My Dad

Posted on by Ian C.

My Dad (Douglas Peter Cull) died tonight, in his home in Smallfield, Surrey, near Gatwick Airport in England – tomorrow, flying back from Marrakesh before heading on to Orlando, we were going to meet up for dinner.

I did not really know my Dad till I was 18, my parents separated when I was young and Dad was “the bad guy” for a long time; but in the last 40+ years I got to know him well, both when I still lived in England and visited for Christmas or other times, and his frequent USA visits after we emigrated.

I will still have memories, including these …

Morocco 2023: Marrakesh

Posted on by Ian C.

Today was a guided tour to some of Marrakesh, beginning with the beautiful Bahia Palace, followed by the just as lovely Majorelle Garden. Many photos of these two attractions!

We also spent time in the famous Jemaa el-Fnaa, the Marrakesh market square – which was surprisingly quiet on the Saturday afternoon that we were there!

Almost 33 years ago when Margaret and I were new together, our first vacation was to Morocco and we took a coach trip to Marrakesh and to the same Jemaa el-Fnaa square … I tried to take a photo to match one I had from that long ago trip:

We had a second day in Marrakesh after this one, available to “add on” experiences but we chose mostly to have a quiet day, just taking a walk to a good nearby lunch … in the evening was a quite unpleasant last night dinner with the group, at an expensive restaurant ($10 for a bottle of water!) that allowed people to smoke at their table, and was stuffed full of our and many other noisy tour groups. Yes there was some “fire entertainment” and dancers, but the smoke and noise spoiled everything else.