Good Morning, Taipei!

The journey was more arduous than we expected, but that is past history.  Now we are in Taipei, stepping out the front door of our building and entering into life on the other side of the globe from Portland Oregon.

This is what we encounter as we walk out the front door. Everything is especially green and lush this year.

We turn the corner and walk toward our favorite breakfast locations

Our first stop is 7-Eleven where I manage to order two large lattes, and I request that they be put in bags.  I'm pretty sure the lady remembers us from last year.

Here's the soy milk shop where we will have breakfast.

I place our breakfast order, and we settle in at one of the few tables with our 7-Eleven coffee, in bags.  It's such a nice way to carry take out coffee.

I impressed myself by placing my order for breakfast.  We got exactly what I ordered, except this fried dough came as a surprise.  I don't know which words got me this.  It was tasty though.

I'm looking at the food prep area.  This is fast food which is prepared, from scratch, right on the spot.  Everything here is good.

I got shao bing jia dan bing - egg cake inside a bread wrapper that is fresh off the griddle.  Taylor got the same thing, with the addition of fried tofu inside the shao bing.

After breakfast we head to the market to get some supplies.  On the way we pass this small Buddhist sidewalk temple.

We are thrilled to be back in Taipei with local markets for our shopping.

It's a busy day at the market. There are so many choices and everything is fresh.

First things first.  We purchase a shopping cart.  This will make our lives much easier than in the past when we carried all our purchases.

This has nothing to do with shopping, but we walked by this police car.  I'm not sure what to think of the slogan.

Our shopping expedition has been a success.  We filled our shopping cart with all this fruit and nuts, plus two enormous bottles of water.  

The chores are done, now it's time to treat ourselves to a visit from Solomon Soup - the reason we are here.

Welcome to Tangier Gran Tour

After Aziz joined Mohammad, Taylor and me, the tour really began.  We drove through suburbs where the king of Morocco has a home, as well as other rich and famous people from the Arab world.  We drove along the coast looking at both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean beaches.  We went into the Cave of Hercules, which is opposite the Rock of Gibraltar in Spain.

Either the Atlantic, or the Mediterranean Oceans are behind us.  I'm holding mimosa flowers.

Looking out from the Cave of Hercules.  The shape resembles the outline of Africa, in reverse.

After driving through the areas surrounding Tangier, Aziz took us to a restaurant in the Grand Socco for lunch where we had our first Moroccan meal.  Afterwards we toured the market, which is held on Thursdays and Sundays.

These are sheep horns which will be turned into combs.

The same man who was selling the sheep horns was roasting cow legs.  Azziz told me they would be eaten.

 Berber women come from the surrounding countryside to sell the vegetables that they grow  Their clothing is distinctive as they always wear red and white skirts, and the hats which are adorned with braided yarn and pom poms. They do not like to have the pictures taken, hence the sneaky back views.

 Spices.

The seafood all looked so good I wished I had cooking facilities.

There are so many kinds of olives.

The vegetables were so appealing.

This is where men advertise that they are available for work.  The bucket on the left is for a painter, to the right of the paint bucket is for a plumber, and the display on the right is for an electrician.  If you need their services you find their little display and negotiate a price.

This man is working at the community oven.  You bring whatever you want baked to him and he slides it right into the oven.  When we were there he was roasting nuts, but everyone brings their daily bread to him as well.

Our tour of the market was one of many highlights in Morocco.