Moroccan Adventure!

26 September 2010--I left Columbia to Charlotte and then on US Air #732 to London!

I arrived early on the 27th at Gatwick and made my way over to the Bredin/Drury Home in Mile End in East London. No one was home so I napped. Afterwards, we had a nice visit. That evening we went out to the Fish House for dinner. Matthew, Sophie, and Jonathan joined us.

It was good to see these lovely faces of dear friends. We had a great dinner and a great time.

28 September

Park with Lucy in the morning--what fun we had!

Later that afternoon, I met my friend Linda at St. Pancras at the John Betjeman statue (I wish I had a photo of that). He is remembered there because he was the strong advocate of restoring St Pancras Station.

Linda and I traveled to Luton on the train and spent the night there at a Holiday Inn Express as we had an early Ryan Air Flight(quite an experience and probably one to be avoided, if possible, but the flight was cheap) to Marrakech on the 29.

We arrived in Marrakech. A driver ordered by our Riad (Moroccan B and B, usually an old restored home) picked us up and took us to Maison Mnabha. Driving in we saw beautifully landscaped rose beds--Morocco exports their roses all over the world--and rosy stucco buildings. We entered the Kasbah through a gate.

We were put off in a beautiful courtyard.

Where we were greeted by kittens, playing outside the front door of Maison Mnabha.

Once inside, we were greeted by Peter, the landlord, and given mint tea in this lovely common room.

We were hungry and walked down to the amazing Djemaa el Fna, the main market place, where we saw monkeys and snakes and lovely fruitstands.

That evening, we drank wine on the lovely rooftop of Maison Mnaba

where we had a lovely view of the roof top life of the city.

And, then we walked downstairs where we had a delicious meal-- Pastilla, chicken in a light pastry seasoned with sugar and cinnamon--on a table decorated with rose petals.

After a night's sleep in a lovely room--the riad is small and furnished with old Moroccan art and furniture, we went to the Train Station, bought tickets, and boarded the train for Fez, ready for adventure!

The Moroccan landscape is lovely and diverse--desert, mountains, agriculture--there is a plant with big green leaves that is used as a hedge. The landscape is clean and around the cities, we saw garderners working in gardens.

We had interesting companions joining us in our six seater coach. We struggled with our rusty French to talk with these Algerian couples. They got off at Casa Blanca for a few days and then on to Paris for another holiday!

We arrived in Fez--this city is white and blue, different from the rosy red of Marrakech. We were met by a taxi that took us into the walled city and to our Riad there.

Les Oudayas has beautiful blue tile and courtyard. Our suite was on the second floor from where we could look down into the courtyard.

We had delicious breakfasts; every morning we watched a turtle travel across the tiles.

The view from Oudaya's rooftop was stunning, especially at sunset.

We enjoyed the sights in this walled city, full of narrow alleys and vennels, interesting ceilings.

We shared a vennel with a Donkey and ATM machine line.

We saw unappetising Butcher stands,

And, chickens for sale!

Bread Bakers,

Furnace Stokers,

Green Grocers.

We went into an alley and down some stairs and found a textile factory. This young man posed in front of colorful scarves, some of which he had woven.

We visited a leather factory. We were given mint to carry as tanning leather is a stinky process.

We looked down to see animal skins drying and the vats for dying the skins.

We also peeked into beautiful madrass schools and mosques. It was Friday so the mosques were busy.

We enjoyed a visit to an apothecary.

We saw this strange ancient clock.

We ducked into an alley, then walked up many steps to find a outdoor cafe with a view. The couscous lunch was delicious and very filling.

We visited a pottery plant.

And saw artisans at work.

The pottery plant opened to a wonderful view.

And, outside the plant we had another good view of the city.

Back in the covered city we enjoyed seeing everyday life.

Our last night, we treated ourselves to a nice meal at an elegant Riad. First course: the Mezza!

There were beautiful public rooms and exotic music being played on a middle eastern instrument.

On our last day, we had one of those strange middle eastern adventures when the Riad Manager took us to get money from the ATM machine. The money came in Moroccan Doumas. Then he took us to his friend's fruit stand to change the Doumas into Euros in order to pay. We were a little bit nervous but it turned out to be all on the up and up.

We went to bed and were up the next morning to board the train to Meknes.