Saturday - pottering around Marrakech

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Day 4 - it was Saturday, so a "day of rest" for us. But with the Souks so close by, we had a great time wandering around, knowing that we couldn't buy anything (see explanation on day3). We had bought tickets to the Marrakech Museum and the Medersa on Friday, so we spent the morning visiting these very interesting places. Definitely not to be missed.

Back to Mrs. Peretz for lunch, and then another walk around the Jemma El Fna, this time during the day. There were a few snake-charmers around, but not so many - maybe because it was November, and there weren't many tourists?

Saturday evening, we had booked tickets to Ali's Fantazia. Again, everyone was very accommodating - the owner of our Riad had very decently driven over on Friday to book a fish meal for us (that was ok with our being kosher), and it was all arranged and ready. The place itself and the atmosphere are quite spectacular, the meal was excellent (ok, so 3 out of the 6 got food poisoning from the fish - the rest of us really enjoyed it). The musicians and dancers come round to your table all the time, and if you are lucky (or unlucky?) they will pull you into a dance with them - excellent photo-op! Of course you have to give them a tip for this, so after a while it can get rather much.
The only problem is that the entertainment part of the evening really left a lot to be desired. We were rather unimpressed. If you like acrobats on horses, you will probably enjoy it, but only if you sit in the right place - the far corner of the long side as you enter the arena. It's the only place you can actually see the acrobatics, and we weren't sitting there :-(

So, what did we do to finish of the evening? That's right - the Casino at the Mamounia hotel. Unfortunately, the hotel itself was closed for renovations, so we didn't manage to see it at all, but the casino was a lot of fun. Especially for me - as I started off with 60 Euro, and ended the evening with 130 Euro. Since I was the only one of the 6 of us who actually made any money, I was rather pleased with myself. The others enjoyed just being there, even if they didn't win, and we finally got a taxi back to the Riad at about 01:30.

The fun thing with 6 people and taxis in Marrakech is to see how many of them will suggest that we all get into the same taxi - 4 in the back, and 2 in the front next to the driver. It became a real sport for us (more about that on the last day).

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