Travels around the world.

Technorati Tags: Fez , medina , Morocco , Tannery , metal-work The Medina is the old walled city within the larger city of Fez.  Many North African cities have a medina. The Medina in Fez is a very large network of small alleys, surrounded by a wall.  No cars are allowed inside, making it one of the largest car-free urban areas of the world. If you want to know more check out this UNESCO World Heritage web page. We spent a few hours in the Medina, being guided by our  ex-pat friends.  We were glad they knew their way around as it could have been confusing. This first photo was taken from an overlook. Most of what you see in the photo is the medina.  It's very large. We drove down to a gate at the lower end, parked and walked from there. Our first stop was the tannery.  They gave us fresh mint to hold under our noses to block the strong odor, but by the time we reached the overlook the odor was gone.  It was a very comfortable day, probably a...

We made a trip to Helsinki last fall.  We were there the second week in October. It was chilly, but the fall colors were nice.  Here are some of my pictures. This was the doorway to our hotel. It looked like a castle on the outside.   Here's a picture of boats in the harbor. These boats are backed up to the wharf and are selling things from the back. They had fresh fish, pickled fish, other foods in jars and knitted items.   It's hard to see, but this is a boat. This is another boat. You can see the cabin and a crane.   And here is another one. Smoking fish right on the sidewalk. You can see both of the big cruise ships that come over every day from Stockholm, I think. Technorati Tags: Helsinki   One day I walked around the neighborhood where the embassies are.  These are two of them, but I don't remember which ones they are. No photos were allowed of the American Embassy. It was under construction anyway, s...