Forbidden Statues...

A few days later, I went back to Amsterdam with the AWC for a special tour of the Old Jewish Quarter with Batya (whom I went to Israel with). As we walked towards the Portuguese Synagogue, we stopped to see two statues that Batya said were forbidden because the artists didn’t have proper permits. Presumably, Music Rises Up was an inside job since it’s within City Hall.

This one was just outside the door of the Oude Kerk (the old church), which is located within the Red Light District. Seeing where Marijke, who was born to a Jewish mother in May 1945 just after the liberation from WWII, grew up was an extra bonus of the tour.

Video Magic at the Maritime Museum...

One of our favorite exhibits was Voyage at Sea. At one point, we were instructed to sit down in a blue room and pull on a metal bar.

We then walked through several other rooms with some fancy multimedia presentations before arriving in a room where we saw the clever end result of the blue screen experiment. We got a good laugh at seeing Andrew’s floating head.

It’s too bad that Sally and I weren’t sitting with the kids’ in their boat on the left; you might be able to spot our tiny heads in the back of the boat on the right.

A Day in Amsterdam...

When we returned from Morocco, the girls still had some more time off before the final term of school started. We spent a day with Sally, David and Andrew in Amsterdam. We started with lunch at the new Amsterdam Main Library. While we were impressed with the views from the cafe´ on the top floor, we were even more impressed with this handmade mouse house donated by a local artist.

We spent much of the afternoon at the National Maritime Museum. It was very fun for me to see the museum finished after having seen a sneak preview back in September.

Final Lunch in Morocco...

We enjoyed a final Moroccan lunch on the terrace by the pool, then just hung out until our taxi arrived to take us to the airport.

Our trip came to an end much too soon. I must confess that I was surprised how much I enjoyed this trip. Despite my reservations about going to Morocco, we had great adventures, saw beautiful scenery, stayed at lovely hotels, met friendly people, had a lot of fun shopping and enjoyed good food. We also had fantastic family time and good times with friends. Here’s to many more adventures!

Clues to the Mysterious Complex...

Part of urbex is trying to piece together the purpose of abandoned buildings. We found a 1995 calendar and  some invoices for food.

Too bad these boxes of Moroccan wine were empty

We finally pieced together that this was a large restaurant called L’Oasis de Marrakech that featured dancing fountains in the center, which probably closed in 1995. Best of all, we made it in and out without getting into trouble.

Exploring an Abandoned Complex...

At first we thought this was an old hotel, but when we saw PVC pipe, we realized it couldn’t have been very old. We also couldn’t find any hotel rooms, but found the remains of several giant kitchens (although all the appliances and fixtures had been stripped out).

The little amount of furniture still left had all been vandalized. 

We were surprised when approached by a local. We thought he wanted us to leave, but despite our complete lack of common language, we eventually figured that he just wanted to make sure we weren’t seen from the road. 

Urbex in Marrakech...

Jimmy has always had a fascination with abandoned buildings, so when he spotted what appeared to be an old disused hotel near our villa, he couldn’t wait to explore. This time he even suckered me into coming along despite my concerns about spending time in a Moroccan jail.

We entered the complex by crossing a downed fence, then crawling through a hole in an outer wall. Once inside, we found a lot of interesting architecture.