Traveling through Morocco: Marrakech and Ait Ben Haddou

This April, we traveled 12 days through Morocco. We started in Casablanca, took then the train to Marrakech where we stayed two nights. From Marrakech we did a loop with a rental car over the Atlas Mountains and through the Moroccan part of the Sahara with the following stations:

• Ait Ben Haddou
• Val du Dades
• Gorge du Todrah
• Merzouga and Erg Chebbi
• N’kob
• Val du Draa

And then back to Marrakech were we spent another night, finally we went back to Casablanca from where we took the plane back to Stuttgart.

Photographing in Morocco
Before starting the description of our travel through Morocco a few words on photographing in Morocco. Morocco is an Islamic country. Although not explicit written in the Koran, since centuries the religion has a tradition to not show human beings and animals in paintings or photographs (as a modern version). This is known as Aniconism in the Islam. One of the results of this tradition leads to the fantastic ornamental work in the architecture of Morocco and Andalusia (southern Spain) which can be found especially in palaces. Although you have TV and Billboards in the Morocco of the 21st century some people still feel uncomfortable being captures on photography. Therefore you have to be careful taking pictures of people – it might happen that you try to take a picture of a crowded place in a medina and people will raise their hands to cover their face. On the other side people offer to be on a photograph and expect then a tip. And it might happen that people entertain some doubt if they should be portrayed to get a tip or not to be compliant with their belief.

Marrakech
We stayed in the Riad ‘Les Trois Mages’ which is in the northern part of the Medina, later in the trip we stayed also in the southern part - I preferred definitely to stay in the northern part, although it is a little bit farer to walk to the famous ‘Djema el Fna’. But you enter the souk from the less touristy side where it seems to be more authentic and the merchants are less ‘pushy’ in trying to sell you whatever they offer.
Things to do in one and a half days in Marrakech’s northern part of the medina:
Visit of the souk and ‘Djema el Fna’
Visit of the ‘Jardin Majorelle’, a nice tropical garden, although it’s crowdie with a lots of tourists.
Visit of the Medersa Ben Yousef (former Koran school)

Dyed wool

The souk of Marrakech

Djema el Fna, with an fantastic mood right after sunset

Medersa Ben Yousef, the former Koran school

Marrakech to Ait Ben Haddou
Originally I planed to have a 4x4 car, but since we were at peak season in Marrakech it was impossible to get one – at least I was to late organizing it. So we had a regular car, a mini-van with a little bit more clearance which worked well for our trip to the south and into the Sahara desert. Major streets in Morocco are usually quite good. Sometimes you might have to drive a short distance over some gravel roads to reach your final destination.
In springtime you drive from Marrakech to the Atlas Mountains through a very green and flowering landscape. Probably not what you expect thinking about Morocco. Coming to the foot of the mountains the meadows are more and more replaced by forest. Getting higher and coming closer to the Tizi-n-Tichka pass the landscape gets alpine with less and less vegetation. All along the street you see booths with minerals and fossils. The minerals are colorized in the fanciest colors! I never understood why they colorize them so unnaturally. On the southern side of the Atlas Mountains the landscape changes, rocky and colorful mountains stand in contrast to green valleys.
After five hours on the main road we arrived in Ait Ben Haddou. This Kasbah completely build by traditional rammed earth is a UNESCO world heritage and a very popular stop for tourists in this area. It might be crowded during the day. We visited it in the late afternoon after 4pm and it was not to busy. If the river carries some water locals with some donkeys offer to bring you to the other side. You have to negotiate a price. Some of the houses in Ait Ben Haddou are still in use and you might be able to visit a traditional home, when visiting a tip is expected.

Ait Ben Haddou, UNESCO World Heritage, completly build from rammed earth

Ait Ben Haddou

Next: Gorges du Dades, Gorges du Todhra, Merzouga, Erg Chebbi
Or see the Morocco slide show for more pictures.

Traveling Japan and Hawaii

We used the holiday season for traveling to Tokyo and Hawaii, which made this trip to a travel around the world. It was the first time for us to be in Japan as well as on Hawaii.

Our schedule lead us to the following places:

• Dec. 20 leaving Stuttgart, Germany
• Dec. 21 in the morning arriving in Tokyo, Japan (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3)
• Dec. 24 leaving Tokyo on the evening (Day 4)
  
• Dec. 24 arriving on Hawaii (Big Island) in the morning
• Dec. 28 leaving the Big Island and arriving on Maui
• Jan. 5 leaving for a short trip to Kauai
• Jan. 6 returning to Maui
• Jan. 9 leaving Maui with a half day stop in Honolulu
• Jan. 11 arriving back in Stuttgart

This three week travel offered lots of places for photographing and lots of things to experience. During the next days I will publish and share some of our experiences and off course also some pictures that I made recently.

Stuttgart - Paris - Stuttgart: TGV vs. airplane

A travel experience.

February, 11 2008: AF 2509 vs. TGV9577

From time to time I'm in Paris for business, all the years I took always the plane. Since June 2007 there is a high speed train connection between Paris and Stuttgart served by the famous French TGV. So this time I take the plane in the morning and I'll travel back by train on the same day evening. I’m curious what is faster what is more convenient. Here's my story:

The way to Paris
Scheduled start for my morning fight in Stuttgart is 7:15h. Latest check-in is 6:45h. I have to leave the house at 6:00h; my girl friend was so nice to bring me by car to the airport. It takes only 20 minutes from home to the airport. The check-in is easy with the self service terminals Air France and the other airlines have today. I've plenty of time, so I stop by a newspaper stand for some magazines.

Check-in Stuttgart

Next step is the security check; for a Monday morning the line is quite short. It takes me just five minutes to get through. Ok, I know the terminal quite well and go to the gate. Nice, I meet a friend on the way to Hannover.

On the gate they announce the boarding will start 10 minutes late. No problem with that. After boarding the flight attendant tells us there is some further delay and we have to wait for our start slot. Waiting is not so bad, I’ve a whole group of three seats for myself although the plane is well booked.

At 7:40h we leave our parking slot. And finally at 7:45h, with a 30 minutes delay, our Airbus A320 lifts off.

I'm leaving Stuttgart 1:45h after I left my house.

We start towards East which gives me a great view on the sunrise at the mountains of the "Schwäbische Alb" and the foggy valleys. As we have a higher elevation one can see the Alps in more than 200 km distance behind the "Schwäbische Alb". What a view!

The "Schwäbische Alb" in front and the Alps on the horizon

"Getting down to earth" again, since I'm sitting in the last row, I'm the first who is served in the Economy class: a croissant, tea or coffee, and... some water, no orange juice anymore! Is this a low budget airline? I don't think so?

The flight is calm and seems to be quite short with a beautiful blue sky. At 8:20h we decline already, but it is not the preparation for landing, we go for a waiting loop. We fly by the Charles-de-Gaulle-Airport and have a view on downtown Paris as well as on the old airport Le Bourget.

Tour Montparnasse, Tour Eifel and La Defense

At 8:45h we touch ground and after another 5 minutes we are at the gate. Finally I step into the airport at 8:55h. And surprise, we are not at the final terminal. We are directed in a bus that transfers us to the final terminal 2D. It's now 9:05h.

3 hours and five minutes after I left my house I arrived in Paris, now I've to get to the city for my meeting.

The taxi line is short, so I'm five minutes later in my cab, let's see how the traffic is today.

Indian quater close to Gare du Nord

Surprise, the traffic is fine just up to Stade de France. And then the usual traffic jam in the center of Paris. 48 Euros later, at 10:03h I'm at my final destination. Four hours and three minutes after I left my house.

The Return
I left our meeting place 16:50h, in front of the building is the metro station. The line serves Gare de l'Est directly. Buying a ticket is fast and the signs to the Metro line are good visible. Just some seconds after I arrive at the platform the Metro arrives. It takes four stations to Gare de l'Est, it's exactly 17:00h. Again good visible signs show the direction to the long distance trains. But then I'm a little bit confused, on the screens are several TGV- and ICE-connections including the one to Stuttgart but only a few of them have a platform noted. No platform for the train towards Stuttgart. What now? In the center of the station are the regional trains, I go to the outer platforms, and there they are: the TGV- and ICE-trains, but again only one platform’s screen shows where the train goes to - no Stuttgart! I ask one of the attendants and they tell me friendly which TGV is supposed to be the one to Stuttgart.

Which platform is it?

Ok, plenty of time, 20 minutes left to the departure. I buy a soft drink at a stand, take some pictures of the train station and return slowly. Ten minutes before the scheduled departure the screen shows the Stuttgart-train and now all the waiting passengers move towards the train.

TGV and ICE at Gare de l'Est

The departure is on time at 17:24h. For 6 minutes, the train moves quite slow through the surrounding area of the train station and accelerates than the first time a little bit in the suburbs of Paris. And on 17:40h finally the speed is quite high, there is no speed written on a screen but I guess it is far beyond 200 km/h, maybe even more than 300 km/h!

Meanwhile the friendly train attendants check the tickets, it is a bilingual team from the SNCF and Deutsche Bahn - hey the Deutsche Bahn crew had to learn English for the Soccer World Cup 2006 and it is still funny when they announce the stations in their mixture of a German local dialect and English.

After almost one hour at high speed we slow down at 18:35h. With this slower speed we continue until we reach at 19:45h our first stop at Strasbourg. The train was quite packed since Paris and is still good occupied when we leave Strasbourg after four minutes. Through the suburbs of Strasbourg and over the Rhine bridge the train continues slowly. On the German side of the river Rhine the train speeds up, but it is not as fast as during the first hour.

Nice, during the travel I can stand up, walk around. The train is compared to the plane really noiseless and I have my iPod with low volume on.

20:29h the second stop in Karlsruhe for 3 minutes. After Karlsruhe, first the train is going slow, but for the last 10 minutes it is again close to 300 km/h. The train is passing some tunnels that increases the pressure in the train and it is like flying you have to swallow to regulate the pressure on the ears.

21:07h we arrive almost on time in Stuttgart. 4 hours and 17 minutes after I left my meeting. My girl friend is picking me up at the train station and another 13 minutes later I'm back at home. It is 21:20, 4 hours and 30 minutes after I left the office in Paris.

The summery:

• The travel time is almost the same, the plane is slightly faster (27 minutes), and would be even faster if the flight is on time - which is actually very rare.
• The train is a more relaxed traveling, less noise, less moving around, just a little bit more space for sitting, and the advantage of getting up and walking around.
• The plane gives the impression of faster traveling; it leaves a feeling of less time consumption. I guess that’s because you have to be prepared always for the next step: Check-in, security, boarding, lift-off, landing …
• Of course the time in the train can be used better with working, reading, sleeping...
• The train produces less CO2 - quite important these days with all the global warming discussion.
• And the cost factor: 69 EUR for the train (reg. 95 EUR) and 250 EUR for the flight (reg. 540 EUR) plus the cab.

Interior of the Airbus A320...

... and the TGV ingterior