This is a recap of our journey from Morocco to destination number two on our global journey – Mongolia.

Saturday, June 15^th

• 6:15am – light rail to Rabat Ville train station
• 7:05am – train from Rabat Ville to Casa Port station in Casablanca
• 8:50am – train from Casa Port to Mohammed V International Airport
• 9:40am – airport arrival
• At airport – check in, passport control, security, and breakfast in the airport lounge
• 12:20pm – departure from Casablanca on a Royal Air Maroc Boeing 737 and moved clocks one hour forward to 1:20pm (Germany time)
• 5:00pm – arrival at Frankfurt airport and figure out where to get the bus to our hotel
• 6:15pm – check in to Airport Global Hotel in the small village called Morfelden-Walldorf; the village is surrounded by beautiful forest land and just a five-minute walk from the hotel is Der Gundhof Biergarten – we enjoyed a delicious dunkel beer and wienerschnitzel

Sunday, June 16^th

• 10:00am – bus to Frankfurt airport
• At airport – check in, passport control, and breakfast in the airport lounge – security was at the departure gate

• 2:20pm – departure from Frankfurt on a MIAT Mongolian National Airlines Boeing 787 and moved our clocks forward to 8:20pm (Mongolia time) – now 12 hours ahead of Eastern Time
• The flight – pretty easy flight, the timing meant that it wasn’t easy to sleep for us – Sandy got an hour and I got an hour and a half; watched some of the entertainment (Mongolia’s Got Talent, The Voice Mongolia, Mongolia’s Dancing With the Stars, some historical shows that were not in English) and read quite a bit; the route took us over Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, and Mongolia

Monday, June 17th

• 5:30am – arrival at Ulaanbaatar airport, get cash (approximately 3500 Mongolian Tughriks equals $1), and find shuttle to the city center
• 7:15am – arrive Kempinski Hotel, enjoy a great breakfast buffet before getting an early check in

It took some adjusting to the time zone of course.  We did take a nap for about an hour and a half and then went down for a workout in the fitness center.  That helped a lot.  Then we went to look for Mexican for dinner but the restaurant we picked was closed.  Next door was a restaurant called Broccoli and we had tacos and margaritas.  We’re still looking for that excellent margarita – this one used a kind of vermouth instead of triple sec and so the taste wasn’t exactly what we think of when we think of a margarita.  We’ll keep trying.  We strolled back to our hotel and grabbed Mongolian Dumpling Soup in the hotel bar and then called it a day.

It’s great to be here in Mongolia.  I wanted to come here for my 50^th birthday, but COVID was still preventing travel, so we had to delay.  It worked out well because had we come then, we’d have had to make the trip in around two weeks and now we have a lot of flexibility to spend the time we really want to spend here getting to know it in the same way we were able to experience Morocco.