DIFFERENT CUSTOMS HERE - "TOPLESS" ON BEACH

By Bob Van Leer

  (MALAGA, COSTA DEL SOL, SPAIN - Saturday, June 27, 1992) - We arrived at Malaga this morning after a complicated, but uneventful, journey from Gold Beach which started Thursday afternoon.

  The "we" on this trip is myself, wife Betty, and daughter, Molly Walker, her husband, Jim Walker, and her sons, Rob and Chris Johnson.

  This trip is the first long trip for all of us together. Normally, Molly runs the Curry County Reporter while Betty and I go traveling or vice versa.

FERRY TAKES US ACROSS STRAIT OF GIBRALTAR

By Bob Van Leer

  (FEZ, MOROCCO, Sunday, June 28, 1992) - We arrived in Fez, a city of 700,000, at 8:30 p.m. after a long day starting at our hotel in Malaga, Spain.

  A Tourafrica bus picked us up at our hotel for an hour and a half drive to the ferry terminal at Algeciras. This was the start of what is to be a 1400 kilometer tour of Morocco.  
  We passed Gibraltar on the way. The ferry takes an hour and a half to travel from Algeciras across the Strait of Gibraltar to Ceuta, from Europe to Africa.

STREET PEDDLERS WON'T TAKE "NO"

By Bob Van Leer

  (FEZ, MOROCCO, Monday, June 29, 1992) - Most of today was spent in a walking tour of the Medina, or old town, of Fez. The old part of the city was founded in 808, more than 1100 years ago.

  The streets and alleys are too narrow for motor vehicles and too tortuous for casual visitors to negotiate. A guide is essential for casual visitors.

  Donkeys are the principal means of moving goods around the Medina. The animals are ill-treated and long-suffering. Most appear never to have had a square meal. Cuts and sores on the beasts are common.

  The market area is an assault on all the senses. Exotic sounds, smells and sights clash until you begin to doubt your own reactions.  The Medina is divided into different areas for shops. Gold is sold in one area, produce in another and brass in still another. The narrow streets are alive with peddlers who won't take "no" for an answer. 

MOLLY WALKER HIT BY TOMATO

By Bob Van Leer

  (MARRAKESH, MOROCCO, Tuesday, June 30, 1992) - The Atlas Mountains divide Morocco into the relatively green and productive Atlantic slope and the Sahara Desert region.

  The Atlas starts on the Mediterranean near the border with Algeria and runs southwest to the Atlantic Ocean.

  Our 480 kilometer route from Fez to Marrakesh today ran generally along the foothills of the Atlas.

    Most of this region is irrigated with water from reservoirs on the streams coming from the Atlas range and the Oum er Rbia, Morocco's largest river.

NOTHING DISCOURAGES PUSHY SALESMEN

By Bob Van Leer

  (MARRAKESH, MOROCCO, July 1, 1992) - Today featured a tour through the Kasbah in Marrakesh, shopping at local markets and concluded with dinner, dances and a show put on by Berber tribes.

  In the Kasbah and surrounding markets were the pushiest salesmen we've ever seen. Nothing you say discourages them until they are finally convinced you are absolutely not going to buy.

  In one large ship I made the mistake of showing interest in a muzzle-loading pistol. It was an antique, but badly abused and not something I would want at any price.

  The salesman started off at $500 U.S. I turned him down and walked away. He followed asking me to name a price. When I wouldn't he started dropping his price. In the crowded store I walked down other aisles hiding from him.

CASABLANCA IS COUNTRY'S LARGEST CITY

By Bob Van Leer

  (CASABLANCA, MOROCCO, July 2, 1992) - This morning we left Marrakesh, the "red city", for the 230 kilometer drive to Casablanca.

  Marrakesh gets its name not from paint, but from the red plaster, made of local materials, that covers most buildings.

  Along some streets are pictures of King Hassan II. Pictures of him are everywhere, on streets, shop walls, hotel lobbies and elsewhere. Sometimes pictures of his heir-apparent son, Mohammed VI, are hung along with his father.

  Driving north, the barren plains around Marrakesh gave way to more irrigated farmland.

TANGIER A CITY OF FADED GLORY

By Bob Van Leer

  (TETUAN, MOROCCO, July 3, 1992) - This was our last full day in Morocco. We left Casablanca early for a 314 kilometer trip that would end in Tetuan, the old capital of Spanish Morocco.

  Our first stop was at Rabat, capital of Morocco and a 43 kilometer drive northeast along the Atlantic coast.

  Rabat was a small town until the 20th century when it was made the capital of French Morocco. It is now a city of 800,000.

  We were taken on a tour of the city and stopped at the Tower of Hassan and the mausoleum of Mohammed V, father of the present King Hassan II.

CROSSING BACK FROM AFRICA TO EUROPE

By Bob Van Leer

  (MALAGA, SPAIN, July 4, 1992) - Today is Independence Day but we have no way to celebrate it. I bought some firecrackers in Morocco but setting them off in this crowded beach resort would likely bring the police down on us.

  This morning we were up early in Tetuan, Morocco, for our final leg concluding our Morocco tour. Earlier in the week we had concerns that the assassination of the president of neighboring Algeria could result in unrest in Morocco.

  Fortunately, this was not the case and there were no political problems.

MAIN ROAD CROSSES AIRPORT

By Bob Van Leer

  (GIBRALTAR, July 5, 1992) - This city and rock are a step back in time.

  The city has narrow, winding streets, some barely the width of a car, with sidewalks a foot or two wide.

  This is an old town, what the Arabs would call a Medina. Arab cities have their medinas but also have a new town where most of the people live and business is transacted.

  Gibraltar would probably have done likewise except there is no place for a new town. So the old town has to do and all the business is conducted on these narrow streets lined with ancient buildings.

  We arrived here today after a two hour drive from Malaga, Spain.

  Gibraltar has been British since the treaty of Utrecht in 1713. It has been fought over through the centuries dating back before the time of Christ.

WE REACHED PORTUGAL VIA SPAIN

By Bob Van Leer

   (SETUBAL, PORTUGAL, July 6, 1992) - Tonight we stayed in a 16th century castle overlooking the Rio Sado estuary 50 kilometers south of Lisbon.

  It was a long, arduous day of travel and after 8 p.m. when we arrived here at the castle on a hill strategically overlooking the harbor entrance.

  We started out at Gibraltar, that bastion of Britain at the entrance to the Mediterranean.

  Gibraltar boasts direct flights to London, but that was not our destination. We had a rented van and it would have been simple to drive from Gibraltar to Setubal, a distance of perhaps 300 miles. But this was not possible because of restrictions on rented cars. 

  Instead, we drove back to Malaga, Spain, returned the rented van, took one flight to Madrid, Spain, a second to Lisbon, Portugal, rented another van and drove to Setubal, a distance of more than 700 miles.
Driving through Lisbon was a nightmare. There was road construction all over, badly needed. Signing was almost non-existent, and we drove through in the rush hour.

  We wanted to cross the 25th of April Bridge over the Tagus River but had a difficult time trying to get on it. We were lost a couple of times.

BEER, POP SOLD IN SAME MACHINES

By Bob Van Leer

  (SAO BRAS DEL ALPORTEL, the ALGARVE, PORTUGAL, July 7, 1992) - Tonight we stayed at another of the government-run pousadas, just north of Sao Bras.

  This one was just built in 1942 for a hotel, it is not converted from anything. It is a "regional" pousada as opposed to a "historic" one.

  It overlooks the small Moorish settlement of Sao Bras de Alportel. Today was only a four hour drive from Setubal so there was time to enjoy the scenery and explore after we reached the hotel.

Cork From Trees

  For most of the drive it was rolling or flat farm country turning to low mountains on the south coast. Trees are predominantly cork, pine, eucalyptus and olive. The cork tree is an oak, a fascinating tree with a bark that makes everything cork we use.

  The bark was being stripped as we drove through. Before stripping, it is cracking by itself. A tree yields 60-100 pounds of bark and will be stripped 12-15 times in its life of around 200 years. It takes nine years to grow bark thick enough for cutting.

OUR POUSADA OVERLOOKS DAM AND LAKE

By Bob Van Leer

  (SANTA CLARA A VELHA, PORTUGAL, July 8, 1992) - Again we were staying at one of the government-run pousadas, this time the Pousada de Santa Clara.

  It overlooks the Santa Clara dam which backs up a huge lake. The engineers who built the dam occupied the pousada but it was obviously built for later use as a hotel.

  It is small, with only six rooms. Our party of six took up half the hotel. We arrived here after a drive from San Bras, first west along the coast and then north.

  The terrain is such that the main road does not run in sight of the ocean, it is necessary to make a short drive south on connecting roads to get to the beach.

  We tried to reach one beach that was the site of a craft fair but traffic was impossible. We couldn't find a parking space within a mile and gave it up.

THE LA QUINTA HAS WALLS TWO-THREE FEET THICK

By Bob Van Leer

  (VILA FRESCA DE AZEITAO, PORTUGAL, July 9, 1992) - This morning we started at Santa Clara for a two hour boat ride on the lake backed up by the dam just below where we were staying.

  A Senhor Dimas agreed to take us for the ride. Six of us plus Sr. Dimas piled into his boat which would hold four nicely.

  The lake was low but was still a huge lake. Exposed along the shore were ruins of buildings flooded by the dam.

  For the first hour and three quarters we didn't see another boat moving on the lake. This would not be possible on a balmy summer day in any of the reservoirs in Oregon. 

  Finally, a boat run by a man who was apparently a government administrator came alongside and seemed to be telling Sr. Dimas about paperwork he should be filling out.

  He said the lake was three meters lower than it should be at this time of the year. The old buildings we saw should not have been exposed at all.

  We were still miles from the dock where we left and Sr. Dimas' outboard motor started acting up.

LISBON'S GOLDEN AGE WAS 16TH CENTURY

By Bob Van Leer

  (LISBON, PORTUGAL, July 10, 1992) - Our last night in Portugal was spent at the Hotel Fenix in downtown Lisbon.

  Outside the ambulances go by every few minutes. Given the way Portuguese drive, it's surprising there aren't more ambulance calls.

  This morning we had a short drive from Setubal and crossed again the 25th of April Bridge over the Tagus River. This time we had no trouble getting on it.

  The one and one-half mile long bridge was obviously inspired by the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

  At the time it was built it was the longest suspension bridge in Europe.

CITY GETTING READY FOR DEMO CONVENTION

By Bob Van Leer

  (NEW YORK, NY, July 11, 1992) - We arrived back in the United States this afternoon on an Iberia Airlines flight from Madrid.

  We enjoy traveling, but after more than two weeks overseas it is a relief to be back where we can understand conversations, read newspapers and follow what is happening on TV.

  The day started in Lisbon, Portugal, with an early morning drive to the airport and then an hour's flight to Madrid, Spain. There we boarded a Boeing 747 for the 7.5 hour flight to JFK Airport at New York.

Mystery Resolved

  In the Madrid airport one mystery was solved.

  I saw a bottle of port wine and on the label was a black silhouette of a man in a cape and the brand name was Sandeman. We saw this silhouette in Portugal high on a hill and wondered what it was.

  It's a good example of assuming too much in advertising. The company assumed that everyone knows what Sandeman is.

  In fact, everyone never knows a product so ads shouldn't forget the basics like who you are and what you sell.