Morocco - Travel Day 1

For Thankgiving this year, we FINALLY got to go on a trip to Morocco.  I've had this tripped planned on 3 different occasions & it's been cancelled 3 times due to COVID-19.  I was SO SO SO happy to finally make it a reality.  We've been itching to mark "Africa" off our bucket list, & I've always wanted to ride camels in the Sahara Desert & this was the trip that finally let me check off those 2 bucket list items. 

We flew out Wednesday night on Ryan Air.  Driving to Hahn airport gave Trek & I PTSD (ha ha ha) from our Italy trip.  It reminded us of mom & dad trying to get a Taxi home from the airport, all the kids being too tired to walk so we had to carry them & all their luggage, & then the reminder of our broken suitcase having to be dragged or carried the whole trip.  Ha ha ha.  We pulled into that same parking lot & we both just looked at each other & started laughing.  We knew exactly what each other was thinking about!

We ate at McDonalds in the airport for dinner, then got to our gate with 2 hours to spare.  The plane was an hour late so we just sat forever before boarding.  None of us were sitting by each other which was sad, but we finally got on at about 9:30pm.  The lady sitting next to me forgot to wear deodorant that day & proceeded to watch I think anime, but “not nice” anime.  I had to turn my head to the window the entire flight to avoid seeing cartoon body parts I didn’t want to see.  

We landed in Morocco at about 1:30am, & then it took us nearly an hour to get through customs & get our bags.  Then we headed outside & found our driver named Hmed.  He was fun.  

He drove us to our hotel which was in the middle of the Medina (old city) in the slums.  We were so terrified we were going to get kidnapped & die in there.  The outside of the hotel looked scary, but then when we walked in, it was gorgeous & fancy & beautiful.  It’s so funny how quickly we learned everything looks ghetto in Morocco whether it’s nice or not.  Ha ha ha.  We split up into 2 rooms & went to bed at 3am.  Our tour guide would be picking us up at 8:30am & the hotel owner would be serving us breakfast at 8am.

Creative Connections 2022

This year was the first year the DODEA schools in Europe did Creative Connections since COVID hit in 2020.  In 2019, Lorien auditioned for the group as a freshman & made it in & it was one of the highlights of her high school life.  She loved it.

When they announced they were going to do it again this year, both Taya & Lorien decided they wanted to audition.  Creative Connections is a program put on by all the DODEA schools in Europe that highlight the arts:

painting, drawing, drama, orchestra, show choir, film, photography, & more.

Students from all the schools in Europe can audition to be in Creative Connections, but only a few are chosen.  For the orchestra group, only 7 cellos made it & only 4 violas.  Both Taya & Lorien made it into the group.  They were SO excited.

They got to get on a bus on a Monday morning & drive to Northern Germany with their friends & stay in a youth hostel there for 6 days while they rehearsed & prepared music for a big concert on Friday night.  Though there is a lot of practice hours, they still get a lot of time to hang out with friends, play around, & just enjoy being away from school & home for a week.  I really believe this brought my girls together in a wonderful way.  They were roomates in the hostel & did everything together.

The event nurse is a good friend of mine who lives in England right now.  It was SO funny that she recognized both of my girls.  (She hasn't seen them since they were babies).  They had fun getting to know her.

And then on Friday night, they performed their pieces & did an amazing concert for parents, friends, & teachers.  Below is the youtube video of their entire concert.  The cameraman loved Taya for some reason. She is on camera A LOT in the concert.  Lorien shows up occasionally especially toward the end of the concert.  Both girls did an amazing job & I am so very proud of them.

 

Trier Christmas Market - 2022

Our very first official Christmas Market of the season was Trier.  It was cold & raining so most of the kids decided they did NOT want to come.  So Trek, Bladen, & I went on our own adventure to see the twinkle lights & eat the delicious food.

These Christmas markets did not disappoint.  They are always so beautiful.  The streets smell like pine trees (because they are filled with freshly cut trees), the lights shine like fairies, & the food smells amazing.

Bladen was dying to get a chimney cake.  He got nutella in it & it was divine.

It was pouring rain on us, & we were pretty much soaking wet by the time we were finished.  But it was worth it. . . just look how beautiful that Christmas tree is with the Porta Nigra behind it.

When we finally couldn't feel our feet or hands anymore & water dripped off our heads & faces, it was time to go.  We had a blast & wouldn't trade our experiences for anything in the world.

 

Colmar, France

After the chocolate museum, we took to the beautiful streets of Colmar to explore everything around us.

The church was right next to the chocolate museum so we started there.  It was a gorgeous church.

Then we started exploring the rest of the town.  Everything was decorated for Christmas which made this cute little village extra magical.

We wandered for a while then made it to our boat tour through "Little Venice" (the canals of Colmar)

The road to get to the docks was blocked by construction so we had to frantically run all the way around the city to find another route to the docks making us 4 minutes late for our boat ride.  The guy flat out refused to let us go for being late & let a whole boat of 15 people without tickets get on our boat instead.  We were SO MAD.

We begged & begged to figure out a way for us to continue to go on a boat tour & there was a sweet English speaking tour guide who happened to be there taking his girlfriend & family on a tour that decided to let us jump on his boat & show us the sights from the canals.  We were SO grateful to him.  He was a VERY good guide too.  He told lots of jokes, laughed, & explained the history.  It was a wonderful boat ride.

I laughed when we saw this tunnel.  There was no way they'd take us under that!  It was too low.  I was wrong.  "Everybody DUCK!"  Holy moly I thought we were all going to die in there.

After the boat tour, we walked around the city a little more.

Finally the kids were done.  They wanted to go back to the hotel to play more games.  We ordered pizza for them & got them all set up for a nice evening.

Then the grown ups snuck out for a nice French dinner in the city.

I had Chicken & kasespaetzle which was to die for.

The next morning we said goodbye to Colmar & our wonderful little weekend getaway with our friends.

On our way out we passed the famous Statue of Liberty.  The man who designed it was from Colmar, France so there is a mini statue in the center of one of the round abouts in the city.  It was fun passing it.

The only thing we bought (other than a ton of amazing food & cookies) was this cute house modeled after one of the main houses in Colmar.  We added it to my Christmas village to help us always remember our trip to Colmar.