The phrase "intrepid traveller" does not describe me. I am very reluctant to move out of my comfort zone, and I tend to imagine the worst things that might happen when travelling abroad. This reluctance has not been helped by some of my experiences at airports. The very first of these was over thirty years ago when we arrived at Bournemouth a day early for our flight to Spain. This might not seem much to you, but the sarcastic comments I received from my then husband completely demoralised me. Somehow, if it is really important to check that I've got everything then I deliberately don't - so back in the days when you had to have tickets we arrived at Gatwick to send my son to Gibraltar, and I had left the ticket at home. This then involved having to buy another ticket, and send him from Heathrow. If there is a mistake to be made with the time then I will make it. This resulted in a drive at breakneck speed to Bilbao airport because I had muddled up the time of the flight with the time of our coach back to Southampton. Even our usually laidback Spanish friends panicked a bit over that one.
Christopher loves to travel, and is always hoping I might become more adventurous; however he has been resigned to forever staying in Europe, or maybe going somewhere safe like New Zealand. So he was astonished when I suggested going to Marrakech - yes I suggested it, and it came about like this: I was listening to Classic FM, and they were running an advert for the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra playing a concert in - wait for it - Marrakech, only three hours away. "Aha" I thought, "How bad can it be if the BSO go there?" So Marrakech was the destination for our first ever winter break.
We stayed in a riad, which is an upmarket bed and breakfast establishment and we were in the heart of the medina, the old town. The first thing we did was to have a cup of tea, which made us feel right at home, although I must admit that I prefer it with milk.
Christopher loves to travel, and is always hoping I might become more adventurous; however he has been resigned to forever staying in Europe, or maybe going somewhere safe like New Zealand. So he was astonished when I suggested going to Marrakech - yes I suggested it, and it came about like this: I was listening to Classic FM, and they were running an advert for the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra playing a concert in - wait for it - Marrakech, only three hours away. "Aha" I thought, "How bad can it be if the BSO go there?" So Marrakech was the destination for our first ever winter break.
We stayed in a riad, which is an upmarket bed and breakfast establishment and we were in the heart of the medina, the old town. The first thing we did was to have a cup of tea, which made us feel right at home, although I must admit that I prefer it with milk.
Once we settled into our room we were off to make the pilgrimage to one of the most famous squares in the world - the Jemaa el-Fnaa - a UNESCO World Heritage site, although I didn't know it at the time. The first thing that happened was that a man approached me waving a snake, which made me nearly jump out of my skin, although not literally. I knew there were snake charmers in the square, but it was only two days later that I realised that the snake was made of wood and he wanted me to buy it. Jemaa el-Fnaa is a place of entertainment and somewhere to eat. My favourite food was served in the square - we had kebabs, salad and Moroccan sweets several times.
The picture on the left is the closest I ever got to the snake charmers. However, there was another kind of animal life that was absolutely everywhere, and that was the cats. They were in the square, restaurants, museums, parks and even in the Royal tombs. They weren't shy and retiring either, the ginger tom in the picture at the top was very quick to let us know that he wasn't keen on us sitting on his terrace.
Everywhere we went we were treated with politeness, although it was clear that we were expected to buy numerous articles and eat at every restaurant. The only place where we did not get what we wanted was on our caleche drive. We thought that we had negotiated a two hour drive round the city walls and gates; what we got was a one hour drive round the new town. Still, this did give us great views of the Atlas mountains.
Before I went to Marrakech I was warned that it would be a real culture shock for me. Well although it was amazingly different, there were so many different cultures that I just didn't know which one to be shocked at. I think it was the most exciting holiday I've been on, so be prepared for more tales from Marrakech.