Hidden City London

When Jessica was here last year, I wanted her to meet some of our London friends.

So when one of them suggested a London scavenger hunt we were thrilled.

It was a great way for Jess to see more of London and to have a great time getting to know everyone.

We had so much fun that we signed up for Round Two!

Hidden City has created cryptic trails across five UK cities

(London, Manchester, Newcastle, York and Brighton).

Most of the trails run all year long and they often have limited edition seasonal hunts.

So on the Saturday after Christmas we signed up for Scrooge's Cryptic Christmas Trail.

 

We signed up two teams.  Guys versus Gals.

The guys had won the first time and we wanted a rematch to redeem ourselves.

Our team consisted of these lovelies, Sarah, Gina and Mandy.

Here's how the hunt works.  Simple really.

Register your team or teams online (£16 per team).

Each team captain will receive a Welcome text and an email with all of the details.

Meet up at the allotted time and place.  Everything else is done via text.

One of the team captains texts "Start" and the race is on! 

You receive a text with a clue and you have to figure out where to go.

It could be a shop, a pub, a museum, anywhere within walking distance.

Then you have to find a certain feature once you are there.

Text your answer back and if you're right,

you get your next clue and you are on your way.

Each trail varies and could have  8 to 22 clues.

If you get stumped, don't worry.  You get one free "lifeline" and after that you can request hints.

But it will cost you a 10 minute time penalty.

Once we got going we registered all of our cell phones.  So we each got the clue.

Which was helpful because I had to keep putting on my granny glasses to read the text.

Granny glass are great for reading small print, but not when you're racing through the streets of London.

Even with little knowledge of the city, you should be able to figure out all of the clues.

They recommend that you bring along your A-Z Street Guide,

but we just Google Mapped our way around.

Just make sure that you don't get turned around like we did.

There might have been some backtracking.

And it was hard not to get sidetracked along the way.  Cupcakes!

There are several optional breaks along the way.  The clock stops and you can grab a pint.

You would think that our two teams would have met up along the way.

We met up with the guys a few times, but didn't really see them much.

When we did, there was quite a bit of trash talking going on!

It's a fabulous and fun way to explore a city.

The hunt took us through so many nooks and crannies that we never knew about.

We were racing through because of the competition, but this would be such a great date night.

A couple could just explore together and go a little slower.

(I'm thinking the  Cupid's Conundrum would be a great Valentine's Day outing.  Hint, hint.)

There's so many wonderful things to see along the way.

We ran all over the city. We were determined to beat these guys.

Especially with their taunting pics enjoying a pint while we were obviously still way behind.

 We skipped our break and carried on with the race.
We were hoping the pints might slow them down a bit so we'd have a chance.

This was a pretty long hunt and we were wearing down at the end.
With some relief, we got to the last stop.  Thankfully, it was a pub.

Seriously?  What took us 2.5 hours only took them 1.5 hours.

They spent most of their time enjoying the pubs while we raced around to keep up.

I might have pouted. I hate losing.
(I won't mention again they they are all really tall and take one step for our two.)

After a hearty pub dinner recapping our adventure, I felt much better.

And ready to sign up for another one.

I highly recommend this outing.  I had a blast and would love to try one of the other cities.
You can find Hidden City on Twitter @intheHiddenCity.


Are you ready to follow a trail of clues?

 

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  *We received a complimentary hunt from Hidden City for the purposes of review.
All photos, writing and opinions are my own.
As always, I promise to be open, honest and transparent with my readers.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

 You can find this review and many others in my
London Attraction Guide.

Speechless in Morocco

I'm having the hardest time writing about Morocco and I'm not really sure why.

I don't even know where to start other than just admitting that to you.

We took this tour last April. That's nine months ago and 

I still haven't blogged about my week in Morocco.

I gushed about the three days we l spent in Spain.  I absolutely loved it!

And I've shown you some of my favorite photos from Rabat.

Most of my other photos are edited and it's time to start blogging about Morocco.

But.  I don't know where to start.

So.   I'll start at the beginning.

From Ronda, we took a train South along the Andalucia Express Route,
passing storks and the Rock of Gibraltar along the way.
We arrived at the southern Spanish port of Algeciras and boarded a large ferry.
We set out to cross the Strait of Gibraltar.

Once on board, we waited in line to show a stern faced immigration officer our passports.

Dee pointed out the mosque on board the ferry.  Dee was our tour leader.  I'll tell you more about her later.

We were conspicuous among the crowd.

A group of seventeen very white tourists among people from more exotic locales.

We purchased some Pringles and went out on deck to enjoy the sunshine.
We could easily see Morocco in the distance.

We arrived at the new commercial port about an hour from Tangier.
We were quickly shuffled into vans for the ride into the city center.
I buckled up and turned away from the group to gaze out of the window.
My first taste of Morocco and I wanted to savor it in my own little bubble.

I tuned out all of the voices and got out my little notebook.
It was with me throughout our entire journey.  To jot down notes, sights, impressions.
Short, succinct words that I hoped would contain a memory for me.

This is what I wrote during my first hour in Morocco as we drove along the coast.

First word I heard - "Welcome."

Gorgeous Ocean.  Green Hills.  Such different sights.
Pack Mules.  Beach Resorts.  Traditional Islamic dress.
Man praying on a mat off in a field.  Goats.  Children.

Low Stucco Buildings.  More Color.  Turquoise water.  Low Green Shrubs.
Fast, curvy drive.  Up, down and around.  "Beep.Beep."
Berber Market. Families picnic on the side of the road.

Cows.  Small fields and crops.  "Honk!!" Big city on the coast.
Cruiseship in port.  People in gym clothes jogging.  Camel.

For me, Morocco was the definition of juxtaposition.

We soon arrived at the bustling city where we would only be spending one night.

Tangier is a rapidly developing modern city in North Africa.

Located where the Med meets the Atlantic, it's known as the Gateway to Africa.

It's an eclectic mix of North Africa, Spain, Portugal and France.

It was once the preferred destination for poets, artists, writers and spies.

More notes from my feeble attempt to capture it all.

Kids playing basketball.  Kids playing on the beach.

Some people are covered in traditional garb.  Some people in western clothes.

Pizza Hut.  Little Girl staring at me with big dark eyes.  Smiled.

Cats.  Curious glances. 

A group of little boys say "Bonjour" and then run away giggling.

Kids catching a ride on the back bumper of a van.

Loved Spain, but this is a completely new experience.

After dropping our bags at the hotel, it was time for a guided walking tour of the Medina.

Market squares, back streets and an energetic bustling atmosphere that was almost overwhelming.

We're not in Kansas any more.  Here is where I resort to photographs.
Like my notes, they capture memories for me.  I hope they tell you a little bit of what I experienced.

We stopped at a 100 year old Anglican Church and played with the turtles in the graveyard.

The church had a distinctly Moorish style.
Beside the Lord's Prayer in Arabic are carved quotes from the Quran.
Our guide told us that Tangier is a place where all religions come together.
Islams, Christians and Jews all live and worship side by side.  

Then it was time to explore the Medina and the Kasbah.
The Medina is the old walled city where people live and work among narrow streets and alleyways.
The Kasbah is the old walled fortress of the Sultan.  It's the most amazing and beautiful place.

I was very careful and respectful with my camera.  Many people did not want their picture taken.
I would make eye contact, smile and tap my camera,
if they smiled back I'd take a quick photo and say "Shukran".

We stopped for dinner in a lovely little restaurant.

My head was spinning with all of the sights and sounds from my first day in Morocco.

I distinctly remember having one of those travel moments in that little restaurant.

Tears filled my eyes and I didn't really even have a clear thought.

All I could think was "Oh, my God, I'm in Morocco."

Everything else was just jumbled up.  All the sights and smells.

The faces and the children.  And it's still just all jumbled up in there.

And I don't know how to tell you about it.  I don't know where to start.

Did Morocco leave you speechless?

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I've been to... with Matthew - Bangladesh

It's time for another guest post from Matthew.

I 've been to... Bangladesh.

In 2006, I signed up for a tour through Explore! Worldwide that promised to take us to many of India’s holiest places, travelling wherever possible by train.  The trip is still available and now starts in Kolkata, but back in 2006 the trip started in Bangladesh.  Armed with a ticket and a visa, I boarded a plane bound for Dhaka, apprehensive about what I would experience but excited to see a place that most people know little about.

 Bangladesh sits at the mouth of the Ganges delta, so there is a lot of water.

Firstly, a little history which helps explain why Explore’s tour now starts in Kolkata.  The Bengal region had been part of the British Raj, but as a result of the 1947 partition of the region, the Western portion of Bengal joined India, with the majority Muslim Eastern part becoming East Bengal (later renamed East Pakistan).  West Pakistan ruled from Islamabad, 1,600 miles away with about 1,000 miles of Indian territory in between.

East Pakistan had a larger population and was economically more significant than the West, so the population became unhappy with this arrangement and a progressively more violent independence struggle rumbled on for 20 years.  The situation came to a head in 1971 with a 9 month war which led to Bangladeshi independence.  Through the conflict, the occupying Pakistani army committed a number of atrocities, including the murder of between 300,000 and 3 million civilians (the number depends on who you talk to – the Bangladeshis are adamant it’s the higher number).

 

Quite a slogan to build a campaign around

Recently the country has held a number of war crime trials, which has unsettled the country and has made it a less attractive tourist destination.  But even in 2006, tourism was very limited and seeing a visitor was a novel experience for most Bangladeshis.  My strongest memory was of a crowd gathering to watch us whenever we stopped.  The concept of privacy is very different in that part of the world, so staring (and being stared at) was nothing unusual for the locals, no matter how uncomfortable it made us feel.

 

Look!  Tourists!

We stopped at some remote places as we travelled through the country, and sizable crowds would often gather.  We were escorted by the military, which was intended to make us feel at ease, but actually served to further highlight where we were and as the troops tended to fan out ahead of us, where we were going.  A few troubled countries with tourist industries tend to do this and it’s never been clear to me that an armed escort really helps.

 

Our escorts.  The lowest quality photo we’ve ever posted, but you get the idea.

So what is there to see in Bangladesh?  To be honest, not much.  During colonial times, it was a relatively unimportant outpost, so didn’t really benefit from the investment in great public works that more “important” colonial cities received.  The underdeveloped economy lacks the wealth to support a great infrastructure.

Very pleasant

There are some (lower scale) colonial gems to explore, such as Dhaka University, but the post-independence monuments tend to feature large quantities of concrete in unusual geometric formations.  As an example, the Jatiyo Sriti Shoudho (the National Martyrs' Memorial) is located in a small town around 30 miles outside Dhaka, which makes the country’s most interesting monument actually quite difficult to visit.

 

The National Martyrs' Memorial

The most interesting thing about Bangladesh is undoubtedly its people.  Bangladesh is the world’s 8^th most populous country, with over 150 million people crammed into a country smaller than Illinois.  So there are a lot of people living in extremely close proximity, and it’s even more cramped than it might sound as around 20% of the country is either waterway or uninhabitable swampland.

 

Travelling by water is a very developed industry

There’s a resilience to the population that you can only really understand by visiting.  We joke about “first world problems” - a quick scan of my Facebook news feed would suggest that the greatest challenge my “first world” friends face is how to complete that tricky level on Candy Crush.  Your perspective shifts when you read that 30 million Bangladeshis lost their homes during the flooding of 1998, which left two thirds of the country underwater.  The average income of the 150 million Bangladeshis is just over US $1,000.

The world is a fascinating place and a visit to Bangladesh will certainly enhance your understanding of it complexity.

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