Morocco Holiday

No sooner back from Rome....and its packing the bags for the summer holiday to Morocco.....where they drive like lunatics....Mum said Dad would fit in perfectly...!

Dad was hoping to get to the holiday home before it got too dark to allow for 1: the lunatics on the road he had been warned about....and 2: finding the house....however, it was already getting dark by the time we left the airport....

I decided I wouldn't help direct as 1: I didn't know where I was going....and.....2: Mum gets shirty if anyone else tries a bit of map reading....so I adopted the holiday position as shown below the next day in the comfortable hammock chair....

So the first thing that happens is we leave the airport and after a couple of minutes theres a loony on our side of the road, no lights, on a moped, driving straight at us.....swerves in to the gutter....we pass him....m sure there was a quacking sound from the drivers area...it wouldn't be the last either....the whole holiday was riddled with such incidents...they are a happy-go-lucky bunch, the Moroccans...

Interestingly the Police will tolerate this 'driving' technique...but wont let anyone speed...on the spot fines are available to anyone who wishes to travel fast enough....

Anyway...it was hot....and sunny....and here I am on the beach....

...as Chris Rea said....on the beach....

But he didn't say....

...at McDonalds...

Yes.....they had a McD's next to the beach in Agadir....very nice....reliable....like me....

Off to the outback of beyond...an touring the countryside to see what we see...we see here a mountain range....the Atlas mountains....this is the road to Paradise Valley which was very nice...which it should be considering its name....

...a stop with a view....

...a stop with a different view....

Along the by and by we ended up at a Berber village as there was a nice waterfall near by and possible swimming hole...heres the swimming hole...

The Berbers are a majority in North Africa....about 30 million of them....they like to think of themselves as 'free people' or 'noble men'....

Heres a Berber leading us on a Camel ride....I think I can safely say the word is Camel lumpy rather than ride....they are, somewhat, cumbersome and awkward....but look at it this way, if you wanted to get across a desert its the best way...lumpy or not....they are rather fabulous animals....

Lawrence of West of Arabia....

...does that make me Wawrence of Arabia?

It was a nice ride at sunset along the beach heading out east-ish as the sun gradually sank away....

Next we had to see some crocodilians....heres one big mouth....even bigger than dads gob with a doughnut!

....a north and south...

Whilst we were there I tried climbing a tree...

....ooh me bum....

....prick...

...don't throw me in for entertainment....

Talking of entertainment, Froog woke up cos he wanted to see the Crocs too...though we found this sign which didn't best please him....poor sod...though I'm wondering if this is a very small Croc.....or a bloody great Frog....

...does this colour suit me...

....up close and a mouth full of gnashers you don't

want to be on the wrong side of....!!

....me and Froog doing what Froog does most of the time....relax...!

Back to the beach for a typical British thing....sand castle building....I wonder if foreigners look at us and think....'what the hell are they doing?'......I don't think I've ever seen another nation do this...but if you know better....

I am....

....the King of....

...this set of castles....!

Rome

About time...the olds have finally got it together to take me on a trip to Rome....they said it was actually for junior to assist his education...but everyone know who comes first round here...

April 2017.....Rome....

Its all about product placement...here I am on the way from Gatwick, grey and overcast....

I hope EasyJet have got the idea they owe me big time...!

Ready to get on the Leonardo Express...but they made me get

on the grot train and mingle with the locals....actually...it was great...!

...to sunny Rome....

First...the Colosseum or by its proper name....the Flavian Amphitheatre...they started building in AD72 commissioned by Emperor Vespasian and it was finished by his son Titus in AD80...I bet this didn't run over time and budget like the local road improvements on the A21...

It was here that slaves of all sorts were made in to Gladiators....sometimes even if you didn't want to be.  If you were troublesome they made you a Gladiator....if you were tough, the same....if you were a right dunce...the same.  Gladiators lived a short life, even the successful ones.  But if you were successful you were given all the trappings that went with success...though you had to make the most of it....

Here we have a fine picture of the vomitorium which actually refers to  all the entrance and exit passages in and out of a place and behind the stage...or under the stage in this case...

Popular belief has a vomitorium as a place to go and be sick once you are stuffed with food, but this s wrong....

Next....and indeed next door to the Flavian Amphitheatre....the Roman Forum via the Palatine Hill...

The Roman Forum was the centre of Rome, full of important government buildings...the Palatine Hill...right next to it, was where all the important and rich people lived overlooking the poorer...

...its an impressive site.....

This doesn't look much now...but if you could transport yourself back 2000 years you would find yourself watching a chariot race....this is the Circus Maximus....

...at the Circus Maximus....

The chariots must have been an impressive site along the long straights...but those tight corners were deadly and would eventually leave an impressive dent in your bonce....chariot racers didn't last too long...

A tour of the city round the 'other' famous bits....well...some of them....theres so much to see...

Spanish Steps were built in the 1720's

You want bling...heres bling...in the Trevi area of the city....

Trevi Fountain

Built in the Baroque mid to late 1700's and completed well after the architect Nicola Salvi had died.  He didn't win a competition for the design....a chap called Alessandro Galelei won but as h was a Florentine chap they decided that second place was the better option...its not the taking part that counts...just coming second...! 

Coins thrown in to the fountain...around 3000 euros a day...!...are used to subsidise a supermarket for poor people...

Off to the Pantheon...

At the Pantheon...but its not all it seems....

Marcus Agrippa it says over the top...but....the building that he had built here is not what we see today.  Hadrian had this building erected around 126AD on the site of the temple Agrippa had built sometime between 27BC to 14AD.  The inscription just confuses the issue.  It has the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world....and its pretty old too...take not modern architects...

The oculus

This hole in the roof originally provided the only light in to the building....there are drains on the floor just in case the rain falls through it and lands on the floor (which is sloped)....however....rain doesn't often fall through the hole...strange...

The elephant and obelisk statue...

Finished in 1667 it was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini....

Loitering Romans....

...found this guy propping up a doorway....he didn't

have much to say for himself....

'I found Rome a city of bricks....

Augustus

                                                                                            .....and left it a city of marble'
                                                                                                         Augustus

Last day...and off to Ostia Antica...the famous port of Rome located west of the city...actually, not many really know about this place so don't visit, meaning its fairly visitor free compared to the main sites in the city...but its an amazing experience...

The port was by the river Tiber and was important for importing all sorts of goods, especially grain which was generally distributed for free....the population of the port was around 50,000 people.

...here I am in the 'graveyard' in one of the ports for an ern...

The mosaics date back to around the second century AD....and many are still in tip top condition....

As per usual with many of these places the tide went out...well...actually the Tiber changed course....the port was used less...people meandered off....eventually with the damp marshes that became more prevalent malaria moved in and that, as they say, was that.  But the gradual decline of the town is why its still in such good condition rather than one abandonment at one time.

A mask by the theatre...

As a small I have to suffer the olds thinking they are being humour itself by placing me on these statues....ha ha....I laughed so much...

...bit x-rated isn't it...?

3 legged horse....that's hunger for you...

Life in Roman times wouldn't be complete without a communal toilet....

.......!.....

Would you really have wanted to meet your neighbour here for a chin..though I suppose the modern equivalent is leaning on the fence....

....and so ends the trip....a few days of sunshine....and very nice it was too....but theres nothing like being homeward bound...and we even sat in a railway station....

Muse-um

Another bit of culture....this time....the Natural History Museum in London....here I am in some amusing poses that keep the olds happy...

I was asked to do Jurassic Park...but if this is the best they can do...

White dinosaurs didn't last long....

Blue Whale....big....but not as brainy as me...

Talking of brains...

...just remember who the brainy one is Mr D....!