Lisbon is a fantastic city.  The drive from the airport to my hotel was quick and inexpensive via taxi.  I scored a great deal on Hotels.com and am staying at the Marques de Pombal, which is right on Avenida da Liberdade and within walking distance to the Bairro Alto (older part of the city) and the riverfront where there are tons of restaurants, cafes and stores.  The hotel looks like it was recently upgraded and has a great breakfast buffet included - and really good wifi.

Given that I'm tired of tours and sightseeing right now, I didn't really do much but walk around and stop in some places.  I finished a book that I started in Morocco, shopped for some winter clothes for Antarctica (every store had after Christmas sales going on), researched/booked things for Argentina and Uruguay, and tried some of the local food and wine.  I had some good salmon yesterday, and a popular Portuguese dish, codfish with potatoes, today.

​It was a nice change from Morocco in that people weren't as pushy to sell things, other than a few entrepreneurs that approached me trying to sell hashish and sunglasses.

​Tomorrow I'm headed to Buenos Aires via Frankfurt.  I called Star Alliance to make sure that I'm actually booked on this flight and won't have to buy another unneeded ticket...

Most of yesterday was spent traveling.  I took the 8:45am train from Marrakech to the center of Casablanca, and then a taxi to the airport.  There was some major confusion with my booking on TAP airlines and I wasn't able to call Luftansa, so I ended up paying for a one-way ticket in cash and called Luftansa when I got to Lisbon.  Hopefully I get reimbursed for this as it was some screw-up between the two airlines.  I'm trying to catch up on a few things today at the hotel and then will take a walk toward the river. 

I decided to cancel a tour I had booked for Christmas Day as the other Moroccan tours were kind of dissapointing, and just stayed around town, talked to my family, and then had dinner back at the Riad (tagine of beef).

The Riad booked a day trip to Essaouira for Christmas Eve.  It's about 3 hours west of Marrakech by tour bus and is on the Atlantic coast.  I met a Norwegian family and an American guy that was on vacation alone, so he and I had lunch in Essaouira.  On the way there the driver pulled over so we could take a picture of goats standing in a tree.  Esaouira also has a Medina, and is much more laid back than Marrakech.  It also has a nice beach area.

I met a guy on the train who gave me the number of his cousin, who (supposedly) teaches at an American University and also gives tours.  He picked me up in the morning at the edge of the Jamaa el Fna (square in the Medina) and was expecting a full day tour as I got a quote for about $30.  He drove me around the city for a little while and then took me to the Jewish quarter where there was a synogue, and a cooperative that sold carpets. Once I explained that I wasn't going to buy anything, he said 'it doesn't look like you want to buy anything so I won't charge you and you can just walk around the Medina on your own'.  Very odd.  That tour lasted about 45 minutes, but at least it was free...
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​After I was left on my own to walk around, I went to the Bahia Palace.  Marrakech had just hosted a global Climate Conference, so they had some exhibits on that in the Palace.  I had lunch at a local place and then dinner in the Medina again.

I took a train from Casablanca to Marrakech to spend a few days.  It was a little over three hours but a first class ticket cost less than $15, so it was much cheaper than flying and probably much quicker once you factor airport security in.

​I booked a Riad (guesthouse) in the Medina.  I called the Riad when I got to the train station in Marrakech to get directions, but the woman answering the phone didn't speak English.  A taxi got me to the edge of the Medina and tried to explain where to go, and I got pretty close before I gave up and paid someone $1 to guide me there.  It was located down several narrow alleys.  Once inside the Riad it was nice.

​There were a few good French/Moroccon restaurants in the Medina close by so I ended up eating there at night.

The same guy that the hotel sent to pick me up at the airport was also my driver for the tour.  He was also supposed to act as guide, but he wasn't very useful in that capacity.

The first stop was at the Grand Mosque Hassan II, where I bought a ticket to walk around inside.  Then we stopped at a lighthouse to take more pictures, and then drove/walked along the Boulevard de la Corniche next to the beach.  I had a really good lunch at a restaurant ovelookng the water, and then afterwards I got dropped off in the Medina and walked around and got lost for a little while.

I got a lot of questions at check-in when I left Israel, which I had heard would happen and they focused on my visits to Muslim countries (why I am going to Morocco, why I was in Doha and Instanbul last year, why I was in Malaysia this year, etc).  They looked through every stamp in my passport and then I had to go through the special security screening where they swabbed everything in my carry-on for explosives.

I got to Casablanca this afternoon and the traffic from the airport was crazy.  I walked down to to port and had dinner.  Tomorrow I've booked a tour of the city.  I think that I may check out early and try to take a train to Marrakesh one day early, as I'm not sure that there will be a lot to do here.

The last tour I took was to Massada, which is about 90 km from Jerusalem, where King Herod built a fortress on the mountain.  It overlooks the Dead Sea. You can hike up to it, but since we were on a scheduled tour we took a cable car up to the top.

​The last stop was on the Dead Sea (more than 400 meters below sea level and the lowest place on earth), at Kalia Beach, where I got to float on my back in the sea for a few minutes and where a lot of people smear the sea mud all over themselves.  It was sort of cold outside but the water temperature was nice.  They also had shops where they sell the salts/minerals from the water.

​After I got back to Tel Aviv, I went out for Thai Curry for dinner and then took a nap before heading to the airport at 2:30 am.

For the second tour, we drove to Nazareth from Tel Aviv.  One of the first stops was the Basilica of Annunciation.

​Then we went to the Church of Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes.

​Next we went to Capernaum, which is on the Sea of Galilee.

​The last stop was Yardenit, where the Jordan river flows out of the Sea of Galilee and is a site where many people come to get baptized.