Marrakesh

On the train to Marrakesh (a bit different from that described by Graham Nash in their song – no chickens and goats but a modern comfortable train) we met a lovely English lady, Heather, who teaches English at a private school in Marrakesh.  She married a French Moroccan and has lived in Morocco for nearly 30 years.  We chatted the whole way and arranged to meet for lunch in two days hence.

Our fairly average hotel was just across the street from the Koutoubia Mosque and around the corner from the Jamaa El-Fna markets.  We had watched the 1956 Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much (Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day) which begins in Marrakesh and has some great scenes of the market.  Not much has changed in the 60 years since the movie was made.  The same buildings are there.  The market was a bit less crowded but it still has the snake charmers, monkey handlers, acrobats, water carriers, traditional musicians, dancers in drag and horse drawn carriages.  It was hard to get pictures of all these sights.  If these people saw you pointing your camera they would demand money for the picture or shout at you not to take a photo.

Dried fruits for sale

Monkey handler at the market

Tea and herbs for sale

Goats heads and tongue for dinner?

Colourful dyes

The Jamaa El-Fna  market square

We visited a few museums, Palais Bahia, Musee Dar Si Said (the ethnographic museum) and the Palais Badii.  The latter was by far the best.  The Palais Badii is a 16^th Century palace of the Saadian (Berber) sultan Ahmed El Mansour.  A large flock of storks have made their nests on the high walls.  The palace has a large courtyard with sunken gardens of orange trees and fountains (no water flowing though) and the foundations of many beautifully tiled rooms.  The exhibit reconstructing the palace was very good and it looks like a lot of work is going into restoring the ruins. 

Storks at the Palais

And some more storks

Tiled floors

The walls and sunken gardens within the Palais

As we always do, we walked all over the city taking in the sights and stumbling onto whatever we can.  The city is modern but in transition with many of the old ways still evident.  The traffic pollution is quite bad, mainly due to the two-stroke motor scooters.  The new city is filled with up-market shops and cafes but the walled city still has the narrow souks selling all manner of goods.  There is a fair amount of attention from touts but once you decline politely they no longer harass you.

Donkey cards are still in common use

Tall palm trees? No, mobile phone towers - clever.

A lovely couple walking down the street

La Mamounia Hotel as in the Hitchcock film

Camels for the tourist

Marrakesh is touristy and therefore one wonders how much of the old city is really authentic or kept just for the tourist but it is fascinating city nevertheless.