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.
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| 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.
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.
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| 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.
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| Crowded terrace overlooking the square |
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| If our GPS had sent us here I would have definitely been in tears... |
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| Square entertainment - boxing match |
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| They do not know yet how much they are going to be hounded for money for taking this picture |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Courtyard in Riad |
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