Austin and I had some extra days in Marrakech which is such a beautiful city! we stayed in one of the many lovely Riads on the outer rim of the medina and only a short walk away from the busy Souks.
We did some fun shopping and knowing the magic words”La shukran!” - “no, thank you!” in Arabic, we were mostly left alone to brouse.
We enjoyed the spice market, the colourful shop displays and having mint teas on rooftop terasses.
Austin even found a special little friend.
On one of our extra days we visited Palais Bahia, built by two viziers at the end of the 19th century and the Majorelle Gardens, created by the painter Jacque Majorelle and later restored by Yves Saint-Laurent.
We also took a bus to the Atlantic coastal town of Essaouira, formerly known as Mogador and a hippies mecca in the 1970s.
On the way to Essaouira we saw the famous tree climbing goats.
Essaouira has a long beach with soft sand and plenty of watersport activities on offer.
But as the wind on the day was quite fresh, there weren’t many people in the water.
At the harbour however was a hive of activity. Fishermen were cleaning and filleting their catch and locals bought bags of small fish fresh off the boats.
By the time we started to explore the town, the city had filled up with tourists. Many artists have settled here and accordingly there are all kinds of galleries and art for sale.
We would have been sad leaving Morocco if it weren’t for flying home after 5 months away to our family.
We almost missed our flights as the flight Marrakech to Casablanca was cancelled due to a sandstorm. But the good Royal Moroccan Airline looked after us and bused us to Casablanca where we were fasttracked through customs. They had the plane waiting for us. So all was well, we landed in Amsterdam in the late afternoon of 22/10 and flew back to Oz the next morning.