Aug 22 –Tour of Marrakesh

As per our experience from Fez, we decided that we’d find a tourguide to help us see the major sites and get a feel for the city on our first full day in the city. This is the sketchy tourguide that I’d mentioned in my blog, who kept trying to bring us to shops after we made it clear we wanted to see the museums and NOT go shopping. Especially not carpet shopping. We did get in a few palaces etc. but it felt like he was rushing us from site to site so he could sneak in random shops in between.

The first couple pics are random shots from the Palais de la Bahia. Named for the favourite wife of some dead well-to-do dude (woohoo alliteration). There were some cool fruit trees in the gardens – pomegranates, grapefruit, and oranges. Outside the palace he shows us storks nesting on the old building walls. I kept looking for these birds on rooftops in the Netherlands and here they are absolutely everywhere in Morocco. They seem to be fairly highly regarded in this city – they even have a hospital for them. Cigognes in French.

The third picture is taken at the gorgeous Ali ben Youssef Medersa where I took this other photo featured earlier. You can see our tourguide in the bottom middle walking in front of A – tall and dark in a white robe. They had some neat exhibits in this medersa showing some recreations of what the rooms might have looked like when they were in use.

As mentioned in the blog, he took us to a low-key shop for lunch. Nothing like the touristified places we’d been previously – this was where the locals went, and where the touristified places secretly bought their food. They tried to charge us tourist prices at first but we balked and said we’d leave. Principles damnit. Omelets and bread for lunch – pretty yummy if a little greasy. I don’t dare touch the salad even though fresh vegetables sound so good. In the picture you can see the brochettes grilling over the fire, as well as the scales used to measure out the raw meat portions.

We passed through the blacksmith’s quarters after lunch. Interestingly, there are no shops for him to try and sell us stuff, but the spaces in front of the shops piled with cast iron rods bent into various shapes were very striking.

Dinner of harira with the imam and his wife was described previously (second paragraph). This is our first night eating in the square. K was still hungry after the soup, so we sat down for a snack at one of the food stalls. More brochettes, complimentary olives and the traditional round flat loaves of bread, served with some thin tomato-ey dipping sauce.

Next - Aug 23 - Self-tour of Marrakesh