Our first night in Morrocco the Riad was incredible! Mosaic tiling, plaster and wood carving, a garden courtyard and a lovely pool. Sophie and Mom had couscous for dinner, Aiden had lamb shank and Alastair had his first Tangene, it was all delicious.
The following morning, we got up early for a Moroccan breakfast and meeting our guide to explore Marrakesh. We walked around the old city (the Medina). We saw the famous Koutoubia Mosque and learned about Islam and the origins of the Muslim faith in Morocco. We visited the Bahia palace, not one of the King of Morocco’s 13 palaces, but a place of the Prime Minister. We then headed into the souk. On the tour, we visited a naturopathic herbalist. He showed us many different herbs and crystals that Moroccans used to treat different ailments, trying to sell us expensive herbs and spices, he gracefully accepted declining them. We also visited the dye area of the Medina meeting with the merchant who tied scarves around the kids’ heads in traditional Berber style, while trying to sell us scarves. Our guide had excellent English and shared quite a lot about the Muslim faith and Moroccan history with us. He was also very open to any of our questions as we were beginning to get to know the culture of Morocco. He helped us understand some of the relationship between the Berber and the Arabic population of Marrakesh, as well as the languages, if only most cultures sharing a home could be so respectful and appreciative of each other. Children learn both languages in school, which is funded by the state.
We explored the medina at night on a food tour with our excellent guide. We started with Moroccan pancakes, they were good, especially with Honey. Fresh fruit smoothies were another highlight, Aiden choose peach and dragon fruit, Sophie‘s strawberry lemonade and Alastair’s grapefruit, peach and nectarine. Our guide also offered us the opportunity to try brain, but we all declined. Alastair and Helen did try snails, they were plucked from their shells after being steamed in broth, this was offered as a special drink. Our guide introduced us to “the sister of Tangene, Tangere”, a very slow cooked beef or lamb dish that was delicious. We tried Moroccan pastries, pasteils (sweet meat pies) and delicious olives. While in the night market Sophie and Aiden also tried a street game where everybody has a pole with a little rubber circle on a loop at the end at the end of a string, the goal is to get the rubber loop, around the top of a pop bottle. The entire time they were playing, 15 minutes or so, only one person won, the owner of the game told our guide that was the first win of the night (over an hour of business) . Once we returned from the night medina, Sophie also had an amazing night swim on the roof in the rooftop pool. The water was cold, but she said it was incredibly refreshing, and the scenery was beautiful with the mosque lit up over top the old city.
