Hampton Court Palace

I’m back with another belated entry!

On 28 May 2012, EN and I made a trip to Hampton Court Palace. This trip was important for me, as people who know my fascination with the monarchy have always asked if I made it there during mine and Nic’s first trip in 2008. We did not—instead, we went to Hatfield House, where Elizabeth I learned she was to be queen following her sister’s death, on that trip. So, this time, it was imperative that I visit one of the primary residences of King Henry VIII.

Me, standing outside the Main Entrance into the Base Court

Map of Hampton Court Palace, courtesy of the palace itself.

Originally built in the early 16th Century for the infamous Cardinal Wolsey, after the latter lost favor it was turned over to the king. The front half of the palace is reflective of Tudor construction, and closely resembles the other remaining palace from Henry’s reign, St James’s. 

Today, visitors to this section of the palace are able to walk through the former king’s kitchens and apartments, as well as undertake a ‘tour’ of the young Henry’s life.  

Regarding the kitchens, it was interesting to see how meals were turned out for such a large court, including the line of massive roasting spits and fireplaces, and the seldom considered offices belonging to the bureaucrats in charge of monitoring the incoming and outgoing (read: consumed) stores.

One of a line of four or five roasting fires, each of which could accommodate 7 spits.

Even more interesting to me than the kitchens, however, were the king’s apartments. 

I took a lot of photos of the Great Hall in particular. Aside from being simply gorgeous, it was also the last medieval hall of its type built for the English monarchy. 

The Great Hall, near the King's Dais and Table

We were also able to enter the Great Watching Chamber (a large room, complete with medieval board games and a bathroom), which is positioned just outside the king’s private rooms, and where courteous would hang out in hopes of catching a moment of Henry’s time. 

From there, we moved into one of two long hallways. The first features the adjoining room where paiges slept and awaited orders, and the second leads to both the King’s Council Chamber and the special room overlooking the Royal Chapel reserved for the sovereign. 

This King awaits his advisers in the Council Chamber

The Royal Pew, overlooking the Royal Chapel. (It's crooked because we weren't allowed to take photos directly.)

Now, one of these hallways is supposedly haunted—in fact, it’s referred to as the Haunted Gallery—but I can’t recall exactly which. Maybe both? I’m pretty sure the audio-tour suggested that it was the former, but I’ve also heard that the supposed ghost is that of Henry’s ill-fated wife Catherine Howard, and that she lurks near the chapel. (You can read more about the Haunted Gallery here and watch a brief video about other haunted happenings at Hampton Court here.)

The second distinctive section of the palace—an add-on, if you will—was built in the Baroque style at the behest of Queen Mary II and her co-regnant, King William III, almost 100 years later. Within this section, guests can visit the private apartments of the aforementioned, as well as the Georgian apartments.

The W&M section--you can see the edge of the Tudor section near the top of the hedge on the left.

Queen Mary’s apartments had been transformed, owing to a exhibition titled ‘The Wild, The Beautiful, & The Damned’—basically, paintings of upper-class women and kingly mistresses who modeled for risqué portraits during the Stuart era—so there wasn’t much to see there, sadly. King William’s apartments, on the other hand, were gorgeous. 

After ascending the stunning—nay, magnifispeldant (because magnificent and splendid on their own don’t do it justice) King’s Staircase, visitors cross into the King’s Guardchamber, where his protectors…well, basically hung out and showcased their hardware. 

A King ascends the King's Staircase

The King's Guardchamber

From there, guests move through a series of receiving chambers, many with corresponding canopied thrones and one which—as we saw at Windsor—was the official bedroom used for bidding the king goodnight before he retired to a private one. 

How dare they put a rope up to keep me from the throne!

I've informed Nic that I want our bed to look like this.

Eventually, we crossed through the king’s real bedroom, his private office, and even got a peek at the more intimate…ahem, throne. (That’s right, I’m talkin’ about the Royal Loo.)

Not splinters for the sovereign when he sits!

Sadly, we weren’t really able to tour the Georgian apartments—those used by Kings George I and II—because we simply ran out of time. But EN and I did run through that section, so we could at least say we were there. 

It was actually a bit creepy, as it was entirely deserted—even the docents were missing—and we both experienced an eerie ‘we’re not alone’ vibe about the whole section. I actually kind of wish we had seen a spook, as it would have added to the memories, but alas we only had the feelings to go by.

The Cartoon Gallery

Having discussed the interior of Hampton Court Palace, I want to take just a second to address the other thing it’s primarily known for: the gardens and grounds. They were beautiful! That being said, two things of particular note to be found there are the Hampton Court [Hedge] Maze—which I successfully navigated my way out of before EN, who challenged me to a race—and the ‘Great Vine’, which holds the Guinness World Record for being the largest grape vine. (If you’re wondering, it was planted in 1769, still produces a crop of grapes annually, and had at least one branch that was 246’ long as of 2005.)

The Great Vine

So, that’s the gist of mine and EN's day at Hampton Court Palace. It’s a bit expensive to get into—less so if you have a student ID, buy your tickets online in advance, etc.—but certainly worth the trip if you ever find yourself in London with nothing to do (as unlikely as that is)!

Amsterdam (Part II): Heavy Thoughts...

My mother thinks I forgot how to take pictures while in Amsterdam, hence why I haven’t added any more to my Facebook account, but I told her: I won’t let myself upload them until I’ve blogged about them. So, here goes…

I woke up super-early on Monday, 14 May, knowing that there was a lot I wanted to see and not a lot of time to do it. But first, I needed coffee! Unfortunately, I was up early enough that there was nary a true coffee shop open. It took almost an hour before I was eventually able to grab a seat at Broodje Mokum and enjoy a cuppa, so while waiting for that lovely little café to open, I headed over to the first touristy the thing on my list:

The Homomonument is a large (albeit easy to overlook) memorial dedicated to all gay and lesbian persons who have faced persecution. It opened in 1987—the city had just celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the monument earlier in May, hence the flowers you'll see below—and was the first of its kind in the world. 

Resting on the bank of the Keizersgracht canal, in the shadow of Westerkerk Church (where Rembrandt is buried), the Homomonument consists of three large, pink granite triangles set into the ground. Together, the three small triangles form a much larger triangle. 

The positioning of the the monument's points are intentional: one points toward the National War Memorial; another toward the Anne Frank House, which I will discuss further below; and the third toward the headquarters of COC Nederland, the oldest continuously operating gay and lesbian organization in the world (founded in 1946). 

I spent a good bit of time at the Homomonument, reflecting on its significance and appreciating its very existence.

Westerkerk Church. The area with the flowers is one of the points of the triangle.

Coffee at Brodje Mokum. I can't read (or speak) Dutch, but I sure pretended like I could...

From the Homomonument and Broodje Mokum, I eventually made my way over to the second item on my list: the Anne Frank House and Museum, which is a museum built around the actual house where the Frank family hid from the Nazis for just over two years. Given the nature of what I was seeing, this is one area where I respected the request not to take photos or videos. You’ll just have to take my word for it that it is incredibly moving!

The Anne Frank House (left) and Museum (right)

As part of the self-guided tour, visitors are led through the ‘public’ side of the building, from which Otto Frank (Anne’s father) and his colleagues ran their business. Eventually, guests make their way through a small hole in a back closet—itself hidden by a large bookcase—and into the small Achterhuis (Dutch for ‘back house,’ and referred to by Frank as the ‘Secret Annex’), where Anne hid away with her parents, sister, and four others until they were betrayed. 

After moving through these small living quarters—which all together was only about the size of mine and Nic’s former apartment in the South Loop of Chicago but distributed over two floors, and still had magazine clippings Anne had glued to the wall to brighten up her own living area—guests make their way into the two-part museum.

The first part deals with the Frank family’s imprisonment in the concentration camps (only Otto survived), and the second part deals with discriminatory acts in a broader context. Throughout the section devoted to the Frank family, guests are able to view recorded interviews conducted with Otto and others who knew them. Perhaps the most poignant moment for me came as I was watching the very last video, which featured Anne’s father. 

It concludes with him talking about how Anne always kept-up a relatively cheerful façade while they were in hiding, and that he never had even the slightest inkling that half the thoughts she recorded in her diary were going through her mind. He finishes by saying in a melancholic tone that he never really knew his daughter, which just goes to show that a parent never really knows their child. How sad is that? As if what Otto Frank went through wasn’t horrific enough, he then had to go to his grave years later thinking that he didn’t even know his own daughter? 

After an emotionally heavy morning, I decided it was time for a change of pace. 

I headed over to Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, which is a national museum devoted to Dutch arts, craft, and history. There are many famous works here—especially from the painters Rembrandt and Vermeer (though, sadly, Girl with a Pearl Earring was not on display!)—but the main reason I wanted to go here was because of an experience Nic had when in Amsterdam. 

Museumplein, with the Rijksmuseum behind me.

You see, according to Nic, when he visited the Rijksmuseum during his study abroad experience, he was shocked to find figures in the paintings that closely resembled himself. As he puts it (more or less), he was hit over the head by his Dutch roots in that moment. Having heard this story on more than one occasion, I wanted to check out the situation for myself.

My goodness: he was not kidding, as evidenced by the photos I snapped below. The bone-structure, the nose—it’s like looking at various paintings of Nic dressed in period costumes! It was quite funny, to me, to learn that this was one of those rare instances where my beloved did not overly exaggerate.

Upon leaving, I headed around back to one of two large ‘I amsterdam’ sculptures (I saw the second one later in the day near the new Filmmuseum), which were originally designed to promote business interests within the city, but quickly became a tourist attraction. 

I had actually never heard of it before, but locals kept suggesting I go there, so I did. It was...cute, but I really don’t understand why it was being promoted so heavily by those who live in Amsterdam full-time when there are much more interesting sights that visitors should be directed toward. Oh well, it’s not my city so I can’t judge I guess…

Apparently, I am Amsterdam...

The remainder of my day was spent in the northeastern part of the city, so this seems like a good place to take a break. 

Until next time…

Barbecue, Gardens, and People of Iron

What an exciting, fun week it’s been! 

In the last 7 days I have visited France, Belgium, and The Netherlands; spent two delightful evenings and one lovely afternoon with various friends; and proudly watched from afar as my sister graduated from MC to UMBC, my parents celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary, my partner competed in and conquered his very first Iron Person race, and my Aunt Peggy celebrated her 50th birthday!
 

I’m positively exhausted!

I’ll speak more about my travels anon, but for now I want to focus on a few of the things I’ve done in the London area this week, specifically yesterday.

In addition to being my parents’ anniversary, yesterday was Nic’s big race! I knew I would go stir-crazy if I just sat there refreshing the athlete tracker all day, so I decided to try and keep myself as busy as possible. (This was a wise choice on my part since the stupid tracker stopped doing its job after the 56th mile on the bike.) 

So, after starting my morning off with a 5 mile run—don’t forget, I’m training for my own big race (and still looking for sponsors to help me raise $440 by July, which you can learn more about here)—I took my ever-generous host / flat-mate MM up on his offer to go walk around Kew Gardens, where he works. 

I had been meaning to do this for a while now, but with the recent weather it hasn’t really been an option before now. MM and I spent most of the afternoon there—it’s such a lovely park—but my camera battery was low because I forgot to charge it after I got back from my trip, so I didn’t get many pictures. 

Highlights included seeing: Kew Palace, where King George III lived for part of his reign (and which is featured in the film The Madness of King George); some wonderful sculptures hewn from dead trees and created by Kew’s artist-in-residence, David Nash; and, seeing the amazing greenhouses like Temperate House, which is the largest surviving Victorian glasshouse in the world!

The backside of Kew Palace

Temperate House

By the time MM and I returned from Kew Gardens, it was almost 6:00 PM—yet, with the time difference, I knew it would be another 9 or 10 hours before Nic was done with his race. This meant I needed to find something to pass the time last night as well.

Fortunately, my friend TvH invited me to join him, LD, and KS for a night of frivolity at my favorite London club, Heaven. Since Heaven doesn’t open until 11 PM, though, we had some time to kill and went to Lupo first.

————

I’m going to stop talking about last night for a second, and jump back to Thursday.

On Thursday afternoon, TvH and I met up for coffee at LJ’s so we could catch up on the respective trips we had both taken the previous weekend, while enjoying delicious coffee and amazing (albeit messy) caramel shortbread thingies.

Around 5 PM, we set off for Village, where we were to meet-up with LD for cocktails—and just a few at that, because I was determined to avoid a repeat of the prior Thursday’s sloppiness! Unfortunately LD was denied entrance because he forgot his ID and so, after TvH and I finished our wine, we headed someplace where LD knew he could get in: Lupo.

I had never been before, even though it was right down the street. It wasn’t bad, though most of the clientele seemed to be yuppy straights who didn’t quite know what to make of the three of us, bouncing around flamboyantly on our bar stools to the music. On the flipside, the bartender—a lovely Melbournian named Dominica (Dom, for short)—seemed to adore us, and it was in large part because of her that we wound up staying there as long as we did.

Lupo--we sat at the bar. [NB: This image is not mine!]

Eventually, our bellies reminded us that we were famished, and so we set off in search of food. We finally found this barbecue place called Bodean’s. (BTW, check out that website—it's awesome!)

It. Was. AMAZING! 

Seriously, it was some of the best barbecue I’ve had—far better than most of the stuff I’ve had in the US, even! I swear, they must have imported their sauce from the Carolinas, or Memphis, or some other similar place known for its BBQ! (My mouth is watering just thinking back on it…)

Anyway, back to last night…

————

So, I joined LD and TvH (and later KS) at Lupo. Our lovely bartender from Thursday was on-duty again, and provided us with a series of killer drinks and shots! 

Finally, around 11 PM, it was time to head over to Heaven, where the four of us spent the remainder of the night dancing our little queer asses off. We even made it into the VIP area before the night was over (though I didn’t think it was so great, personally—at least compared to the main floor).

All the while, though, I kept a close eye on the time!

I knew I wanted to be home by around 3:30 AM, as that was Nic’s ‘best case’ finish time, and with the inevitable drama that plays out on London’s night buses travel frequently takes longer than expected. Sadly, despite my careful attention to the time, the buses nearly thwarted my plans last night. 

The bus that would have had me home in plenty of time was too full so I wasn’t allowed on, and the next one—20 minutes later, which would have been cutting it close but still an option—never showed. (I can only assume there was drama aboard and it stopped somewhere until the situation resolved itself, as the drivers are wont to do.) 

Finally, I managed to get on a bus at about 3:13 AM. Since there weren’t many passengers, the trip took a lot less time than expected, and I found myself walking in the door at about 4 AM—happily, I returned just in time to learn of Nic’s successful completion of his race as it was happening!

Whew! What a day, not to mention week—but more on the rest later!

Windsor Castle (Part IV): The State Apartments

Let’s finish with my trip to Windsor Castle, shall we? (Especially since I plan on having many more photos to discuss over the coming weeks!) After visiting St George’s Chapel and Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House, I made my way—alongside EN and AT—into the main part of the castle.

The top of the Grande Staircase

We climbed the Grand Staircase—which is filled with glistening arms and armor, and dominated by a statue of Queen Victoria (that I was sadly not able to photograph due to palace officials)—and moved toward…

THE STATE APARTMENTS

Suffice to say, these Apartments are a bit grander and more formal than mine and Nic’s tiny studio apartment. In fact, you could probably fit our entire building in some of these rooms. But, such size is necessary given the functions they hold (e.g., a cozy dinner for 162 of The Queen’s closest dignitary friends). And as far as beauty goes, the Apartments house works of art by the likes of da Vinci and Rembrandt, and armor once worn by the likes of King Henry VIII.

Visitors to Windsor are allowed to visit the following State Apartments (whose names are somewhat deceptive at times):

The Waterloo Chamber: Built to honor the defeat of Napoleon, this chamber was once an open courtyard. Today it holds many famous paintings, the largest known seamless rug in existence, and is used to stage concerts and other private performances.

[NB: This image is not mine!]

 The King’s Drawing Room: This room features many works of art, and a clock from 1730 that still plays music!

[NB: This image is not mine!]

 The King’s Bedchamber: Though there is a bed, the Sovereign does not actually sleep here. Rather, it is used for formal ceremonies (i.e., telling the King goodnight—formally—before he goes to bed elsewhere).

[NB: This photo is not mine!]

 The King’s Dressing Room: This room has served as both the Sovereign’s private bedroom and, later, as a dressing room. Now it holds a collection of Italian Renaissance paintings.

[NB: This image is not mine!]

 The Queen’s Drawing Room: Like the King’s Drawing Room, this chamber features many impressive works of art, including royal portraits of various Tudors and Stuarts. Also in this room is the famous Portrait of Charles I in three positions by Van Dyke. 

[NB: This image is not mine!]

 The King’s Dining Room: Located between the Queen’s and the King’s Apartments, the room served as the dining room for King Charles II.

[NB: This image is not mine!]

 The Queen’s Ballroom: As its name suggests, this long room was used for dancing (though I have a hard time imagining so many large gowns in such a narrow room!).

[NB: This image is not mine!]

 The Queen’s Presence Chamber and Audience Chamber:  The former is essentially an anteroom used by visitors before they are brought before Her Majesty in the Audience Chamber. (NB: Given that they are open to visitors, I doubt the current Queen actually uses these rooms for this purpose—though I could certainly be wrong!)

[NB: This image is not mine!]

 The Lantern Lobby: This room marks the spot where a private chapel once stood. It is also the spot where the 1992 fire broke out, which is commemorated with a large plaque.

[NB: This image is not mine!]

 St George’s Hall: This room is ginormous! At 30’ x 185’, this room is used for State banquets—a 175’ long dining room table is brought in which can seat up to 162 guests. There are also panels on the ceiling and elsewhere that are inscribed with the names of various knights. According to one source, the plain white shields mark Garter Knights were have been disgraced by crime or treason.

[NB: This image is not mine!]

 Also on display in St George's Hall is the black armor used by the King's / Queen's Champion from the time of King James I through George IV. It is this figure's role to act as the champion of the new Sovereign at their coronation, in the (unlikely) event of a challenge to the throne being issued. It was required of the Champion that (s)he ride, in full armor, into Westminster Hall during the coronation banquet and await any challengers. (NB: The Sovereign—by virtue of rank—could not face his or her challengers in single combat.) 

A purely ceremonial position today, Queen Elizabeth II's current Champion is Lieutenant-Colonel John Lindley Marmion Dymoke, Lord of the Manor of Scrivelsbry and the Manor of Telford—he acted as Standard-Bearer of the Union Jack at Her Majesty's coronation ceremony in 1953.

Moving on... since The Queen wasn’t in residence, we were also allowed to visit some of the...

SEMI-STATE APARTMENTS

These Apartments were created for King George IV in the 19th Century. Today, Queen Elizabeth II uses them for entertaining. These rooms are made up of the Green and Crimson Drawing Rooms, the State Dining Room, the Octagon Dining Room, the China Corridor, the Grand Reception Room, and the Garter Throne Room.

This last one is the one I’m most interested in. Before being converted, the Garter Throne Room was actually two separate rooms, the King’s Presence and Audience Chambers. Today, it is where The Queen conducts investiture ceremonies for new Knights and Ladies of the Garter prior to their installation in St George’s Chapel on Garter Day.

The Queen's throne is the white chair in the distance.

[NB: This image is not mine!]

Now, you may be asking yourself, ‘What is Garter Day, and who are these Knights and Ladies?’

Well, this is the highest order of chivalry that one can be invested with in England, and its doling out is entirely at the discretion of the Sovereign. Membership is limited to the Sovereign, the Prince of Wales, and no more than 24 others at any one time (meaning that new members have to wait an existing knight or lady vacates their position). The emblem is a blue garter with the motto ‘Honi soit qui mal y pense’ (‘Shame upon him who thinks evil upon it’) embossed in gold. The Order was founded in 1344 by King Edward III.

In addition to Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles, other current members include: Prince William; the Princess Royal; the Dukes of Kent, Gloucester, York, and Wessex; the Kings of Spain, Sweden, and Norway; the Queens of Denmark and the Netherlands; the Emperor of Japan; former Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major; and Baroness Soames (the only surviving daughter of Winston Churchill).

[NB: This image is not mine!]

[NB: This image is not mine!]

 Well, that’s all that I have to say about the interior—especially since we (obviously) couldn’t visit the section cordoned off for the Royal Family’s private Apartments. 

(However, you can see them from the outside in the photos below of the Upper Yard. The wall farthest away is where the private Apartments are located, and the wall running along the right-hand side is for official guests of Her Majesty. The entrance seen in the middle is the exterior entrance to that section.)

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little play-by-play of my trip to Windsor, and that you haven’t minded too much my geeking out!

Until next time…

Windsor Castle (Part I): The Castle and the Guards

In my last entry I stated that I was skipping over the events of Saturday, 21 April, as they deserved their own entry. Well, this is that entry. Actually, to be precise, this is the first in a series of entries all devoted to that day. Prepare to put your learnin’ crowns on, lads and lasses, ‘cause I’m about to lead you through my trip to Windsor Castle…

I was up early on that Saturday morning, as I had to be on campus by 9:00 AM. From there, a group of international students and I caught a coach headed to Windsor Castle. (For the record, I visited Windsor in 2008 with Nic, but we arrived close to closing time, and so we pretty much had to dash through the whole place.)

Now, if you’ve been following this blog for more than two seconds, you know that I’m a sucker for kings and queens and castles and all that jazz. So, as you can imagine the size of my nerdgasm at the thought of spending an entire day there! With that in mind, most of what follows indulges my love of history and royalty. No one cares about this stuff half as much as me, but I’m documenting it anyway—maybe it’ll spark an interest. Now, on with the show…

Note the 'Union Jack' on the flagpole. This denotes that The Queen is not in residence. #SadBrett

THE CASTLE ITSELF

This magnificent castle is almost 1,000 years old (originally built by William the Conqueror following his 1066 invasion). It is also the largest inhabited castle in the world. In fact, Windsor Castle has been in continuous use by varying Royal Families for over 900 years! 

Originally, it was a fort set atop a hill overlooking the Thames. Though the original structure is long gone, we can thank Henry II (1133-89) for the famous Round Tower and outer stone wall of today.

The Round Tower, as seen from the Middle Ward.

Officially, Windsor is one of Her Majesty, The Queen’s official residences (the others being Buckingham Palace and Holyroodhouse). It is also The Queen’s favorite, as inferred by her reaction following the November 1992 fire that decimated the castle.

That fire (which occurred on The Queen’s and Duke’s 45th wedding anniversary) was allegedly sparked by a workman’s lamp, and damaged/destroyed over 100 rooms. It required 15 hours of firefighting to put out. Fortunately, most of the valuable works of art, etc., had been removed due to ongoing renovation.

The cost of renovation was put at approximately £37 million, which the government refused to pay outright due to ongoing public concerns about money already being given to the Royal Family. (This was but one of the many issues facing the Royal Family which caused The Queen to famously remark that 1992 was an Annus Horribilis.) To help pay for repairs, The Queen agreed to open various Royal Residences to the public at certain times.

NB: This photo is not mine!

CHANGING OF THE GUARD

Getting back to my own experience and away from the history for a bit, it took a lot longer to get to Windsor than expected due to construction, but it turned out—by the time we made it through security—that we were just in time to witness the Changing of the Guard.

Now, realistically, the only difference between the Changing of the Guard here and the one at Buckingham palace is…well, the locale. (You can read my description of the ceremony at the latter location here.) 

The 'official' part of the ceremony at Windsor takes place outside the Guardroom in the Lower Ward of the castle. However, we were positioned so that we could actually watch the guardsmen marching through St George’s Gate, which is the passageway used to enter the Upper Ward, where The Queen et alia have their private quarters.

Guards Marching through St George's Gate

Okay, okay… I think that’s enough nerdiness for one entry. Especially since the next one—all about the place where Queen Elizabeth II will be buried one day—is particularly in-depth. 

Until then…

Morocco: Shukran For the Memories...

I need to write something non-academic for a bit, so let’s finish-up on the Morocco trip, shall we?

For my last day in Marrakech (11 March 2012) I knew that I wanted to do something beyond sitting at the hostel and relaxing (as delightful as that was). Fortunately, JE, another member of the Djellaba Crew, was starting to feel the impending end of her trip as well, and so we made plans to go out and do a couple of touristy things.

However, before I get to all that:

I woke up early on the morning of the 11th, and so I decided that ‘now’ was as good a time as any to head to Djamaa el-Fna on my own. You see, I had yet to successfully navigate the twisting streets of the old medina on my own, and I wanted to do it at least once…and I succeeded!

From a distance / Brett is watching yoooooou...

Koutobia Mosque and Minaret (built 1150-90), one of the 'big three' minarets built by the Almohads.

Now, you probably noticed that the first photo was from a distance. There’s a reason for that: if any of the street performers (e.g., the guys with the cobras) notice you taking a photo that’s even remotely in their direction, they will demand payment. And since there are so many of said-performers, you practically have to stand in Algeria to get a decent shot. As such, any hope I had of snagging an iconic shot of Djamaa el-Fna was foiled—you can find one taken by someone else here, however.

Similarly, I wanted at least a photo of one of the souqs before I left. Again, I had to practice a bit of subterfuge to get this, and so it’s not great. Also, because it was so early in the morning most of the shops weren’t open and there wasn’t much foot-, bike-, and cart-traffic. Nonetheless…

(More representative photos, taken by others, can be found here and here.)

After my brief foray to Djamaa el-Fna and the souqs I returned to Waka Waka, where I enjoyed a yummy breakfast of coffee (about six cups—my goodness it was tasty!), crepes, and more apricot jam! M’mm, m’mm, good!

Once JE and I had both finished breakfast, we set off for our sightseeing excursion. Since I had to be at the airport by around 5:00 PM, and it was already noon, we didn’t have time to do too much. So, we decided to pay quick visits to El Bahia Palace and the Saadian Tombs…

It took us a while to reach El Bahia Palace for two reasons: first, many of the people we asked had no clue where it was; and, second, if they did know, they would only offer generalized directions so that we would inevitably have to ask someone else (e.g., ‘go down this way, make your first left, and then turn right’…without mentioning the three alleyways in between).

Regardless, we finally reached the palace…or, at least the small part, because the main section was closed for construction. Now, I can’t say too much about this—or the tombs—because all of the signage was in Arabic and/or French…and neither JE or I can read said-languages (though I did learn how to say both ‘thank you’—شكرا / shukran—and ‘no thank you’—لا شكرا / la shukran—in Arabic by the time I was done in Morocco).

Sadly, there’s also not too much information about the palace online either, other than what’s to be found at Wikipedia. Nonetheless, it was quite pretty—in particular the courtyards and gardens:

The first of many courtyards

 From El Bahia Palace we headed to the Saadian Tombs. Much like the palace, however, there’s not much information on the interwebs about them—just that they are the resting place of about 60 members of the Saadi Dynasty, and they date back to the late 1500s—and this time there wasn’t even signage for us to attempt to read. Again, though, they were pretty:

As near as I could tell, the triangular things on the ground are like headstones.

No camera manipulation here--this was the 'natural' lighting in this chamber.

 By the time JE and I left the tombs, my time was almost done—I only had about two hours left before I had to be at the airport. So, we stopped at a café near the Mellah (Jewish quarter) for a drink before heading back to Waka Waka so I could get my stuff. While at the café, however, I was able to snag some decent photos of the Atlas Mountains looming over the rooftops, as well as some pix of these giant birds that made their nests along the medina walls.

The Jewish quarter, with big birds and mighty mountains!

Finally, it was time…

Back at Waka Waka I grabbed my gear and bid a sad adieu to the Djellaba Crew—I really hope I cross paths with each of those wonderful folk again in the future! 

I made my way out of the medina, and arranged a cab ride to the airport for the low cost of 20DH / 2€ and a cigarette—clearly, I got much better at negotiating by the end of my trip. En route, I had a wonderful chat (in very broken English) with the driver about how beautiful Morocco was, and we even got into a bit of a discussion about Islam and Christianity: he initially assumed that I did not like Muslims because I am American and think they’re all like Bin Laden, and I told him that such was not the case, and how it was just as unfair to judge all Muslims by the actions Bin Laden as it is to judge all Christians by the hateful attitudes of Evangelicals. All-in-all it was a very nice conversation, and I walked away hoping that I had—at least in one person’s eyes—helped to dispel the notion that all Americans are like the Religious Right.

And on that positive note, I sadly bring a (textual) close to my time in Morocco. I can’t thank Nic enough for sending me there, and enabling me to take one of the most holidays of my lifetime! 

Palm trees and snow-capped mountains...

Goodbye Marrakech, Morocco!