http://www.visitmorocco.com Archives - Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel

Holiday Pics on World Photography Day

20th August 202320th August 2023 funtime65

I’ve an advantage over everybody else… I’ve an award-winning snapper to showcase her holiday pics on World Photography Day.

And that makes it all a treat for y’all when we get the piccies out when we get home.

So without further adieu here’s a taster of what fills our albums at home.

And we’ll even throw in a photography vacation offer to tease you.

Portugal’s a picture

And you can keep your Algarve amateur poolside and beach lounger snaps this is one from Aveiro.

A stunning fishing town in Portugal Centro it is known as the Portuguese Venice.

It’s Portugal’s big secret but heck now it’s out thanks to an award-winning writer, and a snapper.

Hamburger and shots

And we did both in the Reeperbahn and further afield and photographic shots and shoots.

We’ll leave our bed pics to your imagination, though actually we have shared those Hamburg city beach bar snaps.

My Fjord Lady

And my Little Mermaid followed us from Kiel in Germany through Copenhagen and up the Norwegian fjords.

And captured it all from aboard her MSC cruise ship and on our land excursions.

Amsterdam dame

And in the City of Tulips, my photographic pal was the prettiest flower.

And when I was motioning towards their famously tall, narrow bars she was capturing the delightful Amsterdam architecture.

No pic like Rome

And with all roads famously leading to Rome it took me some time, until I was 40, to visit La Citta Eterna.

Sadie the Snapper had been here before and was excited to show me the sites, among them the Trevi Fountain.

The superstition is right and I’ve been back and we will be too.

Snap up Morocco

Sahara bumpity: Two Tuareg nomads in the Sahara

While any and all travellers can always do with Travel Department to hold our hands.

TD Active Holidays offers a guided holiday with an array of photographic opportunities.

From the impressive mosques and markets of Marrakech.

To the busy fishing port of Essaouira and the rocky, barren Agafay Desert.

Where you’ll learn to develop your documentary, street and landscape photography skills.

On this holiday, you’ll not only get to experience Moroccan culture through a camera’s lens.

But also through traditional Moroccan food and live music.

As well as an exhilarating camel ride across the dunes… I hope you get my old friend Larsson to hump you along.

You’ll be accompanied on your journey with an additional tutor from the Dublin Photography School.

They’ll provide tutorials, demonstrations and tips to your small group.

So that you get the most out of the images you capture.

This trip departs on 13^th October from €1,099pp.

Including return flights, transfers, four nights’ half-board in a three-star hotel, plus expert guide.

And when you get back your friends will be begging you to share

Africa, Countries, Deals, Food & Wine

Moroccan cookin’

16th March 202316th March 2023 funtime65

If only they’d taught me Moroccan cookin’ then I might have avoided being up all night star-gazing in the Sahara Desert.

But then I hadn’t been introduced to the vibrant Medina of Marrakech, Hotel La Maison Arabe by then.

Or the good services of Tropical Sky.

I can recommend a riad which is far more preferable to a makeshift loo.

In the Sahara with a corrugated roof which was missing when I got there.

Maison around

La Maison offers traditional cooking classes in the hotel restaurant which will come in useful later (believe me)!

At the half-day classes participants can learn the secrets of Moroccan cuisine.

The workshops are run by a dada (a traditional Moroccan chef).

And they include a visit to a nearby spice market and communal bread oven.

The rest of us of course, in the Western World, were taught at a stove by a mama…

Worth remembering with Mother’s Day around the corner.

A little local knowledge

Knowing your way around a tajine will come in handy during your stay in Morocco.

Particularly if you stop for one in a roadside cafe on the Atlas Mountains.

You’ll know what to look out for.

And you’ll avoid Marakech revenge from the rumbles and the tumbles down the dunes.

Even though your camel will try and make it as smooth as possible.

A little local knowledge to know how to avoid false guides and hawksters will also come in useful.

A seven-night stay at Hotel La Maison Arabe is priced from £825pps on a B&B basis, including flights and transfers.

And you can become a tajine genie and learn Moroccan cooking.

Countries

Switzerland is as safe as chalets

21st February 202321st February 2023 funtime65

You know you’re secure when their knife of choice has tweezers and scissors, yes, Switzerland is as safe as chalets.

And even more so when the Swiss Army Knife you are given by their delegates at your Irish fair give you is a chocolate blade.

Of course, we’d never recommend, or expect to carry anything with us for protection abroad but it is, alas, a consideration these days.

We’ve perhaps been blessed to have stayed safe on our travels, apart from a close shave involving a barber and false guide in Marrakech.

While we have the salutary tale of a relative who was drawn into a card school in Thailand and was cleared out.

India’s top-rated gambling guide Gamblino (no, us neither) have ranked the safest places in Europe based on a number of metrics.

And our yodelling, like clockwork, friends come out on top but where else is as safe as chalets, ice houses, canal boats or crofts?

Always an Alpine hand

Slayed it: On my sled in the Australian Tirol

And the Penthouse of Europe has the best views and the most chilled people.

Like Interlaken inspiration Brigitte and Ehrwald Presley who, while the rest of us stressed-out types shout at the world, they yodel their way through the day.

Unperturbed by the sort of things that might trouble us like crime, road troubles or natural disasters.

All of which puts the Swiss top of the list and Austria also riding high in the charts.

Ice to meet you

And in the Land of Fire and Ice too where you’ll find the friendliest guysers you’ll ever meet.

Apart maybe from the exorbitant costs.

But they say the best things in life are free.

And you lose all your inhibitions when you’re swimming in their fave icy pools with new friends.

Nordic Nirvana

And it must be something in that Nordic air, and we’ve experienced that first hand in the Norwegian fjords.

Because Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden also make it into the top ten safest places in Europe.

And the stressbuster to beat all stressbusters.

I mean you know your safe when you can take off all your clothes and sweat it out together in a sauna together.

Hello from the Low Countries

Can I be trusted on a bike? In Amsterdam

Where the crime rates are low and the approval ratings are always high.

In Luxembourg where despite its miniature size you’ll feel free as a bird surrounded by forests, gorges and the Moselle river valley.

Or the liberal Netherlands where they stay cool, cycling along canals, eating crepes or getting high in brown cafes.

A hundred thousand welcomes

With queen of Spain Teresa, Eoghan Corry and Sharon Jordan in Dublin

And it would surprise absolutely nobody to see Ireland up there as one of the safest countries in Europe.

Where you can still stop and talk to strangers in the streets of its capital Dublin and get the craic.

While out in the country, often called Real Ireland, and certainly my Dear Old Mum’s heartland of Co. Donegal there’s always a welcome in the hillside.

And quirkily where there is no rail service, getting about requires a lift from Maura.

And she’ll drop you off at Seamus’s who will take you as far as Breid who is going your way.

And so Switzerland is as safe as chalets and across Europe too.

Africa, Countries, Skiing

Snow in Africa this Christmastime

24th December 2021 funtime65

Sorry, Midge Ure, I love your humanitarianism and New Wave/electro-sound but there will be snow in Africa this Christmastime.

Yes, I know I’m coming over all Self-Righteous Brother, but Paul Whitehouse makes a good point about Africa’s diversity.

I know from experience about the Atlas Mountains where Moroccans and Morocannophile skiers go to fly down the mountains

It wasn’t snow though that was coming down the Atlas Mountains when I visited but the mud from the sides of the slopes.

Rocky road to the Sahara

It was Ramadan and our driver was bravely skirting the narrow cliffside roads to get us to the Sahara Desert.

In truth, that was the least of my problems as a tajin did for me and I ended up being sick in the sand.

And had to retrace our steps the next day to the rendezvous point, on my camel Larsson.

Abdullah, to be fair, did his best around the roads the next day with me dry heaving at every corner.

Enough already, you want to know more about the skiing.

And I do too, like when are the French borders reopening? I only have a well-deserved trip to Val d’Isere with Ski France waiting on me.

Morocco on the slopes

Camel ye faithful: Back on the camel in Jordan

My passport is jumping up and down in my drawer because of the lack of love I’ve shown her this year.

Yes, I personalise my passport, and its holder, particularly as it was given to me by my old friends Hayes & Jarvis during my time in Ireland.

H&J are your go-to people for just the thing in Morocco.

They have a seven-day £2,199pp Luxury Sahara Desert Tour from Marrakech.

But H&J are all about the bespoke so contact them and they’ll look into a package for you.

While My Chalet Finder have the skinny on everything you need to know on the Moroccan mountains.

Riad R&R

The resort of Oukaimeden, 65km south of Marrakesh, is Morocco’s best ski resort and is home to Africa’s highest ski lift at 3258m and second highest peak, Jebel Toubkal at 4167m, after Kilimanjaro.

There is a large variety of accommodation to choose from in and around Marrakech from 5-star beach hotels, mountain hotels, B&Bs and camping to the traditional riads, ranging from budget to boutique luxury.

Most people who go skiing in Morocco either stay in Marrakech and make the short journey to the base lift (around an hour’s drive) or split their holiday spending some of the time in Marrakech and the rest in the ski resort of Oukaimeden.

Yes there is Snow in Africa this Christmastime.