Our last day in the enchanting city of Fès where we ended as we began — with a feast! Boy, do they know how to eat here!

But first the morning: a relaxing one around the Riad with our artists capturing the beauty of the place in watercolours.

Then after what they laughingly call a “light” lunch (three courses including desert), we set off in three groups for a 6.5 km guided walk through the ancient medina and some of its 9500 derbs (alleyways).

A bit of a squeeze at times!

And then to finish the evening — more food! This time in the charming Le Jardin des Biehn run by the equally charming Paul Biehn, son of the founder of this restaurant/guest house that you can only find with a guide down some interesting derbs. And, like all places in the medina, it’s behind a big wooden door that opens to reveal a vista of gardens, courtyards, pools, fountains, lanterns and tiled pathways.

The meal was a delight, of course, and included a first — some great vanilla ice cream. And wine from Val d’Argan, our favourite Moroccan vintner.

À bientôt Fès!

And now to the desert. No Internet in the Sahara, so the next blog will be on Saturday from Perle du Dadès — inshallah!

Today, Tuesday, we travelled with Majid via Meknès to this gem of a village named after the descendant of the Prophet Muhammad who brought Islam to Morocco in the eighth century. Our destination was Scorpion House, an absolutely gobsmackingly beautiful home high above Moulay Idriss with an awesome view of the town and the surrounding hills.

Owned by an Englishman, who was unfortunately absent today, and managed by a New Zealander with a staff of national treasures, Scorpion House is both a restaurant, guest house and private home built over many levels with plenty of room for our artists to spend the day capturing the views.

Non-artists enjoyed the terrace…

…and seeing all the rooms including the world’s best bathroom…

…and the gardens…

…while Drew entertained the troops with the history of the house…

… before we had a buffet lunch (voted the best so far on tour) served by Hamza, then more painting, more exploring and finally an exhibition of some of the watercolour paintings produced by our group.

After returning to Riad El Amine in Fès we ended the day with a light dinner (and more wonderful Moroccan wine) to inaugurate the new roof terrace.

First some pics of Riad El Amine where we are spending four nights. A great introduction for first time in Morocco visitors as it is full of mesmerising zellige (or azulejos in Portuguese) and lots of different ambiences where one can sit and relax or have a gin and tonic.

Our Monday began with a short guided walk through a few of the 9500 derbs or alleyways that comprise the Fès medina.

We were on our way to the Palais Glaoui where our artist group (now nine since we farewelled Carmen in Lisbon) spent most of the day with Abdelkhalek, an artist who manages this old building, once the home to a rather despicable warlord during the French occupation.

The non-painters were taken on a wonderful tour of Fès outside the medina, starting with the King’s palace and then the old Jewish quarter…

…and on to a pottery where John tried his hand at the wheel and everyone did some shopping…

…and then lunch at Café Clock for camel burgers…

…later a great view of the medina from the ramparts…

…while the artists were saying farewell to Abdelkhalek.

On our return to the Riad, Ev arranged a life drawing session with Hassan, the resident lute player.

And then to end the day, we were escorted through more derbs to reach the exquisite restaurant Dar Roumana. Like so many places in Fès, and indeed in Morocco, street appeal is not their thing. A big wooden door opens to reveal an amazing room, decorated in zellige and wood carvings, that literally takes the breath away. A great meal of lamb and some gris wine.

Tomorrow — Moulay Idress.

A travel day today. Departure from the Hotel Lisboa Plaza at 10 am for our Ryan Air flight to Fès. Lots of mucking around with check-in as non E.U. passport holders had to get proof they could fly to Morocco without a visa.

Eventually after lining up for what seemed like hours (probably 30 mins) we trooped across the tarmac for our 80 minute flight.

More long queues for immigration and money changing on arrival before our wonderful main Moroccan man Majid did his magic trick of fitting everyone’s luggage (yes, even the humongous ones) into his mini-bus. Oh, and yes, all the bags arrived from Portugal!

Then a relatively short drive to our accommodation in the magnificent Riad El Amine. When Pam, Ev and I were last here in 2018, we were told by Noureddine and Mehdi they were planning to expand. And grow they did, in spite of the pandemic. They have now joined an old building onto the existing one and have created something truly wonderful.

These pics don’t do the place justice. I will try for some more tomorrow. But here’s one from the new roof terrace where Mehdi is creating a fabulous resort — a tapas restaurant, a bar, an outdoor dining place, nooks to relax, and an open air viewing platform from where to admire the medina of Fès. (That’s Mehdi with Ben, Pam, Ev and Chris).

The day ended with a terrific introduction to Moroccan cuisine (preceded by cocktails by the fountain and swimming pool).

And now to bed in our amazing rooms before the first Moroccan painting day tomorrow at a nearby palace.

After arriving from Óbidos this morning, we all went our separate ways for a free day in the city of Lisbon. Fountains and parks, museums and monuments…

…and some shopping — canned sardines anyone?

After a bit of a kerfuffle with the bus company (daggers to Ane Porto) our chariot finally arrived to take us on a circuitous route to Clube de Fado in the Alfama for a night of, well, guess? Portuguese traditional music plus lots of food and convivial company.

One of these days I will learn how to upload a video but above are a couple of still pics of the fado singers.

A late night. After midnight now but a more reasonable hour to start our Moroccan journey tomorrow: a 10 am departure from our hotel to Lisbon airport for the Ryan Air flight to Fès where Majid will be waiting for us — inshallah!

The rocks and beach and waves around the surf resort of Baleal were the subjects for today’s painting exercise.

Three of our intrepid non-painters, John, Chris H. and Ben, went for a surf before lunch but had to dodge the surf school students on their learner boards.

A walk back along the causeway to a seafood lunch.

And then another painting demo from Ev for the artists in the afternoon, while Ben and Neil went for a surf and others took a nap on the sand.

This evening, Ev gave a night class on the main street of Óbidos.

And so ends our Portugal painting tour. Tomorrow a few fanatical footy fans will be up at 5.30 am to watch the AFL Grand Final before we bid adeus to Óbidos and head to Lisbon.

Has it already been a week? Another glorious day in paradise here today and perfect painting conditions for the group on the miradouro (lookout) above Óbidos.

But first: luggage news! The final missing suitcase was delivered to the door of the Pousada d’Óbidos Casa Lidador yesterday evening and reunited with Cobie who is one happy lady. Now all we have to do is get everyone’s bags safely to Fès on Sunday…

Someone (Liz?) was eager to get going this morning. By the way, that’s the Casa Lidador pool in the background. Anyone who’s visited Óbidos would know that’s a rarity (not too many swimming pools in our medieval village back in the day — i.e 2007).

Ev’s morning demo from the village side of the lookout.

An attentive class. Then in the afternoon, a view from the other side out to the newly ploughed fields and the apple and pear orchards.

While our artists were at work, a group of non-painters took a tour to Alcobaça and Nazaré but all were back in time to join Pam and me at our home, Casa do Javali, for cocktails on our patio (the white port + tonic + orange slices + ice à la Ben was a hit).

And thence to dinner at Alcaíde, one of our favourite restaurants on the main street, for a group dinner. Judging from the noise level, a good time was had by all (as they say in the classics). Thanks to Steve for the pics.

The beach tomorrow. Surely it can’t rain…

The medieval walled village of Óbidos is our base for four nights and today, in brilliant sunshine, the artists got to work early near the town square after a demo from Ev.

Liz was particularly animated…

Non-painters enjoyed some walks around the village and on the castle walls. After lunch there was more painting in the village before a swim (and a beer) for some in the Casa Lidador pool.

A tough life! More of Óbidos tomorrow.

How hard was it to leave Pinhão! The Douro this morning was like a sheet of blue glass, reflecting the beautiful clear sky (a bit of a surprise actually, as the forecast had been for cloud and some rain).

Before checking out of the Vintage House Hotel we had yet another visit from the evil Baggage Gods! First the good news that Stephen’s suitcase that had been listed as stolen or permanently lost was miraculously delivered intact to the hotel at 10.15 pm last night. One happy camper:

Still one suitcase-less member but Cobie’s hasn’t been missing for long enough yet so hopefully it will be delivered to Óbidos before we depart for Morocco.

This morning’s baggage mishap: Robin and Larry who have the most humungous bags in the universe asked the young man at reception if he could kindly collect them from outside their room this morning while they breakfasted on the terrace. Comes time to depart and all our luggage is loaded onto our coach. But no sign of said large bags. Long story short — they were loaded onto another coach that departed an hour earlier (full of Spanish tourists — say no more…)

BUT…once we deduced what must have happened (amateur Sherlocks that we are), the hotel tracked the wandering flamenco dancers and found that they were in the same town — Lamego — to which we (the intrepid art group) were heading! Driver to driver conversations resulted in the missing jumbo cases being left for us at the Lamego tourist office. Happy ending!

Back to our day. Our bus (albeit 2 bags short) travelled along the Douro to Régua before bidding the river adeus as we headed to the hills. This is a pic of Régua taken by Ev:

OK enough of that. I guess you have got the idea now that I really love the Douro!

Lamego is home to an amazing church (Nossa Senhora dos Remédios — or Our Lady of the Medicines) perched atop a hill with 600 stone steps leading down to the township. A perfect place for our artists to spend a few hours.

Time to admire the artistic creations before the coach took us downtown to a sumptuous lunch and then south on the motorway to Óbidos, our home for the next four nights. More about that in tomorrow night’s blog.

Second, and last, day on the banks of the Douro River in the township of Pinhão. Forecast was for some showers and about 5 pm, we had perhaps five raindrops. On my head. Otherwise, another glorious autumn day and perfect for our artists to get cracking early,

Note: no one in the pool. Too busy painting!

At 11 am some of the group retired to their rooms to watch the funeral of HM The Queen. The hotel, like many places in Portugal, honoured the event with British and Portuguese flags at half mast.

After lunch, we adjourned across the railway tracks to Quinta do Bomfim (a Symington property) to paint among the vines.

Others of us enjoyed a visit to the winery and an opportunity to sample some of the estate’s ports.

Earlier, we checked out the stunning azulejos (tiles) on Pinhão railway station — not surprisingly, the ones here depict the grape harvest, which this year ended early because of the heatwave in July. While production levels are down, they are expecting 2022 to be a great year for Douro reds and perhaps a vintage year for port.

Southward bound tomorrow: Lamego first and then to Óbidos.