Long Weekend in Marrakech, Morocco

As the days continued to get shorter in the UK, we decided to escape for one last warm weather holiday.  We took a short flight to Marrakech, Morocco–our first time to Africa!

We decided to stay in a riad in the medina, which is essentially a bed and breakfast in the old city.  The riad we stayed in had six guest rooms and we ended up having the whole place to ourselves!

The medina is a maze–no map (not even Google Maps!) can do it justice.  There are twists and turns and it is so easy to get lost.  IT sort of feels like you are in a James Bond movie and a chase scene is about to take place.  Our first day, we ventured out to try the twenty-five minute walk to the main square and see a few sites along the way (hint:  it took WAY longer than 25 minutes).

Our first stop was the Ben Youseff Medersa, a Quranic school founded in the 14th century!

Next, we stopped at the art museum located by the school.  There were lots of local artists showcased and or course a gorgeous building!

From there, we walked (took us about 45 minutes to find our way through the maze of alley ways) to the town square called Jemma el-Fnaa.  The square is quite an overwhelming place, complete with snake charmers, orange juice carts, and people taming various wild animals.  We took it in from a cafe above the square before venturing through the crowd below and enjoyed some delicious mint tea–we had a TON of mint tea while in Marrakech.  It’s everywhere!!

Next to the square is the main mosque in Marrakech, the Koutoubia mosque, with an impressive minaret that can be seen from rooftops all around the city.  In Morocco, non-Muslims are not allowed inside the mosques, so we enjoyed it from the outside.

Next, it was time to dive into the souks–the maze like markets that encompass a large part of the city.  They sold anything and everything:  spices, tiles, carpets, lanterns, art, etc.  It was easy to get lost wandering through the labyrinth of treasures.  We managed to pick up some spices (special for cous cous), a tagine that matches the rest of my kitchenware (always a southern girl at heart) and some hand-made tiles.  The souks are mazes with the effect of  kaleidoscopes where haggling is absolutely required.  I enjoyed that part 🙂

We had a delicious dinner at a restaurant in a riad and then braved the maze back to the riad where we were staying.

The next morning, we went out of the medina, to the beautiful Majorelle Garden.  The garden was designed by French artist Jacques Majorelle when Morocco was a protectorate of France.  Yves Saint-Laurent bought the garden in the 1980’s.  It was an oasis of calm in a city of chaos and displayed a brilliant use of color.

Keeping with our theme of “outside the medina” for our second day, we ventured to a highly recommended restaurant called Al Fassia.  Reservations recommended–we barely got a table and even then had to vacate by a certain time.  The food was incredible.  I had a tagine with lamb and caramelized onions that was easily the most incredible thing I ate on the trip.  John and started out with a “sampler” of salads.  There were 14 plates.  Great sampler!!!

The our last day in Marrakech, we decided to hit a few more sites inside the medina.  We started with the Saadian Tombs that date back to the 1500s.

Next we ventured to another historic area of town near the palace.  We opted for a rooftop drink and watching the storks nest.  We even saw a large mustering (had to look that one up) of storks flying in circles above our heads.  There were at least 30 of them, so they got a lot of attention!

As the sun set on our final day in Marrakech, we headed back to Jemma el-Fnaa because we heard it has an entirely different face in the evening. That was not an understatement.  The orange juice vendors cleared the way for storytellers (I don’t know what the stories were about as they were in French and Arabic), musical acts, and dentists.  Don’t worry, the snake charmers with the poisonous king cobras were still there and I maintained a healthy distance (John was a bit braver).

You may have caught that I listed dentists in the list of who comes out at night in the main square of Marrakech.  These are not dentists as I have ever seen them.  They were old men with a jar of teeth and pliers sitting on an old wooden table in front of them.  Needless to say, I brushed extra well that night.

There were also people walking around with a variety of animals.  A monkey was literally tossed on John’s back.  And a hat on his head.  Of course, I walked right into the trap and pulled out my camera.  But, honestly, wasn’t this worth the US$1 that I paid for it?

After a delicious dinner of street food (go to the middle of the food section–don’t eat at the vendors who have menus in 13 languages) we decided to treat a horse and carriage tour like a taxi and take it back to our riad.

We awoke to a beautiful final morning in Marrakech.  Our breakfast on the roof of our riad was delicious and we soaked up a few final rays of sunshine and reflected on our first Moroccan adventure before heading back to London.