Palais Jenna and Spa Marrakech

Situé en plein coeur de la médina, à quelques pas du port et de la plage, le Riad Chakir Mogador est le lieu privilégié de votre escale à Essaouira.


Cette maison d'hôtes, entièrement restaurée dans le pur respect des traditions et de l'architecture ...

... is
dusty and hot. Really hot. I had a mint tea under the misguided assumption that
a hot beverage would cool me down, like chai tea does for the Indians. It did
not, and I was sweating like a ******* and really feeling the heat, so I
retreated to café for a cold water and a Moroccan Salad (much like Mexican
salsa, consists of roughly chopped cilantro, tomato and onion), which came to
about 60 cents. Great lunch.

Found Milli and
Nick later and we ...

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

July 24, Marrakesh, Morocco

Thank goodness we decided to stay near the Madrid airport the night before flying out versus commuting up from Toledo. Things are the Madrid end of that flight were smooth, getting a shuttle bus ride to the airport, etc.

The Morocco side, well, not so much. There is a building – nice façade – but not a typical terminal (unless it's Dawson Creek maybe). Your plane parks ...

... us into his shop, and whilst we were secretly interested in his paintings of camels, he was more interested in showing us a multitude of rugs that we were never likely to buy. In an attempt to placate him, I somehow ended up trying on some shiny gold pointy sandals, and a Moroccan outfit and headscarf. As comfortable as it was, I ...

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 ...

... agua
limpa....asneira....e grossa...que ficou fina...bem já passou...muitos
Imodiuns, Demicinas, Cipro, e qualquer coisa mais..
Merzouga, porta
do deserto de Erg Chebbi, 50 km da fronteira com a Argélia, um calor
abrasador...a vista do hotel para as dunas ao fim da tarde é
fantástica...subimos algumas dunas para ver o por do sol, não tivemos
sorte nesse dia, havia algumas nuvens, mas mesmo assim valeu a pena.
Partimos
no dia a ...

Our quest this morning was to go in search of a pharmacy as my Mum had left some vital medication at home. Leaving her and my little brother at the riad under the watchful eye of our lovely housekeeper, Rashida, my Dad, sister and I headed towards Jemaa El F'Na. We walked through the souks but this time with purpose and ignoring the stall holders. It's surprising how successful it was! By keeping your head down and making your way ...

Hey guys, I'm in Africa!!! Its taken a while but I've finally set foot on my second continent for the year and I'm soooo excited about it! Strange as it may seem, when I was browsing through the Europe LP in the early months of this year one of the countries I was most drawn to was Morocco-Why, when Europe alone has so much to offer? Well, after the last 10 days I can safely say that there was good reason to get over here-above and beyond the stark differences between Morocco and ...