We are in Italy, in Cinque Terre, one of the most picturesque places in Europe. Fake it ’til you make it.

What Michael knew but I didn’t: this stretch of the hike is the hardest. Straight up and down the whole time. Add in a ton of running water on the path and the hike is not that pleasant. The rest is easier. There is a portion of the hike that is actually called Lover’s Lane because it’s such a gentle stroll.

What neither of us knew: the 3.5 hour estimate was completely off. It took us 75 minutes to complete. So not nearly as bad as I was expecting. (Editor’s note: Michael was just reading over my shoulder and assures me that he knew it wasn’t 3.5 hours. Great job managing my expectations.) We rolled into our hotel, dried off and once again had the “to go to dinner or not” discussion. I was tired and we were cranky and it was rainy. Plus I hadn’t really warmed up despite a hot shower. But… the food was so good last night…

So we went out again, this time at a quiet restaurant down a dark alley. We had octopus, a pesto pasta, grilled fish and caramel panna cotta. Mmmmmm. Who knew panna cotta could be so good?!?!

On Thursday, we started the hike late morning. The options were to take the train to the end and hike back or hike to the end and take the train back. Already with a firm grasp of the last portion of the hike, and eager to get the hardest part out of the way, we started towards Vernazza. Tough, but much better than the night before. One thing I didn’t mention last night is that the trails were actually closed because of the rain. We had to step over a chain blocking the path with a message declaring it closed. When we arrived to the path this morning, there was a group of 40 or 50 somethings from the United States debating whether they should continue on or listen to the sign and turn back. We were definitely not obeying the sign this morning after successfully hiking last night in the pouring rain and I think our confidence in stepping over the chain encouraged them to do the same.

With no rain and better attitudes, we took off.

This is looking back on Monterosso:

Once in Vernazza, we ate an orange we had brought with us and then headed off to the next trail entrance. On the way, Michael stopped us to point out a shirt he liked. That 30 seconds was a huge error. As we turned back to the trail, a group of about 30 older people had stepped in front of us. They all had hiking polls and were going SO SLOW up the incline. Now, there was no way we were going to have patience for this type of thing. So we started trying to get around them. The walking path is wide enough for two or three to walk comfortably side by side, but somehow they were able to ensure that no one was getting around them. It took some incredible maneuvering, but we finally got through the crowd. We definitely got a few mean glares as we bobbed and weaved through the crowd. But it had to be done.

The second portion of the hike from Vernazza to Corniglia was a steep climb getting out of Vernazza but then was a fairly easy and enjoyable hike with great views.

This is looking back on Vernazza:

The above picture is as we’re approaching Corniglia. We arrived in Corniglia and had planned on grabbing a quick pizza before continuing on the hike. Michael ordered for us while I jumped into the small chapel right off the path. Each of these towns has at least one church and they are often open.

After lunch, we headed back on our way. Next stop Manarola. We started on the path and ran into a group of people who told us that the path was closed. Please, don’t waste our time. We’ve stepped over a number of chains proclaiming the path to be closed.

I guess this time they’re serious.

Ok, we’ll take the train to Manarola and then hike the last portion.

We arrived in Manarola and it was crowded but beautiful. A ton of people were enjoying the sunshine and we were more than happy to join them.

After sitting in town for 30 or 40 minutes, it was time to continue on.

Uh oh. The hike to Riomaggiori is also closed. So much for Via dell’Amore.

Another train ride and we made it to the fifth town. The plan was to have walked the entire thing and to have worked up an appetite since lunch so we could have dinner in Riomaggiori. That didn’t happen, so instead when we saw a craft beer bar right off the train, we knew it was fate.

This bar was awesome. It was a perfect juxtaposition of old world and new world. The bar itself was old and fairly dark inside. It had the windows and doors open to allow light to poor in. Behind the bar was an older Italian guy with long white hair pulled into a pony tail and pinned to the top of his head.

Oh… did I forget to mention his mustache? This guy was amazing. He did not have an indoor speaking voice. He exclusively yelled in Italian. About everything. We ordered a beer. He yelled the order back at us and then yelled it down to a woman who was grabbing the bottles for him. They didn’t have the bottle Michael wanted, so he yelled that back to us in Italian and gestured that they were out of the beer.

So the new world part? Two things – they sold craft beer, but also the woman working with the man. Our guess is that he owns the bar and she is his daughter. She spoke some English with us (he spoke none) and had a partially buzzed head, zebra striped pants, and piercings. She was just a normal 20 something dropped into a 1960’s Italian pub. Besides yelling at her dad when he yelled something at her, she could have been a bartender at any place in Chicago. This is not the best picture, but I was trying to not be a creep by taking pictures of them.

While we drank our beers, the man yelled things out the front door at passing people. He yelled things at people sitting out front of the bar. He yelled along to Cyndi’s Lauper’s Time After Time when it came on the stereo. Note: he didn’t know the words. He just yelled muffled sounds along to the song. He was the most awesome Italian man in the world.

After a bit we left to wander the town and then took the train back to Monterosso. Once back in Monterosso we had an early dinner at the restaurant that we’d eaten at our first night again. If it ain’t broke…

Seafood linguine, more stuffed mussels, steak, plus round two of that tiramisu. Mmmmmm

Between my cold, the rain and the cold weather, Cinque Terre probably didn’t get the love that it deserved from me. But it was beautiful once the sun came out and the food was incredible. I’d love to come back and visit in a few years during the summer to see those last two portions of the hike and to visit my new best friend.

Early to bed because we’re leaving early the next morning for an epic one day road trip.

April 1-2

Very sad to see Betsy and crew head back to the states, we traded in our huge minivan-ish rental and got a super small Peugeot. We have about 3.5 weeks before we have to be in Florence and decided that we like the flexibility that having a car will give us. So we piled our stuff into the trunk and the entire back seat and took off for Nice. Michael had been under the weather the past few days, so we were looking forward to some sleep and relaxation. And since we haven’t been in close contact with a child in over five months, when Johnny headed back to the States, he left me with a nasty cold. I can drink tap water in Namibia but hold a baby and apparently I’m toast.

On our way to Nice, we drove up to Andorra to see what’s going on. The answer is: not much unless you like to ski. Everything was really beautiful with picturesque ski towns. We grabbed a pizza from one of the towns and continued the drive.

In an effort to avoid the cold, and continue chasing summer, we continued on our merry little way to the Riviera.

We started one of the many beautiful drives that were coming our way. Not that I noticed. I slept almost the ENTIRE WAY. Michael said it was beautiful. We can all take his word. I did, however, wake up to this incredible moon. Now the picture doesn’t do it justice. It’s blurry and seems much less brilliant than it looked in real life, but here it is anyway:

Looking at this picture makes me want to delete it and any reference I made to the moon in this post because the picture is so pathetic. But too bad. You get a pathetic picture this time around.

We got into Nice late and went straight to bed. The next morning we got up and took a train to Monaco. I had been to Monaco more than 10 years ago with my family, but it was Michael’s first time. We grabbed a 15 minute train that took us through the mountains.

Monaco is… beautiful, and fancy, and expensive! We planned on about 7 hours in the country and it proved to be too many. We went to the famous casino, but they were charging people to enter. Not so the last time I went with the fam. We showed up in fancy dresses and jackets and spent about 15 minutes gambling. My brothers lost their money fast at blackjack and I won about a hundred Euros and took it all off the table immediately. Definitely better to walk away a winner in Monte Carlo!

But Michael and I weren’t dressed up and were definitely not looking to do any gambling, so we just wandered around the lobby before heading out to grab lunch. After lunch, we just spent the rest of the afternoon walking.

We saw this yellow submarine outside the aquarium that was too expensive to enter:

And we got espresso. The picture was to show off my new kicks – Betsy helped me buy them in Barcelona. They’re nonverses and they only cost 10 Euros. Boom! That coffee from Monaco probably cost me more.

So. Fancy.

So that was Monaco. It was beautiful, but not much to do unless you want to burn a ton of cash. And we don’t. We had dinner back in Nice that night and came to the consensus that we preferred Nice to Monaco. It was still fancy, but a little less expensive. The streets were beautiful and active. After being in such a quiet Easter week Spain, it was nice to see people out and about again. That said – we don’t have a single picture from Nice. So use your imagination or google it. It’s nice. Nice is nice.

The next morning we were back on the road. Next stop: Italy!

March 31

So as previously mentioned, the day was super windy and pretty chilly. We were about 15 minutes early for our tour and the wait outside Sagrada Familia was tough. Johnny was none too please:

Was it the cold or the architecture that he was unhappy with…. we’ll never know.

Our guide found us and we moved to the front of the church to get started. Our tour guide was awesome. She was very knowledgeable, quick and to the point. I took a few notes about things that I thought were cool. It is by no means a comprehensive list, but I’ll point out what I can. There is a TON of symbolism throughout the sculptures and architecture of the building. I’ll mention what I can remember.

So from the front, there are three porticos. The middle is dedicated to Jesus, the one on the left is dedicated to Joseph and the one on the right to Mary. The tour guide stressed the importance of the holy family in Gaudí’s design.

The above scene is the nativity with the three wise men on the left, the shepards on the right, the angles slightly above playing instruments.

Sagrada Familia was designed by Antoni Gaudí and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was started in 1882, which is 136 years ago for anyone doing that math, and is still far from being finished.

More views of the front:

Originally, Gaudí wanted this facade to be painted a wide variety of colors. I think we can all agree that would have been a huge mistake. Gaudí is already pushing gaudy as it is. Come on… the joke is funny. You know you laughed and I had to make it at least once in this post. It’s just too easy!

Here is a column near the door with a huge turtle which our guide stated was a symbol of continuity – continuing slowly and steady – very similar to the state of the construction.

Also out front is a cypress tree, which is the tree of life, and a pelican at the base of that cypress. I can’t totally find it right now. Our tour guide mentioned that a pelican is the symbol of ultimate sacrifice, willing to tear her heart out and feed it to her babies in time of famine. Definitely nothing that I had ever heard before. But catholiceducation.org is telling me that the symbolism is rooted in an ancient legend that during famine, a mother pelican will strike her breast with her beak to feed her young with her blood to prevent starvation. Our guide was stating more as fact than legend, but you know I deal only in facts on this blog (and my own wonderful opinions).

The church is 90 meters long, 60 or 45 meters wide depending on what section of the church you’re standing in. There are 18 spires, but only 8 of them are built yet.

The spires are for:

Jesus

Mary

12 apostles

4 evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke & John)

Jesus’ spire is going to be the biggest with a giant cross on top at 170 meters. Wikipedia is telling me something that I think is awesome: 170 meters is one meter less than Montjuïc hill which is in Barcelona. This is because Gaudí believed that his creation should not surpass God’s. Apparently, the completion of the spires will make Sagrada Familia the tallest church building in the world.

Interesting fact is that Gaudí wasn’t the first architect. There was a more famous architect at the time who started it but quit because his design and fees were too expensive. Gaudí promised to do it cheaper (and radically different). I’m not sure if the guide was joking or not, but since the church still isn’t finished and Gaudí has died already, she made the joke that it ended up being cheaper because they never had to pay him. But if nothing else, Gaudí used local materials that were less expensive. The below is a quote by him that is written in the school next to the church. Many years ago, they had a school building built so the children of the workers would have a place to study while their fathers worked.

“When the building simply has what it needs with the resources available it has character, or dignity, which is the same thing.” Antoni Gaudí

Gaudí died at 73 in 1926 when less than a quarter of the church was finished. Here is a picture of what was finished when he died. The open space is the inside of the church. It was really just the front facade that was completed.

The tour guide was very specific to say that the church is designed with Gaudí in mind, not by Gaudí, since he didn’t have the most specific plans laid out when he died. He had some models built, but much of them were destroyed in the Spanish war.

Sagrada Familia’s construction has been funded completely by private donations which is the reason why it is taking so long to build. Also, construction stopped during the Spanish civil war. Computers have helped speed up the process in the last 20 or so years, but even so, there are still 10 more spires to create and our tour guide told us about a larger issue: the main entrance. Here it is:

(Note: I’ll talk about this door later on in the post, so take a glance at the words on it now.)

Doesn’t seem like that big of an issue, right? So here is the issue: that is twenty or so feet off the ground and stairs need to come out of it. The design assumed that the entrance would start on the opposite side of the street. But there are apartments there that will need to be demolished before this can happen and apparently the people that live there don’t want to sell because they are reasonably priced apartments in a great part of town. So our guide told us there was zero chance that it would be completed by 2026 which is currently the date being promised (and 100 years after Gaudí’s death).

So… let’s go inside.

The first couple of steps were incredible. I don’t think any of us could have expected the inside to look like this. It was so different in style from the incredibly ornate facade outside. Huge. Open. Bright. It was overwhelming in its simplicity.

Here is Johnny about one minute after entering and about one minute before falling asleep. He may actually already be asleep in the above picture.

The first picture below, you can see four columns (well you see a bunch, but look for just four) that have ovals between the main column and where it branches off towards the top. One oval is yellow, one is orange, one is green (facing away a bit) and one is blue (facing away even more – you can just see the blue outline). These four columns are for Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Each name is with the Evangelists’ traditional symbol: a winged bull (Luke), a winged man (Matthew), an eagle (John) and a winged lion (Mark). Never knew they had symbols!

Here is the altar above. Notice that Jesus’ head is pointing up to heaven instead of down to earth. Apparently that’s not standard. My religious scholars can chime in, but what I found online just led me to a slightly graphic explanation of death by crucifixion that I will not repeat here.

The main nave was covered and the organ was installed in 2010, which allowed this unfinished building to be used for religious services. Note the organ behind the altar in the above picture which is also not normal. Pope Benedict consecrated the church in 2010 with 6500 people inside and 50,000 outside. More than 100 bishops and 300 priests attended. There is now mass every Sunday and every holy day of obligation that is open to the public. I was surprised that they only celebrate mass once a week.

I was surprised by this tidbit of information and I cannot find confirmation online, but our tour guide told us that visitors weren’t allowed in until after the church was consecrated. So visits just started in 2010. With over 3 million people visiting each year, the foundation that runs the church and oversees its construction no longer has a funding issue. Now it’s just a matter of the logistics of building it.

Now, the most incredible parts, in my opinion are these stained glass windows:

That’s right. Johnny is done for. You’re missing it, kid!!!

Ok – so the windows are incredible, but I’ll show you a better view towards the end of the post. For now, we’re heading back outside to see the back of the church. Since the front had the nativity, the back obviously has… the passion.

A different feel, am I right? It is incredible how the tone can be so different and so appropriate. Hard edges and straight lines made already intense moments feel that much more intense. Above you can see Jesus carrying the cross and Veronica with the imprint of Jesus’ face on her cloth.

I think this is Mary:

And the soldiers casting lots for Jesus’ robes in the back part of this picture:

Judas’ kiss of betrayal on the right:

Jesus being whipped below. Also notice the alpha and omega in the upper left hand of the picture. Our tour guide noted that the way it is depicted there makes it look like a free mason symbol which you will see in a few places around the church.

And this is Pilate’s scene. You can see him seated and Jesus to the left. What I think is interesting is that they also included Pilate’s wife in the scene. She is shown to the right with her back turned on Pilate, presumably after she tried to convince him not to condemn Jesus to death in the Gospel of Matthew.

After seeing the passion and taking a quick stop in the museum/former schoolhouse, our tour guide left us and we had some free time to wander around. Also at this time, Johnny woke up. We went back in to spend a few more minutes gazing at those beautiful windows. And then the best thing happened.

Johnny was amazed by the windows! It was such an incredible sight to see how excited he was by how beautiful they are.

This is what he’s looking at in the above pictures:

His face is exactly how all of us felt when we saw them.

All of the pedals and circles have names of saints and holy places in them. The red windows, which Johnny was looking at, has typically hot weathered locations such as Guadalupe shown below in the center of the flower and Nazareth and Ephesus shown in the second picture.

And Johnny’s opinion of the blue windows? Still awesome. These pictures don’t even do it justice. He just kept pointing at them, making sure we all saw what he was seeing. It was very moving.

The blue windows were my favorite.

In the second picture, the center is Loreto. I was initially pumped to see it since I was taught by the Sisters of Loretto, but apparently the Sisters of Loreto are a different congregation that had Mother Teresa of Calcutta among their ranks. So I’m going to pretend they just misspelled Loretto, Kentucky, and you all can take from it what you wish.

One final thing to end on. Everything in the church was written in Catalan which is the dominant language in Barcelona. I though that was really cool. So when you see the main entrance (which I told you to make note of above), it has the Lord’s Prayer in Catalan. But behind the Catalan, the prayer is also written in 56 other languages to reinforce that everyone is welcome in this church.

We had a wonderful visit to Sagrada Familia. This face was definitely the highlight of barcelona and of the past few days for me. It was amazing to have this sweet baby, my awesome sister and wonkandy with us for a few days.

March 30 – April 1

We started Good Friday wandering down La Rambla in search of some breakfast. First we came across an outdoor, intense rosary session.

Then we found some breakfast – or at least some dessert disguised as breakfast. Waffles covered in cream and chocolate… totally healthy! At least Aunt Jane and Johnny were able to get their hands on a banana to share. I’m not sure why I don’t have a picture of these waffles… But we enjoyed all of it and a few espressos out in this courtyard. Where are all the people?!?! Good Friday. Everything is quiet.

After “breakfast”, we walked the mile and a half or so to Sagrada Familia which is the super famous cathedral in Barcelona.

Johnny wants to know why everyone is looking away from the church that we came to see.

Sister selfie:

Accio wand!

We went to get tickets and found out that they were sold out for the day. What!? We have to buy these in advance?!? Ok. Fine. So Michael bought tickets for the following day and we went on our merry way. But first… it’s always important to get the BEST angle:

The rest of Good Friday, we basically just ate and walked a TON, checking out the city.

We popped into a flower shop and Johnny was super excited to pose with me and my favorite flowers.

Is this Johnny trying ibérico ham? Maybe…

Johnny loves Circus Pizza almost as much as Andy does!!! Michael was just playing it cool.

Seeing all these sights is exhausting!!

But the good news about Johnny falling asleep is that we finally got to put my turban wrapping skills to use!

Tell me that isn’t awesome. The moment he woke up it got pulled right off.

The next morning, Holy Saturday, we got up and took a walk into the park before breakfast. There was a great view despite it being incredibly windy:

Then we wandered off to Sagrada Familia, take 2. However…. I’m going to put those pictures in another post. There are too many good ones!

After Sagrada Familia… you guessed it… we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around.

Of course, we picked up some gelato. I can’t decide which one of these three pictures I love the most, so you get all of them.

Is it Johnny staring down the gelato:

Johnny taking a bite so aggressively that he may actually fall forward into the gelato:

Or the finale where Johnny is loving the gelato and totally ignoring Aunt Jane’s attempts to get him to look at the camera:

We stopped at the market in case Johnny was interested in picking up any artisanal olive oil or goat heads.

After so much walking, we were ready to head back to the AirBNB and get Johnny ready for bed. The guys ran out and picked up some delicious tacos for us to have for dinner. This is only relevant because Michael and I have been craving tacos for months! Then we spent the rest of the night relaxing. The next morning, super sad, Johnny, Betsy, and Andy flew back to St. Louis. We were so thrilled they were finally able to make it to Spain and wish they could have stayed longer. Thank you for making the long trek!

Did I really just end our time with Johnny, Betsy and Andy with a picture of skinned goat heads? That I did. But don’t worry… a Gaudí email is coming up next so it’s not really the end!

March 27-29

They made it!!! Michael and I did the long drive back to Barcelona on Tuesday morning to meet Andy, Betsy and Johnny at the airport. We were sleepy time, but we got this nice sunrise:

This was definitely a hurry up to wait moment. The hour or so that we waited for them to come out from customs and baggage took FOREVER!!! But they finally made it out and everyone was super pumped… especially Johnny. No pictures of the welcome, but we got a picture of wonky Andy:

OK – into the car and off to San Sebastián! This was about 7 hours in the car, broken up by a stop at Conde de los Andes which is a winery that is built on top of caves that have been used for making and storing wine since the 15th century (although the wine back in the 15th century wasn’t anything like what it is now). Johnny loves old vines and bottles of wine that are as big as he is:

So we headed into the caves, which were super chilly. Sorry for some of the slightly blurry pictures. It was super dark down there.

There were three highlights of the tour.

1. That we were actually on it and that the entire group was in Spain and together.

2. The caves had massive rooms filled with unlabeled bottles. Our guides took us into one and actually opened a bottle in there for us. It was a 2005 grand reserve and it was delicious. That said – the beautiful setting and the excitement of them opening an old bottle from their collection definitely added to the taste.

3. Ernest Hemingway had visited the caves in the 1950’s. So they dedicated a small portion of the caves to him and some other guy (sorry I don’t remember and the google machine won’t tell me who he is). You can see they put some wine glasses, one of his novels (in Spanish) and some great chairs to enjoy the space. Being a fan of Hemingway, it was cool to me to be reminded of his love for Spain and to geek out a bit about him.

Looks like Johnny’s first chapter book is going to be The Sun Also Rises:

Let’s take this opportunity to note how after two days stuck in Newark with an ear infection and a fever, followed by a red eye flight, followed by being put immediately into a car to drive for 4.5 hours and then another 2ish…. Johnny is killing it.

Another thing that I wanted to mention is that the woman who led this tour was extremely complementary of the French and how it was the French that pushed the Spanish to make great wine. When the phylloxera epidemic hit French vineyards in the mid 1800s, the French had to go to Spain to buy their grapes. With nothing else to do, many French winemakers came to Spain with all of their expertise and methods and built major infrastructure to support wine making, in the French style. Another thing that Michael and I had learned the day before at Contino was that when phylloxera hit Spain by the end of the 1900s, Spain recovered by taking old vines from the United States and grafting their varietals onto the rootstock. He was excited to tell us that our country is responsible for his vines. I thought that was cool. Especially since google just told me that is how French vineyards were saved as well since apparently US vine species have evolved to have several natural defenses against phylloxera. However, I would be shocked for a fancy pants French vineyard to be as excited to show off their US roots.

Some tastings, some running around, and then onward to San Sebastián. It may not be clear from the video, but Johnny LOVED this.

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San Sebastián!!! We are excited to be here. Or if nothing else, we are excited to not have to drive or fly anywhere for the next couple of days!! After parking and getting settled into the AirBNB, the girls and Johnny hung out with a bottle of wine and the boys went out to find food. They hit up a number of tapas places before bringing us some burgers home. I’d like to say that Betsy and I were sad to have missed the glorious food posted below, but I assure you we were just pumped to be in sweats and relaxing with Johnny.

That night, Johnny slept something crazy like 12 hours, (BOOM!) and woke up ready to see the sights!

Just the guys checking out a restaurant…

And the guys walking on the beach…

And Johnny wishing the sun would come out so he could take off his hat!!!

But then it did warm up a bit and we found a great cafe to drink some espressos while Johnny got to run around the plaza. His favorite thing? To stare at all the dogs and birds (conveniently all called “ball” by Johnny). Here Johnny is hanging out with the birds and his Spanish friend:

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Second favorite? To push a chair into empty space. Tell me this doesn’t look like an art installation. We’ll call it “Child in Chair”.

Next off to eat something… because clearly we haven’t had enough to eat since arriving. We popped into a restaurant called Ibea that Michael found great reviews for online. We were a little nervous taking Johnny in because it was a bit fancier and SUPER QUIET, but the food was amazing, Johnny slept for half of lunch and we had a great meal. Plus the owners were really sweet with him.

When in Spain, you learn how to drink out of a wine glass. It’s just water! Don’t worry! No vino blanco for Johnny for a few years. In addition to drinking out of a wine glass, Johnny also tried chorizo (which he loved) and woke up in time to eat a tiny bit of the steak pictured above (which he loved). That said, both were some of the best meat all of us had ever eaten, so the bar may have been raised a bit high on what he believes chorizo and steak should taste like. Johnny also loves super crusty bread – both to eat and to throw on the floor. To balance out all of this super rich food, we ordered the mixed vegetables which were served in a pool of delicious butter. Super healthy.

After lunch we needed to walk around a bit, so we did that… and wandered around the city for a bit before we happened upon this craft beer shop.

The interesting thing about this place is that they have taps that fill up plastic bottles (similar to how a place in the US would fill up glass growlers) and also you can’t drink there. You can drink directly outside on the bench, but not inside the store because they don’t have a permit. So we ordered a few bottles, the owner gave us a few glasses to borrow and we sat outside on the bench. The beers were great, the fresh sea air was great and Johnny was great.

So you get the gist of our time in San Sebastián – lots of walking around, lots of eating and drinking. But we also had some time to teach Johnny some new skills. Like this… Aunt Jane taught Johnny how to cheers:

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It is these types of skills that are really going to take this kid far.

The next morning, we had just a few hours in San Sebastián before it was time to head back to Barcelona. Since it was Holy Thursday, it was time to visit three churches, a family tradition where you visit three separate churches on Holy Thursday to pray for three separate things, one prayer for the world, one prayer for another person and one prayer for yourself. It is symbolic of the three times that the apostles fell asleep while Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. We stopped into two churches in San Sebastián and then one church later that night when we got to Barcelona.

Our first stop was a real treat as the choir was practicing for their Easter Sunday concert. Amazing.

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This is actually a good time to mention the difference between Holy Week in Spain verses Holy Week in the US. A lot of stores were closed in Spain the ENTIRE week leading up to Easter. Everywhere we went things were closed without any note or mention. Also, can you imagine having a choir practice on a Thursday mid morning? No one in the US would be able to attend – they all have to work! It is definitely a different approach to living. And I won’t say that the Spanish are more religious. A tour guide that we had in Spain noted that only 17% of people in Barcelona are practicing Catholics. I am not sure what that percentage is in the US, but that was shocking to me considering how everything shut down for the WEEK of Easter. Moving on.

The second church was a bit less eventful, but still overwhelmingly beautiful:

After one more breakfast of croissants and espresso, it was time to leave San Sebastián. We definitely didn’t have enough time there, but Johnny had to go explore a new city! One of the cool things about the otherwise boring drive from San Sebastián to Barcelona is that you cross the Greenwich Meridian which is 0 degrees longitude.

Once we arrived in Barcelona, we settled into another AirBNB and headed out to see what we could see. First stop was La Rambla – a very famous street in Barcelona where Johnny got to hang out with a submarine.

We did some wandering around, grabbed dinner and then popped into our last church for the evening, Basilica de Santa Maria del Pi:

Although this church was beautiful, I think what will be most prevalent in our memory of that church stop was the musician in the courtyard right outside playing No Woman No Cry and Redemption Song. Strange and super funny as we were trying to have a moment of silence, but also oddly appropriate as we approach Good Friday. Feel free to google those lyrics.

March 24-26

The plan: we arrive in Barcelona on the 24th, while Bets, Andy and Johnny arrive on the 25th in the morning. We pick them up from the airport, rent a van, drive to Logroño, enjoy Rioja and tapas, drive to San Sebastián, enjoy an amazing city with amazing food, drive back to Barcelona, spend three days there and then Betsy and crew fly home and I’m sad they have to leave.

Now here’s what actually happened:

With all of my passport issues sorted, we flew into Barcelona from Casablanca with no issues on Saturday. Boom. We had one night in an AirBNB in Barcelona, so we went out to explore the city.

First stop was this awesome meat shop:

That’s right – they just slice the meat right off the leg like that. If PETA didn’t have a problem with me after our snake and camel issues in Morocco, then they definitely do now. It was incredible and delicious. Apparently you can ship one of those legs to someone as a gift or something for a few hundred euros… but not to the US. They cannot ship meat to the US – I think it’s FDA rules from that whole mad cow era.

Next off to see more of the city. It was super rainy, but not too rainy to have an entire street of tents selling palms in anticipation of Palm Sunday. Look at how intense those tall palms are! Definitely like nothing we had ever seen!

Around this time, Johnny was getting ready to come visit me!!

We hit up a few tapas bars and walked the rainy streets.

Then we got the news… Johnny made it to Newark without any issue but then got sick while waiting in line to board the next flight. Betsy and crew had to adjust plans and grab a hotel room in Newark for the night to wait this out. They were not sure if he had the flu and if he was ok to fly or not. So, super upset, Michael and I went back to the Airbnb.

The next morning, Johnny seemed to be feeling better, so they were planning on taking the overnight flight that night (now with an added layover in Munich, unfortunately). With an extra day in Barcelona, Michael and I decided to make the best of it – by drinking beer and being sad that my sister wasn’t in town yet.

Started with the most insane Irish coffee I’d ever had. Also look at how delicious that tapas looks!

Then onto beer and meat shops:

As the day got later, and we got closer to Johnny’s flight, Michael and I got word that Johnny had a fever… and it was getting higher. After a failed attempt to visit the Newark airport clinic (apparently it’s not a real thing despite what the internet says), they decided to push the flights again and go find a real doctor.

Now it’s decision time again – none of our airbnbs are able to be canceled at this point, so Michael and I decided that the next morning we would grab the rental car, drive out to Logroño and stay in that airbnb for Monday night. So bummed, we picked up the car on Monday and started driving. It did not take us long to realize we made a huge mistake. The drive was 4.5 hours but it felt much longer. Super long. Plus there were tolls that we didn’t know about (aka didn’t research) which made the drive long and expensive. Plus I was really sad and Michael was bummed. So that made the drive much worse on everyone.

We stopped into Contino winery which was a great tour. The guide showed us around the cellar and gave great detail into the three different wine areas within the Rioja region.

But then… we were walking through the cellar and walked past this:

The tour guide said nothing and kept walking, so I said, “umm…. did someone paint that on the wall?” and he said “ummm….. no.” So I said, “ummm…. it looks like Madonna and child.” And he got excited and said, “I know, right?!?! That just appeared! I never point it out because one time I pointed it out and people got weird about it.” And then he directed us to another spot a bit over that looks like Jesus on the cross:

That one is smaller and a bit less obvious. But still totally there. Felt perfectly in line since it is Holy Week. It also felt a little comforting after having a few bad days in a row.

Besides divine intervention, we had a great tasting also. Mmmmmm cheese and sausage, plus delicious wines!

After the wine tour we headed to Logroño and the town did not look that cool. Ugh. What are we doing here!?!?!

We checked into the airbnb which at least had laundry (definitely being really glass half empty at this point). The guy who rented us the place suggested we go to Calle del Laurel which is one square block of tapas bars. Part of me just wanted to go to bed. It was a long day and Johnny had gotten some antibiotics (ear infection, not flu) and was scheduled to fly out Monday night (again!!!!). Nothing says healthy baby like casually lounging by a hotel fire in Newark.

So this meant that we were going to be driving those 4.5 hours back to Barcelona on Tuesday morning at 4am. But we went out anyway, mostly because we felt like we had to.

Thank goodness we did! It was a really neat area that was a ton of fun and really just what we needed to lift our spirits. Our Airbnb host directed us to some of the “best” places and we didn’t go everywhere, but we’re pretty sure he’s right. So here’s how it works: there are two types of tapas bars. The first, you walk into a bar, you order a glass of wine and one tapas. They serve only one thing, so you don’t have to make decisions. They give you the food, you eat it, it’s delicious, you pay them next to nothing and go to the next bar. (For those interested, “next to nothing” is about 5 euro for 2 tapas and 2 glasses of wine.

Mushrooms only bar – Bar Soriano:

Guy cooking mushrooms:

Patatas Bravas bar – Bar Jubera:

The second type of bar has options which makes it harder, but still delicious and still super cheap. Here are some tapas that we had to select:

This is the ‘Tio Agus’ from Bar Lorenzo. It’s basically just a great meat sammie. Mike went back for round two.

Meat on a stick:

Calamari:

Great experience, great food and great town. We are really glad that we made the effort even though it was definitely a mistake and silly to drive all this way. The airbnb was a sunk cost and we should have adapted to the change in plans. But despite all our sadness and mistakes over the past few days, Johnny and crew were on their way!!!!! For real this time.

March 22-24

We took a train back to Casablanca on the 22nd from Marrakech. It’s an easy four hours, in theory, but it is a reminder about the one issue we have with Morocco. Everyone in this country smokes and smoking is allowed EVERYWHERE. It is such a throw back to 1990’s United States, except back then there were smoking sections in restaurants (for all the good that did) and here every restaurant is one big smoking section. Cafes, lobbies of hotels, train cars… everywhere. It’s awful. Other than that – super easy train ride back to Casablanca.

When we arrived, Michael took a cab back to our old trusty hotel and I took a cab to the US Consulate. It was time to see just how lucky we were and if all those prayers we requested were going to pay off. Reminder, I have been traveling on an emergency passport since I was blocked from using my old passport to get out of Kenya. But when entering Morocco, my last blank page was stamped. That makes it really hard to go to any new country. So with two weeks in this country, it was my best chance of finally getting a full replacement. During my visit to the consulate last week I was promised it would be ready for me within 14 days. But I needed it in 12 or less in order to fly to Barcelona on Saturday. Anxiety is super high.

I rolled into the consulate without any issue and waited as patiently as possibly for about 10 minutes. Then I was called to the window and they gave me my new passport. That’s it. It was actually very anticlimactic for how much build up and anxiety was pumping through me at the time.

So now I’m the proud owner of three US passports – one of which is fully functional for the next ten years.

Super relieved, I have now spent the last 24 hours saying “I can’t believe I have my new passport” on repeat. Looks like it’s going to be smooth sailing tomorrow. Did I just jinx us? I think I did!

Last night we grabbed sushi for dinner. mmmmm.

Today, Michael went for an 18 mile run while I cranked out a few of these blog posts. Yay for slightly reliable wifi!

Then we went out to visit Hassan II Mosque. This was the mosque that I posted pictures of in our first few days in Casablanca. We went back today to do the tour and it was well worth it.

The building was designed by a French architect who was best friends with the king. The architect had studied Moroccan architecture extensively but was not a Muslim which I think is interesting.

The inside of the mosque is just stunning. All of the materials are from Morocco except for the chandeliers which are all Venetian glass and these two pieces of white Carrara marble (also Italian) on either side of the door. The Carrara marble indicates the direction of Mecca which is why they used this type of marble to differentiate from the rest of the marble in the building. Because, as our guide noted, Carrara marble is the best in the world. Google tells me that it’s the stuff that Michelangelo used for his sculptures.

The picture above shows the second floor of the mosque. This is where the women pray. The men all pray on the first floor.

The entire building is super beautiful and there are no areas that aren’t decorated very deliberately. I felt very lucky that we were allowed to go in and look around. I was surprised, however, that they didn’t ask the women to cover their heads. When we visited mosques in Turkey I was always made to cover my head. I would have expected this mosque to be at least as conservative as the ones we visited previously.

We ran a few errands in the medina after visiting the mosque and now we’re off to our last dinner in Morocco. Tomorrow morning we fly to Barcelona, so this is the end of our time in Africa. It has been an amazing experience and I know we’ll be back!