Morocco - some of our highlights

I didn't get chance to blog on our last day in Marrakech. We had a nice quiet day just having a wander around the bits we'd missed. We visited the Musee De Marrakech which I didn't have particularly high hopes for but actually turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip - not so much for what was in it (I don't think I even looked at the exhibits when I think about it), but more for the architecture. It was quite similar to the Palace but it just had a bit more about it I thought. Right at the centre was a huge room with three fountains in the middle of a huge mosaic floor surrounded by four smaller rooms with lovely ornate doorways and stained glass in the arches above. There were also lovely mosaic water features in the walls - one on each corner. There was no water in them anymore but you could really imagine the effect it would have had in the time that it did.

One of the four mosaic water features in Musee De Marrakech

Part of the mosaic floor in the museum

One of the stained glass windows

The length of the main room in the museum. This photo really doesn't do it justice - the mosaic floor was amazing!

One of the lovely door arches - I love all the detailed carving

In the museum, we saw an exhibition by a Californian based artist called Layla Fanucci whose work I love. She does amazing cityscapes - they look kind of like when you were young and you coloured a piece of paper with wax crayons and then painted over it in black ink and scratched a pattern out. Remember? Like that... but good. The mix of colours she uses is really eye catching and her black ink sketches on top are very striking.

After lunch, we visited the two free gardens in the city. The first one was full of rose bushes and orange trees growing in a grid pattern with little gravelled paths and benches running through them. Down the middle of the garden was a long water feature which spanned the length of the park with a huge fountain in the middle. the whole place was in quite a state of disrepair so there was no water in the fountains. There was a scruffy little stray dog trying to find a bit of shade to lay in. I felt sorry for him because he had no one to love him... but we saw him again later running down the street with a load of other dogs in all different colours and sizes so he obviously was part of a family after all which made my day! It was like a scene out of Hotel for Dogs!

The other garden we visited was a Cyber Park. The park has little internet stations where kids (well, anyone) can go and use the internet on an in built computer. There is also free wi-fi throughout the park so we were able to get the internet on Paul's Ipod and we saw other people doing the same. I thought the whole thing was a brilliant idea - it was free to get in and the computers were free so even kids who have nothing could go in and learn to use a computer and look on the internet. A great way to keep them out of mischief - much better than sitting in a bus stop with a bottle of cider and a packet of cigarettes like they do here! There was a huge water feature in the middle and gorgeous azure blue - again, no water!

You can't really see the lovely blue-green in the fountain here

One of the Cyber pods in the Cyber Park

A few of my favourite things:

1) Freshly squeezed orange juice that tastes like sunshine in a glass and seeing the little pyramids of oranges stacked up on the juice mans carts.

One of the many juice sellers in the Medina

2) The call to prayer - you don't just hear one voice, but within seconds of each other, you begin to hear other local calls, all saying something slightly different ad all at different volumes. When they are all going together, it sounds like cattle mooing in the mountains. I found the sound really calming.

The Minaret just outside the main square - this is where the booming voice of the call to prayer comes from!

3) Olives - marinaded in chilli and corriander - delicious with a capital D

4) All the mosaics - it reminded me of patchwork everywhere I looked

5) The unexpected smell of spices as we rounded the corner of what seemed to be a deserted street

6) Dipping my feet in the hotel pool to cool off

The hotel pool, shaded by large palms.

7) Clear blue skies

8) The sound of drums in the square at night

9) Seeing an old man stroking his donkey as it pulled him and his cart along - the first sign of affection towards an animal that we saw while we were there.

10) Moroccan pancakes at breakfast with Cactus flower honey

I've been through and added pictures to my other Morocco posts, be sure to flick back through and have a look!

I hope you've enjoyed my Moroccan adventure!

Scrub-a-dub-dub

For a relaxing last day, we went to a super fancy spa and enjoyed a refreshing dip in their pool followed by a hammam and scrub down with Savon Noir.

Savon Noir is quite literally black soap, a similar consistency to tar and smells like eucalyptus and mace. They ladel buckets of hot water over you and then leave you for 15 minutes to get nice and sweaty. When they come back in, they lather you up with the slimy black gloop and then leave you to sweat some more. Finally, they come and give you a good ole scrub down with a loofa mit until you think you surely have no skin left at all! By the time they're done with you, you can see all the grey dead skin on the surface. Gross, am I really that mucky? Once you've showered it all off, they oil you up with sweet smelling orange blossom oil so that you are all silky smooth and glowing when you venture back out into the sunshine.

After the spa we went for a not very nice meal in what felt like the slums of Bombay. There were flies everywhere and so many cats it felt like a scene out of Batman - I kept expecting Catwoman to leap out onto the table! I ordered chicken cous cous - I got a big mound of flavourless dry cous cous with a joint of meat which had less chicken on it than an anorexic stick insect! The restaurants only saving grace was that the waiter stopped me from knocking myself out on a big metal girder as I stood up!

Anyway, all was made well again by a generous dollop of ice cream from Ice Legend on the way back to the hotel.

Tea with the Queen

No, not really. But we did go to the Palace today. La Bahia aka The Beautiful - was built and decorated between 1860 and 1900 by Abu Ahmed who was once a slave. The palace housed Abu, his four wives and 24 concubines in 150 rooms! It is now unfurnished but the detail remains impeccable. Long, elegant passages leading to open squares with water fountains, mirrors and tall marble pillars. Each door way and ceiling is ornately carved and mosaic floors are still in tact. It was incredibly peaceful and cool compared to the blistering heat in the souqs.

The centre of the Palace

One of the lovely doorways in the Palace

A little pair of legs cooling down on the cold tiles

We had a wander around the souqs in the morning but were once again put off by the constant pestering of the merchants. The souqs are a rabbits warren of colourful silk, shining silver work and beaded jewellery. There is plenty we could buy but if you so much as blink in their direction, they pull you in you are theirs.

Colourful silk shoes hanging on one of the stalls

Bright silk scarves

Bright leather slippers

The weather was not as hot as yesterday but I have still managed to burn a bit again on my shoulders. We enjoyed an ice cream in the square, I had one scoop of mint choc and Paul had the mother of all ice creams - two scoops of bounty flavour, one scoop meringue flavour, chocolate sauce and whipped cream in a cone the size of his face! They were good though and I'm thinking that now i'm 27, I can probably eat all the ice cream I want so I'll be back tomorrow for a great big dollop of something delicious!

Baking in the Morocan sun

As a special birthday treat, I'm in Marrakech, Morocco.

It is not at all what I expected. The first thing that hit me when we stepped off the bus from the airport was the over whelming smell of urine. At first I thought it was coming from the public toilets but later realised that it was all the horses. The poor things are emaciated, with hip bones jutting out through the little flesh they have like an orange hiding under a napkin. They have deep scars all over their rear ends from a life time of whipping. We had planned to go on a carriage ride for my birthday tomorrow but there is no way I'm encouraging that now.

Today we went to Jardin Majorelle which was donated to Morocco by Yves Saint Laurent because he had been made so welcome here. It was such a welcome break from all the bustle in the Medina. As soon as you enter, all the drumming and the music from the snake charmers was drowned out by bird song and water trickling from fountains. It was very peaceful and the first time I relaxed since we got here.

The entrance to the Jardin Majorelle

Some of the brightly coloured pots lining the paths in the garden

Some detail on one of the walls in the garden

The other thing that surprised me here is the heat. I had forgotten just how hot 38 degrees really is! The air is completely dry and you can feel yourself literally baking in it as you walk around. Even with factor 50 lotion on, I've still managed to burn.

On the way back from the garden, we stopped at one of the many street vendors selling freshly squeezed orange juice. We paid over the odds for it because we misunderstood the price sign - it should have been 3 dirhams and we paid 10 but it was worth it because the old mans wife came over and kept smacking her lips and pointing at her husband saying "shukrum, shukrum" which is thank you. So we obviously made their day!

This evening we went into the Djemma el Fna which is the main square. We didn't stay for long as I didn't like all the grabbing and shouting so went to find a nice spot for some dinner where we could watch all of the fun without being caught up in it.