Author Archives: JJD
Marrakesh, Day 1: Doors
If I took pictures of every beautiful door that I passed, I would never get anywhere.
Marrakesh, Day 1: What we ate
We ate our first Moroccan meal at a place called Aqua on the Djemaa. We chose it because it advertised having air conditioning. There was an air conditioner, but we learned to our chagrin that an air conditioner is not the same as having air conditioning. So we sweated through a thoroughly mediocre plate of […]
Marrakesh, Day 1: Hottest walking tour ever
It was a gazillion degrees outside, but I convinced Amanda that we needed to (a) get something to eat, and (b) not waste time lounging about in pretty rooms while there was a city to explore. So we slathered on the sunscreen, donned our hats, and headed out into the heat. Lacking breadcrumbs, we decided […]
Marrakesh, Day 1: Riad Eden
As we emerged from passport control and baggage claim at the Marrakesh airport, we were happy to see a skinny young man holding a sign for Riad Eden. The new chez nous for the next three days. Bashir (that was his name) was friendly and assumed I was Spanish (because no one ever thinks I’m American) until I […]
Flight to Morocco
What do you do when you have a flight to catch at 12:40pm and you don’t know whether the airport in question is going to be more like Reagan National (pretty smooth and easy) or Charles de Gaulle (worst ever; think ninth ring of hell)? You hedge your bets and get your CDG game on. That way whatever […]
Madrid, Day 2: Viva la Revolucion
As anyone who’s been watching the economic woes of Europe knows, things have been rough for Spain lately. They’re on the brink of defaulting and causing (along with Greece and others) the downfall of the Euro. So in the past few weeks people have been asking me whether I felt any trepidation about going to […]
Madrid, Day 2: Hat!
I bought a hat today. It’s blue and trendy and completely unpackable — but I need something to keep the sun off my head in Morocco, and I think I’ll be able to pull this one off. We found the hat shop yesterday on our way from the Plaza Mayor to the chocolateria. The hats caught my […]
Madrid, Day 2: What we ate
Lunch at the Prado After a few hours at the Prado, we’d burned through all our reserves and were on the verge of starvation. As we crawled piteously out of the El Greco gallery, wondering which of us would die first and be eaten by the other, we spied the museum cafe. [Cue heavenly choirs] The restaurant was […]
Madrid, Day 2: Two museums and a park
Madrid is home to three world-class museums: the Prado, the Reina Sofia and the Thyssen-Bornemisza. The Reina Sofia is primarily modern art and located only about a block from our hotel. We went last night after our walking tour — didn’t have time to see the whole collection (we had that Michelin reservation, after all) […]
Madrid, Day 1: What we ate
Lunch at Ginger Since we didn’t begin our tour of Madrid until around Noon, and since I hadn’t eaten anything since the airplane breakfast during the wee hours of the morning, our first order of the day was to get lunch. We decided to try a place called Ginger — it came with strong recommendations […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 