MOROCCO VI - Marakesh

We arrived in Marakesh on Friday afternoon to spend the last few days of our holiday there. We had pre-booked a room in a riad in the Medina, which proved to be a really nice place and really handy to the main square. We spent a fair bit of time in the square, which is the centre of activity in Marakesh, and exploring the various souks within the Medina. Added to that there were a number of historic palace buildings and tombs to check out. We noticed that Marakesh was very tourist orientated compared to the other places we had been to, with a lot of french visitors.

View from the outskirts of Marakesh looking towards the middle Atlas mountains.

Fran blows out the candles on her birthday cakes on the morning of our second-to-last day in Morocco.

Graham enjoying the sunshine on the roof terrace of the riad.

Djemma el-Fna, the big square in the centre of the Marakesh medina.

More amazing mosaics

The square again

A door way at an old palace that has been converted into a museum.

One of Fran's birthday wishes was to go on a horse carriage ride around the city,

so that's what we did!!

With one of the water men

In the northern parts of the Medina

The square at dusk....this is when the activity really picks up

as many of the locals congregate for a chat or to watch the snake charmers, story-tellers and magicians that perform here in the evening. Each night a whole lot of food stalls are set up and you can get really good cheap eats. The smoke from the bbq's rise up over the square and add to the somewhat mystical atmosphere. All in all its a really neat place to stroll around and watch the goings on.

Looking back towards the Koutoubia mosque minaret.

This is the inside of our riad, which is a central courtyard with the

rooms arranged around the outside.

At the riad before heading out to dinner for Fran's birthday

The Stylia palace restaurant. A very nice place to eat out, we were treated to a four-course Moroccan meal with live music.

The entree consisted of pastilla, a local speciality which is a sweet spicy pastry with cinnammon, sugar, ground nuts and pigeon inside. Very nice!!