Home again

Well not quite, i am writing this not the plane as we fly over the Moroccan countryside. We have left in beaming sunshine, and the captain announcing that the temperature back in London was a balmy 5 degrees and raining brought an ironic cheer from the plane. Some things never change I guess.....

Anyway while this tour has only been a week away, I have been suitably immersed in Moroccan culture to make a few observations, which I have summarised below:

Transport

To tackle this, i will deal with transport inside the medina and outside it as they are very different things indeed.

Inside the medina

1. Don't change direction suddenly when walking through the streets of the medina, or you will get wiped out by a moped.

2. You can transport anything on the front of your moped, from sheep to big bails of mint

3. Don't make Sarah walk through "donkey shit", she really doesn't like it

Outside the medina

1. The roads are more spacious, but that does not mean you won't have to avoid moped drivers on the pavement still

2. When crossing the roads, most cars will swerve to avoid you.....

3. If you are not feeling confident though, find an old local woman who wants to cross and follow her lead, there is no shame in this (a trick I learnt in Egypt)

4. Driving is chaotic, and beeping is common, but there is no road rage, they are very chilled out in Morocco.

5. When travelling on a day tour somewhere, ask for Aziz of Marrakech Keys travel, you will not be disappointed.

Dining

1. The tagines here are absolutely gorgeous, but the portions are big enough for two to share. I have permanent stomach ache at the moment as I have eaten a small herd of cattle over the last week.

2. I like omelettes and olives

3. Casablanca is the beer you have to have when in Marrakech, but all beers around Jemaa El-Fna will be double the normal price.

4. Riads don't stock enough alcohol (or we drink too much of it!)

Ahhhh, that sweet amber nectar....i wonder if i can import it??

Amazing the number of  people who wondered where this was - I was NOT one of them

Souks

1. Even a token glance at a shop item is like a tacit agreement to enter the haggling phase....be careful where you look - souk owners see everything!!

2. When haggling, be prepared to walk away and always go in low. Between 25 and 50 percent of the real price, and work your way from there.

3.Souks are usually moped free zones, but don't take that for granted or yo will be wiped out (see above)

Who would want a cushion with a baby's face on??? Odd

Getting through the souks is hard at the best of times without a lorry trying

Jemaa el-Fna

1. The square is a hive of activity during the day with snake charmers and henna tattooists, but in the evening it turns into a large open air restaurant, the smells of which are amazing. as well as this there are performance artists/ Berber storytellers.

2. This is the place to go if you want to buy oranges, but little else

Ouarzazate

1. The kasbah there is more impressive on the outside than the inside

2. The movie studio tour was surprisingly fun, but seemed to specialise in less well known remakes

Aït Benhaddou

1. For an empty ksar, it was full of shops....

2. Like Ouarzazate kasbah, the outside is more impressive than the inside

Atlas Mountains

1. The journey through them is long and windy, but you get to see some amazing countryside and villages along the way.

2. You can't take a good picture at Tizi N'Tichka pass, as the wind and rain up there is too strong.

The Marrakech-Ouarzazate bus for Cows....

From 30 degree heat to windy and chilly snow covered mountains.....

The Riad

1. When staying in Marrakech you really have to do the roads rather than a sanitised Sofitel experience, it just wouldn't be the same as stepping out straight into a market

2. The food in our riad was better by far than anything we had outside it.

Our Tanjia meal was totally lovely. The Urn is full of meat!

Well that just about sums up the tour, it has been a wonderful experience, but time to come home and start saving for the next one. I hope you have enjoyed the blog, and in the words of Arnie, " I'll be back"......

Our last day.....I think we have an alcohol problem.....there is none left!!!

We were up up quite late this morning, which is hardly surprising considering the amount of booze we drank last night, and I admit that my head is a bit delicate today. Still things need to be done, and attentions turned to more admin related adventures where we discovered just how much we owed the riad. We have charged lots of things to the room, so when the bill came it was no surprise it was 6,000 dirhams, which is abut £450. This is not bad considering the amount we have dined in and all the drinks we have had here before going out into the city.It also included the tourist tax and the expensive trip into the Atlas Mountains too, so i am not too shocked.

 The breakdown of our bill makes for a sorry tale though - we drank 24 bottles of Casablanca and 4 bottles of wine. This excludes the drinks we have been having when we have been out too - oh dear!!

As it happens, rather embarrassingly, the owner of the hotel we are staying at has actually told us that we have pretty much drunk them dry they have no wine left for your meal tonight, and so we have had to go to the local supermarket and buy a bottle for our last meal. Also, we ordered a couple of Casablanca beers and Shareef sheepishly admitted that these were the last two beers the riad had as well. Indeed, I heard him tell a French couple, who are staying here and saw us quaffing our nice beer on the roof terrace, that they would like that too, only to be told they couldn't. I can't help it, but that beer tasted just that little bit sweeter at that moment.....

Anyway with all the admin sorted out, we headed into the souks for some present shopping and to do a bit of haggling. It turns out Sarah is a bit of a whizz at this as she works out the price she is prepared to pay, and if they are not prepared to sell at that price then she walks off....I was most impressed with her skills at this and I don't think I did nearly as well with my haggling over fridge magnets - I guess there isn't much of a mark up on those.

The shoe souk - no Jimmy Choos here though

the assortment of musical instruments souk

The olives and spices souk gave off a wonderful aroma

One thing that Sarah and I decided was that to remember Morocco it would be quite nice to own a tagine. I know it is bulky, but we had space in our cases so we decided to haggle for it. I used the souk owners as a guide for how much to pay for a tagine and they started out at 170 dirham (about £13) but with a bit of me ignoring him he came down to 100 dirham (£8). It just so happens that outside our riad there is a shop that sells them. So armed with this pricing information, I wandered back there to buy from them (partly because I didn't want to carry a heavy tagine all the way from the souks back to the riad).

The earthenware souk

I was armed and ready for the storekeeps patois, but had to admit that the wind was taken out of my sails when he told me the tagine I was looking at in the souks would cost me 20 dirham (£1.50). At that point I thought "f*** it, I will push the boat out" and bought an even nicer tagine than I was originally looking for, and paid him the princely sum of 50 dirham for it (under £4).

Lanterns aplenty here.....

Textiles are the order of the day in this souk....

The moral of all this is that you have to haggle, the price they are saying is not the price at all. I suppose being in Egypt and Jordan we have become a bit acclimatised to this, but i can't stress enough the need to haggle. Work out a price you want to pay for something and stick to it. Sarah was actually going in at a 1/4 of the price they were asking and more often than not she was getting it for that price. It is not conning them at all, they expect that people will go in low and so they set their initial price high and it all works its way down from there....

Well that is pretty much all we have time for now, tomorrow we will be home and I will do my final blog post summarising the things I have learnt from this trip.

Souks you sir!

This is our last day in Marrakech, and we need to get a wriggle on if we are to buy all the fridge magnets I want, so we are heading down to the souk-ermarket for a spot of haggling.

Before I do that though I thought I would update you on events of yesterday. After our touring the day before, we were fairly tired so decided to just have a quiet leisurely day walking around Marrakech. To avoid the labyrinthine gauntlet of the medina streets, we opted to walk around the outside of the medina walls.

The gate Bab Doukkala, inside which is our riad.

It should be noted that the walls of the medina are themselves a world heritage site (another one ticked off), and clearly the Moroccan government a spending the UNESCO money on ensuring they are safeguarded, as our walk showed that large sections of it that had fallen into disrepair are now being refurbished.

The reconstruction of the medina wall. Left is the old, right is the new.

View along the medina wall with the Atlas mountains in the distance

The weather here for the past few days has been amazing and in true British unpreparedness, we have burned a little, but honestly it is welcome to feel a bit tanned, and slightly relieved that we have got a boost to our vitamin D levels.

Bab something-or-other - i forget - but this is the famous medina gate

The walk took us to the opposite end of the medina, and as I was nearby, it gave me the chance to visit the Saadian tombs. Thinking they were going to be like the catacombs in Malta, Sarah opted to wait outside while I investigated. I am sad to say they were not underground, but the graves were wonderfully ornate geometric mosaics. At only 10 dirham for the entrance fee, it was a reasonable price, but it is only a 15 minute visit at best and we were soon back on the road, wandering and investigating the streets of Marrakech.

The Saadian tomb money shot, judging by the queues

This tomb is for the ladies....

Islamic geometric art, tomb style.....

We are certainly feeling more confident about the roads we are walking on and it is fair to say that most roads either lead to Jamaa El-Fna, or lead away from it. You can't really go that far wrong. If you walk and get to the medina wall, just turn around and you will soon be getting to Jamaa el-Fna.

The evening we were heading out to try something a bit different from the all-tagine diet we seemed to have found ourselves on, which don't get me wrong is lovely but i feel like i have eaten half a cow this week, so we decided to head into the new town for an Italian. As it happens, an American couple had just arrived at the riad and they were about as comfortable in Marrakech as they would be if they were dumped into an Al Qaeda training camp wearing "USA Forever" jumpers. So, we invited them to join us and they readily accepted. 

As it happens they were a lovely couple, and based in Germany, but the impression I got was the wife was more adventurous and the husband just tagged along. Still it was enjoyable talking about all sorts of non-Marrakech things, from dogs to football injuries to travelling, and before we knew it we had got to midnight and had consumed a fair few beverages. The Moroccan waiter was looking at us impatiently, so we took that as our hint to settle up and walk home. We got in about 1am and Sarah and i chatted for a good 30 minutes after that, so we were not properly asleep until about 2am. So much for that early night!!!!

Rocks, the kasbah

We were up bright and breezy this morning to prepare for a long days travelling. Indeed getting up at 6:30am felt more like a work day than something you would choose to do as an adventurous day out in Morocco.

We breakfasted at 7:00am and were on the road by 7:30am. Aziz kindly informed us of the plan as the journey began. First off we would go to Ouarzazate (pronounced Wah-tsar-sat) via the highest mountain pass in all of Africa, the Tizi N'Tichka pass which everyone in Morocco seems to be proud of, judging by the fact that people can reel off the detail of the pass being 2260 metres above sea level.

The pass is in the high Atlas Mountains, and I don't think I appreciated how windy and windy it was going to be. It took an eternity to get through the mountains and even though our destination was only 200km away, we didn't get there until 11:30am.

Stunning views along the mountain route, managed to get a nice ass shot here too

That said, for once in my life, i found the journey through the Atlas Mountains to be rather spectacular, and well worth it. I am usually more interested in man-made wonders than appreciating the natural environment around me. But here, every single turn in the road brought us another vista which we could snap. I was in danger of delaying our day by making Aziz stop all the time so I could get some good pictures, but he was very accommodating and slowed down when he thought I wanted a picture so I could take it from the car. 

Berber villages on the mountainside

The winding ascent to Tizi N'Tichka, only about halfway up at this point.

We got to a pass called Tizi N'Tichka (pronounced Tij-in titch-car), which as i mentioned above is the highest pass in all of Africa, at 2260 metres. We were going to get out and have a picture taken next to the sign but it was so wet and windy that we left it after two failed attempts to have a photo of us in the car while Aziz took a picture of us under the sign.

After our ride through the mountains our first stop was to the Atlas movie studios, which has sets from lots of famous films. Aziz referred to it as the second Hollywood, and i wondered if this was an idle boast, or if any other countries could make that claim. Well I say famous films, but on closer investigation, they are usually remakes of famous films - I pride myself on knowing a few things about cinema, but I never knew Timothy Dalton appeared in a remake of Cleopatra!! Other less famous titles include Ben Hur (remake in the 90s), Moses (French film) and Wes Craven's 'The Hills have eyes 2' making me wonder why would they shoot that all the way out here?

Car from The Living Daylights

Plane from Jewel in the Nile

Ok, i am being a little bit disingenuous here, as this is also the place they shot scenes from Gladiator, The Passion of the Christ, Kingdom of Heaven, The Living Daylights, The Jewel in the Nile and according to the guide they have just finished filming bits from season three of Game of Thrones there too (reminding me that i need to watch the first two seasons), so there is some genuinely famous stuff here too.

Behind the set of The Passion of the Christ

Egyptian temple set which was used in Series 3 of Game of Thrones(?)

Overall, The sets were very good fun, and something different to see on your average day out in the Moroccan countryside. I was amazed at how wonderfully realistic it all looked until you tapped it with your finger to find it was plastic or fibreglass, and I love looking behind the scenes and seeing all the scaffolding etc.

Ridley Scott's Jerusalem from "Kingdom of Heaven"

We moved on to our first kasbah, in Ouarzazate. A kasbah is the Berber name for a palace and the one we went to managed to tick all the boxes of being a palace but actually left me feeling a little bit underwhelmed. It was a series of empty nondescript rooms, with only occasional decoration. My initial impression of it was that the outside of these kasbahs are much more interesting than the inside. I didn't. Spend too long in here, and was really relieved I didn't pay for a tour guide who would have cost £10 (which was twice as much as the ticket) and shed very little light on the place in my opinion (i.e. Tour Guide: and if you look to your left, here is another empty room without any decoration in it).

View from the inside of Ouarzazate kasbah looking out

Non-descript room number 113, and if you look to your left....

From there we moved on to the reason for the day trip out, the visit to Aït BenHaddou. This is a ksar (a fortified town) and is a UNESCO world heritage site (another one ticked off!) and is considered a classic example of Berber civilisation. The word aït is actually Berber for family, and Ben means son, so the literal meaning of the place is Family of the son of Haddou. It was built as a stopping point on the Saharan trade routes before the caravans moved on to Marrakech but surprisingly is not as old as you would think (about 400 years old). It has since been abandoned by the Berbers apart from a few families who stay there still because they have nowhere else to go.

Ait BenHaddou looks promising.....

So I was looking forward to walking around abandoned streets, taking photos of all the narrow passageways. The approach towards it was lovely, it looks very impressive perched on the side of a mountain ( I am struggling to call it a mountain after going through the Atlas Mountains which makes the Lake District look like a couple of speed bumps), but once again getting inside the ksar was a little bit underwhelming.

People might not live there anymore, but almost every street is full of people with shops trying to sell you an authentic piece of Moroccan tat, which you got the feeling was actually not hand made by the owners but bought in en masse from the Souks in Marrakech. There was one exception to this, and it was a man who was making pictures by burning the canvas using the sun's rays through a magnifying glass, which was interesting enough, but other than that I passed by most storekeepers without so much as a second glance.

The deserted streets of Ait BenHaddou. Erm......

It was also a little bit disappointing that we couldn't actually go inside any of the houses there and investigate what it was like to live in the ksar, they were all closed off and bolted. On the plus side though I made my way to the top where the storage tower for the ksar was and from there I managed to get some lovely pictures looking down over the whole town wiith the backdrop of the mountains in the distance.

Ait Benhaddou from the top looking down.

On top of Ait BenHaddou with the Atlas mountains in the background

We left here and made a slow trek back to the Tizi N'Tichka pass via a back route. On the way we passed many other kasbahs, which reinforced my feeling that these things are not as special and unusual as I first thought. Pretty much every town has a kasbah, in various states of disrepair, and all the village does is abandon that when it. Becomes unusable and builds something newer right next to it.

Town in the valley, these people must be fit to get up and down there every day!! 

Again, the journey back was long, windy and bumpy (we were off road for a large part), but the scenery was absolutely wonderful with villages on mountainsides or down the bottom of deep valleys or just admiring the mountain range as it went past. There were a couple of funny sights along the way, like the cows sitting on top of a bus or an amusing sign for a restaurant called 'Le Coq Hardi' which brought out my inner child and made me giggle somewhat....

'Le Coq Hardi' was next left.....i think i will give that a miss....

I was starting to flag by this point as it had been a long day, full of travelling around, and no respite, so I was thankful when we got home and showered and could relax for the evening with another lovely tagine in the hotel. The food in this hotel is amazing, and no other restaurant I have been to here comes anywhere close.

Souk-ing up the atmosphere

Fortunately, the overnight rain cleared away a bit by 10:30am, and so we decided to try and find our way to the Ben Youssef medrasa. A medrasa is an Islamic school, sort of the Muslim equivalent of a monastery as far as I can gather. It is named after the founder of Marrakech, and for those who like their trivia, he is also the man who gets trampled to death by Charlton Heston in the film El Cid (OK not literally, that was Herbert Lom, but you get the idea). So to fly in the face of Hollywood's version of history, he can't have been all bad!!

The medrasa money shot

....and another money shot.......

Close up of some of the intricate stone masonry

In order to get the medrasa we had to negotiate the edge of a souk, which are notorious for disorienting people, but with only a couple of minor detours (Sarah might disagree with me here ;) ), we got to it relatively unscathed and stress free. The medrasa is a wonderful example of Islamic art, with geometric patterns throughout the whole building, so naturally I was in my element wandering around the corridors investigating all the nooks and crannies. 

 

Geometric patterns designed 800 years before the spirograph was invented

The college apparently housed up to 900 scholars, but I have to admit seeing the size of the place I was sceptical of this fact. As there was, at most, 40 rooms for sleeping, so either they enjoyed playing sardines, or that is a slight exaggeration of the truth.

Sample of some of how one of the rooms would look in the olden days

That said, it was a nice way to spend an hour or so, and by fact of it being undercover it meant that should it rain we did not get drenched! We have actually been quite lucky with our trekking so far as every time we have ventured out the rain has held off and we have had some nice sunshine, and then when we get back to the riad, the heavens open.

For our walk back Sarah and I decided to go through the souks proper and get a real flavour of Marrakech. A souk is essentially an undercover market area, which is full of small, independent artisan shops. There are several souks all linked together in Marrakech, and they seem to specialise in different aspects of Moroccan life. There is a souk where they make lanterns, a souk that sells shoes. Sarah was most disappointed there were no Christian LauBoutin shoes and only traditional pointy Moroccan ones in ever colour imaginable, and quite a few colours which my imagination could not come up with.

There is also a souk that sells spices, and the array of colours and smells from the souk really does make it a joy to walk through. That said I can't imagine many tourists coming in there and buying a few kilos of cumin to take back with them, but maybe that is more an indictment on me as a traveller.

It is a labyrinthine network, which you could spend hours in trying to work out how to get back to the main square (El-Fna). Helpfully, the local government realised this might actually put tourists off of venturing in, and so have installed coloured signs which help guide you through. This worked up to a point where we hit a junction and it told us that the square was off to the right, but there was another sign next to it telling us the square was off to the left....I guess the route they guide tourists through is thorough so you visit every possible shop you can on the way out of the souks.

I have to admit that the souks are possibly less precarious than the main streets, as inside them the use of mopeds is discouraged, so you are not constantly being buzzed by some young Moroccan on his Vespa. Also, the haranguing you to buy things is less intense than on the square. Presumably because the shopkeepers can't wander too far away from their pitch so if you keep on walking they end up leaving you alone.

For the evening, we had the joy of being the only people in the riad as everyone else had left and for the occasion, Shareef, the hotel manager invited us to try a traditional Moroccan dish which was not on the menu, something he would male for us. We readily accepted and I have to admit it was sumptuous. I was beef slow cooked in an urn (which he had to send off to the local bakery to use their oven), with cumin, preserved lemons and garlic. The beef was so tender by the time it arrived at us that it practically dissolved in the mouth. We mixed this in with a vegetable tagine, and we were in heaven. I have not done this justice by any means, but this was as good as food can get for me.

Having gorged on this feast, we decided to retire for the evening, to the sound of rain hammering down on the plastic sheeting over the courtyard.

We have booked our big trip out for Wednesday, and I didn't realise it by the man who picked us up from the airport is Shareef's brother Aziz. That will be an early start (leaving at 7am) so I think today will be a bit more sedate with an early bedtime.

Jamaa El-Fna

Today was our first day of sightseeing and we decided to tale a slow stroll down to the heart of the city, and visit Jamaa El-Fna (pronounced Jam-are El Fana) the main square of Marrakech. To get there we had to walk through the streets of Marrakech which are unsuited to all forms of modern travel, but offers a fascinating insight into the culture.

All along the route we were passing stores dedicated to various foods with a variety of smells - some good, some downright unpleasant - filling our nostrils with a rather unique sensory experience. I admit that I was a little bit put off by the fishmonger who just had his fish on the counter and not chilling on some ice, but I guess that is more a criticism of my European sensibilities than anything wrong - the fish didn't half stink though.....I could imagine a weeks holiday could easily be spent staring at the marble bathroom if you decided to try his delicacies...

It should be said that the locals travel around the narrow streets of the Medina by moped, and they buzz passed you incredibly closely. When in Marrakech it is wise to not make any sudden sideways movements, otherwise you are in real risk of getting hit. That said if you stick to the side of the streets, they are usually skilled enough to swerve past you.

We arrived at Jamaa El-Fna and it was unlike anything I have seen before. The best way to describe it is chaos with snake charmers and henna tattooists thrown into the mix. If you cant imagine that, then think of that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Indiana Jones shoots the swordsman, and you will have a rough idea of it. The stalls in the middle of the square during the day also seem to focus on selling oranges or water, which made me wonder is there really such a big market for these two items from tourists, or is this what Moroccans subsist on....

The place to come if you want oranges, anything else and you'll be disappointed....

There were people badgering us left, right and centre, and the general rule was if you even glimpsed at them or paused to look at their shops even momentarily you seemingly entered into some unwritten agreement to purchase something from them. I had this sort of experience in Luxor, so was hardened enough to it to just be rude and say no, and they soon lose interest in you. If you are polite then you will be endlessly harangued.

Jamaa El-Fna daytime stylee......organised chaos

I did feel some sympathy for Sarah here. Clearly, when they come here, western girls seem to think that getting a henna tattoo is de rigueur, and so on several occasions Moroccan women came up to Sarah trying to give her a free henna tattoo flower on her arm......at first she was polite, but soon got tired of that approach and was increasingly shirty with them. I stress this is something you have to do, they are not offended by it and indeed expect it most of the time.

The snake charmers were interesting, but Sarah was definitely not happy with one man putting a cobra around my neck and trying to get me to pose for a photo, so we made a hasty retreat to the side streets for a well earned break from the hustle and bustle and had a beer in a restaurant. The local beer is called Casablanca and for a country where alcohol is still not allowed to be consumed on the public streets, is a surprisingly nice bottle of lager!

View of one of the side streets from the square.

After that we decided to make our way back to the riad to relax before heading back out this evening and doing it all again. Jamaa El-Fna is a completely different entity in the daytime compared to the night, when the market stalls are replaced by ad-hoc restaurants. Indeed if the manager of the hotel is correct it gets even more chaotic and busy in the evening than it did during the day!

I would not be a true Englishman if I didn't mention the weather, and so here it is for all of those reading this in the chilly UK (and Ireland). The weather is very pleasant indeed, easily t-shirt and linen trousers temperatures, which made a mockery of my iPad weather app which suggested it might be a bit cooler today. The temperature dropped in the later afternoon, but was still comfortable enough to sit out in light clothes.

There is a slight update to the above paragraph. apparently typing that statement seems to have angered the rain gods and we have had intermittent showers ever since. It is not enough to stop us going out, and the weather is still warmer than in the UK, but i am hoping for sunnier days ahead.

Marrakech express

Well, we have arrived in Morocco and are now safely tucked up in our riad trying to sleep off a sumptuous three course meal, but before sleeping I thought I would give you an update of the day so far. The flight in to Marrakech was fairly uneventful and the three and a half hour flight flew past (excuse the pun).

The arrivals hall was nothing short of your typical North African efficiency with a few guards manually checking every single disembarkation before finally "stamping my card". The immigration official clearly had enough of all this, as his po-face looked like he had been sucking on a few bags of lemons. That said, we got through eventually to discover the next hurdle was finding the man to pick us up from the airport.

I thought I was being clever having our hotel come and collect us, but it seems like everyone else has that idea too so the net result is hundreds of people holding up pieces of paper with names on while a load of unacclimatised tourists scan the thousands of pieces of paper in the vain hope that someone will recognise them and tell them where to go or, less likely, find a piece of paper which has their name on it.

We were lucky in that our driver, Aziz, was near the front waiting for us, so we found him pretty quickly (i.e after about 5 minutes searching) but I am sure there are people there from the 1980s who are still looking for their driver!!!

The riad is in the old city (called a Medina, as it is completely encased by large citadel walls) and this part of Marrakech is very much untouched by modernity, as we had to park up a 1/4 mile from the hotel because the roads are not big enough for cars. From the moment we exited the car our ears and noses were assaulted by a variety of sights, sounds and smells, it was pretty impressive and a real flavour for what to expect over the next week. This city seems to come alive after sunset, and there were all sorts of vendors selling fruits, vegetables, spices, there was even a stall that was roasting what I initially thought to be chestnuts, only to discover they were snails....

The riad is in a back street, and our first impressions of it were stunning. For those who don't know, a riad is a traditional Moroccan style home, and the place we are staying is nothing short of amazing. It only has 6 rooms in it, so it is very intimate, but the attention to detail is fabulous. I am already loving the way the Moroccan lanterns diffuse the light into wonderful patterns. Our room is on the ground floor and opens up onto the courtyard where people dine but, because there are only a few people here, this is not a problem as it is so quiet.

The outside of our room 

The view of the courtyard looking down from the first floor

The plunge pool for if you are too hot.....

We were greeted to the riad by Shareef, who brought us into the salon for a nice spot of mint tea and a chat about things to see and do while we are here. It was at this point I discovered that I didn't have my travel bag with me. Regular viewers will know that I have history of leaving my passport behind in silly places, and this was another example of it, as for some reason, which escapes me, I left the bag, with my laptop, iPad and passport in the taxi we had just got out of!

Sarah rolled her eyes in despair, as at regular intervals through most of the trip, she was checking to see I had all the important stuff with me, and the one time she took her eyes off me to enjoy the sights and sounds of Marrakech, I lose my bag! However, Shareef was straight on the phone to the driver, and to my huge relief, he confirmed the bag was still in the car, so he returned it (obviously so, because I am writing this blog!!)

The salon, where I discovered I lost my laptop, iPad and passport....

After the acclimatisation, Sarah and I finally sat down to our our pre-booked three course meal. We were sitting in the courtyard just outside our room and I have to admit the food was wonderful. The couscous they make here has spoiled my enjoyment of the Ainsley Harriett 2 minute couscous for life, as this was bursting with flavours and spices unlike the insipid grit Ainsley would have us consume. The tagines were also a delight; I had beef and Sarah had the lamb, but I was filling up quickly (although in fairness the amount of meat they give you is incredibly generous, and I don't think many people could consume it all) so we didn't do it justice at all. I had a little bit of space to eat the pudding, which was a sort of marzipan almond whirl thing with some strawberry ice cream (it was lovely, but very sickly sweet and I am not a big pudding man at the best of times). It was about 11pm at this point and the events of the day were starting to catch up with us both, so we finished what we could and retired off to bed.

The lantern outside our room....

The lantern in our room

The interior of our room - the bed is soooo comfy!

Tomorrow, (or more precisely today) we are going to head out for a wander around the old city, see the walls, and take in some of the hustle and bustle.