First impressions while getting to our riad in Marrakesh

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Finally, we were going to see Marrakesh, which has been for a long time on our to-see-list... We arranged flights and sleeping accommodation in a riad in advance. The expectations were high, not to say very high.

After arriving at the Menara airport, we decided to take a "petit taxi". Despite the fact that we urged three taxi-drivers to use the meter, they all refused and proposed a fixed price (which was much higher than the price listed in our travel-guides). We weren't even able to negotiate a lower price with them. So after a little bit hesitating, we decided to go for the proposed price (which was the same for all three of them) and drove to the city centre.

On the road, traffic was coming from all sides at all times. It was a mixture from cars, mopeds, bicycles, pedestrians and even a lot of horses and carts.

Since the street of our riad was too small to be drive by cars, we had to walk a little bit. We barely left the taxi and suddenly there were some local people trying "to help us" (with the luggage, to get the proper direction,...). After "accepting the help", we gave them -as they probably had hoped for- a few dinars.

Our riad was apparently "complet", but no problem, since the owner "knew some family" who had "around the corner" also a riad which might have a free room for us ;-)

Strange start, but we immediately knew what to expect for the days to come...

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Photos

Djemaa el-Fna by night
Marrakesh

horse and cart
Marrakesh

streetview
Marrakesh

streetview
Marrakesh