Morocco

Ben arrived in Granada on Sunday(Maris went back to the UK the same day) and after a visit to the Alhambra we headed off on the Tuesday by bus to Algeciras on the Straits of Gibralta for the ferry to Tangier...this took all day and some of the night ...we arrived about 8pm..
Ben has been able to access cut price hotels for us along the way on his laptop...wi -fi seems to be everywhere..Morocco is no exception. So we have been living in style for not a lot of money!

Tangier was a busy port city...with a transient feel to it....but still the walk through the old medina the next morning was like stepping back in time and a shock to the senses....spice,herbs,veges and meat all crammed into narrow crumbling alleyways full of Moroccons in Arab dress...sat in the square drinking mint tea from a glass taking it all in. Now there is a mosque on every corner and the call to prayer echoes through the city via a multitude of  speakers set in the minarets.

Did a bit of a Beat trail as we had to wait until the end of the day for our train to Fez. So checked out the hotel where William Burroughs wrote 'The Naked Lunch' and was visited by Jack, Alan et al...and had a cuppa in the literary hangout The Cafe de Paris...frequented by Burroughs, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Capote and Tenessee Williams to name but a few.
The food has vastly improved in quality and price...tagines and Moroccan salads to die for

Arrived in Fez late at night and thanks to Ben's internet skills and lastminute.com we were amazed at the extravagance of the 300 year old riad (old upper middle class townhouses set around a tiled courtyard and fountains)we had welcoming us in Fez. Just step outside the door and the steet is full of rubble and rubbish and looks like all the rest.
The next day we took a guide with us to navigate the maze that is the medina...12,000 alleyways with no street names and crowded with people and donkeys...and mosques of course....a great experience...

Tanneries in Fez

Our riad  had a terrace on the roof with an amazing view of the whole medina and the call to prayer from mosque to mosque was almost deafening. The people are very friendly and helpful and we are managing to negotiate most things without any French or Arabic.

The next day we took a train (the trains are excellent and very modern...make ours look very second-rate) to Marrakesh and after a very long journey of 8 hours we managed to be ripped off by the taxi driver and porter in the first half hour...the guard is now up and we are now very careful....'very democratic price' holds no weight here!
Our riad is in the old part of the city on the edge of the medina and is very nice indeed (could be straight out of one of those Moroccan interiors books we have had at work)...again Ben's find , although the little Moroccan man who runs the place is a cross between Basil Fawlty and Manuel (not very helpful at all) no doubt because he works 14 hour days for not much pay ...

Djemaa el-Fna at dusk

We have to walk through the souks (market stalls) to get to the main square, Djemaa el-Fna, where it all happens..dance troups,snake charmers,acrobats,magicians,food stalls and hustlers....