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.