Spain and Morocco - Final, The Alhambra

HI, On Day 12 I travelled from the port of Malaga to the city of Granada to visit the Alhambra. Ruthe remained on the ship as she thought walking around the Alhambra would be too difficult.

The Alambra was the summer palace and gardens for the last Moorish dynasty to rule in Iberia. It was built during the first decade of the 14th century. This is a view looking out from one of the many windows.

Most of the gardens are a reconstruction so apparently they thought it was OK to build this outdoor performance area.

The gardesn are broken up into sections.

There are some interesting interesting details and

tile work.

Some of the areas have fountains.

Here we are looking from one area of the palace to another.

We left the palace for a bit in late morning. Here are some views in the vicinity of the palace.

This the courtyard of a the palace of Charles V.

In the afternoon we reentered the Alhambra. Here we found typical Moorish decorative carving and painting of the walls (above and one below).

This is an iconic view.

More typical decoration.

Our last day was spent on a few sights in Malaga. As I looked at the photos I did not find anything worth sharing so this is the final post for the trip.

Thanks for looking.

Spain & Morocco - 9, Fez to Tangier

Hi, On day 11 we drove from Fez to Tangier to rejoin our ship.

The land along the way is mostly arid (above and below). However, there is water as evidenced by this large lake and

this farm.

We stopped at Volubilis, a partially excavated Roman ruin which is a UNESCO World Heritage site (above and five below).

The really amazing thing about this site is the number and quality of the mosaics (above and below).

Visible from Volubilis is the town of Moulay Idriss Zerhoune.

Finally, one more view through the bus window, this time between Volubilis and Tangier.

Thanks for looking.

Spain & Morocco - 8, Fez

Hi, We spent the morning and very early afternoon of our 10th day driving to Fez where we spent the night. While we were away our ship moved from Casablanca to Tangier.

After arriving in Fes we left our bus and walked to a restaurant for lunch. This vendor was selling bread.

Here are some scenes from the restaurant (above and three below).

No one walked away hungry.

On the walk back to our bus we took these photos (above and below).

On the drive to the Madrasa (market) we photographed these scenes from the bus (above and below).

Walking through the madrasa we encountered an olive merchant,

a woman baking bread and

a craftsman making a copper bowl.

In a mosque in the madrasa four men were washing their feet.

The decorations inside mosques are often highly detailed and exquisite.

Here are three street views (above and two below).

During the walk we entered a shop with a weaver working at a large loom.

After climbing some steep stairs and passing through a shop selling leather goods we emerged onto a balcony to look down on an outdoor leather tannery.

In this close up view hides are being dyed.

Here are some of the items on sale.

Our hotel had a great view of the city.

Thanks for looking.

Railfanning 1-15-2018, MARC Charger test train

Hi, I joined friends Bill Kalkman and Jim Kleeman on MLK's birthday to photograph the first test run of MARC's new Charger locomotives. They were scheduled to depart Baltimore at 9:00 AM and as it was sunny we headed to Landsdowne, MD for out first shot.

While we waited Q277 and

Q141 passed.

As the weather had turned cloudy, at about 11:30 AM we relocated to Bush Street in Baltimore. Q031 was the first train through.

Finally at just short of noon the test train, symboled P931, appeared (above and three below).

Our next stop was St. Dennis, MD. Q438 came through almost immediately after we arrived.

As Q438 passed eastbound P931 arrived and stopped. In fact it paused at almost every regular commuter train station.

This stopping at stations provided just enough time to catch the train at Laurel.

While P931 continued into DC and came around past QN interlocking (it not go into Washington Union Station) we cut across Montgomery County and easily beat P931 to Gaithersburg, MD (above and below).

We knew the train would take the Old Main Line to Frederick so we set up outside the lime kiln near Buckeystown, MD.

Our final shot was at Brunswick, MD. At this point the train was unexpectedly operating in push mode. Also, it was at last light as they had spent just over an hour in Frederick.

Thanks for looking.