Londontown

The made us disembark the ship in England. But that was okay. I was able to stay here in this amazing palace. This really wasn't a palace and I was not able to manage to visit the queen, but we were treated like royalty and the building was beautiful. It was built as the Midland Railway Hotel over 125 years ago where people could stay overnight and then catch a train in the morning, which is what we did. Just another fun note about the building: it appears in a couple of the Harry Potter movies!

Here I am with my friends snuggled in a very comfortable bed.

We visited this snooty lion. I guess he has a right to be proud. He guards the doors of the British Museum.

Inside we saw the famous Elgin Marbles. I though marbles were round!

I then read the caption and learned that the sculptures were once part of a very famous building in ancient Greece. Apparently the sculptures are made out of marble (hence being called "marbles") and were named after Lord Elgin who took them from the Acropolis in Athens, Greece.

Morocco - Meknes & Roman Ruins!

We made a quick visit to the city of Meknes. From here you can see all of the minaret towers on the mosques.

We also stopped in Volubilis, an old Roman city. The big ruin was once the town's Basilica or center of government.

This is the triumphal Arch of Caracalla.

Some of the houses still had elaborately decorated mosaic floors like this one.

Morocco - The Blue City

While in Morocco we went to Chefchaouen, the blue city. Can you figure out why it's called that?

Yes, its because the buildings are all painted blue, including steps!

More blue steps!

Comfy hotel bed with blue bedspreads, of course.

In case that was too much blue for you, here's a little green, I am much bigger than I seem here, as these were huge clovers!

Moroco - Casablanca & Fez

Our last major port was Casablanca in Morocco. We just walked by Rick's Cafe, but we did stop at the Hassan II Mosque. It's minaret is almost 700 feet high making it one of the tallest religious structure in the world!

Here I am inside the mosque. It has lots of scalloping peacock arches. I feel really small! The roof is retractable so one can see the sky, but it was closed when we were visiting.

We also visited the cathedral, which is no longer used for worship. It was Patrimony Week, so many buildings were open for tours. We were able to climb up on the roof for a good look at the city.

We also visited the city of Fez.

Here is one of the beautiful gates in the city.

We stopped in a shop to watch the tanneries below where they make leather. I liked seeing all the vats of different color dye.

Namibia - Desert Dunes

Namibia was out next stop. We stopped in Swapokmund to see some amazing German colonial architecture. Can you guess what this building was used for? Probably not, so I will tell you. It is the prison!

There were a lot of birds in Walvis Bay where we docked. We were off looking for a huge group of flamingos, but first found these guys.

Our next stop was the dunes. On the LONG road trip there we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn. Here is the proof!

We arrived at the dunes right at sunrise. The sand was a beautiful red!

Here is Sossusvlei   

We then climbed to the top of a dune. It was hard work, but well worth the view.

From the top we could look down into Dead Vlei, a lake that has been essentially dead for 500 years!

We then ran down the sand dune for a closer look.

The dry lake bed is filled with acacia trees that have been dead over 500 years!

On our way back to Walvis Bay we stopped to take a look at the "moon" lanscape!

We also stopped to take a look at some Welwitschia, the national plant of Namibia.  They can live to be well over 1000 years old.