Pink Plastic Palaces?

Marrakesh….it sounds like a mantra from the 1960’s! (And some of the folks we saw looked like they'd either been there since the sixties or wished they were back in the sixties!)

While we were on the train from Casablanca to Marrakesh we met a conductor who spoke very good English. He sat with us in our compartment for a while and gave us lots of good travel advice about things to do in and around the city. When the train stopped suddenly in the middle of nowhere he went to investigate. Oh, we hit a car! The car was crossing the tracks in the wrong place and obviously at the wrong time! The driver was not hurt, physically, that is. Financially I think he’s ruined, because the railway company will charge him 700 dirhams for every minute the train was delayed, and we were stopped for 27 minutes! The conductor never told us his name and would not accept a tip, but he escorted us across the platform and introduced us to his friend, Abdul Jabbar, who drives a van. Abdul Jabbar was our best friend in Marrakesh!

Our accommodation was the Riad Julia, another traditional house with a central courtyard, lovely tile work and a roof terrace. John gave the plunge pool a try. The water was freezing! When we walked to Dar Imam in Fez we had to pass through the shopping streets of the medina, full of hustle, bustle and colour. To get to our hotel in Marrakesh we walked through the residential streets of the medina. Well, street is an exaggeration in both cases. They are narrow, winding pathways. Wide enough for a motorbike, though. Motor bikes are a hazard in Marrakesh! On our way to Riad Julia we did not pass vendors with exotic and colourful wares, we passed the entrance to the neighbourhood mosque, a resident begger, and tall silent doorways. At one point the path was covered by a roof of poles and palm fronds that looked like it could have been there since the middle ages. Maybe it was.

On our first day Abdul Jabbar took us on a tour around town to see the most important sights: the Bahia Palace, the Jardin Majorelle, the Palmeria and the carpet cooperative. I think there was more on the agenda, but we had to stop after the carpet cooperative because we spent so much time there. We admired the Palace and the garden, rode camels in the Palmeria and, yes, we bought carpets. It was great fun.

The only thing that did not live up to its' reputation is the famous Djemmaa El-Fna. We had all read about it - it’s the main square in Marrakesh where the food stalls are set up every night. Story tellers, fortune tellers and musicians come to perform. People describe it as a fantastic cultural carnival, something not to be missed. The food looked good, but the tables were crowded with tourists who had piled off the big busses and the waiters were relentless in trying to get us to stop and eat too. There were circles of local people watching musicians and singers, but of course we could not understand the talk, and anytime we got close to a group the performers would target us and begin asking for money. Every direction we moved in there was someone trying to sell us something or trying to get us to pay them to pose for a photograph with Mum and Dad. The best thing to do there is to grab a chair at one of the tea shops that line the square and sit back to watch the circus. That's what Mum and Dad did while I went into an Internet shop to print our plane tickets. Nelson (who blends into the crowd better than we do) was able to wander and watch unmolested as long as he was able to go on his own.

Our second trip with Abdul Jabbar was to the Ourika Valley in the High Atlas Mountains. Doesn’t that sound fantastic…the High Atlas Mountains…? It’s quite remarkable what a varied landscape we traveled through in just a few hours. No carpet salesmen this time, but we did stop at an Argan Oil cooperative where all the workers are widowed or divorced woman who must support themselves. Of course we stocked up on treats, given it was such a good cause. We were also able to tour a traditional Berber house. They had a water wheel to grind grain into flour. I’ve never seen one working before!

Jodie calls Marrakesh “The city of Pink Plastic Palaces” and she says it reminds her of Niagra Falls. The buildings are pink because that's the colour of the local stone. If all a person saw were the top tourist sights and the Djemmaa El-Fna I might agree with Jodie that the place to see Morocco is Casablanca, not Marrakesh. The way we saw it makes Marrakesh is a "must stop" for visiters in Morocco. If we had more time we would have kept going south to the Sahara....there's something about the landscape that makes a person want to stay and explore. But Ryan air tickets are unforgiving, so we had to get on the plane back to Spain.