From Morocco to Malaga

Today is our final day in Morocco, and it does not consist of much except for a travel day.

They had breakfast for us early this morning at 7:00 AM.  This Riad is a little funny, when we first checked in we asked for the lock for the door, he then told us to just slide the door lock over and it is lucked.  OK, but anyone can then slide the door lock back the other way and it is unlocked right?  There was a safe in the room so we put some stuff in there and moved on.  It was a joke a few times though when we came back to the Riad and I would ask Andre for the key to go back to the room, no key needed!  The Riad is locked from the outside, so you need a key to get into the Riad, and there were always staff wandering around, and at this point we pretty much just have suitcases full of stinky clothes, I wish someone had broken in and stolen them!

Just close the door and it is "locked"

Shoes used as decorations in many places in this Riad

Here is the link to the Riad we stayed at in Marrakesh, http://www.riadadore.com/home.html

We were not originally booked here, but our agent had us moved here as our original Riad either sold or was closed.

A man arrives with a cart at the Riad to take our luggage back out to where the car can pick us up.  We had a nice surprise when we ran into Hassan coming up to meet us, he would be our driver again today to take us back to the airport.  Andre gave the cart guy about a $3.00 tip, and the cart guy said it was not enough.  Andre told him to go away that we know that the Riad is paying his as well.  This is the part I will not miss about Morocco, seems like everyone is wanting you to give them more and more money, when we first arrived at this Riad they told us not to tip the guys that helped us with the luggage that they had looked after it.  It isn't too bad, but it is a little tiring trying to figure out who is just being nice, and who is being nice to get a tip.

Luggage being taken to the car

Uneventful drive back to the airport.  I am not sure if Hassan still likes us as we did not tip him today, if we had known he would be our driver again our tip from the other day was sufficient to cover today, so we're not sure if he came today just to get more.  A little awkward, and I know we have much more than he does, but enough is enough.  He did fine with the kickbacks we got shopping with him as well I am sure.

We saw about 10 army helicopters on the way back to the airport

We are now back in Spain staying in Malaga overnight and catching our plane home via Paris and Toronto tomorrow.  I found a hotel online that was directly in a train station, so no need to worry about taking taxis or anything.  Problem was I wasn't positive about which station to get out at, so we just got out where everyone else was getting off, and lucked out as we were right, another reminder no Amazing Race for us.

It is rainy here, but we will venture out shortly for some supper, and a nice glass or 2 of red wine. 

Andre took me to some of the main sites in Malaga, he had taken a bus here one day while we were in Nerja earlier so knew his way around pretty well.  The rose garden was especially beautiful, so much has opened up in the last couple of weeks. 

Beautiful street in Malaga, so different that what we have just left in Morocco today

Hundreds of bleachers were set up for the Easter procession

Cathedral

Roman Amphitheater

Beautiful rose gardens

Square in front of Picassos house

There must have been a huge Easter procession here earlier today, they were in the process of taking down the bleachers that ran for blocks, I wish we would have been here earlier to see it.  We did spend a little time in the Cathedral for the service, but it is hard to sit through when you understand nothing at all.

We found a nice little tapa bar for supper.  We had a great time watching the staff,y ou can tell how well they all worked together.  It is just a small place that mostly had fried food.  No tickets for the kitchen here, the waiters just called out their order to the open kitchen.  Same with drink orders, just called out to the bartender.  We had some fantastic fried little fish like sardines, some baby squid, and some delicious cheese for desert I guess.  We had a glass wine each, then decided to get a .5 litre of Sangria, which came in a big monster glass with 2 straws and a bunch of decorations in it, definitely not what we expected, good for a laugh.  I think it came from the bar across the street as we didn’t see it being made in our bar.

Our last dinner in Spain

 Back to our hotel at around 10PM, a very long day ahead of us tomorrow, but it will be good to be home.

Would we go back to Morocco, it would be nice to see another part, but it is not like the love we both had for Tanzania or Galapagos, but it isn't in the same price range either!  If we were in Europe again and could get cheap flights from a larger airport we would definitely look into it again. We were a little lazy with this trip and used an agent to book everything for us.  We did not want to rent a car, and we wanted to cover quite a bit of territory, so I sent our likes to a couple of agents and we eventually went with this operator, Epic Morocco   http://www.epicmorocco.co.uk/

 Would we go back to Spain, in a heartbeat, we would even revisit Nerja we enjoyed it so much.

Our vacation time is now all booked up through to April next year, so it will be at least another 2 years before such a trip again.  Back to work, we still have lots of trips on the bucket list, don't think we'll ever be able to retire!

Here are the carpets and cushions that we bought in Morocco.  The carpets are suppose to be over 50 years old.  Not sure about that part but we like them and that is what counts.

Our Berber carpets

Marrakesh Madness

Today we have booked a tour guide for a half day tour of the city.  We are a little tired today, morning call to prayer was at 5:30 again this morning and we must have a mosque right beside our Riad, this is the loudest we have heard it yet.

We had another good breakfast this morning, I'm so going to miss fresh squeezed OJ every day.  A bit of a mix up, yesterday when we checked in they told us the guide would be here at 9AM, I told them our itinerary said 9:30, but they were sure it would be 9 as that is when all tours go.  Of course our guide showed up at 9:30, oh well 30 minutes wasted, I'm sure we will make it up some time today.

Our room taken from the library

The tour guide today was a bit of a waste.  First he took us to a museum to go through, we definitely could have done that on our own.  Next he took us deeper into the Souks to show us hidden treasures.  Well the hidden treasures were his friends stores that I am sure he makes a killing off when he gets a sale.  He showed us a picture on his cell phone of a door that one of the people he guided purchased, I think he said around $8,000 US for the door, but that includes shipping.  Um, we will pass on shopping for doors thanks.  I did feel a little sorry for him though, we have seen so much now, we don't want to hear another thing about Argon oil, carpets, ceramics, spices, perfumes, you get the idea, we are done with the vendor spiels.

Furnace for the Hamman

Delivery time

Fatima Hands

Woodcarving using his feet

Spices

Little bird stealing some pasta

Traditional lamb being cooked in an earth oven, there are about 10 full lamb in here

Snake charmers

After the tour we take a little taxi to the Majorelle Garden and Berber museum.  It is quite busy, but very nice and cool in the garden, the Berber museum was another story, we waited about 40 minutes to get in, and were through the museum in about 15 minutes.

Next we decide that we can figure our way back home using the map.  We walked by street road part of the way then ventured into the Souks.  It is absolutely crazy that they allow motor cycle drivers in here, you just have to walk on the right hand side and trust that they know what they are doing and will get by you.

Process of extracting Argon oil

We are now pretty tired so decide to head back to the Riad and have a little break before heading out for the night again.  We got caught up on a couple of days blogs, caught up with those that were online on facebook, then turned around and headed back out again.

I have been looking for some cushion covers since we got here, well we found some tonight.  This was actually a very funny purchase.  There are a few cushions and carpets out on the street, the vendor sees us looking at them and asks us to come in to see all the colours he has. Back we go to the depths of the house and this must be a carpet reseller.  I could not believe how much stuff he had back here!  We did find 2 cushions we liked but we are now really short on money.  Andre tells him he will give him all the money we have left, but this is only 1/2 of what he wants.  Andre then said he would give him Canadian money for the balance.  At first this was OK, but then I guess the boss man came over and put an end to that.  They gave us our money back and we headed out the store to lots of shouting.  I guess our guy won and they did decide to take our money, and Andre found a slip from last time we exchanged currency so they could see the exchange rate.  Very funny, not sure why we needed these cushions, but I guess they will match our Berber carpets?

I found a little something for Joey for her birthday, then about 1/2 hour later dropped the bag, so now it is a puzzle that she will need to crazy glue to figure out what it was.  Darn, $3.00 wasted.

Now that we are totally out of money we decide we will need some for supper as the place we want to go only takes cash.  Found an ATM machine, got some more cash, so ready for shopping and dinner.  Picked up a couple more things we do not need.

We wanted to have dinner on a terrace that overlooks the main square, we went to the top and it is crazy busy of course.  You cannot enter the terrace unless you buy something, and this does not guarantee you get a table.  We each got a $2.50 bottle of Sprite and wandered around the terrace enjoying the views.  We could have stayed here all night just watching the activity, what a crazy place.  We could take pictures of the snake charmers without them bugging us for money, so much going on it was hard to absorb everything.  We only stayed up on the terrace for about 40 minutes and decided this was not somewhere we wanted to stay for supper so headed back down and decided we would try to find our Riad again by going through the Souks, which is the shortcut.

Crowded terrace overlooking the square

If our GPS had sent us here I would have definitely been in tears...

Square entertainment - boxing match

They do not know yet how much they are going to be hounded for money for taking this picture

You want how much?

Part way home we find a little restaurant that looks good so decide it is time for a break.  Pizza and couscous to share are what we decide on tonight, a strange combination isn't it.  We were pretty hungry, it was now 8PM and the only lunch we had was an ice cream earlier in the day.  Dinner was really good and a really cute spot, and the price was right.

So finished dinner and we are in the middle of the Souks taking the short cut home and it is now dark.  Andre is sure we are in the right place, so after walking about 15 more minutes we find our way out and realize we are closer to the square where we started than getting back to the Riad.  So, we decide to take the long way home rather then try the short cut again, chicken yes, but we are both pooped and have done enough adventures for one day.

This is part of the street we walked along to get back to the Riad, they are all pretty much like this, you have no idea how beautiful it is behind these doors

Back to the Riad at about 9:30, a bit of work on the blog and pictures, time to pack up for our flight to Malaga tomorrow early, and off to bed.

Courtyard in Riad