September 27, 2017
Today was a looooong drive from Fes to the Sahara just outside of the city of Merzouga. A friend of a friend runs the Sahara Garden. Brahim coordinated everything for us and welcomed us upon our arrival with open arms. Truly an amazing human being. We were welcomed with dinner and singing and dancing around a bonfire.
September 24, 2017
Our second stop in Morocco was the blue city of Chefchaoen. A small city located up on a hill, wandering thru the medina surrounded by so many shades of blue was quite a different experience from Tangier. We stayed at Casa Perleta, a small bed and breakfast recommended by our friend. It was perfectly located within the upper hill area of the medina. The blue hues of the walls of Chefchaoen are believed to have originated when the Jews came while escaping Hilter in the 1930s. The blue is said to serve as a reminder to lead a spiritual life while symbolizing the sky and heaven.
September 11 - 15, 2017
Enroute to our close friends' wedding in Greece we found a cheap flight to Paris via Reykjavik, Iceland and decided to take advantage and do a little stopover in an effort to (fingers crossed) see the northern lights. We decided to restrict our few days to just the southern highlights along the coast. The first thing we noticed was that even though it was supposedly shoulder/low season in Iceland there were significantly more people than when we came the year before in August.
days one hundred and fifty-six thru one hundred and one hundred and fifty-nine: march 3, 2016 thru march 6, 2016
We had a short gap of time to fill before heading back to Raja Ampat and we decided to stop thru Singapore since we had friends we could visit. In our three days there, we were pretty impressed with the city. Amazing architecture that integrated sustainability, efficient public transportation, clean streets, and thankfully good food too!
day one hundred and fifty-eight: march 4, 2016
After hearing about Gardens by the Bay, we decided that it was the one attraction that we had to see in Singapore. Separate from the main gardens, there are two enclosed domes that you can buy tickets to enter. The first is the Flower Dome, which is the largest glass greenhouse in the world and houses plants from around the world. And most importantly, it's air conditioned!
The second dome is the Cloud Forest Dome, which is more focused on plant life from the tropical highlands.
Our final stop in Gardens by the Bay was the Supertree Grove, which measure between 25 and 50 meters in height and are designed to provide shade during the day and come alive with lights and sound at night. Over 162,000 plants comprising over 200 species are planted on the Supertrees.
Ooof, I know that was a lot of flowers to go through -- but they were all just so beautiful!
