Our first stop in Morocco was the Bahia Palace. It was a lovely palace with gardens, fountains, marble and ceramics all around that was constructed for the son of a Grand Vizier (leader). The afternoon was perfect weather-wise and we enjoyed the tour. Lilly loved the stray cats everywhere. She desperately tried to catch up to them, but they all scurried away. Strangely enough, one in the middle courtyard of the Palace not only tolerated her touching him, but sat right next to her for photo after photo. A truly "cool cat"!
Then we headed to the Saadian tombs. They date back over 500-years ago from the time of the sultan Ahmad al-Mansur and hold the corpses of about 60 members of the Saadi Dynasty. Outside the building is a garden and the graves of soldiers and servants. The line was too long to see the corpses, so we ended up taking our own mini tour of the grounds. We saw hives of honeybees buzzing into various holes in the tombs. I think the highlight of our entire trip was our next stop, Djemaa el Fna, which is a square and marketplace in Marrakesh's medina quarter (the old city). The origin of the name means something like "Assembly of the Dead" in Arabic. It was named that because they used to use this square to kill criminals in years past. It's the main square of Marrakesh and at the entryway are horses and carriages ready for hire.
As we progressed into the square, deafening prayer songs play on giant loudspeakers. Everywhere we looked, there were male dancers, acrobats wearing Fez hats; girls ready to grab your hands and insist you pay them for a henna drawing on your skin; youths with chained apes standing by to jump on your shoulders for a photo; and cobras on the cement ground, ready for the flute sounds of their charmer. Vendors were selling bootleg pocketbooks (like Canal Street in NYC), fresh squeezed orange juice for 50 cents a glass and assorted leather goods, hanging lamps, jewelry and food.
As we made our way towards the marketplace and away from the square and performances, intricate alleyways turned this way and that, making it absolutely simple to get lost. There were no street names or markers at all. We were seriously careful about not going in too deep since we heard about people who get lost for a long time inside. We had a designated time to get back for a special dinner and performance, so we made our way back to the bus right on time as the sun set.
After freshening up (and Lilly not napping at all) back at the hotel, we made our way to a restaurant called Chez Ali. In the parking lot were men on horses waiting to lead us into these circus-like tents where we sat at round tables. Harira soup, lamb tajine, couscous, vegetables, chicken, mint tea and of course, oranges, were served in the middle of the table. The show started with a belly dancer on a central platform, followed by a mock battle between the Berber horsemen. After showing off some acrobatic horse-riding skills, the riders gathered in groups and fired their rifles. Lilly kept saying, "Boom, Boom" for the rest of our trip. At the end of the show, they added in some smelly camels, lots of dancing ladies and a fireworks display. I called it "Moroccan Medieval Times." It was totally cheesy, but I'm glad we went.
The only thing about this part of the trip that we were disappointed about was we didn't see the goats that climb trees in Marrakesh that we had heard so much about.
