We slightly mis-timed our departure from Fès, and after a hair-raising race to the train we were able to relax and enjoy the 6-hour train ride.
Here's thE guyZ sharing pics ... Kinda like trading fishing stories!
Attention! The chute is dangerous. Or.... Something.
It's cool to be in a foreign country, and multi-lingual signs are a constant reminder of how far from home we are!
We shared our train compartment with Younes, a young Moroccan school teacher with impeccable English. We had some intriguing conversations about both Moroccan and American culture. Time flew by and we made Marrakech by early evening.
daD, being travel savvy and always prepared, had once again prearranged with the riad for a driver to meet us. We were taken to the gates into the medina, where a porter met and guided us and our gear to the Riad Bouganville.
Here is one of the upper hallways of the Bouganvillia Riad, which was comfortable and beautiful.
When we arrived at the riad the concierge offered us a drink; it is customary in Muslim cultures to offer guests a welcoming drink as a courtesy.
He offered whisky, in fact!
We said "Yes!"
He asked "Scotch whisky? Or Moroccan whisky?"
And we said "Moroccan!" After all, we'd never tried Moroccan whisky, and we're up for trying new things, right?
About ten minutes later he brought out a tray with four wee glasses. And a pot full of ... sweet mint tea!! He smiled broadly and said "This is Moroccan whisky, my friends!"
We were more than amused by this twist on the definition of whisky! But, considering that Muslims don't drink alcohol, it makes sense. And while we missed whisky we were also flattered to receive the customary drink.
Sometimes there is great ceremony in the delivery of the tea: pouring it into the glass and back into the pot three times, and then raising the tea pot as high as possible while pouring the tea into the glass (it splashes a bit, but not as much as you might think).
No matter we didn't have our Scotch whisky, it was good tea. Sweet and refreshing!
If you look closely you can see several of the clan sprawled out in the couch next to the pool at the courtyard of our riad. Ahhhh.....
We stayed in Marrakech just one night before heading to Zagora for an overnight adventure. (Stay tuned for our next post.) We then came back to Marrakech for three more nights of fun. To keep it simple, we will cover all of our Marrakech adventures on this page.
Here is one of the historic gates to the city.
And the minaret of the largest mosque in Marrakech- the Koutoubia. This mosque is made of red sandstone and brick is nearly 1000 years old ...
The large plaza in the medina, the Djeema el-Fna, is capped at one end by the huge Koutoubia mosque. Non-Muslims are not allowed inside mosques, and out of respect we didn't even try to take pictures through open doors. But we did sneak a peak as we walked by. It's quite moving to see the room packed with worshippers bowed in prayer and hear the Imam preaching. In Marrakech, as in Fès, there was the call to prayer five times a day. There are dozens of mosques in Marrakech, and each Imam sings the call to prayer... It is enchanting and lovely to listen to them sing.
We spent a fair bit of time in the plaza - it's a colossus of noise, music, hustle and bustle, and all sorts of fantastic things happening at the same time. There are surprisingly few western tourists in the square after dark, but we ventured there anyway and didn't feel unsafe.
Here's a wee taste:
One afternoon we toured the Marrakech museum, which is filled with fantastic artifacts and is housed in a beautiful restored 19th century Andalusian-style palace. The walls are covered with beautiful zellij tilework and plaster work.
A beautiful fountain, ornately decorated with impeccable zellij tiles.
We were there a while, and dA BoyZ needed a break.
Up close, the tile work looks busy, but from a distance it is both mesmerizing and soothing.
And different perspectives make it all the more interesting!
The next day, moM and daD got It: The Moroccan Quick Step. (So named because the poor victim has to quick-step to the toilet quite frequently...) Sadly, they were completely out of commission, and slept the whole day in the riad. The two youngsters headed off on an adventure to find the antidote for the all-too-common affliction.
We tried to explain to the chemist (pharmacist) what we needed, but he spoke no English and we had extremely poor Arabic AND insufficient French. After a game of charades and gestures, he blurted out "Diarrhea!" and we agreed with a grimace. We had found the one word that we shared! He gave us a box of Ercéfuryl and Melinda, being the medical sort, asked if it was an antibiotic. "No, no no...." he said, "antiseptico!".
When we got home to our wifi zone we did some online research and found that it was indeed an antibiotic- one not used in the U.S.! No prescription required. All for a mere 30 dirhams (approx. $3.00).
It was quite warm the day, so we treated ourselves to a cold ice cream.
Yum!
Unfortunately, a day later we both started feeling a bit off. We didn't get the full-on Quick Step, but we weren't quite right for about a week after that. Just goes to show that even when you're particular about where you eat and are careful about hygiene, you can still catch a bug or two.
Later that night, after making sure moM and daD were comfortable and tucked in, Melinda and boB went shopping. Only to look and not to buy, my friend! We found a few small music shops with traditional Moroccan instruments.
We were drawn into one of them upon hearing the soft tones of an oud being played by a young shopkeeper.
Salah Ramzi is his name, and he is a talented musician (and salesman too, as it turns out!) He is adept on several instruments...
Here he is on the Outar, the so-called "Moroccan guitar":
His shop is called 'Bob Music', and we spent over an hour with him trying various instruments. Very friendly and helpful, he was. And very proud of his store, which is featured in guide books and is known for its craic! We were ready to leave- it was 10:30 pm and we were famished- but he didn't want to let us go. "Because you are my last customers of the day, my friend, I give you a special deal." For an Outar he was asking 1600 dirhams (about $160), and when we hesitated he started talking himself down. He eventually talked himself down by about 40% of his starting price before he finally caught on that we just weren't going to buy right now! But we liked him, liked his instruments, and told him we'd come back the next day ("We'll come back tomorrow, my friend...!").
Walking through Marrakech we saw several fountains like this one.
And there were men washing their faces, hands, and feet. Muslims are fastidious about hygiene before praying, and these fountains are placed so that they can tend to these needs.
We found this beautiful blue door.
Don't know what's behind it, but the brilliance of the blue and the weathering of the wood was striking. And the light coming from beyond was intriguing.... What's back there?
We also found:
Bob Magic Music!! By now you're probably asking, "what's up with the Bob music theme?" Moroccans seem to have a strong affiliation with Bob Marley- who visited the country in the 1960's. Some even point out that Raggae and traditional Moroccan music have a similar kind of grove. We didn't quite hear this similarity ourselves, but it's an interesting theory.
We stopped into Bob Magic Music and chatted with the fellow for a good long while. He was very friendly, open, and his honesty was a breath of fresh air from all the hustlers we had to deal with at the other shops. He told us that he made instruments, and his uncle lived and worked upstairs making instruments, but was away at the moment (my friend). He even showed us his workshop where he made instruments. Keenly, Melinda noticed a distinct lack of tools and sawdust ... But maybe he'd just done the spring cleaning, my friend?
He stayed with us for quite a while, and let us play instruments and drums. We were relieved when he told us that he's not into haggling, making deals, and hustling. His is an honest music shop, and he's there to make music and help others find good quality instruments for their musical endeavors. And, to be fair, his instruments did seem to be better quality others we'd seen.
When we asked his price on an instrument (an Outar like the one we had shopped the night before at Bob Music) he calmly gave a price that matched the Salah's price, 1600 dirham.
The difference, though, is that Salah haggled himself down a long ways from 1600 dirhams while trying to entice us to buy. The fellow at Bob Magic music had told us he's not into haggling, and he even said "I offer you a fair price!"
In the end we didn't buy anything - his instruments were nice, but priced too high. And we were turned off by his "dishonest honesty," if you can see what we mean. At least Salah was honest in his dishonesty!
Later that day we returned to Bob Music, where we'd met Salah the night before. We bought both the Outar and a Ghaita, or "snake-charmer flute." boB did the haggling with him, and it was actually good fun. We liked Salah, and it felt to us like he was trying to make an honest deal. In the end he probably made out like a bandit, but we feel like we got good value in the deal, and that's what matters. Well, that and we each got a fun new instrument to play with! :-)
We kept on through the souks, lugging our new instruments, with moM looking for a table cloth and some nifty pants. She was successful on both fronts, haggling her way to a good deal.
Onward through the narrow streets...
Past the meat shop where you can get a large chunk of beast - very fresh!! Just watch your head as you walk by!
We found the covered parking for the motor scooters. ;-)
The streets were very narrow, and even so were not off-limits to motor scooters. In fact, some of them were a super highways of motor scooters!!
On our last night together in Marrakech we went to a fabulous restaurant that had been recommended to us for its good live music.
These three gents were fantastic! It was only half-past seven and much too early for the full-on dinner crowd, so we had is place entirely to ourselves for a while. It was like a private concert!
After the sun went down, hungry tourists began to filter in and the band quietly folded up. Some canned Arabic cabaret music was put on the stereo, and on came the dancers!
They wiggled their way through the restaurant accepting tips in various parts of their costume and enticing diners to dance with them. They were good fun to watch but we were disappointed that they didn't dance to live music. And to be honest, it was a little odd to see so much skin - perhaps a strange comment from a bellydancer (Melindqa)! It was a stark contrast to what we had become accustomed to after just a short while in Morocco! In everyday life Muslim women are very modest and most of them wear headscarves, and kaftans or long pants and long shirts.
Just about the time we were leaving the restaurant, the dancers were done, too.
That's one of them, about to jump on her motorcycle in her headscarf and kaftan - probably heading for her next gig!
Melinda and moM treated themselves to henna tattoos!
Unfortunately they don't last too long, but they sure are pretty! moM's ran half-way up her arm!
Here is Melinda's hand after the henna had set a day:
Some random road signs...
Don't know what that says. But, bikes and motor scooters are certainly involved!
Maybe a dissertation on no parking?
Yes, horse-drawn carriages. They're quite popular in Marrakech and tourists take scenic rides around the perimeter of the medina.
The motor scooters are everywhere! We didn't see a single smash-up, but to our untrained eyes there was a collision ready to happen at every intersection. Crazy! We were grateful that we hadn't hired a car to get around through Morocco! We would have cried and torn out our hair!
boB and Melidna stumbled upon the CyberParc, a beautifully maintained park with computer kiosks spread about so that you can surf the Internet while, um, enjoying nature? Odd.
And there was a performance artist - have you ever seen anyone play a trumpet through a tube of sheet metal?
He played while an interpretive dancer with a piece of sheet metal for a partner crawled around the central fountain. Interesting, my friend. Modern art in the park.
Hey! Check it out!
It's Chez McDo! And a horse-drawn carriage! And about ten seconds later a guy on a donkey strolled through. What a place!
On Sunday the 24th boB's parents departed from Marrakech - flying to Casablanca and then home via Paris. We had spent almost 2-1/2 weeks with them, and had a simply fantastic time! All the places we saw in Spain and Morocco, all the sights we explored, the great food ... And the laughter! None of us can remember laughing so much. From the minute they left we missed them dearly. We hope that we can all travel together again sometime, and we already know that it'll be a great time.
As for boB and Melinda, we had a bit more of our own adventuring to do. We packed up and headed for the Marrakech bus station ... Onwards to Essaouira!
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