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Thursday, January 11, 2007

1st Stop................ Marrakech


It was a real culture shock arriving, firstly the terminal exit was closed to be rebuilt & there were no signs to the buses or taxis! Like sheep we followed the crowd around the airport building site & finally found transport in the form of a clapped out Mercedes. Squeezing as many bags & people in as the driver could physically push we then proceeded (per person), to be ripped off for the total fair into town- all of £3.50!


No cars are allowed into the central Medina so my mistaken French translation of "I'll drop you off after this guys" manifested itself into "this is as far as I'm going to take you, now you walk "à tout droit" up that narrow dark alley way. your taxi colleague, he's to turn first on the left (actually it was 1st Right) & then you guys are further up (an ever narrowing,darkening alley), again on the left (meaning unsurprisingly Right!)" Feeling more than a little bit spooked Ems & I ventured out into the Djemaa El Fna, the main square for food. Once there we quickly settled down feeling more acclimatized & less like startled rabbits in the head lights.

We have a lovely twin room+luxury en-suite bathroom. The shower eventually drains away & we have the challenge of jumping through the deeply pooled water to use either the sink or toilet over the following couple of hours. Other than this little blip the Riad is clean & more importantly for our first port of call, safe. There's a roof terrace to view the city & we are close to the main square for food, short exploratory walks & scooter avoidance practice. The mosque next door ensures we are awake long before sunrise, whilst the resident Minaret in it's tower kindly reminds us where he is numerous times a day, most often or not, just after I've dozed off for a quick 40 winks.

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