Miro Miro on the wall

We are now staying in Hotel Residance in Cadaquez in Northern Spain in
the Costa Brava region. It just ooooozes art history. Miro, Picasso,
Lorca, Mattise and their favorite surreal son, Salvadore Dali, "slept"
here. The lobby is filled with dog-eared art books, essays,
overstuffed chairs, worn oriental carpets and old Christie's auction
catalogues. "Original" Dali prints and 100's of photos line the walls.
It's a bit of a shrine to the art gang in a town that looks and feels
like Carmel - only with cobblestones, muchas casas blancas on the
hilly streets and the smell of paella everywhere.

A Day of Dily-Daling

Hello Dali!!!!

Hello Dali!!!

Just finished exploring the Dali Museum in Figueres in Northern Spain.

There are no words...so Spectacular will have to do!

Off to Cadaques to see his studio and where he hung out with Picasso,
Matisse and the gang. Rumor has it that Picasso stayed in our hotel.
Hopefully our noses will be in the same place when we wake up in the
morning....

L & T

Smiling and Stylish

We got out of town without a burka but do have an entire suitcase full
of Aladdin slippers!

Back in Black! :)

Hotel Review

After our night in the desert in tents that smelled like camels and
the nights at the riad in Marrakech, I've determined that students,
adventurers and folks who are "voluntarily unemployed" are better
suited to sleeping ( I think the term is "crashing") in hostels and
curling up on airport floors. Not that I don't like a night of
blinking or constant neon light, but at this point in my travel
journey I am quite content to have a a bit of quiet, no bed bugs,
fewer hookers outside the front door and no need for triple locks on
the doors.

Don't need a Hilton, just a 3 minute hot shower.

Travel Day to Spain!

We love Ryan Air! For less than 100 Euro, you can travel from the
desert of Morocco to the coast of Northern Spain!!

Drawing of the carpet salesman

Here is a drawing of the man who sold us a magic carpet in Morocco.
Okay, it wasn't magical but the experience definitely was!

Arabic Lesson!

Back in Northern Spain

While we loved the colors, excitement, smells and food of Morocco, we
have to admit that we are relieved to be back in Spain. Lauren's
fluent spanish, a recognizable alphabet and fashions we could consider
wearing to work make this feel like home. I was always more than a bit
uneasy and when Lauren went out by herself on the last night, even our
host was nervous. She returned having bumped into one of her Backroads
buddies.

Got up at 4:30 a.m. scramble through the alleys to the taxi, took a
cheap (25 euro) plane to Madrid, another to Gironda, then train to
Figueres - the apex of the Dali Triangle. The Theatro Dali is two
minutes away!! So tomorrow we go there and then, hopefully, out to the
tip of a peninsula on La Costa Brava to see his studio. When the
fishermen painted their boats, he encouraged them to clean their
brushes on his front door. Do not try this at home!

Off to get tapas and my first glass of Spanish wine. A person can only
drink so much mint tea.

Sugar and spices

Our host, Ali, has prepared a traditional Berber dinner for me. He
uses 44 spices just for ordinary meals. Lauren's taken off to the
Internet cafe to print our Boarding Passes ( if you don't have them,
it's 45 euros extra at the airport).
The blue and white container is the sugar bowl. One vizar of old
wanted marble for his palace so he traded it pound for pound for
sugar. The palace is astonishing- as is the diabetic rate here
Du hibouk
Tina

Hamming it up in the Hammam

Ali sent us off to the neighborhood Hammam where we were led into a
huge slippery tiled room to be steamed, lathered in black moroccan
beldi soap, exfloiated with a rough kissa glove, coated in local
ghassoul clay, scraped with pumice, hair slimed with henna, rinsed in
hot water and swaddled in scarves to wend our way home. Some women
happily go there 3 times a week to relax, gossip and be cleansed "hair
to toes." At 60 dirhams (one dirham is twelve cents) it is cheaper
than a Starbucks habit and certainly much healthier.
We read an inscription in the Marakesh Museum: "For my life, I choose
to be happy because it is good for my health."
Here's to Health and Hammams

Cooking with Ali

Tonight we are staying with chef and jazz extraordinare, Ali Iaazane
in the Medina. We have the honor of staying at his Riad, located in
the center near the famous Djemma El Fna. We met him through a carpet
salesmen down the street and have been having a wonderful time. He
shared his inside knowledge with us by introducing us to an authentic
16th century Hamam down the street and cooking. No tourist Hamam for
us! He is a musician for the British Council and the Master Drummers
of Africa. So cool! We are now sitting down to a home cooked meal of
Tagine in the courtyard of his Riad. If you are planning a trip to
Morocco, be sure to put Riad Iaazane on your list. (www.riaddariaazane.com
)

Terrific Tagine

We've swapped Internet fame for an authentic Moroccan dinner and
cooking lessons with Ali Iaazane at his Riad. You must come to Morocco
to meet him. He's got a site and extraordinary hospitality: www.riaddariaazane.com

The color of Marrakesh is red

Experimenting with B&W

Our first hours in Africa

Here's the first sculpture we've seen in Africa and Lauren with HER
own personal powerful, magical talisman. However, for the next few
days we're going deep into the heart of the center of Medieval Islam
and possibly out to the dessert and land of the Touregs.

Medina

Just returned to our hotel after an exhausting day in Marrakesh. We got up at 3:00 am to take a flight from Madrid and arrived in Morocco a bit peckish and discovered that Lauren made a hotel reservation at a "rait" ( one of the private homes converted into a sort of B and B)in a town that was 120 km away. She was mortified, so to add salt to the wounded ego, we were compelled to jump in a rattle trap, smoke stained, dented cab with an "I-only-speak-Arabic" sinister looking driver ( I use the term "driver" generously- evidently they ran out of paint for traffic lanes many years ago and we have seen only 3 stop signals in a city of 750,000 motorists). He dropped us off in a maze of alleys, donkey carts and kaftans in the Medina (the old, old, old walled section unchanged since 1127 - not some sort of cute OLDE TOWNE but a dark but colorful, narrow, covered rabbit warren of blacksmiths, leather workers, woodcarvers, silversmiths, ceramic vendors and the ubiquitous hawking rug, spices, dried fruits and nut sellers. Everyone has a 5' wide by 8' deep stall filled with their particular raw material, tools, inventory and a little stool or bench and are busily working, working, gossiping, working. The sounds, smoke, smells are overwhelming. The wall-to-wall/stall-to-stall crowd is forced ahead by unexpected and impatient motorcyclists. Clarke would LOVE it!!!

Found a place to stay and then, pretty atypically, we hired a guide who took us by the hand, introduced us to his many "friends" and spent a good part of the day hitting on Lauren. We saw many famous extraordinary sights but the best part was going behind closed doors, up hidden staircases and down narrow alleys. If there is a Moroccan Mafia, we are convinced that Shafik is a major player. He confronted the snake charmers about their unprofessionalism (we'd asked him to inquire about the rumor that some of the owners sew the cobras' lips together - they don't sew them, they GLUE them), he poured mint tea from a height of 18" like a pro and got us a great deal on tomorrow night's rait -a room in a private home owned by an excentric Berber adventurer and his British wife. At many points today, I turned to Lauren with a look that said "this is the part where the mother and daughter get kidnapped and randsomed" but somehow Allah was watching over us.

We heard the call to prayer very moment that I thought we would never be seen again. We were led back down into the twisted alleys of the medina, which smelled of spices, teas, dried fruits, leather, machine oil, wool. So, of course, we bought a rug, but we also exercised some good judgement when it came to trying and buying "herbs" at the Bedouin herbalists. Also politely declined to have our teeth pulled in the Djemaa el Fna - a HUGE outdoor market that is filled 24 hours a day with food vendors, musicians and performers.

Tomorrow we're off to arrange a trip to the Atlas Mountains with Touregs as our protectors or, not any less ambitious, go back to the Medina to get those slippers we've promised everyone.

Inshallah,

Tina

P.S. Sorry the blog isn't being fed as regularly as when we were in Italy. This adventure is MUCH more unplanned and internet access is HIGHLY irregular. Suffice it to say that since it IS travel2art.blogspot.com, we spent all day yesterday in Madrid at Sorolla's home/ studio/museum and at The Prado. Art on the walls was nothing like BEING a part of it today. Pictures when we return for those interested.

Getting ready for Morocco

Greetings from Madrid,

We just arrived after a wonderful, entertaining and memorable day in
Barcelona. We visited Gaudi's Casa Batllo this morning and were blown
away by it's beauty. (Clarke, you would love it and it's astonishing
woodwork! Remember Hundertwasser?)

We are now here in a youth hostel in Madrid and are set to visit the
Prado tomorrow!

Here we are being silly in the lobby getting ready to head to Marakesh
on Sunday.

Con carino,

Lorena y su mama

Road Scholar

The magic of technology! Lauren just called ("skyped" actually) from half way around the world. She's taking a break from the Backroads http://backroads.com leaders' trip to say that she's booked travel for us from Barcellona to Madrid, Madrid to Maarakesh, a possible two day camel ride into the dessert (something about a place called Wazat - I keep hearing Whaaaaaaa-zaaaaaaaat?!) with sleeping under the stars on oriental carpets. Then we go to Granada to see the Al(silent H)ambra, back to Guidi-land and home via the dessert again - this time Zion National Park where Las Flamingas are flocking for their 25th Reunion. Don't ask...

I'm arriving Thursday and getting myself to the hotel to let the adventure begin.

Off to Barcelona

Lauren has been invited by Backroads Bicycle Tours to chart a new trip from Barcelona through the Pyrenees, so she is leaving Thursday to meet the other leaders in Spain. After their "explorations," I will fly over to Barcelona to meet her next Wednesday and we may retrace the route NOT ON A BICYCLE. Right now, our plans are a bit unplanned, but we're bringing camera, computer, spanish-english dictionery and a spirit of adventure. We might even go down to Morocco. So stay tuned.

Clarke is off to Texas to visit his 92 year old grandfather then spend some time in NYC. Chuck and I have just returned from the SOciety of Illustrators Educators' Symposium. IN addition to being welcomed to the hallowed halls behind the shiny red door on E 63rd Street, the weather was spectacular, the people fashionable and everyone so very kind. I've never had a more delightful time in the BIG APPLE. One tour we highly recommend is the backstage tour of Lincoln Center - a small group gets to go behind the scenes at the Vivan Beaumont Theater, sit in on a rehearsal of the Metropolitan Opera, walk the halls of the divas, check out the New York Philharmonic and generally be at GROUND ZERO for the Performing Arts in America. What a thrill!!! And, since this IS Travel2Art, we can avoid mentioning the Museum of Art and Design (Columbus Circle) and the new Highline (an elevated subway line that has been transformed into a walking, viewing, gathering place filled with greenery, performances, food and (late night) spontaneous striptease shows in the windows of apartments overlooking the Hudson. The energy is like getting a major transfusion of intelligence, culture and innovation. I felt like I was on a four day ART DATE.