Quartier Industriel

I woke up when the ship finally made it into port.

I checked messages.

Rob told us that he contacted UPS to find out about the shipment of the rug we purchase in India. He was told that it was lost and we should contact the seller.

We also found out that our neighbor's dog, Bentley, who was a great friend to Max passed away. Rob said that he saw our neighbors out while he was walking Max. When they saw Max, it reminded them of how Max and Bentley used to play together. They both started crying. It is so hard to say goodbye to our canine companions.

I slept until about 5:15 AM. I started to relisten to 'All the Light We Cannot See" since we are scheduled to be in St. Malo in a couple of days.

We got ready and had breakfast. I ran down to guest services and collected our passports.

Karen texted and said that our driver would be at the port at 8:00 AM.

We all met in the atrium and left the ship around 8:15 AM.

It took a while for the driver to get clearance to enter the port.

When the driver finally made it most of the Viking buses had already departed.

We loaded our luggage and the driver had to have a long conversation with the Port Police.

Finally, we were off.

Shortly after we left the port, the driver pulled over, ran into a store and bought water for us.

My first impression of Morocco is that it is very clean and the area around the port has very modern infrastructure.

We then were pulled over by the police. The driver existed the van and went to talk with the police. We think that it was due to excess speed. Money may or may not have been paid.

The rest of the trip to Marrakesh was uneventful.

We checked into our Riad. We were shown to a lovely room where we were served tea while we were checked in. Bob and I were assigned a room on the first floor. It was a lovely room with Venetian plastered walls. One wall had floor to ceiling book shelves and built in desk. The light fixtures were lovely, traditional Moroccan brass fixtures.

We were given a tour of the rest of the riad which included a courtyard with a pool on the first floor, an open air restaurant on the third floor, a bar, and a Jacuzzi on the upper level with wonderful views of the Medina.

Our guide for the walking tour met us at the riad. We gathered on the first floor for introduction. The group gave him directions as to what we want to see during the tour which meant that we wanted to mainly see the different souqs and markets.

We took two vehicles a short ride and then began our walking/shopping tour. We walked through the main square which was initially used as a trading spot for large caravans. It was relatively calm but we were told that it would get busier later in the evening.

My impressions of Marrakesh is that it is so much cleaner than almost anywhere we have seen. Since it was a Friday, many of the workshops were closed as many artisans take Friday off. The markets were plenty busy but were calmer than most other markets we have seen.

We spent the next several hours walking through the markets and made several purchases. I have zero idea how we are going to get everything home with us.

We then walked back to the Road Dar Anika for a very quick change for dinner. We were running very late.

We followed Dave and his GPS through the winding streets of Marrakesh to arrive at a Riad that also serves as a restaurant. Karen had requested to eat on the terrace but there was a mix up with the reservation so we ended up eating in the main courtyard. Our table was right next to the courtyard's pool. One misstep and someone could have gone swimming.

Karen was worried that we would be disappointed with eating in the courtyard instead of on the terrace. I told her that I thought that eating in the courtyard was even more special than eating on the terrace would have been.

I ordered duck and Bob ordered lemon chicken. My duck was fabulous. I mean it was the best duck I have ever had.

Before our main course has arrived, we were told that our guide for the evening tour had arrived. Karen went to talk with him and arranged for him to return in about 30 minutes. The means that our evening tour wouldn't begin until 8:30 PM. (Most of you know that this is way past my bedtime!)

We met our guide outside of the restaurant after we finished our meal.

We began the evening's walking tour by heading back to the main square. It was amazing what a difference a few hours made. The square was now filled with "popup" restaurants, bands, dancers and people everywhere.

Our walk continued through the main square back into the market area.

Bob and I were happy to finally make it back to our Riad. I believe we walked at about 8 miles today on rough cobblestone streets. We discovered what it takes to make Bob's new hip ache. After dosing ourselves with NSAIDS, we fell into bed.

The others had a nightcap on the terrace.Read more