Es Saadi Palace Marrakech

... vous séduira par son atmosphère reposante.


20 chambres vous accueillent dans un univers de confort propre aux charmes de l'Orient. Soucieux de votre bien-être, l'ensemble du personnel mettra tout en oeuvre pour vous garantie un séjour inoubliable.

... the medina to the Bahia Palace which had lots of cats roaming
around and was very unassuming from the outside (something that Moroccans
appear to love to do). But once inside it was an amazing building with
intricately carved wooden arches, beautiful ceramic tiles, cool breezy rooms
and sunny courtyards with lots of orange trees. Unfortunately lots of tour
groups too but you had to pick your way around them and try to block the sound
out. It was a beautiful place ...

From the fun flats of Marrakech...we made our way to the High Atlas mountains for well...mountains of magnificent hiking and views.

Jebel Toubkal stands at 4200m above sea level and at that is the highest most point in northern Africa and also a bit of a mission! We made it up the mighty mountain in a few days and did some sleeping, sun burning and Scrabble in there as well. An absolutely incredible adventure!

Back down and all set to embark on a road trip to Fez!

XXX

... reminds me of India and all the experiences i had there that live on in my mind but it is an odd amalgamation of the western and traditional. The main square is a magical place where all is alive by night and oh so chilled and interesting in the day.

We did a couple of days exploration of all it had to offer and then onwards AND upwards...

XXX

... by our host – he’s taking me to his barber in one of those tiny little shops tomorrow “for such a close shave you won’t have another one for 2-3 days” – we headed off for another pre-arranged dinner at the recommended Riad Lotus Privilege. Wonderful, wonderful experience: the surroundings and the six-course meal. I got pictures.

On the way there (one of their staff come to collect ...

... pools. Around the outside are ruins of the main rooms of the palace. Its known as Stork Palace, due to the great numbers of storks that have built their nests around the ruins... a tad surreal, but quirky. There was barely anyone here ...

Marrakech is an incredible city. It has a huge walled city centre, the walls are 16 km long and still intact, and if you enter through one of the gates, the world is not like it used to be. People come dressed like in those movies about when Jesus was born, so I think it is a very adequate place to spend the week before Christmas. I wonder anyway how snow and Santa on a sledge came into the picture when the whole story ...

... para o deserto...horas em cima do dromedário é um
calvário....nem é pelo calor, nem pelo vento, nem pela areia e somente
mesmo pelo nosso coccix....MEU DEUS!!!
Quando desci da besta nem consegui segurar as pernas, tremiam pareciam varas verdes.
Chegamos
a umas das maiores dunas do Erg Chebbi 250 mt de areia....podem pensar
o Monte Crasto tem 125 mt, mas é granito, areia 250 mt são 5 km...dois
passos para frente um passo para trás, é muito ...

Our visit to Marrakech was the most exotic stop yet. Between the snake charmers, monkeys, singers, dancers and drum circles in the Place Jamaa El Fna, and the fearless locals dodging disaster on bicycles and mopeds...we were in awe of this place. The smell of incense fills the air and the amplified calls to prayer take you to another world. We stayed in a beautiful Riad (traditional Moroccan B&B with ...

... is motivated by discontent, as it so often is, then I have to wonder if perhaps these people are so happy that they harbor no desire to modernize, to "advance" as some might term it. And maybe all the "progress" that we have made in the western world really hasn't been progress at all. Just a thought. The journey from Barcelona to Morocco involved many transitions, but made finally arriving in Africa all that more ...