alison and eleanor in marrakech

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When Alison and Sue asked me to go to Marrakech for a few days I could not help but remember my last visit. I went with Alan when Bruce was about 18 months old. Everywhere we went the local people were besotted with this beautiful little blond boy, trying to pull him out of his pushchair and giving him things. Not to mention one stall holder grabbing one arm and alan the other while I was like an elastic band between them!! Would it have changed? Or maybe in those last 25 years it would seem less frantic.


The night before we were due to go Sue rang up to say that she had gastroenteritis...before she even left the country. Alison and I had emergency phonecalls but decided we would go anyway. We arrived at gatwick pretty much together, and the plane was on time, no problem. Arriving at Marrakesh the sun was beating down., how amazing after this summer. We were picked up by a car and dropped at the city gate., We were staying right in the souk at jardins Mandaline, a great riad, little pool, place of tranquillity. Initial feelings were a bit mixed as a man ran in front of us with our luggage in a cart and a motor bike was pushing us from behind through the very crowded entrance to the souk. But what a laugh we had, Marrakech is so full of life, always something happening, a bit overfacing to start with, but an hour later we were in the square jemma el fan and having a great time wathcing the action. The square is full of stalls selling just about everything, fairly cheap and very atmospheric. If you can avoid the girls desparate to paint your arm and hand with henna then you will be lucky. Very quickly we learnt the art of the brush off, or sometimes the f off.
The next few days passed in a blur of sightseeing, yves st laurent gardens marisol, the palaces, the shopping, meals out , ancient mosques and getting lost. Oh did I mention getting lost....again and again. each time it cost at least 50p to bribe someone to take us back tot he riad. By the fourth day we had just about worked out how to get back from the square.

We enjoyed the buggy ride round the town, it was a bit more relaxed. The gardens were stunning, deep blues and greens very calm too. The ladies restaurant out of town, was quite a good experience as well. We got taxis everywhere, a lot of research with the guide book helped but we also did a lot of walking. Daytime heat was extreme so we tried to avoid walking around in the middle of the day. The second to last day we paid a guy to take us up to the moutains and the waterfall, we did not realise we were going to climb a precipe and as I hate heights he was dragging me over the logs at the top. Still it was quite interesting and the scenery was very pretty. We had lunch overlooking the river, lovely tangine.
Then we had a hamman in the riad,. It was hilarious both sat totally naked while some big woman scratched us with big pads put mud all over us and then threw buckets of water at us. Definitly not my normal spa massage, delicately placing the towel over the vital bits, no this was a massage in the raw, but absolutely fanastic. Afterwards we drank wine sitting by the blue pool in the riad, rose petals floating on the surface.
Poor sue, when we got back she had totally recovered. We went to Lucerne in 2005, then last to venice on a boat trip, so hopefully next year she will make it wherever we go. !!

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