Arrived in Marrakesh

After hours and hours at JFK, Madrid's Barajas airport and up in the air, we arrived in Marrakesh yesterday around 2 pm, although the exact time was hard to figure out because we didn't know what time zone we were in.  It turned out that Marrakesh is one hour behind Madrid so we are only 5 hours ahead of the east coast, not 6, even though my computer has the idea that it is two hours behind that.  The airport is very small:  there was only one other jet there, until the 12:35 pm flight behind us from Madrid arrived within minutes of ours (the 12 pm flight).  And you'll be happy to know that the little regional company that flew us for Iberia, Air Nostrum, charged for everything, including water!

Luckily there was a shuttle bus from EUSIPCO waiting for arrivals, so it took us to the hotel and we didn't have to hassle with a taxi.  Le Meridien N'Fis, our hotel, is a garden hotel, with only 3-4 story buildings surrounded by gardens filled with citrus trees, olive trees, apricot and peach trees, banana trees, yuccas, and lots of Brugmansia (Angel's Trumpet), which, like the Land of Buddha, they mislabel as Datura...  Our room is nothing particularly special and the balcony is too narrow to stand on but the bathroom has nice tiles in it plus a bidet.  Supposedly we have wifi but it must be over a dialup connection since it is very hard to get the images on a page to load.  I'm not even going to try to upload photos and I hope I can publish this post to the blog!

Last night we ate at a restaurant nearby since we were way too tired to go exploring.  I had a selection of Moroccan salads which were cooked eggplant/tomato concoctions, cooked carrots, beets and potatoes, and the typical Moroccan salad of chopped cucumbers and tomatoes.  Fernando had a beef tagine covered with whole roasted almonds.  He was going to order a lamb tagine but there was a Moroccan family beside us in which one of the fathers had ordered the beef tagine and it looked so good that Fernando decided to order it too.  The family was two brothers from the Canary Islands and their wives and children.  They were Moroccans but were touring the country so they spoke Spanish as well as French and Moroccan.   We had beer but had to be seated inside to drink it.

Last night we didn't make it down to that crazy square near the souks whose name I can never remember, Jemaa El Fna.  We were too pooped and went to bed at 7:30.  Of course I woke up at 12:30 am thinking it must be morning...  I guess I need my sleep in increments of 5 hours.  Fortunately I had little trouble falling back to sleep until 7 -- there is no Muezzin around here to wake us for prayers!

We had the breakfast buffet at the hotel and it was wonderful!  Wonderful coffee with hot milk, fresh fruits, fresh orange juice, croissants, breads, cheeses, lunch meats, cereals, poached dried fruits, eggs to order, Moroccan crepes.  Of course it won't be as exciting tomorrow since I know what to expect.  Afterwards we met up with Aydin Akan from Turkey and walked into the Medina or old town.  We stopped at a government-run artisan shop so we'd have some idea of what we'd find in the souks and the prices and then headed towards the Jemaa El Fna but ran into this government worker who was going to take us there but somehow we ended up in a carpet store in the souks instead...  We looked at a few carpets and were able to wiggle out of the store before the tea came but couldn't avoid the owner dropping us off at an herbal store where we finally bought 3 bags of spices just to escape!  After that we managed quite well on our own, except I asked the price of a dozen shish kebab skewers, the guy said 250 dirham, then came down to 200, then 250, then 80 and so made a sale.  Then we found them elsewhere for 30 dirham, so Aydin bought a dozen of those.  Tourists never can win!

We had lunch at the Chez Chegrouni that is in every guidebook and it was OK but I think I am already tired of meat (and Fernando is the one that is supposed to be a vegetarian, not me).  Juan will be happy to know that I am drinking plenty of bottled water, and I have sworn off beer because it is really too expensive and of course they have no craft beer movement here in Morocco.  We will wait until Spain for that.

This evening there is a welcome reception for EUSIPCO here at our hotel.  That will be our dinner, assuming they let the wives in too, like they did in Turkey and Lausanne and not like they didn't in Glasgow!  Wish us luck!