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!!!!