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Honeymoon Journal

April 7th & 8th

  • Travel Day!

  • We actually slept because Danielle was a bit sick from working in between the wedding and honeymoon

  • We woke up at 5am and worked

  • We packed for 2 hours (we are notorious for last minute packing)

  • Flew to Barcelona through a layover in Rome (ITA)

  • Took a 30 min bus ride from airport into Barcelona city but got off at the wrong stop and had to walk with our suitcases for 30 min on cobblestone

  • We checked into our hotel, got complementary cava (wine)

  • We ate our first tapas at a recommended local restaurant - ordered fried artichoke and prawns. Nick had to help the most as Danielle did not enjoy either all that much

  • We then looked for pasta and found an Italian place

  • Got gelato, Nick had the sourest lemon flavor! 

  • We went to bed early thinking we would get up for la sagrada familia

April 9th

  • Planned to wake up at 6:45am to see the Easter Sunday service at La Sangrada Familia

  • Nick planned in the morning while Danielle sleep, and then he fell back asleep, where we both slept in until 2:30pm

  • We then woke up and immediately rushed off to go see Casa Batlló

  • Went to a restaurant named Zenith. Danielle had a single pancake and a Mojito, and Nick was talked into ordering a Bacon and Egg Bagel by the waiter. The waiter Filipe provided us with a list of touristy locations to check out

  • Nick wanted to take Danielle to a pictorial mosaic of a kiss called "The World Begins With Every Kiss." On the way walking over there, though the winding back alleys of Barcelona, they heard the sound of music, and then pursued and found a high school aged kid marching band escorting a holy parade for Easter Sunday. (Danielle thought this was the surprise at first!)

  • After the mosaic, we then rushed away to take a metro to Bunkers. The metro ride took us to the North end of the city where we had a long 30 min steep hike to the top of the 280m hill.  There were hundreds of people there at the overlook for sunset but we found a section of artillery wall to sit on and look out over the city and enjoy the sunset and views

  • After hiking back down from Bunkers after the sun had started to set we rushed off to try seeing La Sangrada Familia before it got completely dark

  • When we arrived to this touristy part of town we saw the massive unfinished church, but Nick was more surprised by the KFC, McDonalds, Five Guys, Burger King, Taco Bell, and Subway around it

  • We took many selfies with the dark backside of the church before continuing walk around and eventually found the front of the church. It still was too dark to see the exquisite details with clarity, but we took pictures anyways

  • We hopped back on the metro to go to a crepe shop, and arrived just in time, 20 minutes before close. We ordered 3 crepes, one salmon and cream cheese for Danielle, one strawberry Nutella for Nick, and a cinnamon sugar to share. After eating, Nick hopped into bed thinking the night was over (it was already 11:15pm) but Danielle reminded him that we planned to go out dancing

  • We began the 30 minute walk to club Opium. There was a live band, who performed many songs, English and Spanish, with the first and finale songs having live salsa dancers. The DJ took back over from the band, and a gogo dancer got on a stage right in front of us. We continued dancing enjoying the ambiance of the crazy experience

  • We left and walked back along the boardwalk. We took off our shoes and walked through the cold sand and into the Mediterranean Sea. We recorded ourselves talking to the camera, talking to our “future selves”. We got out of the water and put sandy feet into dry socks and shoes, and then walked to a bus stop to take us back to our hotel

  • We headed to a nearby supermarket at 4am and decided on marble cake, pringles, and ice cream. We came back to the hotel to enjoy our snacks and journal

April 10th

  • Woke up at 10

  • Went to La Rambla street

  • Stopped at La Boqueria Market but it was closed even though it was advertised as open

  • We did a self guided tour of the Gothic Quarter

  • Saw temple of Augustus from the first century - it was ruins of Roman columns

  • We also saw Pont Del Bisbe Bridge, similar to the Venetian Bridge of Sighs

  • Spontaneously saw an incredible band with catalon instruments and people dancing in circles in front of The Cathedral of Barcelona

  • We had lunch at La Dolça Hermania: Nick ate Duck Confit and Danielle Spaghetti Carbonara (hold the carbonara) and we split veggie gyoza with strawberry sauce (SO good)

  • Danielle respected a 2 hour siesta while Nick tried to nap but the cleaners kept interrupting

  • After Danielle woke up we rushed off to Arc de Triumph where we took photos with Nick's camera. We then walked to the park at the end of Arc de Triumph called Parc de Ciutadella

  • We went by a fountain that looked like the Trevi Fountain and at the top of the stairs people were dancing - one of Danielle's favorite parts of the day since it was so spontaneous!

  • We headed to Park Guell and saw ruins and stairs and looked at the photos and then we rushed to our hotel to drop off our backpack and change

  • We were running late to a concert so we ran in our fancy clothes (Danielle in heels).The concert was at Pleau de Musica de Catalan and had 3 guitarists, 2 Spanish dancers, and a drummer. Nick fell asleep a couple times since we stayed up late the night prior although he said enjoyed it.

  • After, we got Mexican food at Rosa Negra: we shared chips and guac, Nick got quesabirria and Danielle got 4 fish tacos that were amazing!

  • We then got back to our hotel, journaled and went to bed

April 11th

  • Intended to wake up at 7:30am to have our final Barcelona day include the Casa Milo, Sangrada familia, Chocolate factory, Picasso museum and then catch our Train to Madrid

  • However we slept in until 9:30, leaving us just 2.5hrs to get to as many of those places as possible

  • We quickly packed everything up, left our luggage at our hotel, and ran to the metro to head to La Sangrada Familia

  • We enjoyed the details of this weird and wonderful church in the day light, including the active construction, and permanent Christmas tree decoration adorned at the front of the church

  • Danielle spent 15 minutes doing a full walkaround video of the church’s perimeter and then we headed to the Picasso museum

  • The previous night, Danielle had bought 11:45 (earliest available) entry tickets for the Picasso Museum, but the train to Madrid was scheduled for 12:50. We arrived at the museum at 11:15 but would not be allowed in until 11:30am

  • The chocolate museum was just a 2 minute walk away so we quickly hopped over to that, purchased our ticket (which came in the form of a chocolate bar), and then began a very quick run through of the museum

  • Nick then left to get the luggage and check out of the hotel so Danielle could enjoy the Picasso museum for 30 minutes before we had to catch the metro to Barcelona station. Nick got back to the hotel and grabbed all the luggage, then headed to the Barcelona train terminal, and Danielle showed up minutes before the train departure so we rushed through security and onto the train

  • Arrived in Madrid, struggled to understand the metro card system and eventually made it to our Airbnb right on the Plaza Mayor, and met up with our host Jose who only spoke Spanish. We used Google translate to understand all the details that he was telling us about the place

  • Then we quickly headed off across town to the the Prado museum during its free time slot (last 2 open hours of every day is free), but waited in a long line to get in

  • We walked through the massive museum, taking recommendations from the employees on the best areas of the museum to spend our limited time. We saw many Goya and Picasso paintings

  • Museum closed so we walked to find a restaurant and ended up in an eclectic Hawaiian themed restaurant named Rosi La Loco that had delicious cocktails . Nick had an amazing Cava wine with tons of fruit in it and Danielle had a cocktail in a cup decorated as the Cheshire Cat. We ate dumplings, tacos, and chicken and rice

  • We received complimentary shots at the end in test tubes since it was our Honeymoon!

  • While walking back, including through Plaza Del Sol, we stepped on the Km 0 insignia plaque on the ground, and then went to a Chocolataria for some traditional churros and chocolate sauce. The small restaurant was covered in photos of celebrities who had visited the restaurant. While we enjoyed the snack, Nick loved the chocolate the most and Danielle loved the churros

  • We walked past the old Mercado De San Miguel market which was still open very late, but we didn’t buy anything. Went back and stayed up until 2am planning out the next day, and went to sleep with the balcony door open over a cool and quiet Plaza Mayor square

April 12th

  • We went to Toledo which is one hour outside of Madrid via a Fun and Tickets tour guide on Tripadvisor. We spent around 2 hours the night prior trying to decide on a half or full day tour and decided on a half day so we could see more of Madrid. When we were on the bus, they upgraded us to the full day for free. Thank goodness we were the most last minute planners since we didn't book any other tours that day

  • We got Marzipan as a souvenir to bring back - since Danielle likes edible souvenirs

  • Squeezed in Reina Sophia museum during their free hours after our full day Toledo tour

  • We heard people in the Plaza Mayor square routing for a "football" (aka american soccer) pregame. We decided to buy tickets last minute and went to the semi finals between Real Madrid and Chelsea in the SECOND row. Real Madrid won 2-0!

April 13th

  • Woke up, cleaned Airbnb and packed luggage

  • Walked to our starting point which was just a 2 min walk from the Airbnb and left our luggage

  • Realized we forgot to leave the key so Nick ran back to drop it off right before our tour started 

  • Walked with our guide through Plaza Mayor; learned about its history as a market and place where the Spanish monarchs would watch from the balcony for public events, including executions

  • Walked through more areas of Madrid learning about its history 

  • Arrived at the Royal Palace but due to unusually high crowds, we had to wait for over 30 min

  • Eventually got in and walked through the palace learning about all the old fancy decorated rooms

  • Coolest in our opinion was a set of old stradivarius violins from 1706 which were set up to be played later that day in one of the palace rooms for a string quartet concert

  • Walked through the armory but wasn’t as cool as Sweden’s armory in our opinion

  • Walked back to get our luggage and then headed to the train station for Seville

  •  2.5hr train ride, arrived in Seville, caught a bus which got us close to the hotel, got off early by accident and walked the rest of the way through the beautiful town of Seville 

  • Worked with the hotel concierge to plan out our limited time in Seville

  • Danielle slept while Nick did some planning for Morocco 

  • Went to dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant where Nick ordered steak and limoncello and Danielle ordered goat cheese pasta and red wine

April 14th

  • Our hop on - hop off Seville tour included 4 walking tours of the city, so Danielle was determined to get their money's worth and go to all of them. The concierge who helped us plan all of Seville mentioned it would be beneficial to go on the hop on hop off tour before the walking tours so we would have a basic understanding of the city. Since the first walking tour started at noon, and the hop on hop off tours started at 10am and were every 30 min, Nick and Danielle thought they had plenty of time to do this

  • Unfortunately we were sleepy and snoozed our alarms (sense a pattern?) so we ran from our hotel to the first stop (about a 7 min walk) to make it. We got there with plenty of time (these buses were not prompt), and Danielle went to a ticket stand first while Nick went over to the bus itself. Danielle called over to Nick to come to her, but he shouted back "we already have tickets" so Danielle ran to Nick. Then the ticketing staff yelled "Nick, Nick!" And we both stopped in our tracks and went back. They then said "you're on holiday you shouldn't be running. Your driver isn't even in the bus yet" and Nick responded "she makes all our vacations this way" and Danielle responded "you love me for exactly the way I am and would never change me" and kissed Nick. We then got hop on hop off cards in replacement of a paper copy and got on the bus :)

  • For the first 2 stops, we assumed the driver would be speaking and we didn't need headphones even though we saw other people wearing headphones. Nick then went to the front of the bus and got headphones, but the speaking was in Spanish. When we tried changing the channel, it was just music (we didn't know at the time music played in between stops and the 2nd channel was in fact English). Nick was also worried we weren't making decent progress on the round of the city and wouldn't be back by noon for our included free guided tour of the city. Both frustrated about the language (even though we found out from the bus driver about the English channel on stop 4) and nervous about not having enough time, we got out and started walking towards the stop that the walking tour would start at (stop 2)

  • We sat and ate chocolate chip muffins that we had been carrying around as emergency hangry food underneath a beautiful large tree. We also observed people selling the hop on hop off tour and other people selling a similar "green bus" tour competing with each other. The green bus tour lady would just shadow any red bus hop on hop off tour while they gave their chat and the green bus lady would then try to convince someone to go with her after they already agreed to go with the red hop on hop off tour. It was silly to watch

  • Finally our walking tour was going to start, and many people from our hop on hop off at 10:30 were there, so they made it back, like Danielle told Nick they would 🤣 

  • We then went on two back to back bilingual walking tours

  • Danielle then found a restaurant that served Italian, American, and Spanish food called Al Lado. Danielle got THE BEST pesto tortellini that was stuffed with cheese and spinach. Nick agreed it was the much better meal. Nick got a very large calzone with Bolognese in it. Danielle also got 2 glasses of red wine

  • After lunch, it was just the right time for the next walking tour so they went straight there

  • After that walking tour, we went to our hotel to change into a bit fancier clothes for our plans later in the evening. We then were running a bit late to our second walking tour, so we ran... again. Again, Danielle had heals, fun! We got to the bus stop where we were supposed to meet, and they had already left, so we kept running to catch up. This tour was the one Danielle was looking most forward to (Triena) so she was not giving up! We continued to run probably another 5 minutes over a bridge and finally caught up with the group

  • At the end of the tour, we realized we had only a little bit of time before our flamenco class. So again, running! A theme of the trip. Chaos, unplanned, and jam packed. We made it just in time for our lesson and were extremely out of breath and sweating

  • Ingrid, our flamenco instructor, was incredible! She is from Estonia but is studying at the school in Seville for Flamenco dancing and has been doing the Flamenco for around 10 years. We started with getting a history background of flamenco: learning that it is a way of life - you can express so many different emotions with it and be incredibly specific like happiness, love, sadness, the terrible conditions of miners, etc. She also explained how similar to how ballroom dancing has many different styles (waltz, etc) so does flamenco - it is like a tree trunk with many branches. She said one of the main branches is called sticks.

  • We started by learning the different rhythms it could be in - 4/4, 12/4, 5/4. We then added in stomping and clapping. We kept adding, in saying things like "olay!" and a couple other phrases, which helps to cheer someone on if they did something good. The most interesting part we learned was that the whole dance and flamenco performances are IMPROVISED. And most of the time, the guitarist, singers, and flamenco dancers all have never met each other. They have small ques for each other to help know what they want and need from each other

  • After we conquered that, it was time to dance! We were learning a type of dance that was as if you were at a party and someone had a guitar and started playing (and possibly someone else was singing) and you wanted to dance

  • To start, you make your entrance with a circle and lift your arms while also curling your hands. After that, you mark your spot by moving your hips and "picking something from the table and then an apple from the tree" each 2x. Then, you do the finale, you stomp very loud and take a final pose. Ingrid was funny and said "you have to look confident and lift up your chest when you dance. We never are confident when we go on stage, but we always have to look it" at the end, we recorded ourselves on our last run through. Ingrid said we got through a lot and we're fast learners ☺️

  • After the lesson, we watched a real flamenco show. We then saw how extremely new we were, especially with our feet (which we knew). It started with everyone in the show, 2 singers, 2 flamenco dancers (one male, one female), and one guitarist. There was then 1 guitar solo, 1 male solo, the singers solo, and finally the female solo with a long tail dress. At the very end they all stood up and danced and sang. It was super fun to watch!

  • We went back to our hotel to drop off bags and get a jacket for Danielle. We then were searching for restaurants and since it was around 11:30pm and most places closed at midnight, some of our choices were turning us away saying the kitchen was closed. We just kept walking and then we found a sushi bar. We got a salmon and eel roll with spicy edamame (not garlic - peppery, very different). We also got a 2 for 1 mojito that has barely any alcohol in it and mainly was just juice. Overall, it was very tasty though

  • We then went back to our hotel, successfully booked a hotel in Fez for Sunday (just 2 days later) and quickly fell asleep before making any plans for the morning

April 15th

  • Woke up at 9:15, packed up our small hotel room in the beautiful Hotel Vincci la Rábida. Asked the hotel to hold our luggage then went off to the Alcazar

  • At the Alcazar, we checked if the tickets Nick had bought from a website called Tiqets were genuine or not (they were real!). We headed to the bus station to book a bus ticket for late in the afternoon for Tarifa

  • Toured the Bullfighting museum (Plaza de toros de la Real Maestranza de Caballería de Sevilla)

  • Seville has a long history of bullfighting in the culture, and we learned about the traditions of the matador - how it developed from a historical practice of knights learning horsemanship and battle skills, then later developed into modern matador entertainment

  • We were glad that we weren’t able to book tickets for the bullfighting event on Sunday (since we had to leave for Tarifa). It would be too sad to watch the bulls tortured and killed

  • Eventually we left and headed to a market (Mercado Lonja del Barranco) with many small food stands. Danielle ordered some pastries from a bakery, Nick ordered Iberian ham (finally after many days of wanting to try it), and we got some free beers that came with our hop on hop off tour. Nick enjoyed the taste of this famous delicacy, but Danielle was not a fan. Nick finished his beer, and Danielle ended up chugging her beer to get it over with (Nick didn't want it)

  • We walked to the cathedral for our tour and had to cross through a parade/protest

  • Ended up being later to our tour start time. Struggled to find the meeting point for our tour, wandered around for 7 minutes before our tour guide eventually somehow identified us

  • We then took the Seville Classica tour of the cathedral, learned that the cathedral is the 3rd largest in Europe by floor space, and has the largest gold tall display (26m) of the New Testament

  • Unfortunately the tour didn’t include a visit to La Giralda tower

  • Headed straight for the Alcazar, which was a beautiful palace with both Muslim and Spanish royals history. Was the filming location for Dorne in Game of Thrones. It was super hot but we walked around through the beautiful rooms, halls, and gardens. We ran into an older couple we met at the earlier hop on and off tours which was a funny coincidence

  • We walked back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and then took a taxi to the bus station. Nick went to a local supermarket to pick up some snacks (Pringles & pistachios) for the 3hr bus ride 

  • Bused to Tarifa, hailed a taxi from bus station to ferry, and 1 hour ferry from Tarifa to Tangier! 

  • Got off the ferry (stepped in Africa for both of our first time!) walked by a temple and up a big hill to the first Riad - we did not have any hotel or Riad reservations for our first night in Africa (since we were not sure if we would make the ferry) and just showed up to the first Riad we had starred

  • The first one we got to was unfortunately completely booked, but the front desk was extremely kind and called other Riads (hotels) since our phones had not started working in Africa yet

  • We walked to the next recommended Riad up another hill with our luggage

  • We met Badr, the hotel front desk person who greeted us with hospitalities

  • We had Moroccan green tea “whiskey” and cookies (Busahha - Morocco cookie - means cheers)

  • We went up to our room, did some planning for our next day to see if we could squeeze in a Tangier walking tour recommended by Badr, but unfortunately due to limited busses we could not

  • Enjoyed the views of our top 4th floor room near the top of a hill of Tangier, overlooking the city

  • We went back out to find some dinner but at that point it was around 11:30pm so many places were closed or closing, including Badr’s recommendation

  • We walked around finding some more scenic outlooks over the bay and temple, and eventually found Ray Charly, a small chicken shop where we had chicken and fries, and took away a sandwich

  • Walked back to the hotel, enjoyed the view again, showered, and fell asleep around 2am

April 16th

  • We woke up at 7am, got ready, packed our bags, and enjoyed 5 last minutes on our balcony and then went up to our included breakfast. We met the daytime host, Muhammad. We told him we needed a taxi for our bus that was leaving in 45 min, and he said we needed to call it that minute to get there in time - so we had him call for us

  • At breakfast, we met 2 lovely groups. Muhammad said "it's Danielle and Nick!" so they already were talking of us. One group was a mother with her 2 kids (both looked about 4 years old) and they were on a 2 month excursion. The other group was 2 women probably in early retirement who were just starting their trip. They were meeting up with a tour group. The mother said "I feel like we already know so much about you, we have been waiting for you and heard you were coming to breakfast!" Then she gave a look to us like "why the hell did Muhammad feel the need to tell us a bunch of information about a random guest 🤣) but it was just general information like it was our honeymoon, we got in late, leaving early, etc. and quite funny

  • The mom and 2 kids went to Portugal, were in Morocco, and then were going to Spain. Danielle said that must be tough with young kids, and she said "oh yes, this smile is painted." We all laughed. Danielle also asked if we could know what she did for a living. She responded with "I'm a wife! Just kidding, kinda. My husband and I run a self sufficient farm in England and our house is paid off so we really don't have bills. I write children's educational books, and I homeschool our kids. My kids and I then have the flexibility to travel for multiple months, I can school them if needed, and honestly it does wonders for my husband and my marriage! We get a bit of a break from each other and he gets a break from the kids while he can just focus on the farm"

  • We then chatted with the other group of 2 women going city to city, on a Sahara desert experience with camels as well, and ending in Marrakech. Our favorite interaction with them was when Nick mentioned we had literally no plans when we entered Africa, like a hotel or tours or anything, and she responded with "oh, where in Africa?!" And her friend helped her by saying "uhhhh here. Tangier is a port from Spain and we already heard they came from Spain."

  • All of this was in only 15 minutes - and then we had to rush off to our taxi so we could make our bus to Chefchaouen

  • Bus was 1.5 hours long and we mostly journaled and slept. There was a guy across from us who got car sick and threw up in a bag next to us. Danielle, although she has an extreme fear and phobia of vomit, just hung tight, listened to music, and held Nick's hand to stay calm

  • We arrived in Chefchaouen and got into a blue taxi (since Chefchaouen is the blue city). We then got dropped off at the Xxx.

  • We walked throughout the little shops trying to find food (we had a place in mind that has 4 stars called Something Twins), and were immediately asked by 4 different restaurants if we wanted to eat there. We were overwhelmed, even though one of the 4 restaurants was the one we wanted to eat at. We walked past and then got asked if we wanted henna tattoos. Danielle asked Nick if she could get one, he said no, both due to the cost but also worrying about cultural appropriation. We then walked straight towards the restaurant we wanted and sat down. Danielle got tanjin shrimp and sprite which was delicious and Nick got a pastilla and coke.

  • We then started walking through the city once we were done. We wandered around, taking photos near doors and blue walls. There was a place where you could take a set photo for $1, so we did that to see what the fuss was about and it was cute. We wandered around to other recommended places to take photos and go to shops

  • At the end, we wanted to go to the top of a hill where a Spanish mosque was, but we didn't plan well, and it was on the other side of the city where we started. The climb to the top of the hill was said to only be about a 20 minute walk, but we didn't have time for that, so we only went to the first viewpoint which was still amazing

  • We then got a little lost trying to find our way back to the taxi area, Danielle suggested to map back to the restaurant area. When we did, we found the taxi spot!

  • We taxied to the bus station and rode a bus for 5 hours to Fez

  • We met our lovely Airbnb hosts (who were French), had an incredible Moroccan home cooked meal by their chef, and met a very interesting family of 3 who had just celebrated finding out the sex of their 2nd baby and talked to them for hours, learning about their way of life (wife was from Ukraine and husband was from England)
     

April 17th

  • We woke up at 6:30am in our Riad in Fez and packed up

  • Went upstairs to the roof to enjoy the view of Fez in daylight and signed the guestbook

  • Met up with our recommended tour guide from Danielle's cousins, Omar 

  • Drove to the town of Ifrane, which is a rich university town that Americans, Europeans and Moroccans attend, and the town is modeled after Switzerland architecture 

  • Omar then drove us to middle Atlas Mountains at 1900m to see the Barbary Macaques (monkeys). Danielle bought peanuts to feed to them, and took lots of pictures

  • Omar drove us to lunch (which we felt bad about since he was fasting for Ramadan all day)

  • Nick ate red meat skewers and Danielle had lemon chicken tagine. We enjoyed watching the feral cats try to get food from tourists, one even hopped up on a table after the tourists left

  • Omar drove us through Ziz Canyon which had amazing sedimentary geology 

  • Omar drove us to Ziz Valley and bought us Scarf “shesh”, while we overlooked the valley full of palm date trees

  • We entered the Sahara with beautiful views of the orange sand dunes and camels along the road

  • Omar handed us off to a different driver (4 wheel drive) who would take us to the camel guide

  • Got to the our camels and our guide Zaid

  • We rode our single hump camels, which had big saddles covered by colorful blankets, while Nick also carried a sand board. Rode for about 45 minutes, until we got to “camel parking” (Zaid’s term) and hiked to the top of the highest dune. Walking up the sand was very difficult and tiring 

  • We began sandboarding, which was actually surprisingly easy. Nick rode first, and although he fell at the end, was able to stay upright for most of the ride. We then did that for another 45 minutes. Danielle did excellent and never fell! We tried to sled ride together (sitting) but with Nick steering, fell off and got covered in so much sand, but no injuries since the sand is so gentle

  • Stayed til sunset, then walked back to the camels and rode the rest of the way to the camp 

  • Our luxury tent was set up with beautiful heart shaped rose petals for us!

  • Drank Moroccan tea and ate cookies while sitting on some outside rugs on the floor, then went inside for dinner. Dinner was many courses and WAY too much good food, a common theme in our Moroccan meals

  •  We met our other camp guests, Goh and Derek (an astrophotographer)

  •   We then had a Berber drum performance around the campfire where the 4 workers each played drums and participated in chant like songs

  •  We were invited to lead our own song and Danielle impressively led the singing of Taylor Swift's Paper Rings - singing, “I love shiny things but I’ll marry you with paper rings” while drumming; to our surprise, none of the 4 Moroccan employees of various ages had ever heard of Taylor Swift even though they said they listen to American music

  •  Bed time as it was pretty late by that point, but Nick woke up at 4am for some astrophotography. He was already planning on this, but was especially convinced after learning the other guest at camp was there exclusively for astrophotography due to perfect conditions of no moon, clouds or wind. Nick got some great pictures but took a while to reteach himself astrophotography 

April 18th

  • Sunrise camel ride, including running down the sand dune race with Zaid

  • Another gigantic Moroccan meal hosted by the desert camp, including some delicious donuts that they called "candy," not knowing the word "donut" in English

  • Packed up and got picked up from camp by the same driver who took us back to Omar, where we met at an ATV rental shop (per our request)

  • Omar was nice enough to lend us money since we were out of cash

  • Decided to rent a buggy, which Danielle and Nick could ride in together and is safer than the ATVs. Had an amazing time off-roading in the sahara desert for an hour. We both got stuck once each in the dunes and had to be rescued by our private guide

  • We went to the Moroccan depot where we bought a very very expensive but beautiful and soft rug that now lives in our recently renovated garage so our cats do not scratch it

  • Had lunch on a restaurant terrace, Nick ordered the meatballs tagine, kefta, and Danielle ordered chicken and vegetables tagine. At the end of the meal, it started to rain a bit which was crazy for the desert - we have a video of it!

  • Omar drove us to a shop which dressed us up in traditional Berber wedding attire and allowed us to take pictures. Then we each got a quick free henna, each with our names in Arabic (confirmed)

  • We arrived in a big canyon with extremely tall walls and walked around. The river started from a spring in the middle of the canyon and did not have an upstream source we could see (possibly Dades valley)

  • Stopped at another beautiful scenic overlook of a valley with beautiful sunset haze, overlooking Tinghir

  • Arrived at our extremely high quality hotel accommodations for the night in a large hotel where we had a top floor corner room with 2 balconies on each side

  • Got a buffet dinner but Danielle and Nick weren’t very happy with the quality (a lot of sitting out and going stale) after coming from the desert camp which had great quality and fresh food 

  •  Danielle talked Nick into getting massages for both of them (Nick's first massage); we both only got tiny towels to cover ourselves, which often was moved by the masseuse

April 19th

  • Woke up and packed

  • Finally booked our flights from Fez to Barcelona (on Saturday) - considered going to Portugal for a day or south France, just to get back to Barcelona in a reasonable time

  • Breakfast

  • We stopped for pictures in the rose gardens which are only in season for 1 week

  • Went to a Rose tour - roses are only picked for 5 days for the festival for the 26, 27, 28 of April 

  • Omar gifted Danielle a heart rose necklace made from string and live rose petals - Omar said "we already have a rose in the car, but here is a gift for her"

  • On the drive, we saw Morocco's solar renewable energy project that Nick was in awe of

  • We did a studio tour in Ouarzazate (Morocco's Hollywood)

  • Had a buffet lunch - Danielle tried couscous and liked it

  • Private tour of kasbah Benhaddou, into the tour guide's aunt's house; we saw people building an arena for Gladiator 2, very windy at the very top we almost blew over and Danielle had to use one hand to hold down her hat and one hand to hold down her dress!

  • We saw a demonstration of a painting being made of green tea, saffron, and indigo - then having a fire lit underneath while constantly moving the burning paper so it doesn't fully catch on fire

  • 2 young boys had Iguanas from the upper mountains on their head - Nick took photos and immediately they asked for money. Danielle really wanted to hold the iguanas so the kids put one on her head and another on her shoulder. We had the kids split essentially $1.

  • We drove up to the Atlas Mountains

  • Panoramic view of the Atlas Mountains 

  • Went to an Argan oil tour & gave heart roses to girls working since they loved it so much

  • Another panoramic picture and 2 geodes bought

  • We entered Marrakech which was very crowded, unlike any city we had visited. It took about 30 minutes just to get into the city with all the traffic in a round about. Police tried to help, but it still seemed extremely chaotic since motorcycles could go nearly anywhere with no rules

  • We arrived at the square closest to our riad and had one of the hotel managers come help us with our things. We were sad to say goodbye to Omar.

  • We settled in the hotel in Marrakech and were excited to see they went above and beyond giving us rose petals on our bed in the shape of a heart, in the sink, and on the floor of our room

  • After decompressing, we went out to see the nightlife in Marrakech. We showed interest in a shop that had live baby turtles. They showed us to various products, and then for the "last product to show" the guy had to show us inside. we knew this trick immediately but went inside anyway. After he showed us one crystal smell, his boss took over and started showing us other smells

  • We did not want to buy anything, so we asked if the boss had any recommendations for dinner. He showed us a nearby place that had chicken with pita and had a nice dinner with stray cats begging for our food

  • We went back to our hotel and journaled before bed

April 20th

  • We first went to Bahia Palace

  • As we were walking and trying to find the House of Photography, 2 people asked where we were going, and told us we should go visit one of the tanneries since it was their last day of the season

  • We kept our distance but went with them since that was on our list of things to do, and before we knew it, we were passed to a "tour guide" who showed us all about the tannery (where they make leather). We were given mint to put under our nose due to the strong smell of lime

  • After the tour, we were guided into a leather shop where Nick found a leather jacket he liked and Danielle found a dress she liked. Then the negotiating began! We were told to put a number down that we would be comfortable with for buying the item (no knowledge of how much it is actually worth or any price). We put down a very low number, and went back and forth writing down numbers with the owner of the shop. Eventually we both got to a number we were comfortable with for Nick's leather jacket (after some great negotiating) and proceeded to leave the store

  • As we were leaving, the "tour guide" was still outside the shop (almost 2 hours later) and told us we needed to pay him for the tour. We knew we had gotten swindled and was upset by it, so we gave him an amount we were comfortable with, but he was not happy. He kept yelling and saying we needed to give more so he could pay the tannery workers, and we proceeded to walk away

  • We finally made it to the Marrakech House of Photography and enjoyed the museum

  • We then went to Badi Palace

  • After, we went to Arset El Bilk

  • Finally, we wanted to experience a hammam (Moroccans engage in this usually 2x a week). It was a very interesting experience where we each were given small cloths to wear to hide our bodies while 2 women came into our room and washed us with various scrubs while massaging our bodies

  • We ended the night in a warm room with some more "Moroccan Whiskey" (aka mint tea)

  • We headed bad to our Riad and journaled for the day

April 21th

  • Private driver ride to Fes from Marrakech, left at 3am

  • Slept in car til we arrived in Fes at 9am

  • We bought a last minute private tour around Fez since we were unsure if that day would be Eid or not (last day of Ramadan where everything would be closed)

April 22nd

  • Night clubbing in Barcelona last day of trip

  • We just arrived at Razzmatazz club

  • There was only like one group in front of us and we didn’t want to be the first ones in

  • We continued to do a loop to see the types of people who were there

  • While we were walking around we realized that we weren’t dressed like everyone else who was going to the club. All the guys had leather jackets and a t shirt and jeans. And the girls, they were wearing ripped jeans and crop tops

  • When we left, Danielle had to buy a new metro card ticket since the gate wouldn’t let her in. She was on her own to buy a ticket, while Nick was already past the gate and helped a large confused family figure out how to exit the station

  • We got on our train. During the ride a large group of people, starting singing happy birthday in as many different languages as they knew which was fun to hear

April 23rd

  • Sunday travel day from BCN TO LAX

  • Woke up around 8:15 after snoozing since 7

  • Packed up and checked out of the hotel

  • Walked to the AeroBus station, purchased a ticket, then boarded the bus to the airport for our 11:40am flight

  • After the 30min ride, we arrived and checked in our bags

  • At that point, around 9:40am, while checking in bags and getting our boarding passes, Nick realized that he didn’t know where his wallet was

  • The last time they had seen it was at the station where they purchased the tickets

  • They retraced their steps to where they got off the bus, asked where the airport lost and found was, and went to the airport’s aerobus station

  • There the workers understood our issue and reached out to their coworkers in a group message

  • While we had to wait for the response from the aerobus workers we walked around to the airports lost and found, but learned that it was closed that day (unsure whether it was for the St George holiday or being a Sunday)

  • When we went back to the aerobus station, we learned from one of the workers that the wallet had been found but would be at least 30 minutes until the bus with the wallet would be back at the airport

  • We waited on a bench nearby until 10:40 when the bus arrived with the wallet

  • We then were able to get through security very quickly, but after a bit of a long walk, we arrived at the gate at 11:10am, not enough time to get breakfast. We go hungry and thankfully get food on the plane and arrive at LAX safe and sound!

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