For enthusiasts of highly summarised words and pictures, the itinerary is shown below, followed by links to the photo albums, which contain over 200 items of eye candy, such as this one:
Below is a scan of the itinerary, which we arranged through Steppes East:
Below are the two photo albums (just over 100 photos each) on Flickr:
…[until] false start when Travel Link turned up a day early to take us home!
This is a favourite travel agent cock up story of mine. There we were, having been touring rigorously for best part of two weeks, enjoying a blissful relaxing morning on our last day of holiday – looking forward to a well posh dinner I had booked for us at La Mamounia for our end of tour celebration, when an agent turned up and cajoled us poolside, “you need to leave straight away for your flight or else you’ll miss it”.
This incident was only 18 months after my own genuine flight cock up, when returning from Germany after Michael’s wedding. But surely, so soon after such an error, I couldn’t have erred by a whole day. I rushed up to the room and got our travel documents out of the safe.
This must have been the agent’s error, not ours. Phew.
The young woman was extremely apologetic and reassured us several times (including leaving a message when she got back to the office) that the error was all theirs and that they would return the next morning to collect us, as arranged.
Reverting to Plan A – a very light lunch, poolside, at Le Tichka
Dinner at La Mamounia was well posh and great fun. I think the music got a bit tedious for us after a while, but still we ate extremely well and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. An excellent way to round off a wonderful holiday.
Rose quite late. Cloudy morning, so changed plans re touring.
As part of our changing plans we delicately asked the concierge to find us a gentler guide who might take us to shops with less pushy merchants. I think the geezer listened.
Got excellent guide Moulay – went to see Ben Youssef Madrasa…
Janie & Moulay at the Ben Youssef Madrasa
…and the Saadian Tombs [see headline photo & below]…
…then back into medina proper, where we got some nice clothes for Janie at last and admired expensive antique shops.
Lunch at hotel, then restful afternoon by pool.
Super evening at restaurant Yacout – palatial surroundings and so much food and wine! Moroccan salads, chicken with olives, lamb tajine (we rejected a couscous dish) and pastilla au lait and almonds.
Rose, quite late – faffed around in morning re-changing room and spoilt films etc before lunch.
I don’t really remember the specific room-changing incident at Le Tichka, but in those days we did quite often end up changing rooms, as anything that didn’t meet Janie’s very high standards of room quality would get rejected.
The problem with film was probably film getting stuck in my old Zenith EM, which i think I largely solved by unsticking and changing the film in a changing bag, which i would always carry with me in those days. Photographer’s son blah blah.
…to Jardin Majorelle [see headline picture and below]- saw gardens and small museum …
…then on to souks a look around – photographs and protracted negotiations over beautiful tajine dishes.
Yes, we both remember that souk/shopping trip well. Janie indeed got some beautiful tajine dishes which she still cherishes, but a little bit of our souls were left behind in the Marrakesh souk. The merchants were so pushy and we sensed that our guide, Abdul Jalil II (see above) was taking us to his personal choice of pushy, high-commission merchants. Both Janie and I had a headache by the end of that shopping trip.
Then after dark [we] wandered around to Djemaa El Fna for a while.
Back to hotel for dinner (Janie – brochettes, me – pastilla pigeon.)
Set out very early for Essaouira – Janie did all the driving because I’m a cripple – via Marrakesh, where my directions were spot on, but the traffic cop didn’t want to know!
Essaouira was very pretty – we went into the craft shop area – bought some wood pieces – then went to see Villa Maroc – (stunning) and main harbour squares (Orson Welles!) Etc
Then Chez Sam at end of harbour for a fabulous seabass lunch…
…then back to Marrakesh – said goodbye to Noddy, the Renault 9.
Checked into Le Tichka & had a restful evening, including super Moroccan meal at hotel Johara restaurant (Janie had chicken tajine, me – brochettes).
