Magical Marrakech

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Geo: 31.7917, -7.09262

After a good night's rest we left Fez at 7-30 for a very long day's drive to take us to the magical destination of Marrakesh.Our first stop was at the town of Ifrane. This is like a Swiss village. Most of the buildings were built by the French and it was a summer retreat for the rich residents of Fez. It still is a summer holiday destination. We strolled around the town. In a souvenir shop we found an onyx elephant to add to Fletcher's collection. We then stopped at the statue of a lion which is a symbol for the town. The most fascinating sights here were the stork nests. These were prolific on any high point including chimneys and Communication towers.We saw the tiny heads of young storks peeping above the nests in a couple of them, The town was impressive in the fact that it was well kept and spotlessly clean. We have found that this is the case in most places in Morocco.

We stopped at one roadside cafe before our lunch stop at a very large town called Beni Melel. Here we had an hour to buy lunch. We found the Sydney Cafe which proved to be owned by a Moroccan who had lived in Sydney and we had a couple of very nice seafood and tuna pizzas here. We drove on. We were travelling through the Middle Atlas mountains which provided interesting vistas and agricultural landscapes, We have been impressed by the fertility of the countryside and the productivity of the land. The trip was long and after 11 hours we arrived in Marrakesh, the Red City and checked into our hotel, the Atlas-Medina. We had dinner in the hotel and it was nice to have a change. The buffet included Lasagne which was very tasty and much appreciated.

The next morning we had a leisurely breakfast as we did not have to leave until 9am,. We drove to the Medina and our first stop was at the Mosque Koutaba. We could not go in but caught a glimpse of the very ancient activities which take place in this building. We then went into the souk and visited the Saaid Tombs. Here were buried some of the early kings of the city and is still venerated by the locals Our next stop was at a herbalists shop. There are many of these scattered around the souk. This was at the gate called Baba Agnour We listened to a spiel by the chief chemist who demonstrated all the various herbs which go into making creams and lotions to cure all the ills you could imagine. . At the end we bought some saffron which was very inexpensive in contrast to what we pay at home.

Our next stop was at the Dar Si Said Museum. This was a place which preserved examples of arts and ceramics of Moroccan society. It is in in a typical house of the souk and there are many examples of ceramics, weaving and mosaics of traditional arts and crafts of the past.It was fairly brief but interesting.
We then reached our principal focus, our cooking class at Dar Cherifa restaurant. Here we were taken through into a courtyard where the cooking tables were set up. We were given aprons and lined up in front of chopping boards. We had a woman guiding us through the various steps. Most of what we did was chop up garlic, peppers, apples, cabbages, etc.What we eventually produced was a main dish of Chicken with lemon and olives, a sweet salad of cabbage, raisins and apples with too much sugar and a lovely hot dish of peppers. Once it was cooked we ate the fruits of our labours and the chicken and peppers were very tasty.

We then returned to the hotel for a rest after we had walked through the markets. We were disappointed that we did not have the tine to browse the market stalls ourselves to buy souvenirs etc.

We then gathered together again at 7pm. We were driven to one of the major squares in the centre of the old city. We walked along the market area and then came out into this amazing plaza which was quite near to the mosque which we had visited earlier. Karim took us on a wandering inspection of the square. We passed snake charmers with cobras and snakes, There were people with monkeys, and musicians and dancers. Karim offered to pay one group and they performed for us leaping high into the air and doing Russian like squats and kicks. The atmosphere and the sights and sounds are something that you cannot replicate.
We then went to our restaurant for dinner. This was a grand establishment with a beautiful outdoor setting. We had an interesting meal with tagines of lamb and chicken and then the Belly Dancer appeared. She was well endowed and danced very well. Of course she came over to the tables and chose Fletcher as her first dance partner!! I'm sure he enjoyed being up close and there was much joshing and comments!! Then she moved on to Phil and finally to John so she shared the love around.

It had been a great night and a fitting farewell to the Red City of Marrakesh

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Photos

Fletcher with the water carriers
Me with

Comments

[Rosemary]

Reading this post, I felt like I was there. What a marvellous experience!