Marrakesh

We backtracked 10 km to the highway for gas and then thru Ait Ben Haddou again to go on the back roads north to Marrakesh in 180 KM.

The road is initially paved and snakes up into the mountain past several remote villages. The center section is a good hard packed (when dry) dirt road with only one real river crossing.

The end of the road is paved also and takes you back to the N9. This is a windy road that includes the famous Tizi-n-Tichka pass.

From here we headed into the city and actually the traffic though a bit hairy was no actually that bad.

We had booked a hotel outside of the Medina with nice underground parking. We need a few days rest from the bikes.

The first day in Marrakesh we walked down the wide Paris like avenues and to the Medina thru the main gate and then to the main mosque. We had a strange incident on the way to the gate. Walking towards us on the 5 m wide pedestrian walk was a man dressed in white robes, with a white Moroccan hat and a long white beard. He was caring a lap top case and seemed to be just strolling along. When he was about a meter from Orvar and Daniel who were walking just behind me he suddenly vered towards Orvar and almost chest bumped him in an aggressive manner and walked away. Very weird and a bit unnerving. The other locals looking on were also shocked at the man’s behaviour.

Like many cities here the old city is surrounded by very high walls or ramparts.

The center of the city is the main mosque, with its high minaret

Having a coffee on the avenue was a great place to people watch.

Walking in to the Main Square or Jemaa el-Fenaa of the old city you are hit with all kinds of sights, smells, and sounds. There are musicians, dancers, snake charmers, fortunetellers, fruit sellers, and henna painters.

We then braved the maze of the Souks for some great picture taking at the spice and dried fruit stalls. There are many beautiful things we did not buy.

For the evening we did a totally touristy thing we went to a dinner show at the Palais Jad Mahal. The fire twirlers and belly dancers were very entertaining, but like most of these places the food was mediocre.