Leaving Marrakech, I traveled up and through the high passes of the High Atlas Mountains, their pinnacles dappled in snow, on my way to the unpronounceable town of Ouarzazate. The entire drive was another scenic wonderland of remote villages, ancient strategically sited kasbahs, flocks of sheep and goats grazing in the most precarious places and […]
A seaside resort city, Agadir has colorfully landscaped boulevards, a fine beachfront promenade and a modern marina/condo/ retail complex where we were pleased to dock. There is little of the tumbledown squalor so evident in Casablanca. Here, too, the severe strictures of Islamic life are nowhere to be seen. Casinos, Western style nightclubs, bars, beach resorts and brothels abound, all repugnant to the imams but delightful to their flocks. […]
In few places is the power of Hollywood to impress images into our minds more apparent than here, and nowhere are those images so false. I had seen the movie enough times to have a clear picture of the place, its low, white stucco structures, dusty streets and a sleek nightclub called Rick’s Café, and […]
With a population of less than 700,000 and a land area slightly smaller than Connecticut, this is the least consequential of the Balkans countries, yet it is also undoubtedly the most scenic, a miniature impecunious version of Austria. “Wild Beauty” is the national tourism slogan, and that it surely has. […]