Ok – so we’ll cop to it – we did what we always say we will NEVER do – we took a ship’s tour. Tony Bourdain would be so disappointed! But – what we can say? We really wanted to go to Marrakech, which is a 3 1/2 to 4 hour bus ride from Casablanca. while we love going out on our own, or doing private tours, that far away from our ship, in Morocco? No way Jose – we want to be with a ship tour so if anything happens, it’s on them, and not on us!
So – off we go at 6:55a (actually 6:30 to get in line to be on one of the first buses) to the Wheelhouse bar to get marked as a tour person (#2 bus for us!), then we all troop into the Princess theater to wait and wait until they finally take us to the bus at 7:30. We are the first bus out of there at 7:40 – thus starting a very, very long – but fun – day!
Our guide for the day is Mustafa, a Berber, who is attired in his traditional Berber dress. Very nice, knowledgeable and funny. And quite the celebrity as it turns out! Mustafa was in The Housewives of New York City for 2 seasons (either 4 and 5 or 5 and 6). We don’t watch the show, but he enjoyed showing us pictures of the himself on the set from his cell phone!
Anyway, Mustafa kept us informed and entertained through a good portion of the first couple of hours of our trip – the first hour plus in non-stop Casablanca traffic. Oh my gosh! This is like Bangkok but without the scooters! Holy Guacamole – the major intersections are just warfare – it’s everyone out for yourself. Want to take a left turn – sure – what the heck – just sort of turn – oh and then the guy next to you? Well he’ll just line up right beside you – and the next guy? Yeah, same deal – you have to get into the extreme far right line (or make an extreme far right lane) just to go straight! Talk about a city you NEVER want to drive in! Casablanca is it! After waiting, oh 30 minutes to make it through this one traffic light, we are finally in an open stretch of road and then finally merging onto a highway to Marrakech.
In the meantime, Mustafa has given us the brief history of Morocco, the Berber people, the traffic, the country situation, the prices, the fact that Morocco was the first country to recognize the United States as a country, etc. It’s all very interesting, but the best part is that in the first row, next to Mustafa is a brother and sister, and the sister, Debbie, is constantly snapping pictures. On her phone and her camera – and I mean constantly – at the traffic! So Mustafa asked if she’s interested in the traffic, and she says, oh I just like to take interesting pictures, and he says oh, I thought maybe you were the police or something because you love the traffic so much. Well, that gets the front of the bus going and through the rest of the trip it was comedy central up there. By the end of the day (on our long bus ride home), he had us in hysterics when he took Debbie’s camera and phone and went through the photos one by one with commentary. It kept us so entertained, the ride back to the ship flew by.
So – anyway – back to the tour. The drive out to Marrakech really wasn't all that bad. the scenery along the way changed from thousands and thousands of acres of farmland - dotted with little houses, and villages, each with its own mosque - to drier, more arid desert, and then the mountains (although we couldn’t see the Atlas mountain because of the clouds).
We stopped for our obligatory rest stop - RUN to the bathroom ladies! oh and men…you see Ed at the back of the line here….
…then back on the bus to Marrakech. As we get closer into the city, Mustafa tells us about all the “weezies” and how we will have lunch in one of the “weezies”. After about 5 minutes of this, we finally figure out he is saying “Oasis”! Too funny.
Once inside the city limits, we’re pretty much astounded at the sights. It is not at all what we were thinking! I suppose we were still stuck in the 70’s with the hippie reputation, the drugs, the little dusty souk and old town….it’s now a resort mecca with tons of new building, villas, hotels and golf courses. There’s still the old and the new – but in the outskirts – it’s mostly new – like the brand new gorgeous train station…
The McDonalds – of course…
And the nightclubs (how can this be famous if it hasn’t even opened yet?) LOL…
We pass the Casbah up on the hill, that was given as a gift to Jackie Kennedy in 1962,
and then, when we get to the old city, while not the dusty little outpost we expected,we still find that really cool old world Moroccan way of life – even if its interspersed with cars as well as donkey and human pull carts!
Here we pick up our local city guide, David, who lives here in Marrakech (although so does Mustafa, so we don’t really know why we need a “local” guide), then finally released from the bus, we first tour the Bahia Palace – Palace of the Beautiful. This palace is where the king kept his wives, and the different rooms around the palace were indicative of the standing of each wife (decorations, size). It’s a beautiful building with delicate wood carvings, incredible mosaics and fabulously decorated doors. Fantastic!
Next we weave our way through the push carts, the donkeys, the people, the traffic and the vendor on his bike with the pig’s feet….
….past by the oldest Synagogue in the town (maybe even in the country). There is a very big Jewish population and influence here…
..then onto the spice shops.
Now we know why we have an additional guide – and aonther guy that has shown up that we call the cat herder – you need at least 3 people to make sure nobody gets lost, pulled away or otherwise wanders away from our conga line of tourists trying to make our way through the melee! It is crazy in this stretch of the road – and I’m a little freaked out for some reason, but we all make it through to the relative quiet of a broad cobblestone street right inside the walls.
Unfortunately, thought, the spice shop we want to go to is too busy and we have to go to the handicrafts vendor – which is a carpet shop where we get the carpet history, technique drill – but also some great sweet mint tea which is very nice –and great for both Ed and my throats (which are now on fire from somebody on the ship that is circulated the hacking creeping crud to everyone! Ugh!). Honestly though, the carpet thing was actually interesting, and they were no where near as high pressure as they were in Istanbul. No harm, no foul.
By now though, it’s close to 1 pm and we’re all starving, so off to lunch we go at the restaurant in the “weezie”! On the way, we pass the large mosque in Marrakech – pictures from the windows (all the other buses had a picture stop on the way into town, but we were late due to people lollygagging at the rest stop – don’t ask! – so we only get drive by shots!) and navigate around the old city walls.
The lunch stop is your typical big tour type place, but it’s still really pretty inside – cavernous – but pretty!
And the lunch is fantastic. Tons of dishes – vegetables, babbaganoush, chicken, cookies and grapes for dessert, bottled water and red and rose wine all included.
And of course we had the folkloric show with belly dancers. Hey, when in Marrakech….
We’re all pretty full, after a great meal, and its time to head back into the old town to explore the souk. We get to choose between touring the souk and shopping. Hmm….tough decision. NOT! We go off into the souk with Mustafa for the busman’s tour. It is wild in here – all the different areas – the “steel” area, where everything is metal – knife sharpening shops, hanging lanterns, metal objects galore, soldering stuff right in the walkway, inches from your legs! – then onto the leather area – bags, shoes, belts, etc. – then the food stalls – candies, etc. – it’s really amazing. We could stay here and shop! I’m into all those lanterns! But – no time for that – we’re following Mustafa – and being herded by the cat herder – so no loitering (and really – you don’t want to loiter because it is a huge maze and you’d be lost in there for days on end!).
At the end of the tour we are let out into Djemaa-el-F’na square, the huge square outside the souk where everyone congregates and where we can find the snake charmers!
We’ve been given an extra hour here – we don’t need to leave until 4:30 now as opposed to 3:30 so we are let loose on the square with strict orders to meet back at the ice cream restaurant at 4:10.
We head straight for the snake charmers! I’m not touching the things – but I’ll pay 1 euro for pictures! Totally amazing! Holy crap! Best 1 euro we’ve spent in a long time – but OMG – I don’t know how they do it. Gave me the hibby jibbies just watching – especially when you watch the video. Ack!
Watch the video here:
http://youtu.be/bPOhG1sDAKI
That done! We’re ready for a beer and wine. Oops. Not here. No alcohol is served in the Mdina. Wow – had no idea. So we have a coke zero, compliments of Debbie’s brother who has ordered one for himself but has received his change in Moroccan dirham. Thanks! Bonus though – we get free wi-fi! so we all sit on the edge of the largest square in Marrakech, meters from the snake charmers, with our phones checking email….really should have had a picture of that!
At the appointed time, we all troop back to the bus – past hundreds – kid you not – of horse drawn buggies! Is a tour is coming in? Or is this normal? Who knows – but there are more than we have ever seen in one place at one time.
Back on the bus – the Mustafa tour is there – and some of David’s tour – but we are missing 5 people – Debbie included. We sit and wait and wait – Mustafa and David go our looking, the cat herder goes out looking – we get Debbie’s brother to dial her cell phone – but it just rings – and finally here they all come! Phew! They said they were told to be back at 4:25 – and then they got there and no one was there to meet them. Scary. But – all is well – and we head back to Casablanca watching for wild Moroccan scenes out the window – like the donkey cart with what – sofas? and the pomegranate ape on the side of the road.
And just plain old cool architecture.
We settle in for our long ride back to the ship, listening to Mustafa and Debbie banter back and forth about her pictures, watching a dust storm roll across the highway and then the rain come down in sheets out here in the desert. Our bus driver is great – it’s really an ugly night out – but he returns us all safely to our waiting ship – 13 hours after we left! We’re pooped – but it was all very worth it – great day – great trip!
